JG 996T

Saw a Silver 996 Turbo on my way home from meeting at a used car lot. Stopped to take a look, its apparently an X50 car - black interior - 22K miles.

Side note - I've been perusing the market for a while - mostly non X-50 cars - and was scheduled to go look at an 01 Turbo on Saturday that's listed for $39K with 40K miles (Silver/black/tip). And I just missed-out on a Silver/Black 01 that went for $34K with 58K miles last weekend (sold).

So, the sticker price on the X50 I saw today is is $65K. The salesman came out to greet me, and I told him I was interested, and he said that he would get the ket, but the battery was dead. He came back with the key, yadda yadda - $55K will close the deal. I ask about records, owners manual, etc. Nothing.

I then meet the owner of the lot, and he admits that he's had the car on the lot for a year, and would be losing money at the "quick deal price" of $55K.

So, few questions:

1) Should I be concerned that the car has not been driven in a year?

2) How can I check whether its an X50?

3) Is that a good price?



** With respect to price - I plugged all the info into Bryces formula and came up with $49,551.

Thanks!

deckman

I wouldn't buy the car unless I knew the history, but that's me. What year is it? Just because they've had it for a year doesn't mean it hasn't been driven for a year. Read what you want into that.

buzztt

definately need to know what year it is, also need to know what options it has, tell the salesman to look under the hood and give you all the codes from the sticker

ask the salesperson if it has been driven in the past year, any service records ? ask what he knows about the car and previous owners

dont rush into this, if its been sitting on the lot with a really high sticker price for a year then i think you can take your time and make sure this is the right car for you

JG 996T

It's a 2002. It's got almost the same mileage that it had in February of 2009. It's gone less than 100 miles in a year. Oil change at 7500, oil change at 12,000.

jimq

it will have X50 on the under hood sticker and also on the owners manual sticker.

buzztt

find out all the options then you can figure out what a fair price is

a well looked after 02 x50 for 55k sounds a little high to me (65k sounds rediculous), if its in good condition 49k sounds ok, i dont have experience with a car not being driven for a year though, i would think you would need to change fluids, not sure what else would need to be done if anything, obviously ppi from a reliable source, dme report, carfax etc

Macster

Only thing you can believe is dealer would *NOT* be losing money if you bought the car at a ''quick deal price'' of $55K. If you offered lot owner $55K he'd kiss you on the lips, if he wasn't disctracted thinking how he could get you to pay more.

Everything a car salesman tells you is intended to get you pay as much for the car as possible and to buy the car as soon as possible.

I haven't kept up on 996 Turbo prices/market conditions but $49K sounds about right, though I suspect you may be able to do better caues others have done better against that formula, but before you think about that, any going forward needs to be based on the car being in good shape.

Good enough shape you'd be comfortable having the car PPI'd by someone with good experience looking over these cars and with no money in the game and who can pull overrevs and give you time to post them and get some feedback.

Also, with battery dead any error codes have been erased so when you test drive car arrange for a long long test drive. Nothing gruesome, just have salesman take you out on say 15 mile drive of mixed driving, then you test drive car and follow same route. See if any error codes come on.

Be sure CEL (and other warning lights) come on when you turn the key on and go off when the engine starts or shortly thereafter.

Note oil pressure at hot idle and at 3K rpms and higher. At hot idle I would think a good range would be 1.5 bar (min) to nearly 2 bar and at 3K 4 bar min to 4.5 bar or even a bit higher.

If hot idle oil pressure around 1 bar either oil's old and thinned with water/unburned gas, or engine is filled with the wrong type (not synthetic) of oil, or the wrong viscosity (5w-30?) was used.

Get option codes off label under front trunk lid but double-check the label codes against what the car has.

Sincerely,

Macster.

JG 996T

Thanks Macster! Great info.

