cybex53

I have been offered a very good deal on a Grey Market 1985 930 Turbo the car looks and drives great. The vehicle is completely documented, was repainted many years ago because of fading paint and the engine was rebuilt 10,000 miles ago. The odometer shows 90,000. However, I am a new Porsche wanabe owner and am not sure what to look for in a 80s EU Turbo. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TT Surgeon

Ck out pelican 930 board, a lot of good info on these cars there. Basically, if the title is clear and it has been licensed and insured in the US you are good to go. Some great deals on grey market cars out there me thinks.

cybex53

Here is the picture.

TT Surgeon

Very nice, love the boxed rockers.

Gliding_Serpent

Wow... buy now (if PPI holds up) so I won't be tempted should your deal fall through.

That car ticks all the right boxes for me.

sfbanchs

looks liek a great car although when the time comes to sell, you may be limited in your pool of buyers do to the grey market, i would look at many 930s including later model USA cars before making your final pick. just my .02

fullquack

If the car has been licensed in the states, there is no issue with any resale down the road. This topic has been beat up for years, both here & over on Pelican.
There is no concern about it being a "grey market" vehicle any more, remember guys, your talking about a 20+ year old car here, with the exception of California most states don't care about ancient history. Hell in a lot of states, the car is old enough to be classified as a collector car, so they are even exempt from smog testing.

Mark

six gun

Thats not what the market says --------

fullquack

Hey there Six Guns,

Care to elaborate of your market values?

I have been loosely watching prices on all 930's '76-'89 ever since I bought my 930 4 years ago. While the term "gray market" only applies to '81- early '85 930's, what I was implying was that that moniker does not seem to affect prices or sales, if the car has already been licesned in the states.
I have watched E-bay, craigs list{west coast}, for sale in Pelican and noted sales responsed from fellow Pelicanites, when they offer up prices.
The prices move around with the economy & even the seasons, but if you are comparing "apples-to-apples" there does not seem to be much, if any variation in price, regardless of exactly what year the car is. With the noted exceptions of slants, sunroof delete models & of course an '89 with the 5spd.
I do not pay much attention to cars on the east coast, so are you seeing something different on your side of the country?

six gun

[QUOTE=fullquack;9479113]Hey there Six Guns,

Care to elaborate of your market values?

All I am saying is, All things being equal, a US car will bring more thay its gray market brother. Hey they all came from the same place, but the gray cars had that special "operation" done to them to bring them into compliance for the US market. Some Operations went well and some not so well.

More importantly, Porsche did not do them and would not honor warrantees. That was problematic back in the day and made service all but non exhistant.

With the 2nd generation (86-89) you can still get carfaxs done on them, not on the gray cars. Most of the ones you see are for sale by owners, not re-sellers, When is the last time you saw a gray car on Truspeed or Sloan. For the most part there is little or no record of the "operation" and hard to stand behind

Don't get me wrong, I love all 930's I have owned three over the years. The gray market cars got a bad rap from the beginng and deseved or not it stuck.

medici78

I agree with fullquack. When I was looking recently (Late Feb, early March) , I didn't really notice a huge difference in pricing between the grey market and USA cars. We're talking about cars almost 30 years old, so it doesn't matter much nowadays. That said, I ended up in a US-spec '87 but for no other reason than it was the best car I found in my price range that met my criteria at that time.

slownrusty

If PPI is solid and you always wanted a 930 - buy it, enjoy it and live a truly rich experience from ownership.

Yasin

HkPlinker

I'm courious, what was the asking price?

Gliding_Serpent

I am part of that limited pool I guess.

Being from Canada, I would NOT place a lower level of desire on a "gray market car" (i.e. ROW) as we had the Euro spec up North to begin with. I personally find the 300hp number quite appealing.

As others have said, I would be more concerned about overall car quality than "US vs Gray market" at this point. If someone else had it registered, you should be able to too (Cali may be a different issue).

If "sketchy" work was done on the car to make it US legal back in the day... or dealer maintenance was skimped on due to dealers not wanting to touch it as some would suggest, than how is it still running now? The "sketchy work" must have held up to be still alive and kicking. Plus, any car can be loved or abused, US or gray market, so evaluate the car itself and it's records, not based on speculation.

On that note, you may be able to use the gray market label as leverage to get a slightly better deal when you buy (less competition, no carfax - mind you carfax can be a joke, so take it with a huge grain of salt). That being said, expect others to use that against you if you eventually sell. It rains on both sides of the fence.

Shop around and meet with some 930 owners from your area so that you develop a good point of reference on the 930, do your PPI, and buy a good car, don't worry about labels.

TT Gasman

I have no problem with a grey market turbo, in fact its pretty damn cool. More power, better headlights, illegal this and that....best of all no sunroof. Look most of the 930s you see are modded to some extent anyway and its a 25+ year old car, nobody cares anymore, its a moot point.
My '83 came with a carfax so you can get them.