The torch has passed... - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Well, today, we officially became a one-Porsche family again. My Boxster has been sold. '99 Boxster w/ TipS, 27k mi. sold for north of $15k to a younger guy out of school and a couple years into his first 'real' job. Very nice guy and likely a good future custodian of the car we loved and cared for these past years. It was great watching him beam from ear-to-ear as he drove away with it. I stupidly left one of the CD Player's magazines full and he returned a couple hours later to drop off the CD's with his older sister in the car, still beaming, and his sister raving about the car's beauty and it's pristine condition. I had been negotiating with an older couple, a real pair of social climbers who kept trying to beat me up on price and placing condition upon condition on the sale, incl. delivering the car to them, giving them a free tank of gas, and even going out to their home, some 25 miles away, in the fall to winterize the car for them! At my asking price ($16.5), I hadn't had many lookers and with Labor Day coming (along with a serious downturn in drop top sales) I was leaning on accepting their offer, just to be done with it. I told the prospects to call me yesterday @9:00am to finalize negotiations. Mon. nite I got a call from this young man asking if the car was still for sale. I replied that it was, technically, because a sale was likely pending, but should he care to see it, it would have to be that night. He came right over with his Dad and they test drove the car. On returning, he asked if he could submit a bid on the car. I said yes, but in fairness I had to wait until 9:31am the following day to accept it in order to allow the other party to counter his bid (which I was fairly certain they would not). Anyway, the other party didn't call as planned so at 10am I finalized the deal with this guy. The others called at 5:00pm, accepting my price and saying they were getting a Cashier's Check cut. I told them the car had been sold and already picked up, that he far exceeded their best offer and that there weren't nearly as many hoops (read ANY) for me to jump through. Well... let's just say they won't be naming any children after me, sobeit. But, I'm so happy the car went to the buyer and not that pair of poseurs. He's so happy with it and it seems that he'll cherish it for a good few years to come. It took me back watching him drive away, remembering how I felt when I got my first 'Flash' car. Hope his memories-in-the-making are as good in the future. I told him about this forum, so I expect he'll join in the next week or so. I know you all will be as warm, welcoming and helpful to him as you all were with me. Happy Boxstering! Cheers!

Nice to hear that this worked out well for you and the buyer. So what Porsche do you have left?

My new to me, one-owner 1990 964 Carrera 4 Cab w/ 20k mi. and all the updates. Got the collector license plate: A90 964 for it. Cheers!

LOL! I'm sure" Lil bastard" was on the top of their list! Glad to hear you and the buyer are happy with the transaction.

I like the "new" ride!

Free tank of gas? What is this a weekend rental? :ah: Good thing you sold it to the young man, he'll probably take better care of it.

That's an outstanding price for you and reassuring that Boxsters with documented service histories and mostly garage queen only nice day driving lives, will still fetch some coin.

Congrats Andy! And thanks again for the wheel -ian

LB, it worked out good for you! I haaaate dealing with people like that. Years ago I was trying to sell my '98 Z3, I had lots of calls on it. One was a lady attorney who was really interested in it. She low balled the hell out of me and also put many demands and requests on the transaction. She knew nothing about the car or model of car, I should say. She TOLD me what I was going to sell it to her for. I got fed up with her and said I couldn't sell her the car. I suggested (very condenscendingly) that she check out late-model used Miatas at the price point she was at. Oh yeah! SLAM!!! She didn't like that comment. sean :-)

Sex with her might be fun.

that's great. that's what i'm getting for my 02-s with 60k tomorrow. I'm gonna miss her.

quote: "Sex with her might be fun. " Ekam..... Maybe so, but I have this very strict policy about "dating" outside of my own species! What's with the 964's? I too, am looking at a black '90, cab, with tip and 80k mi. The miles are a little higher than I'd like and the tip is a so-so thing for me, but the rest of the car is pretty nice. Has anyone else traded a box in for a 964? If so, what should I expect the one I'm looking at to be worth??? They're asking 19k for it. sean

I love hearing stories about pushy a-holes NOT getting what they want. There's just something about that type that makes it fun telling them to take a hike.

Glad it worked out for you and the buyer! I remember getting my Boxster, just 2 years ago seems like yesterday. Although the buyer wasn't completely honest, I was really excited. I couldn't get any sleep and actually went down to the garage to just sit in it!

