Blue 997 at Cridfords

[beda]

hi, just wondering if anyone knows this car?

https://cridfords.co.uk/listing/2005-55-porsche-911-997-3-8-carrera-4s-coupe-manual/

Looked lovely to me, and I'm planning on getting it inspected, but would welcome any thoughts or history of the car if you know it? It's RA55 GBE now and originally, but has been through a few other plates.

 

[T8]

A recent engine rebuild and a new gearbox should make it pretty reliable for a good few years and Cridfords offer an in-house 6 month warranty so I'm not sure what an independent inspection would achieve.

It shows as 'reserved'. Did you reserve it or has someone else nipped in. :?:

ps. :welcome: to 911uk.

 

[Slayer]

Nice one..peace of mind for the near future! :thumb:

 

[kp278]

Nice, can I ask what £ it was up for? I've always wondered what an engine rebuild does to the value.

 

[beda]

A recent engine rebuild and a new gearbox should make it pretty reliable for a good few years and Cridfords offer an in-house 6 month warranty so I'm not sure what an independent inspection would achieve.

It shows as 'reserved'. Did you reserve it or has someone else nipped in. :?:

ps. :welcome: to 911uk.

Thank you for the welcome! Yes I've reserved it. On the inspection, I know that I don't know enough, so having someone who does and can tell me that it's been bumped, or less dramatically that it need xyz doing, is incredibly helpful. My experience is that an inspection pays for itself - especially the ones where you walk away!

 

[TonyC911]

A recent engine rebuild and a new gearbox should make it pretty reliable for a good few years and Cridfords offer an in-house 6 month warranty so I'm not sure what an independent inspection would achieve.

It shows as 'reserved'. Did you reserve it or has someone else nipped in. :?:

Thank you for the welcome! Yes I've reserved it. On the inspection, I know that I don't know enough, so having someone who does and can tell me that it's been bumped, or less dramatically that it need xyz doing, is incredibly helpful. My experience is that an inspection pays for itself - especially the ones where you walk away!

Exciting times! :thumbs:

I guess it can't hurt to get another opinion, as long as you trust them. Having said that, you will already be paying a premium to buy from a Porsche specialist who will be motivated to maintain their reputation and resolve any reasonable issues.

Who is the 3rd party you are using, or is it an OPC?

 

[beda]

A recent engine rebuild and a new gearbox should make it pretty reliable for a good few years and Cridfords offer an in-house 6 month warranty so I'm not sure what an independent inspection would achieve.

It shows as 'reserved'. Did you reserve it or has someone else nipped in. :?:

Thank you for the welcome! Yes I've reserved it. On the inspection, I know that I don't know enough, so having someone who does and can tell me that it's been bumped, or less dramatically that it need xyz doing, is incredibly helpful. My experience is that an inspection pays for itself - especially the ones where you walk away!

Exciting times! :thumbs:

I guess it can't hurt to get another opinion, as long as you trust them. Having said that, you will already be paying a premium to buy from a Porsche specialist who will be motivated to maintain their reputation and resolve any reasonable issues.

Who is the 3rd party you are using, or is it an OPC?

I'm using Porsche Inspections, who appear to be well-regarded and were helpful with another (private) car I was looking at. They flagged up a load of bits and pieces needed in the short term, so when the seller wouldn't move on price I ended up looking at dealer cars on the basis that I'd have spent about the same as this one is to get that car up to scratch.

I am carrying a few battle scars from previous car ownership where I took the word of a well-regarded Ferrari dealership and bought a car that had clearly (on closer inspection) been crashed.

They would have known it had been crashed, but they denied it. I was advised it would be a very expensive fight if I went legal, so we danced our way to a resolution, that resolution being that they took it back and sold it on to another unsuspecting punter.

Having had a few other cars inspected, I didn't get the bent one inspected because 'Our reputation is everything" and they wouldn't let it happen.

The moral of my story being there are lots of people who don't behave as you might hope, so inspections are always worthwhile (to me!)

 

[GMG]

Lovely car...and what a spec...can't really to wrong buddy :thumbs:

 

[GMG]

...oh and goes to show; new gearbox and engine rebuild on an 83k 997!

...buy with eyes wide open potential buyers out there reading this!!!

 

[James4444]

Got caught out by a main dealer myself once ... you'll love this.

Bought a 1 year old Volvo XC90 with 12k miles on clock that came with 2 years left of manufacturers warranty. Bought blind over the interweb as it was 100 miles away, and from a main dealer as an approved used Volvo, what could go wrong?

6 months into ownership and rear parking sensors stop working. Goes in to a local main dealer for fix under warranty.

'Can't fix under warranty as the its been rear ended at some point and the wiring loom is damaged'

Contact the dealer I bought it from who say 'nothing to do with us'.

Contact Volvo HQ who are equally unhelpful. 'Its between you are the dealership, but manufacturers warranty and our used program don't cover work due to accident repairs'.

I dig around and discover the last owner was Volvo! (via a leasing company) and they had a record of the accident repair on file!

Asked why that wasn't declared before purchase - 'don't have to' they said.

Asked the selling dealer why it wasn't picked up and disclosed as part of their used Volvo inspection program. 'Everything was working at the time of inspection and we didn't see the accident repair'.

Last time I trust a main dealer.

Having said that, Northway Porsche who look after my 997T and the 996 I had before it are first class.

 

[MarkC4S]

Got caught out by a main dealer myself once ... you'll love this.

Bought a 1 year old Volvo XC90 with 12k miles on clock that came with 2 years left of manufacturers warranty. Bought blind over the interweb as it was 100 miles away, and from a main dealer as an approved used Volvo, what could go wrong?

