3 PPIs and not a single decent car

asterix_the_gaul · 13 Jul 2018

There's a black manual c4s which looks Pretty sorted and has had a full fat hartech rebuild advertised on eBay at 25k which seems a pretty fair deal for a car with a 10k rebuild, if I was in your position I'd one a few more K and go for a deal on that one..

Griffter · 13 Jul 2018

Whatever you spend initially, it's £20k for a needs nothing 3.4. Get picky over the spec and it'll be more. The market dictates that C4S is much more, as you've found out.

IMHO.

BChivs · 13 Jul 2018

Cheap 996's are like a trip to Vegas and dropping it all on red. You may get lucky or you may get broke.
Even after a successful PPI, there's nothing saying it won't cost you a fortune slightly after unless you have good dealer protection....trust me I know from experience.
personally myself now I wouldn't touch one that hasn't been rebuilt.....that's just me, but there's a trend with these. I can relate to what you say in your original post. I looked at 7 cars all rough as a turd before buying one which I thought was a good car, and funnily enough turned out to be a turd, the market is swamped with bad stock....
I'm not even sure there good investment potential either....many dealers refuse to stock them, and having spoken to several high end specialists lately including the owner of Hexagon Classics, it is widely considered that the market is certainly not what it was 2 years ago with many reducing asking prices.

kas750 · 13 Jul 2018

My 996 was absolutely buttons to buy and granted it had suffered damage to the rear pu and deck lid when I bought it (very easily repaired)but otherwise it was fully sorted with freshly fitted mo30,new tyres and brakes.
I have just returned from a euro tour where i held it for mile after mile at 150mph plus and it hasn't missed a beat or used any oil or water.
A bit of lateral thinking will land you what you need. :thumbs:

kas750 · 13 Jul 2018

And just to add that in 2013 I was looking for a black C4S and back then 15k bought a fairly low miler and all three that I PPI'D had scored bores so I bought a 2005 model 996 Turbo with 50k on the clock for 23k,
Those were the days.

Personally for me other than a GT car an early aerokitted 3.4 is the ultimate 996.

wasz · 13 Jul 2018

Lol this thread make me chuckle.

These cars are 15+ years old, even a £20k one is not going to be 100% perfect.

If you want a perfect sports car for £20k take your purse to the nearest Mazda dealer and spec up an MX5 a bit.

A PPI is setup to find things wrong, you are paying them to find faults, if they don't find any they aren't doing their job. By all means use them to chip the price but don't expect a perfect car.

I would politely suggest the OP takes his money to 911 Virgin or one of the other super reputable cast iron dealers around. A close eye will still find imperfections, but it will likely be as good as it gets and the backup is excellent.

Also FYI lots of people (me included) prefer the 996 over the 997, its more raw and analogue, has not of the "soft touch" controls of the 997. So the top of 996 prices overlaps the bottom of 997 prices by a fair margin.

Y2K · 14 Jul 2018

wasz said:
Lol this thread make me chuckle.

These cars are 15+ years old, even a £20k one is not going to be 100% perfect.

If you want a perfect sports car for £20k take your purse to the nearest Mazda dealer and spec up an MX5 a bit.

A PPI is setup to find things wrong, you are paying them to find faults, if they don't find any they aren't doing their job. By all means use them to chip the price but don't expect a perfect car.

+11111111111

These are 17 yo performance cars; they all require 'rolling restoration' one way or another, hence the wildly accepted '£2k pa' minimum expenditure.

Buy one with the right spec, colour, straight panels, decent history and off you go. All the oily bits, even mild rust can be fixed if and when.

If one starts reading forum scary stories too much one may never buy a car!

(Not aiming at OP of course, just my 2 cents)

BChivs · 14 Jul 2018

Y2K said:
wasz said:

Lol this thread make me chuckle.

These cars are 15+ years old, even a £20k one is not going to be 100% perfect.

If you want a perfect sports car for £20k take your purse to the nearest Mazda dealer and spec up an MX5 a bit.

A PPI is setup to find things wrong, you are paying them to find faults, if they don't find any they aren't doing their job. By all means use them to chip the price but don't expect a perfect car.

Click to expand...

+11111111111

These are 17 yo performance cars; they all require 'rolling restoration' one way or another, hence the wildly accepted '£2k pa' minimum expenditure.

Buy one with the right spec, colour, straight panels, decent history and off you go. All the oily bits, even mild rust can be fixed if and when.

If one starts reading forum scary stories too much one may never buy a car!

