spittingcobra

I walked into a dealer ready to buy a used 997.

Based of the report I walked away to seek guidance from my fellow rennlisters on whether to buy the car or not.

Please advise..I quite liked the car but its not CPO and dealer is selling Fidelity warranty. Car has 40,000 miles and drives well.

Thanks much in advance from a stressed 1st time 911 buyer :-)

cairo94507

Not sure about the DME report the 4's and 5's seem high to me and the 1 6 might be harsh. How much do they want for the Fidelity and why won't they CPO the car?

spittingcobra

@cairo thanks for replying. Fidelity around 5500 for 5 yr/cant remember mileage. They cannot CPO the car because its a 2005 with 40,000 miles on it. The service folk at the place said, if it were in certifyable range they would have done it with the mentioned DME readings.

Also Fidelity has this clause that states "The failure of a covered part due to gradual reduction in operating performance as a result of normal wear and tear for vehicles with 50,000 miles or greater. Parts subject to this provision shall include but are not limited to : Steering, Suspension bushings, ball joints..etc. " The "Not limited to" scares the sh..t out of me.

Really liked the car and it drove well :-(

Thanks again.

dasams

That car has been driven hard but it doesn't mean it won't run well for many years to come. What's the asking price? If the DME, age and miles are properly accounted for, this could be a buy. Hope you are financially comfortable just in case of a surprise dave

spittingcobra

@dave thanks much, I am financially to a certain extent but 1/2 car cost expenses is something I cannot affort. I will have to depend on warranty for a good nights sleep :-). Have been reading that numbers in 3, 4, 5 are really bad on the DME and 6 is a killer.

The warranty from Fidelity looks like its searching for loop holes, I loved the car and was really pained to walk away.

dasams

The last Range 5 excursion was hit at hour 76 or just after break-in. Money shift? No way to know but at least it was replicated. dave

spittingcobra

What about Range 6 at 33.5 hr? Isn't that a concern? I could care less if the car was CPO but with 3p warranty, I worry. The dealer said pre-existing conditions are not considered but it the warranty says this is due to wear and tear, I am toast.

spittingcobra

I guess in the end I am ready to gamble as long as odds look ok. Trying to find some feedback on whether to walk away totally or play the game..I understand the latter is my bird.

Please help DME gurus.

acadian_dad

Car has been driven hard - looks like track time to me - bouncing off rev limiter during hard accel - possibly it was chipped with increased rev limiter?

The range 3+ would have come from bad shifts. Maybe PO learned to drive (stick or on track) on this car ? Or was a demo and got abused.

These higher range counts occurred a long time ago and so it's not likely significant damage was done if the car didn't need major repairs.

The car was clearly not babied - if that is important to you, walk away - if you plan to flog it yourself, have at it !

dasams

A '1' count could be a system error but you are correct on the hour count. In my earlier post, I erred in that I called it a 'mile' number (my reference was to range 5). dave

Carnerd

Can anyone shed some light on what each of the 6 levels correlate to? Thanks

jhbrennan

RPM band widths - search and you'll find more info than you ever wanted to know.

jhbrennan

Well you'll get two types of opinions here - walk or don't worry. Based on this readout, I'd say don't worry. Range 3 and above overrevs occurred about 30,000 miles ago. If no problems have surfaced now unlikely they will...at least problems caused by the overrevs. But you're the decision maker here, not me.

Spiffyjiff

that prob looks somewhat like mine. mine has also seen a lot of track time. a good trick to possibly tell is take off the under panels / wheel liners during a PPI to see if there's track rubber wadded up in the nooks and crannies. some folks will specifically clean this out before resale but i doubt stealerships will.

serious overrev issues will usually manifest themselves shortly after the incident. altho, that's no guarantee of no damage and of course engine life could be shorter in the long run, but it does bode well that range 3-6 happened awhile ago yet the car is still running fine. IMO, if the thing drives strong, no smoke/valve tapping, no other noticeable issue, and if it's priced right + warranty, buy it and drive it like you stole it.

PHX 911

Get a better warranty.
there are warranties that are written excluding a list of things, and covering eveything else. I forget the exact term for that type of warranty, but that's what you want if you buy this car or another.
good luck!