Options List (from seller - not from hood sticker):
3-Spoke Carbon/Leather Steering Wheel, 3-Spoke Leather Steering Wheel, 6 Disc Remote CD Changer, Advanced Design Package, All Leather Seat Trim, Black Floor Mat w/Porsche Lettering, Carbon Door Sills w/Embossed Insignia, Carbon Interior Package, Carbon/Aluminum Tiptronic Shift & Brakehandle, Front Bucket Seats, Full Carbon Interior Package, Full Leather Interior Package, Graphite Gray Floor Mat w/Porsche Lettering, Heated Front Seats Package, Leather Sport Seats, Radio: Bose Digital AM/FM Stereo System, Rear Center Console in Carbon Fiber, Turbo Aerokit

CarFax indicates three owner car, first 5 years in california with regular service indicated, in 07 it moved to the east coast (NY at 16,588 miles). No service entries on the Carfax since the car arrived in NY.

Macster

Well, the car's probably due to have oil/filter, brake fluid services at least, and I'd budget for an alignment as well. Probably never had one.

As for the options, they all sound nice but are all cosmetic or standard options for the Turbo, except maybe the heated front seats.

I would not reject the car for these options. Carbon fiber and aluminum interior trim pieces can be appealing but to me not critical/must have options.

The car sounds worth looking into. What you do is simply keeping looking into the car hoping you find something that indicates you should walk away. If you are thorough enough at the end of the day you're left looking at a car you can find no reason to reject.

Then if you think you can arrive at some deal -- for instance the seller isn't asking Somalia pirate ransom money for the car -- you want to give an expert in these cars a chance to find some reason to reject the car, or find some things that while are not sufficient to reject the car will require you adjust your offer down to take into account the cost of dealing with these things.

Things such as oil/filter, brake fluid services, alignment, possibly brake pads, rotors (the car may have been used so little they may be rusted enough to warrant replacement), spark plugs, engine air filter, cabin filter, or new tires.

Wear/tear items essentially.

Rule of thumb is to set aside 10% of a used car's purchase price to have on hand for "incidentals" but you should be able to inspect the car or have someone inspect it to either get some price adjustment to take care of what is found needing taking care of or there is nothing found needing taking care of then that 10% cash reserve remains untouched.

What you want to avoid is paying "excellent" money for a car that is in at best "good" condition and then spending even more money bringing the car up to "excellent" condition.

If you had proof all services up to date that's one thing. But you do not, so you have to assume as a buyer all services are due and you will have to have them done in order to get the car back on some service schedule.

For these services you need mitigation and that means you need to adjust your offer *down* to take into account the cost of these services.

Remember there is always another car, so don't feel you have to find a reason to accept this car or overlook any reasons to reject this car, cause you don't.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Page

I see that you are from NJ. Would it happen to be the Silver x50 listed in here: http://www.f1autoimports.com/inventory
I've seen the car in person one sunday driving past. Seems good, but the price was a bit high.
Also read here if this is the correct place.
http://www.merchantcircle.com/busine...00/review/list

z99

I looked for a while and bid x50s on ebay. Many times high bid but reserve not met. I recently bought a x50 with 6400 miles on it for $55,500. I looked at a silver CPOd car in VA with 19k on it for $56500 and black CPOd car in NY with 30k for $54000.

I paid a dealer $180 to check the car and determine if it is eligible to be CPOd. Checked every thing including over revs. Considering the circumstances, maybe something you want to consider.

adam_

X50 is valued in circles where modifications are not commonplace. On 6speedonline, an X50 (k24 turbos, slightly better efficiency intercoolers and factory tuning) it is considered almost a useless mod without an exhaust and altered flash. Indeed, for the $17880 the X50 cost new, you can get fantastically more with current day mods. I wouldn;t pay more than3- 4-5k over a non-x50...

Of course you need a PPI from a recommended mechanic... not affiliated with seller

A

jimq

maybe to you

JG 996T

That's the one - it may be a decent car, but those guys are shady - I like the positive review from "Thomas Jefferson" (LOL). Not going back.

I would pay more for an X50 - certainly not anywhere near the option price, but a slight premium would be warranted IMO.

I'm having a non-X50 car PPI'd this week.

ltc

Get the VIN # and then get it decoded by Suncoast Porsche:

http://www.e-partssales.com/miva//me...ode=VINDECODER