Is this a good buy 996?

[bungle]

Literally just started looking at 996's yesterday, and immediately found my ideal spec thru the Porshce used car locator. I expected to have to compromise on much of my spec so that it fitted my budget etc, but I seem to have found it straight away. And it's at my local OPC, Solihull:

What do you reckon?
996 Carrera 2 Coupe, manual
2002 02 reg
Lapis Blue
Metropole Blue leather
16k
18" Turbo wheels
PSM
£51995.

EXACTLY what I was after - obviously I need to go and have a proper look / test drive etc, but what do you think?

What's the movement likely to be on the advertised price? Guess it's all down to "price to change" really though, so depends on my part-ex.

(cos I've literally just started looking, I haven't done any research on the 996 at all, so a bit annoyed that I've seen this straight away, but any advice for a 996 numptie appreciated!)

[johnny senna]

I suppose the fact that it is from an OPC means that you will get a reasonable amount of peace of mind. They inspect the car before selling it, and you get your 1 year warranty / breakdown cover and so on.
The main downer with buying from an OPC is the price. I wouldn't know if that's expensive or not without trawling through various private/trade/OPC adverts. How does it compare with other 02 plate 996s?
One way of looking at it is that it is hard to go wrong with buying a 911 from an OPC. You pay top dollar, that's all.
For what it's worth, I bought my Boxster S (2001 Y) a couple of days before Xmas for £29,000 when it had 32K miles. The sticker price was £29,999, so I got a grand off. However, a couple of weeks before the car was up for £32,500 I was told. In other words, the margins at OPCs must be rather good. I had a colourful conversation with the sales team (they all came out to debate this) at Newcastle's OPC (not where I bought mine from) about margins when I was looking for a Boxster S. I told them that I reckoned they had 5 grand in each car. They denied this and reckoned it was closer to 2 grand. I told them I wasn't born yesterday etc.
If the price looks half reasonable for an OPC, try to get 2 or 3 grand off the price. Certainly more than a grand. If the car smiles at you, buy it.

[Azura_tzo]

Sounds expensive.

Re the warranty, if you are buying a UK car, they have a 3 year warranty (or is Porsche 2), so you should have the balance of the warranty regardless of the purchase route.

[RoShamBo]

Agreed - sounds a bit pricey.
Its the first of the "facelifted" cars with the 3.6 engine - I am after one myself & I hear the same thing time & time again - wait until the end of the year.
The 997 will be out then & there will be a flux of 2-3 year old 996's available & prices will drop.
Personally I would hold off buying now & wait until December04/Jan05.
If you buy now you might find the car losing a lot in the next 9 months - much more than normal.

Funnily enough a lot of this kind of advice came from a sales guy at an OPC who is a friend of a friend.

Ro.

[uktrucks]

I would have though that £48,750 was nearer the mark. Thats what April's CAP Guide gives it at. Try an offer they can only say no !

Allan

[toppstuff]

It is expensive.

If the OPC buyer is not a complete loon he would have paid mid 40's for that car. The OPC will be sat on a fair bit of margin.

I would walk away if they did'nt get near £49k..

As an exercise in imagination, remind yourself that if you bought the car, drove out, turned round and drove back in again trying to sell it - they would have to be threatened with menaces to give you £45k for it...

And they would grumble that it is'nt worth so much without sat nav..

Tis ' about supply and demand..and the 996 ain't rare .

[bungle]

Thanks for the responses folks - I get the idea it's a bit expensive then!

Might go down there and see what they're prepared to do - I'm not desperate to buy, so just be interesting to see how much they're willing to move (it'll need to be quite a lot!)

[Singh911]

Sounds expensive - I have first hand experience of an OPC because I accompanied my friend who bought a facelift 51 reg C2 from Reading OPC 6 months ago.

He got the car for £48.5k, it had 18k miles on it, no PSM, arctic silver, metropole blue interior, tiptronic, bose sound system and 18" carrera wheels. no other extras, no sunroof, no PCM, no carbon/alu, no entry guards etc etc. Salesman was Sam Cadwell at Reading 0118 9303911 (from memory).

I thought that was a good deal 6 months ago - seems an even better deal now!

IMO the main victims (in terms of price) when the 997 comes out will be young or very new 996 cars for which owners paid top dollar.

Just my 0.02 & good luck.

Ajit.

[kamal996]

Portiacraft have this

0252 Porsche 996 Coupe
Lapis Blue grey hide sunroof hi fi FACELIFT 3.6 MODEL ONLY 6000 MILES ONE OWNER AND ALMOST AS NEW I DEFY ANYONE TO FIND A CHEAPER OR NICER ONE IN EUROPE
6000 miles
£ 45995

[rubystone]

Blimey that is cheap - has Harry brought it in from Greece?

[bungle]

Jeez, that sounds great.

Is it just me, I can't seem to get onto the search part of their site, it keeps saying error?

Why's it so cheap? (relatively)

Portiacraft any good / reputable?

[pesty]

not just you

Provider error '80004005'

Unspecified error

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web sit must be down

[noony]

For £55k you can get a mk1 GT3 and for £45k you can get a 993 turbo. Both faster and more rewarding to drive, but it may not suit your needs, just my opinion.

>> Edited by noony on Sunday 4th April 17:21