Originally Posted by Danny271

It's my birthday, so I did what any sensible 32 year old should do...buy their first Porsche. With the approval and support of my Chief Operating Officer, my wife, of course.

It all started a year ago when I started lusting after the car that was plastered on my bedroom wall throughout my high school years. The red headed stepchild of the Porsche world, the 996 Turbo. After reading 15 years of posts on Rennlist about the car, I became an egg yolk headlight Porsche expert! I then sat in one and realized I would never get back all of the time I had wasted researching this vehicle. Holy crap. 2001 called, they want their interior back.

On to the 997.1 I went. I soon found out that the 997.1 had it's own gremlins. Sticky A/C buttons, check. Potential IMS failure, check.
Wait...what's that I see...Bluetooth, vented seats, PDK...ooh la la.

997.2 here we come!

I started scouring PCA, RL, 6Speed, Autotrader, CarGurus, Craigslist and all of the other usual suspects for a well maintained example. Nationwide. Any color combo. Any engine. Narrow or wide body. But it had to have ventilated seats. I know. I'm weird.

My budget was <$50K but I was really looking to score a deal for under <$40K. I setup an appointment to check out a 997.2 S Cab local to me in NJ 2 weeks ago, but found out there was an accident on the Carfax. It was hard to pass this deal up because they just lowered the price from $45K to $39K. I'm sure there was something wrong with the car like a missing cylinder or steering wheel. I'm glad I passed.

Flash forward to this past weekend, my family took my mother to Lancaster, PA for her 70th birthday. Her choice. Not mine. As I'm loading up my wife's GL450 on Thursday afternoon in preparation for a Friday AM departure to Lancaster, PA I take a break and log on to the Porsche pre-owned car locator site at 6:00PM and do my weekly search. 997, 2009-2012, Vented Seats.

Bingo.

Jackpot.

And here's the kicker. It's located 25 miles from Lancaster, PA. The stars are aligning.

I leave 2 voicemails for the sales manager and a sales rep to call me back before closing, 8PM. I get a call at 8:05PM from the sales rep. "There are deal sheets already out to 3 other interested buyers, I'm sorry, but you're too late". I asked if any of them had put a deposit down on the vehicle, which they had not. I gave him a $500 deposit while on the phone. I unpacked my wife's GL450 and loaded everything into the back of my BMW 5 series that I wanted to trade in on the 997.

I arrived at the dealer and saw the car parked in the service bay. My wife looked at me and said, "wow...we're taking it, right?". I knew I married her for a reason.

On to the even better news. The car was traded in by a local banker who was meticulous with his maintenance at Sun Motors Porsche. The previous owner saw a Cayman GTS on the showroom floor while getting an oil change and ended up leaving with that car instead. While the car was in for service, Sun Motors replaced all 4 tires, all of the brakes (rotors and pads), completed a PDK and 60K mile service. The car has literally no wear and tear. The seats look like they've never been sat in. At 60K miles, they wouldn't normally CPO a car. But they did with this one. As a first time Porsche owner, I was very hesitant about the cost of ownership. The CPO gives me piece of mind for 2 years.

We rented a 2nd vehicle for my wife to fit my daughter (2 years old) and all of our stuff for the voyage home.

My first mod...a Diono Radian RXT child seat so my daughter can have some fun with dad!

I'm 4 days into Porsche ownership and I couldn't be happier. I've missed the feeling of getting into a car and going for a drive. Just to drive.

I look forward to all of the advice that is shared on RL. This is a great community.

It's a CPO 2010 911 S w/60K miles. I paid $46K and feel I got a fair deal considering all of the recent maintenance and the CPO.

And of course, pics or it didn't happen.