6 months into ownership and rear parking sensors stop working. Goes in to a local main dealer for fix under warranty.

'Can't fix under warranty as the its been rear ended at some point and the wiring loom is damaged'

Contact the dealer I bought it from who say 'nothing to do with us'.

Contact Volvo HQ who are equally unhelpful. 'Its between you are the dealership, but manufacturers warranty and our used program don't cover work due to accident repairs'.

I dig around and discover the last owner was Volvo! (via a leasing company) and they had a record of the accident repair on file!

Asked why that wasn't declared before purchase - 'don't have to' they said.

Asked the selling dealer why it wasn't picked up and disclosed as part of their used Volvo inspection program. 'Everything was working at the time of inspection and we didn't see the accident repair'.

Last time I trust a main dealer.

Having said that, Northway Porsche who look after my 997T and the 996 I had before it are first class.

Incredible, they need to be taken to the cleaners for their shocking behaviour. I think a few Facebook posts could trash their approved warranty scheme!

 

[Bund]

A recent engine rebuild and a new gearbox should make it pretty reliable for a good few years and Cridfords offer an in-house 6 month warranty so I'm not sure what an independent inspection would achieve.

It shows as 'reserved'. Did you reserve it or has someone else nipped in. :?:

Thank you for the welcome! Yes I've reserved it. On the inspection, I know that I don't know enough, so having someone who does and can tell me that it's been bumped, or less dramatically that it need xyz doing, is incredibly helpful. My experience is that an inspection pays for itself - especially the ones where you walk away!

Exciting times! :thumbs:

I guess it can't hurt to get another opinion, as long as you trust them. Having said that, you will already be paying a premium to buy from a Porsche specialist who will be motivated to maintain their reputation and resolve any reasonable issues.

Who is the 3rd party you are using, or is it an OPC?

I'm using Porsche Inspections, who appear to be well-regarded and were helpful with another (private) car I was looking at. They flagged up a load of bits and pieces needed in the short term, so when the seller wouldn't move on price I ended up looking at dealer cars on the basis that I'd have spent about the same as this one is to get that car up to scratch.

I am carrying a few battle scars from previous car ownership where I took the word of a well-regarded Ferrari dealership and bought a car that had clearly (on closer inspection) been crashed.

They would have known it had been crashed, but they denied it. I was advised it would be a very expensive fight if I went legal, so we danced our way to a resolution, that resolution being that they took it back and sold it on to another unsuspecting punter.

Having had a few other cars inspected, I didn't get the bent one inspected because 'Our reputation is everything" and they wouldn't let it happen.

The moral of my story being there are lots of people who don't behave as you might hope, so inspections are always worthwhile (to me!)

If Porsche inspections are the old Peter Morgan outfit, i have mixed feelings about their reports.

Peter carried out an inspection for me on a 993 years back, pointed out all the norm and was happy and bought the car.

Some years later I convinced my wife to buy a 996 which had supposedly had an engine rebuild by Portiacraft only 5k miles previously (which they confirmed but couldn't say if 3 or all cylinders), but they wouldn't inspect it for me as they said they had an interest in the car. I then see that the chap selling the car had a Porsche Inspection report done on it when he bough it from Portiacraft. I see the report and nothing alarming at all.

Some months later, my wife was not happy with the suggested swap and wanted rid of the car, I agreed a sale subject to a 9e inspection. Low and behold they said 6th cylinder was scored, I took it to PC as couldn't believe this to be possible after 5k. They blamed the way the guy who bought it off them drove it for 5k miles.

In the end, took it to Hartech and in fact it was more like 4 cylinders were scored, all this supposedly happened in 5k miles.

I don't believe that it had an engine rebuild when PC say and documented it as such or that there were not issues present when the guy bought it from PC and that there were not defects present to the engine when Porsche Inspections "inspected" it.

 

[benoniboksburg]

A friend of mine bought a brand new Ford Fiesta in red, a few weeks later he noticed that the passenger door looked a different darker red under street lights at night, we took the door card off and the door had been damaged,repaired and resprayed,went back to the Ford main dealer and would not take the car back but offered to fit a sunroof for free.
with hindsight he should have gone to trading standards, you do not expect to buy a new car and it has already been crashed.

 

[Mac996t]

I bought a brand new Impreza Turbo many years ago. I went to see it when it arrived at the dealer and it was parked in a narrow gap in the workshop and loads of people were squeezing past. I asked them to move it as it looked like it was going to get damaged. They said it wouldn't.

A couple of weeks later I picked it up when the new reg year started and soon noticed the rear passenger door had been repainted. I was so annoyed as up to that point I'd never owned a car with original paint. The dealer blamed the importer, the importer blamed the factory, everybody lied. They said I could give it back but would have to wait for another year, after already waiting for a year. I ended up keeping the car for 16 years and it annoyed me everything the lighting showed it up!

It was an ace car though!

 

[ChrisS80]

Some eye opening stories
There was a non obvious bodywork issue with mine not flagged when I had it PPI'd (private sale). Like a fool I then didn't inspect it as i would have done had I not had a PPI done on the basis of 'what could I possibly find that an expert hadn't'.
To compound matters the subsequent £600 repair undertaken by a well known Porsche specialist has turned out to be a joke, the issue has returned and its an ongoing challenge to get it remediated properly
Caveat emptor and all that. Lesson learned the hard way: don't rely on 'experts' standards being up to your own.
Those who genuinely do offer a good service are worth their weight in gold