I am ready to buy my first 911. I have narrowed my search to a 997.2 C2S Cabriolet with PDK. My question is to keep the price within my budget do I go lower miles 30-40k with less options or 50-60k with more options? Here are a couple I am considering:

Lower miles w/less options: https://finder.porsche.com/us/en_US/...briolet-245135


Higher miles w/more options: https://ultramotorcars.com/vdp/17000...ngham-AL-35233

Thanks for the advice!

 

Honestly, that doesn’t feel like a big enough gap in mileage to make a difference. The leather interior would be nicer to have IMO. My car is a manual, but from reading others with PDK sport mode is a must. You can add that after the fact but it will cost around $1K + install. All else equal and the PPI checked out clean on both, I’d probably go with the one with more options and the nicer interior and since you’ll be the one sitting in it all the time.

 

Pick the one you like. That should be easy. One car is blue, one is gray. They are both 997.2 cars. The mileage means nothing. Go look at both of them and the decision will be made from the heart. They both look like great cars. Go look! Stop reading what other people think.

 

Figure out if there are any options that are must have. Mechanical first, then amenities. When I was shopping it had to be a manual, RWD, coupe and have PASM, everything else was up for grabs as they are pretty hard to come by and I wasn't planning to travel for the purchase.

With a PDK start with sport mode as mentioned. Consider sport exhaust for sure! Full leather is nice.

Don't worry about the miles if the car checks out, and you won't care about the options later either... and if you do, money can fix most of that

 

Mileage does not necessarily correlate with condition.

Maintenance really matters!

You need to look more deeply into it - how / when was each car maintained? If there are no documented records on maintenance and repair, you can assume that the work was not done. You should familiarize yourself with Porsche's recommended maintenance schedule for the car that you're considering.

Documented maintenance records are very important - particularly on a Porsche 911. Has the car had the Porsche recommended PDK service(s)? Very important.

If you've not owned a Porsche before, it's easy to underestimate the cost of "catch-up" maintenance - even if you do the work yourself.

The cost of basics like tires, filters, drive belt, spark plugs and so forth adds up in a hurry. (Materials and labor.) Factor all that would apply in the case of each car that you're looking at into the purchase price you're willing to pay as it will affect the overall initial acquisition cost.

Good luck with the hunt.

 

The answer is always the car with the best POs and documented maintenance history and condition.

 

I like all the goodies in my cars. I can't settle for less than what I want and feel good about it. (A sickness no doubt)

I think if you search long enough you can find all of what you want at the price you want and have no regrets.

The search is a lot of the fun for me. Be ready to pounce and don't forget to follow the guidelines here on this forum regarding your due diligence!

Good luck!

 

I'm in Atlanta and the cars are in Birmingham, AL. I will go look this week! I like both color combos. Looking for something that isn't black, white or silver.

 

Looking at the two cars, definitely the higher mileage grey one. It has full leather, which IMO is a deal breaker in a luxury sports car that costs North of $100k. Just makes the interior fell much nicer than plastic door panels and dashboards. With PDK the consensus is you have to have Sport Chrono, which the grey one has and the blue one doesn't. You can add the important part of it for the faster PDK shifting, but you'd need to factor that into the price. Both have the same comfort seats (standard and not my favorite) and the same brakes so no advantage to one car or the other there. Good luck with the purchase.

 

The higher optioned / higher mileage car (Meteor Gray listed at Ultra Motorcars) shows to have been for sale in Tampa Florida going back to early October - so just as an FYI, that car has been for sale on the market for nearly 4 months. It was listed in October for $1000 less than it is now.

 

Both sold, so the hunt continues! Any recommendations on good places to look?

 

If you haven't already done so, it would make good sense to broaden your search area. When I was on the hunt for my 997.2 in 2019, I was looking throughout the entire country. The car I ended up purchasing was 2,200 miles away.

Clearly you know (after seeing the two examples you were considering get snapped up) that you have to be prepared to move very quickly once you identify something.

 

I have been doing national searches from the beginning and consider a few Canadian cars on BAT. When you purchased at a distance what did you do to inspect/review the car when you can’t put eyes on or go for a test drive?

 

I approached it first with a "focused" conversation with the salesman. (I had looked at so many cars online, when I narrowed it down to the specific car in question I was prepared to move right away subject to it meeting specific requirements.)

I had the salesman take dozens of photos (done in a very organized way to ensure that the entire car was covered.) Any specific areas of concern were noted and focused on in more detail. He did several video walk-arounds of the car. One video was done that specifically focused on paint-level thickness to assuage any concerns about body work. The salesman was also great about assembling all of the service records on the car (I was lucky that there many of them). When I was virtually 100% certain that that car was the one, I put a deposit on it right away and arranged for a PPI. I also asked the selling dealer to inspect the car (Porsche dealer) and provide a list of items needed to be done (and the associated cost) in order for it to be Certified Pre-owned. As the information on those inspections came through, I booked a flight to the dealer right away and traveled there to see it firsthand. (I would never go through with a purchase of a car sight-unseen.) After carefully inspecting it myself, I completed sales paperwork with the dealership personnel and fully consummated the purchase.

I had numerous lucky breaks through the process. But I had prepared / educated myself in advance about the 997.2; carefully studied the market for months ahead of time; and moved quickly when the right car was identified. I was also lucky that the salesman at the dealership was a real professional, an excellent / reliable communicator, and just a good guy overall.

Hope you are successful in finding / acquiring the right car.

 

Agree 100% with both of you. Timely maintenance is a big deal. I've come across 997's when shopping for one that had next to no records of maintenance/service. The irony of it all is the reason for this post. I have an envelope almost 2' thick with receipts on all service that's been done on my GTS including the 60,000 mile PDK service which as Ironman says is very important.

So here's the irony. That 60,000 mile service was done by a Porsche dealership ahead of schedule at around 58,000 miles as I recall it. Two days after that service I got the Transmission Emergency Run warning on the dash and the PDK went into limp mode. Flatbed to the dealership where it was fixed somehow. Then about 8,000 miles later the PDK failed altogether and was replaced with a factory rebuilt unit at a cost of $20,000. Covered by Fidelity Platinum. So almost 60,000 miles without a glitch and then the service was done and ...well.

I'm absolutely not suggesting not doing the service as recommended. Just reflecting on how my PDK was operating flawlessly for almost 60,000 miles and then started to act up and ultimately failed after having the service done.