What are your thoughts
Discussion
Hello All
Jumping in to buy my first Porsche!
I have found an early gen 1 997 carrera tip 3.6 that I am interested in, it was registered in Sept 04 and has a good service history 5 stamps 3 OPC 1 specialist and 1 general independent.
I havent seen the car yet as it is well over 200 miles away but have seen photos.
I am about ready to stick a deposit down and will book a Peter Morgan inspection but one thing putting me off is that it has had 7 owners and was a car supplied in London and used in the London area.
I am thinking that it probably has had an unsympathetic owner or two with a that much ownership and London driving or am I being over cautious.
Thanks
Jumping in to buy my first Porsche!
I have found an early gen 1 997 carrera tip 3.6 that I am interested in, it was registered in Sept 04 and has a good service history 5 stamps 3 OPC 1 specialist and 1 general independent.
I havent seen the car yet as it is well over 200 miles away but have seen photos.
I am about ready to stick a deposit down and will book a Peter Morgan inspection but one thing putting me off is that it has had 7 owners and was a car supplied in London and used in the London area.
I am thinking that it probably has had an unsympathetic owner or two with a that much ownership and London driving or am I being over cautious.
Thanks
This question comes up time and again! It's very usual for Porsches to have billions of owners (maybe not quite that many). So that in itself is no issue. Were any of them unsympathetic? Maybe, you will never know. Even if it's one owner and when you meet them it is clear that they are super cautious about revs and warming, you still don't know what's happened to that car.
So as they say, buy on condition. Make sure it's a goodun.
I would not be asking PM to do the PPI. Just a personal view. I'd want to get a more specialist view with info about the engine condition. Just a personal choice as I say.
Not sure of your plan, but I'd want to see the car in the flesh too before committing.
Bert
So as they say, buy on condition. Make sure it's a goodun.
I would not be asking PM to do the PPI. Just a personal view. I'd want to get a more specialist view with info about the engine condition. Just a personal choice as I say.
Not sure of your plan, but I'd want to see the car in the flesh too before committing.
Bert
Waisal said:
Hello All
Jumping in to buy my first Porsche!
I have found an early gen 1 997 carrera tip 3.6 that I am interested in, it was registered in Sept 04 and has a good service history 5 stamps 3 OPC 1 specialist and 1 general independent.
I havent seen the car yet as it is well over 200 miles away but have seen photos.
I am about ready to stick a deposit down and will book a Peter Morgan inspection but one thing putting me off is that it has had 7 owners and was a car supplied in London and used in the London area.
I am thinking that it probably has had an unsympathetic owner or two with a that much ownership and London driving or am I being over cautious.
Thanks
Jumping in to buy my first Porsche!
I have found an early gen 1 997 carrera tip 3.6 that I am interested in, it was registered in Sept 04 and has a good service history 5 stamps 3 OPC 1 specialist and 1 general independent.
I havent seen the car yet as it is well over 200 miles away but have seen photos.
I am about ready to stick a deposit down and will book a Peter Morgan inspection but one thing putting me off is that it has had 7 owners and was a car supplied in London and used in the London area.
I am thinking that it probably has had an unsympathetic owner or two with a that much ownership and London driving or am I being over cautious.
Thanks
Waisal said:
Hello All
Jumping in to buy my first Porsche!
I have found an early gen 1 997 carrera tip 3.6 that I am interested in, it was registered in Sept 04 and has a good service history 5 stamps 3 OPC 1 specialist and 1 general independent.
I havent seen the car yet as it is well over 200 miles away but have seen photos.
I am about ready to stick a deposit down and will book a Peter Morgan inspection but one thing putting me off is that it has had 7 owners and was a car supplied in London and used in the London area.
I am thinking that it probably has had an unsympathetic owner or two with a that much ownership and London driving or am I being over cautious.
Thanks
Your concern about the car having unsympathetic owners is contrary to your claim the car has a good service history.Jumping in to buy my first Porsche!
I have found an early gen 1 997 carrera tip 3.6 that I am interested in, it was registered in Sept 04 and has a good service history 5 stamps 3 OPC 1 specialist and 1 general independent.
I havent seen the car yet as it is well over 200 miles away but have seen photos.
I am about ready to stick a deposit down and will book a Peter Morgan inspection but one thing putting me off is that it has had 7 owners and was a car supplied in London and used in the London area.
I am thinking that it probably has had an unsympathetic owner or two with a that much ownership and London driving or am I being over cautious.
Thanks
A visit to the car followed by a thorough test ride then drive should go a long way to resolving the question about the car having had unsympathetic owners.
Oh, as for being over cautious yes you are but I think that a good thing. Buying a bum used Porsche can be a very miserable experience so whatever you can do within reason to avoid making such a purchase is I think the right thing to do.
We've seen 2 cars this week with scored bores and one of them was well concealed, so it pays to take care when selecting any M96 or M97 Carrera engined car 2004-2009 (relating to this issue specifically). In my view, experience is suggesting that low mileage 3.8 engines with Tiptronic appear to be more prone to scoring than the norm (which typically we would say is around 5% of all engines in the affected group). There is a feature I wrote for GT Porsche magazine on our porsche inspections website that explains the factors and issues relating to these engines.
You don't need to be a specialist to spot bore scoring. A borescope inspection is very difficult to interpret on a higher mileage engine as all engines will get cylinder marking to a greater or lesser extent. The borescope will confirm when the cylinder is beyond repair though. There is also a fair amount of evidence that some so-called specialists talk up the importance of invasive checks simply to generate business. And most don't have the experience to interpret correctly what they are looking at. That said bore scoring is an issue and the better specialists are able to offer realistic solutions should it occur.
Another point is that you can have a perfectly good engine and after just 3 months use or 2-3K miles it can be showing scoring - usually from accelerated oil consumption. The biggest problem buyers have is the concealment of a worn engine. This applies particularly to the prone engines (3.8S and the 3.4 Cayman S), where sellers sometimes go to great lengths to clean the insides of the exhaust tips to cover high oil consumption. If the car that you are looking at has surface rust forming on the insides of the exhaust tip or (in its more developed state) is making a tapping sound at engine speed, take that as a warning sign. If in doubt, just don't buy the car.
9000 and 12000 posts - don't some of you gentlemen have better things to do?
You don't need to be a specialist to spot bore scoring. A borescope inspection is very difficult to interpret on a higher mileage engine as all engines will get cylinder marking to a greater or lesser extent. The borescope will confirm when the cylinder is beyond repair though. There is also a fair amount of evidence that some so-called specialists talk up the importance of invasive checks simply to generate business. And most don't have the experience to interpret correctly what they are looking at. That said bore scoring is an issue and the better specialists are able to offer realistic solutions should it occur.
Another point is that you can have a perfectly good engine and after just 3 months use or 2-3K miles it can be showing scoring - usually from accelerated oil consumption. The biggest problem buyers have is the concealment of a worn engine. This applies particularly to the prone engines (3.8S and the 3.4 Cayman S), where sellers sometimes go to great lengths to clean the insides of the exhaust tips to cover high oil consumption. If the car that you are looking at has surface rust forming on the insides of the exhaust tip or (in its more developed state) is making a tapping sound at engine speed, take that as a warning sign. If in doubt, just don't buy the car.
9000 and 12000 posts - don't some of you gentlemen have better things to do?
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