Originally Posted by Fined

If you can get a full copy of that Carfax it will likely show the major services that have been carried out at a Porsche dealership. If services have been carried out at an independant shop they might not show up, that doesn't mean they weren't done. You've got to go at this like you care about what you're buying, be resourceful. Finding bits of info can lead to other bits of info. For example, if you see any entries on the Carfax that mention a local shop or Porsche dealership where work was done.. contact the local Porsche dealership(s) with the vehicle VIN to fill in any gaps in maintenance data you need. For example, if the car has two service records from Fort Wayne Indiana shops, find the local Porsche dealers nearby and call and ask them to verbally verify about some services carried out. Be prepared to get pushback when contacting a local Porsche dealership where the car was serviced, they may say they can't reveal any service information due to privacy reasons. Simply tell them "I don't need any information at all except to know what mileage XYZ was carried out or if you do not have record of it being done for VIN#________________)" You are not requesting them send you anything, just a verbal confirmation that a service was done.

Do yourself a big favor and learn all about the services that should have been done on the potential cars you might buy. This way you will have a general idea of the care of the car. A car which has not been serviced in a timely manner is a car that has not been cared for. Simple as that.

Maintenance schedule;
https://pictures.dealer.com/porscheo...419b79b522.pdf

Familiarize yourself with the maintenance schedule and use it to remove any cars that haven't been serviced to your personal standards.

If the car has all seasons on it, and expensive ones at that (Extreme Contact DWS are not cheap all seasons, they are pricey)..... the car was most likely used in all seasons. It may or may not be a concern to you. Seeing as greater care should be exercised for a 911 which has been stored in the cold or used in the cold. If what I've just mentioned isn't clear, spend some quality time on this forum reading about engine problems and proper warm up. Google is amazing too. If it's not a concern to you, well enough then.

To answer your question, no.. I do not think all season tires are a benefit on a 911 for my personal use. I haven't lived anyplace cold enough for them and I like to run high performance summers all year. ExtremeContact DWS are great tires (ran them on my TTRS) but they are a compromise as well. Soft sidewalls and crappy wear characteristics (they wear out kinda quick). Nothing wrong with them, just not my cuppa.

Do yourself another favor and don't use what a dealership tells you for anything. Just believe what you can verify yourself.

Originally Posted by jazz11man1

I stopped in and they showed me the full CarFax. It was scant on maintenance records. Contacting the dealer/shop is a good idea. As you mentioned, they said that it doesn't mean that the car wasn't taken care of since its not uncommon to not report to CarFax. Alternatively, I've talked to several people who have done most/all of the pre-40k (and even 40k) service on their own.

I do my own maintenance work on my car. But certain things I do not do. Items which require PIWIS or items which should really be seen on the maintenance history. For example.. I took my car to the dealer for the PDK service. As a buyer of a 911 myself, I'd want to see this service was done at a dealer. So I had my own done at a dealer.

I would expect that the car has been used throughout the year, including in the winter, particularly given the tires. If two of the four tires are all-season and the others are summer, is it standard to put the all-season on the non-drive wheels?

It's not standard, no. Putting tires with different tread patterns at opposite ends of the car is idiotic in my view. This is a recipe for having something silly happen. You've got one sort of grip/wear/water dissipation at one end of the car and a completely different sort (due to tread pattern) at the other end of the car.

I've read several threads on rennlist about engine failures for 997s driven in the winter. I don't have a sense of how significant of a risk this is, which is a bit of a concern since I would also use the car in the winter.

I don't think anyone at all (including famous engine builders) has a sense for how common it is.. because of the sheer number of cars that were produced vs how many have been seen in shops for engine builds. Even if we look at those seen in shops for engine builds, good luck trying to quantify how many of the failures were caused by misuse. Its simply not something that can be determined. We are on a web forum. Issues reported here will represent a fraction of issues occurred, there are other web forums and not every owner who had these problems will have reported it to the WWW. Issues seen in an individual shop will also represent a fraction of what has occurred. In addition, even if you counted every single failure that has occurred somehow (not even Porsche could manage to do this)... how will you determine which ones occurred from something the owner did or from the environment the car was used in or from god knows what else? Its a fools errand. Buy a car you're comfortable with.

Originally Posted by Fined

My answers bolded inline.

Originally Posted by rmstar

Just found this beautiful Miami blue 2012 GTS with 22,000 miles for $72,000 USD
https://wwwa.autotrader.ca/a/porsche...%201A7&sprx=-1

Originally Posted by Tango Foxtrot

Nice car but that is a 3M wrap in Miami Blue.

Originally Posted by LISsailor

How do you know that? From the vin? I am curious. And does the seller now know this as well? The listing is not well presented considering the asking price. What is with the mis-matched tail?

Originally Posted by Blackrock

Saw this deal was interested and then saw the carfax. How do you really go about finding out what happened and what damage, if any, occurred?

Originally Posted by vman932

The description states it is a wrap. You can also see the factory color (silver) in the engine bay. The rear lid and wing are aftermarket carbon fiber.

Originally Posted by jazz11man1

One-owner and well-optioned (except for the steering wheel)

http://www.paulscarcare.com/BigSummi...25839A0062A2CD