Just turned 39. Been admiring 911's for quite some time. At work I park in between two 911's. One is a 991 Targa and the other is a 997 Turbo manual. I told the guy with the 997 a few years ago that if he ever wanted to sell his car to let me know. Well that day has come. Last week he bought a brand new red 991 GT3 and left me a note on my car saying his 997 Turbo is for sale.

It's an 07, 40k miles, single owner, all service records done at local dealerships. Clean carfax. Black on black. I thought my wife would say no because I just got a 94 NSX 2 years ago as my fun car but I mentioned it to her and she said as long as I clean the garage so she can park her car inside too then she would be fine with it. So I have a few arcade machines I need to sell to make room but I think I can do it since its a 3 car garage.

I haven't read a whole lot about 997 turbos but are there specific things I should ask or look out for? What resources are there online (or specific threads) that I should read?
Finally, what price range is fair for this car? I looked at KBB and Autotrader but I'm not sure if the asking prices are fair or if the estimates are accurate. I haven' heard back from him yet so I don't know his asking price.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

Not a whole heck of a lot should be wrong with it at 40K miles. My 2007 6MT has 43K, and it runs like new. Keep in mind that 6 speed turbos are now commanding a good premium, with 2009 being the most desirable in the 997.1 range.

It's hard to give you advice on this car without knowing the asking price....anything in the 50K range is a steal, mid 60s more probable, and anything that starts with a 7 is probably overpriced, but the car could really be heavily optioned at that price.

Post some pics if you can.

 

I have a 997.2 and love it. It seems you know him enough to ask to review the service records. It would be nice to see if the coolant pipes have been pinned and all other maintenance,

In reviewing my service records any little item was dealer serviced. He spent $311 for an ashtray as the old one had scratches and he had the dealer install it. The records also showed what the dealer was recommending be done to the car.

Good luck and have fun.

 

I'm very new to the Porsche community, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt. That said, I've extensively researched market value over the past few weeks, including making a spreadsheet to track every single listing that I could find on various classifieds. IMO, an 07 with 40k miles should fetch upper 60s to low 70s depending on condition and history. If you don't end up going through with the purchase for whatever reason, I'd love to have a shot at it

 

Price will be somewhat dependent on options too. If it has ceramic brakes (yellow calipers), 18 way sport seats, rear diff, sport chrono, that could be a mid to upper $70s car. If it has none of those things, coolant pipes have never been welded and it doesnt have a clear bra (which probably means it is chipped in the front) then it could be an upper $60s to low $70s car. Finding a 1 owner 6 speed 997.1 Turbo is not necessarily an easy thing anymore, so I would jump on the opportunity to own one from someone that you know and trust.

Typical things to go wrong though on these cars would be coolant lines (just spend the couple of thousand dollars to get them pinned) as well as the spun camshaft issue (less common). Just keep in mind, with the coolant lines, you will probably end up wanting to do other stuff while you are in there and not just do the coolant lines alone. For example, if you needed a clutch within even the next 10-20k miles, it would be smart to do it then to save on labor cost.

 

I got to speak to the owner. He doesn't know which options are on the car so I'll go check it out in person tomorrow. Is there an easy way to tell which options the car has? I don't know what the standard seats vs sport seats look like, or what it looks like with or without the sports chrono as I just started doing my research. I do have the VIN and carfax that shows the history of maintenance. He took it in to the dealership that he bought it at for the maintenance every time and it shows 27 service records on the carfax.

The dealership offered him 70K for the car. He said he looked around on eBay and other websites and thinks it is worth 78k to 79k. So he said if I don't buy it then he would probably list it online for 80 to 85k and see what happens.

any thoughts?

 

Use search and decode the options with the VIN.

Top picture is sport seats and second picture is standard seats.
Bottom pic shows sports chrono installed in factory when it has a timer(wart) on the dash. But you can add sports chrono in the dealer for about 600-700 that last time i heard without the timer. Alot of GT owners wanted a clean dash.

 

 

80K is overpriced.

I paid 68K for my 2009 - 50K miles, factory aerokit, heavily optioned about a year ago. I don't think prices have risen that much.

 

With 20k miles 80k would be reasonable....with 40k like 70k or 68

 

Price ofcourse depends on the condition,service history and the options. Look for the wndow sticker which not only would tell you about the options but also about the MSRP too. Asking $78,000 for a car with a sticker of $138,000 or $81,000 with a sticker of $156,000 makes a big difference.
Important and desirable options are:
Sports seats
Sport Chrono
LSD
PCCB (yellow calipers with ceramic rotors)
Deviated stitching on the leather
Sports steering with buttons
Aero-Kit

Hope ^ helps

 

thanks that worked. I plugged in the VIN and got this result.

 

The full service history shows up on the carfax. For the options see my previous post. Of what you mentioned I only see the sport chrono and the sport seats.

 

Some nice options, sport seats, sport chrono, and LSD..

I found this interesting..
498 Delete Model Designation
CUC Painted Model Desig Rear Lid

So they deleted the turbo "emblem" and had "turbo" painted on the rear decklid, like they do on the newer GT3RSes?

Never seen that before, nor knew that was even an option on the 997s..

 

I'd guess the repair on 5/16/11 was a "spun" camshaft.. I don't see anything regarding R&R of the coolant lines..

Option 220 is LSD (Axle-diff lock)