| Nice car. Right choice?
Lots of rules about buying Porsche, like service history is essential for resale. Colour is also important - the less common colours are less common for a reason and particularly with less common seat colours, they can become hard to sell on. What you might think is 'different' others think is plain ugly. There is a huge amount of choice of models and extras, more than Ducati if that's possible. Look at lots of them, they are never the same car, there's always something different -C2 or C4, hard or soft top, manual or tiptronic, body kits, seat colours, carbon/leather/alloy packs, dial colours, satnav, the list goes on and on. So take your time to find the right car, it took me over six months and I looked at loads. It's like houses, you like the bathroom in one and the kitchen in another and the garden in another - if only you could combine all three - well you can if you keep looking.
It's a massive buyers market and prices have fallen through the floor so there are some amazing cars for silly money around. Later 993's have held their value better, run of the mill 996's have fallen dramatically, unless they are top quartile models.
I can see from the photo it looks like it could be an OPC ie a proper porsche garage - if so, there will be a large premium on the price. The finance package being offered is not for everyone, think carefully if this is really for you. Try the independent Porsche garages for better selection of used cars in your budget. Aftercare is always an option with buying from a garage and recommended with a used Porsche - there are 'known faults' with some models that can be expensive to fix. There are specialist who do Porsche pre-purchase inspections and give you a list of faults - worth paying for. The AA etc don't have the Porsche knowledge, so go with a specialist, there's plenty on the Porsche forums.
There are crazy private deals at the moment from people who need the cash.
the Boxter vs 993 vs 996/7 arguement rages more than the Ducati 996 vs 999 vs 1098 or the red v yellow debate. They are all nice cars, although I find some of them very bland, eg a dark blue standard 996 is just boring to me, but the same car in silver with the GT3 kit is an awesome vehicle. They always say the Boxter choice just shows you can't afford the 993/996 which to me is nonsense and usually comes from someone who has not sat in one let alone driven one, they are awesome and beautiful cars - if the 911 didn't exist, people would think the Boxter was the car it actually is. The 993 is a classic, but not for everyone. There are loads of 996's, but a different driving experience.
Hard vs soft top always an arguement, C2 or C4 (four wheel drive) is a different drive, manual vs tiptronic - manual preferred by the driving purist, but the tip is a great gearbox, very smooth and quick change and doesn't zap power unless you drive on the limit all the time and you have the option of manual change with the buttons on the steering wheel.
I could go on. Go on the Porsche forums and read read read, look at loads of models, drive them, forget the first one you have seen.
WeeJohnyB  |