(Not aiming at OP of course, just my 2 cents)

To a certain extent I agree, but budget dictates condition. When I was searching for a C4S I didn't set a budget but just wanted the best I could find. I traveled the south of the country and discounted many cars that were all knackered described as mint.
There is a broad price range from £18k up to £35k....the way I see it spend £20k on one expect to spend a fair few grand on it, but if you pay upwards of £30k you should be buying a sorted car.
This is theoretically speaking and this is not how things happen in the real market but it should....too many with crap cars trying to flaunt the C4S tax.

Y2K · 14 Jul 2018

^^^^ agree with that as well. :thumb:

T8 · 14 Jul 2018

wasz said:
These cars are 15+ years old, even a £20k one is not going to be 100% perfect.

If you want a perfect sports car for £20k take your purse to the nearest Mazda dealer and spec up an MX5 a bit.

A PPI is setup to find things wrong, you are paying them to find faults, if they don't find any they aren't doing their job. By all means use them to chip the price but don't expect a perfect car.

I would politely suggest the OP takes his money to 911 Virgin or one of the other super reputable cast iron dealers around. A close eye will still find imperfections, but it will likely be as good as it gets and the backup is excellent.

Spot on :thumb:

asterix_the_gaul · 17 Jul 2018

Another tidy looking c4s popped up on eBay today, 97k miles, fresh mot, engine rebuild 6k miles ago, seal grey manual at 22.5k ONO. Get on the phone! Nothing to do with me by the way!

cheshire911 · 17 Jul 2018

Lots of "nice" examples on internet. But not take adequate precautions to satisfy yourself that they are as good as claimed.

Phil 997 · 18 Jul 2018

I also think theres mileage in the suggestion to buy one for 8/10k is and spend 10/12k getting it how you want it, either engine or suspension or paint or a bit of all those things . Also factor in that you will probably spend 2k pa maintaining it. :thumb: :thumb:

asterix_the_gaul · 18 Jul 2018

Phil 997 said:
I also think theres mileage in the suggestion to buy one for 8/10k is and spend 10/12k getting it how you want it, either engine or suspension or paint or a bit of all those things . Also factor in that you will probably spend 2k pa maintaining it. :thumb: :thumb:

I don't think 8k cars exist. 12k cars exist that you can spend 8k improving certainly..

uk996 · 11 Aug 2018

I'll recount my buying experience, just to reinforce what many people have said on here already.

I've spent about the last 25 years tracking the prices of 911 ! I've seen 1960s being sold for about £8k, 930 a little more, 964 were bargain basement and 993 were mid teens. Turned down a 996 GT3 a track machine that was being sold for £27K with all the parts to return it back to a stonking road going machine.

Anyway, it's not about what if? I bought my car back at the end of February. I'd seen a few cars already, a few owned by forum members. Eventually I found a car that ticked most of the boxes, the only thing was, the colour wasn't my first choice (seal grey, I wanted lapis blue), but it was in reasonable condition. Had recent money spent on it, like a free flow manifold, 200 cell cat, sports exhaust, new MPS2 tyres all round, genuine turbo hollows, manual, Bilstein PSS 10, new rads and condensor and mileage was fairly low at 70k miles for a 2002.

I knew it was due a service and an alignment. I spent £3k in the first week on a new clutch accumulator, window regulator, heatshields, fuel cap, brake fluid change, some ducting and undertrays were missing, CV boots, ARB drop links, coolant leak (rads were plumbed in upside down apparently).

After that I spent another £3k on an uprated clutch (RMS was leaking and causing the previous clutch to slip), intercooler and brakes. Car had a poor tune on it, which I've had rectified.

So I paid under market rate when I bought it and ended up with a car that is (almost) tip-top. Monetarily, it would've cost me not much more to go for a fully sorted example with a well regarded independent dealer tbh, though some of my spend were not strictly necessary, like the brakes and I could've saved a few hundred by replacing with the standard clutch.

3 PPIs and not a single decent car

asterix_the_gaul

Barcelona

Griffter

Hockenheim

BChivs

Spa-Francorchamps

kas750

Zandvoort

kas750

Zandvoort

wasz

Paul Ricard

Y2K

Hockenheim

BChivs

Spa-Francorchamps

Y2K

Hockenheim

T8

Super Moderator

asterix_the_gaul

Barcelona

cheshire911

Portimao

Phil 997

Le Mans

asterix_the_gaul

Barcelona

uk996

Spa-Francorchamps

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