My mate just bought this car

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1296003.htm Thoughts pls???

Well the story is this- The service book has stamps from colchester opc from 2007 and 2009 so nothing in 2008 and when he brought the car over there waws nothing prior to 2007 as the book had the words "REPLACED|" stamped right across the inside of the service book. He has spoken the previous owner who said he bought the car from a local car dealer and the car had been part fo probate and the history file had been lost. MY suggestion to him was to ask Colchester if they cud look further back into the cars history for him and contact either Porsche UK or Germany as im guessing if it all stacks up then there will be detials of the car somewhere. I had all documentation lost on a motorbike when my local dealer went bust whilst holding my documents which was a nightmare to retrieve from Yamaha as they couldnt vouch for the service stamps. What are his options here re getting previous history and building a file again??? The car looks genuine enough but the history file wud make a big resale difference.

Hard one this, the low miles and condition of this car make it very attractive. It is also cheap , the only reservation I would have is, having bought garage queens in the past they have not been as reliable as high milers with history. You pays your money and takes your chances [8|]

No there was no old MOT"S just the most recent one. Does make me wonder but i also thought Colchester wouldnt be keen to service a car that seemed a bit dubious. Does it really make a difference with a car at this age now if he now starts building back up the sevice history from am OPC? It drives beautifully

An OPC will be able to tell the mileage, it's recorded in the cars computer system. Also get a letter of origin from your OPC which will tell you the year of manufacture, whether it's an import etc. Learn to read the VIN too as that will tell you a great deal. Good luck.

Hi David I am assuming that of particular interest is the verification of the mileage I am not sure about cars of this age but certainly later cars 2005 on can have what is called a DME readout using the piwis tester and the appropriate software you can download from the ECU all the engine parameter reaadings ie rev1 and rev 2 it also includes country of originand transimission number and chassis no etc etc Porsche call it a Working log The most important reason for getting this readout is to verify mileage which porsche can easily do if you ruck up to your opc and ask nicely, quite often they will do it free of charge! they can also give you a paper copy to take away sadly there are quite a few clocked cars out there and it is dead easy to change the dash readout The rest of the history could be compiled from the opc records certainly for any time it has spent in an opc garage again you may have to smile very sweetly they do sosmetimes mutter about freedom of informsation etc On a more general note I would add this would be the minimum requirement I would ask for when purchasing a used car and yes even from an opc

Surely there will be other signs as to whether the mileage is genuine, such as worn seats, foot pedals, stone chips, shiny steering wheel and buttons. It might be genuine, if so then a good buy. It will show its true colours after being driven a bit When i bought my 03 three years ago, the seats were like new and still are pretty good

The car doesnt have the signs of having done tons of miles and the interior is immaculate. it honestly looks like a car thats been sat on a drive and not used. There was even cat footprints across the bonnet so not like its been prepped after being clocked ready for sale. Ive told him to speak to OPC tomorrow and spend the week collating as much info as he possibly cud as a way of replacing the missing history. The car is a 3.4 01 model so im dont know if the ECU wud hold the relevant info to verify mileage. Ive told him to get online and join PCGB as the car be an interesting one maybe even known to some club members therefore making it even easier to verify details. I drove the car y"day and it handled and drove beautifully.

This is turning out to be quite interesting. Turns out there was no probate deal. The car was bought by a local dealer from an insurance company that had been stolen/recovered but with no damage. Owner got paid out then car turned up. Colchester OPC only have details of the service"s they themselves carry out and the supplying dealer was OPC West London but they never serviced the car. My mate is now tryuing to find out who serviced the vehicle as no one seems to have a data base including Porsche UK and there is no history for the first 6yrs of its life. The insurance company are happy to provide the details of what they know but as yet between Porsche OPC"s there is no more info. Hes now trying to ring round all OPC"s to see if they have serviced the car as presumably someone paying 60k for a new car wud get it serviced

None of the OPC"s he has contacted has any service recvord of the car. Its liek the car went missing for 6yrs

Hi David, Looks like your mate has himself a good car, I would be a bit miffed if having been advertised as having main dealer service history to then find out there isn't much of it, with only 11,000 miles on the clock also the car is advertised as having an HPI report available was this not presant? as this would have shown the car to be S/Recovered. Hope all goes well with his new toy, but maybe a chat with the seller might be worth while if your mate is not happy as the advert seems to be misleading. Regards Andy

If you have the current MOT certificate, then goto www.motinfo.gov.uk and follow the instructions and then click on the link Request History and you should get some of the MOT history to 2005 when the computerization took place.

That is a bloody clever link!!! Tried it and its brill!!

The other thing you can do is fill out a V888 form, and for £5 the DVLA will give you a complete history of all previous registered keepers, registration numbers, and copies of all the previous V5 documents. It takes a few weeks, but is well worth having and great to keep as a history file to pass on when you sell the car.

Really?? Thats better than the service you get from Porsche GB!! Thanks for info....

I am in awe yet again Richard I am sure even my mate in the trade doesnt know that one

The V888 also allows you to trace where an owner of a car lives based on the reg number - useful if he's done a hit and run for example. I used it when someone parked against my previous car and got his home address when the police refused to look into it. He duly paid up (he was probably scared of me knowing where he lives!) Quite scary how easy it is.

Many tks everyone that's seriously usefull. When he bought the car he done an HPI check and it didn't tell him the car was stolen recovered just that it hadn't Been registered as a damaged write off. Personally I find this strange but also explains why the previous owner didn't bother offering the info to start with. He clearly was a bit shady with offering the info but there u go. Collating as much service history as possibly is the way forward now and I'm sure your advice will help. I'll let u all know how it goes