Thought I would update the thread with my mission today.
First off went to see a black Boxster S. The car was 120 miles away, it was an 02 plate with black leather, 18" Porsche design wheels and priced at 10k. Drove into the dealers and walked over to inspect the car. Firstly the car was a bit dirty so I had a little while walking around and noticed that the paintwork looked ok on first inspection. However getting a little closer I noticed that the rear quater panel had been resprayed and very badly. On top of that part of the boxster s logo is missing from the rear - alarm bells are ringing already...
Anyway about the time that I noticed this a guy comes walking over with battery charger in hand, opens the door of the car and starts setting the alarm off by attaching the charger to the car. After a few minutes looking at the guy and not saying anything he still can't get the alarm to stop or the car to start, so he says and I quote "It's ok mate they all do this if you don't start them for a few days". As he said this I look over at my brother-in-law who has owned one, he gives me the nod and we walk away.
The next car we went to see was an 02 plate black car with tan leather, 18" wheels... bose stereo and more toys priced at closer to 11k. The one we talked about earlier on in the thread. This car was more interesting car, it was straight paintwork wise with possibly a little touching up on the front end in its life. After looking over the car thoroughly there didn't seem to be anything majorly out of place for its age.
Inspection on the brakes showed that the rear disks and pads needed replacing but the rest of the car from the outside seemed sound. Inside the tan leather was fair, a little worn but the car had done high 60k and was 9 years old so you forgive it of that and it can be repaired and treated anyway. I started it up and noticed that the clutch was very heavy and a bit high so the clutch it seems is on its way out. With the engine ticking over everything sounded as you would expect only I hear a slight tapping at about 2k rmp which continues down to idle and is only cured by dipping the clutch, anyway the clutch wasn't slipping and the car wasn't juddering when pulling away on the clutch so this didn't put me off entirely as we are pretty confident that the tapping is from the clutch.
At this point I thought that I had the budget to get the car where I wanted it to be so after the inspection I looked at the history and there is plenty of documentation for the car, not much money spent on it mind during all of the cars history and the main dealer services for the past two years mention the heavy clutch so all is good.
From my calculations the car needs 2.5k to bring it up to scratch. So I start thinking about the budget but when the guy comes in with a cheeky six and a half grand for my current car I have to walk away. Truth be told the repairs on the Porsche are quite high, even before any inspection and my car is an 08 plate car with 30k on the clock, full main dealer history and a glasses guide price almost 2k higher to trade.
I didn't get to see any more today but from the two I did find out that buying a 10k-11k Porsche from a dealer might not be the way to go. I am going to take this a little further though and visit a couple more from both dealers and private sales in the price range before discounting buying a 10-11k Porsche in favour of a more expensive one. I may also have to sell the current car privately to get a decent figure for it.
Anybody else with some pearls of wisdom?
- Like yourself I have no fixed budget but have wanted one for a while. I have therefore set an upper end budget of 15 - 18k including the trade in of my 08 car.
- has more toys and the right wheels though.