The 964 is a great car. It has the largest production air-cooled engine at 3.6L, it also is the last of the 'true' 911's. The doors and fenders will bolt right up to a '66, so the lineage is there, unlike the 993 which is actually a transition series to the 996. It's also a small car, much smaller than the boxster or 993, 996, 997 are, so it has a sportier feel to it. The series originated in 1989 as the Carrera 4 all-wheel drive, adapted not from the 959 as commonly thought, but rather from the 958 Rally cars. Initially, the Porschephiles and Auto mags poo-pooed the car as not being true to Porsche with the all-wheel drive, even though Porsche deliberately biased the system 69/31 Fr/Rr to maintain the true Porsche 'feel'. They also remarked that the car had too much understeer. Also criticized was the weight (250lbs.) and expense of maintaining the all-wheel drive system. While it is heavier, the Carrera 4 has the same 0-60 and Top Speed as the Carrera 2, but it's .2 sec. slower in the 1/4 mile. In response, Porsche in 1990 came out with a rear-wheel drive car and named it the Carrrera 2. But, in recent years, many of the car mags have revisited the 964 Carrera 4 and have praised it highly saying the all-wheel drive system has held up well, the handling is superior to the Carrera 2, and that the car is now of the of the best values out there in used Porsches. A few caveats: First, the car used 12 spark plugs and twin distributors. The first is shaft driven and the 2nd is driven by a toothed rubber belt from the shaft of the first. The belts on these tended to break suddenly and if at the wrong point in engine rotation, would grenade the motor. Best case it would only fire on 6 plugs and run like crap. It was found that Ozone, created from the rotor sparking, would build up inside the distributor. Ozone degrades rubber and so in time, would cause the belt to break. The fix turned out to be a simple vent tube, routed from the primary distributor to the air intake to draw the Ozone out of the dizzy where it could be burned off. The vent kit costs about $12, so be sure any you're looking at have this, or prepare to add it. Also, the M64 motor was the first by Porsche to do away with head gaskets. Unfortunately, many of the heads warped allowing a loss of compression and oil spillage. The fix was to re-machine the heads to accept a headgasket. This one is spendy, so be sure someone else has already had this conversion done (most have been done by now). Porsche themselves recognized this and as of '92, all 964's produced had headgaskets. The early M64 motor (964) had solid lifters and so requires a valve lash adjustment every 15k mi. - can be a DIY, but cumbersome, otherwise expect to pay about $600 to have this done. An alternative is to put 993 heads on the car with their hydraulic lifters which require no adjustment. The valve covers were plastic and also tended to warp and leak. The fix is to switch to 965 (Turbo) billet alloy valve covers, not cheap, but it's fixed. As the cars age, they have a tendency to allow fuel vapors to leak from the tank to the cockpit. This is usually aging hoses or worst case a bad fuel filler neck. This was upgraded and costs about $250. The radios, the only Alpine units used by Porsche, are crap. Most of the CD units are now inoperable and there is no one who repairs them. Many owners look for the Boxster radios many of you take out. That includes me, if anyone is selling a CD 220 unit, contact me please. The cars, similar to the Boxster, also have dual mass flywheels and some think they are problematic. In truth, they are about the same as those on the Boxster, not really a big deal. But, Porsche used the M64 motor in the RS America cars and used a single mass flywheel and spring dampened clutch plate, so this is always an alternative. Other than this, these are very robust cars and are true bargains. Carrera 4's are less in demand because many are still mis-informed and so they tend to be the best bargains. Carerra 2's command higher prices. But, as always, a PPI and full Service History are paramount to selecting a good example. As far as the one you're looking at is concerned, 80k with a TipS, it seems a little high to me. Mine is a one-owner 20k mi. 5-speed car, with all the updates and I didn't pay $20k for it. It was a distress sale out of FL, so this likely explains why I got the deal I did, but there are others out there. So my advice is if it doesn't seem exactly the right deal, keep looking. Cheers!

Thank you, thank you.... LB for taking the time to share your info. I was back on it this a.m. - I think the tip is going to be the deal breaker for me. I think that was pretty rare for a 964 car. I remember when they came out and thinking to myself.... "oh uhggg how reliable are those things going to be"?? I still like the styling and vintage feel about them though. Here's the link to the car if anyone is interested. http://kansascity.craigslist.org/ctd/1869728901.html It has a clean carfax for what that's worth and the dealership is somewhat reputable in the KC area. It's close to the bmw and porsche dealerships in KC and they get a lot of their cast-offs. If you go to their website and read deeper into it, it's had some pretty recent major stuff done... I may get a wild hair and contact them today... sean

Are those the correct wheels for this car? Also, the wheel center caps look fake to me...too bright... sean

they obvoiusly know nothing about porsches.

You're right Dallison, they don't know much about p-cars. From the carfax it was a Florida car. I swore I'd never buy a car from the sun-belt again. I had a Z3 that lived it's early years in Tampa and it was fried from the sun. I didn't notice all the sun fading until after I had owned the car for awhile... Top of the steering wheel was fried, top of the seats were fried.... It used to be you didn't want a car from the rust-belt, but I've found the cleanest sports cars actually come from... well, here in the midwest. They spend their winters and hellishly hot summers inside. I have family in Long Beach CA. Down the block from their house is a white 964 that has sat in the street for years. It is beat to hell. It's so beat up that I stopped and took pictures of it a few years ago. My little brother lives in DC, same thing. I've seen a lot of nice cars just whiskey-dented to death. Ok, I'm rambling.... sean

Eh? Try finding a decent 993 manual in the UK. They're all bloody tips.