kevco

Coming from over 10 years of leasing new BMWs I finally decided to pull the trigger and start looking for my first Porsche.

I've been reading this forum a lot for the past couple of weeks to help me take the right decision regarding the best model/year/options for my needs. Considering I'm working with a small budget and I'm hoping not to have to spend thousands of dollars on repairs, I've decided to go with a base 2007 Carrera. For sure the S is tempting but once again most of them in my budget range are 2006 and have PASM plus Chrono options which could end up with more mechanical failure than the base model.

The 997 I’m interested in was originally bought in Oklahoma and was imported to Canada in 2013. It is now sold by a Porsche dealer in my area, has 100,000km (about 62,000miles) and is equip with heated & power seat package, Bose sound system, bi-xenon lights and 19' Carrera S wheels with colored center crest. Color combo is black on black and the 911 is extremely clean for the year and mileage. The dealer claim they did a full inspection and upon that, they have replaced the clutch, flushed the brake oil and did a wheel alignment. They are asking $43,000 ($32,000usd) for the car plus taxes.

My concern is they have no service records for this car. Yes they have a full inspection report and if I decide to go for this car, I'll ask them to check the over rev and test for bore scoring (not sure if really necessary for this car but better safe than sorry).

I ran a Carproof and the car is clean. Here's where I’m getting worried. Looking at the report findings, it seems like the Carrera stayed at auction for quite a while back in 2011. It is Listed as a dealer vehicle sold at auction on 04/25/2011 listed again on 11/14/2011 and again on 02/13/2012 with no DMV records in between.

I'm basically a noob at buying a used car and maybe the whole auction thing is normal. From what I understand, buying a 10y/o Porsche with no service record is also risky. Because of that I'm worried it will affect the resell values when I’m ready to let her go, but then again I can use this to negotiate the selling price.

What do you guys think. Thank you for reading me and taking the time to answer.

jdgamble

A couple comments:

1. Sport Chrono should not be a maintenance item. It's really just SW. If the car is a manual, it probably wouldn't matter much, but if it's auto, you'll want it. You can always retrofit later.
2. A good PPI should do the trick. Other maintenance items to look for are plugs, drive belt, and all fluids. You could try to get the dealer to do some of the maintenance as part of the deal since they can't prove it was done. Just baseline the car for you. Your argument would be that since you don't know when the maintenance was performed, you need it done to establish an interval.
3. As far as the auction and ownership history, it could have been used as a dealer car or just sat with an unreasonably high price for a long time. Hard to say, but doesn't necessarily mean it's a problem car.

Just out of curiosity, are there many cars available with a more cohesive history? How do the prices compare? If given the choice between a mystery and a known entity, I would certainly go with the known entity.

Petza914

A car registered in Canada probably had to be configured for compliance with Canadian Day Running Lights. On a 997.1, this means that the primary headlights are on all the time. You'll probably want that re-coded when bringing the car back to the US, but look very carefully at the front headlight lenses for clarity issues from the lights being on all the time.

Also, there is really no difference between a 2006 and 2007 997.1 car.

For a car used in cold weather, there is a higher risk of bore scoring in the cylinders so you should have a scope done during the PPI for signs of this.

Linnm

Will the Porsche Dealer you are dealing with give you a Porsche CPO Warranty on the vehicle?