Would the motor having been replaced keep you from buying a used 996?

I finally found my 996 cab. It's an 02, speed yellow, tons of great options( advanced teq, advanced design, side skirts, full leather, 18" carrera wheels) at a really good price. Only 8000 miles. It's in Ohio and I'm in Florida, but sounds like a fun roadtrip. Anyway, had it looked at by the local porsche dealer and they gave it two thumbs up. I went ahead and wired the used car dealer the the money for the car. Not sure why I did this, but something was nagging me to contact the original dealer and check service history. Long story short, the motor was replaced by original porsche dealer in Atlanta at 3000 miles. Service notes said customer was driving the car, it shut off, the idiot lights came on and they towed it in. It didn't say what failed on the motor, just that they replaced it. The service guy I spoke to there said not to be worried about it and didn't seem at all freaked out. I also spoke to a sales guy there and he didn't seem too worked up about it either. I took them as unbiased opinions as they have nothing to do with this deal I just did. I ended up getting the car for 66,500. What do you guys think? You can see pics of it if you're interested at MGMSL.com just go to thier inventory section.

I forgot to mention. I talked to the used car dealer and told them about the motor. They offered to let me back out if I wanted. It's still got almost two years of warranty left on it. I'm leaning towards keeping it.

If it was all done under warranty I'd keep it.

seems like a good price

Replacement motor with a warranty = don't worry. Your car looks GREAT!

Cool. Thanks for the reassurance. Makes me feel a little better. Now I just have to bring her home. The wait is killing me. I hope it's a lot more fun (30 grand worth) than my boxster

Agree shouldn't be a problem. Sounds like a good deal. Congratulations, its a gorgeous car! If it were me, I'd be on the redeye tonight.

If it was up to me, I'd be heading up there too! Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it , the wife wants to go. Her schedule is a little crazy so I guess I'm just gonna have to be patient.

You have a new engine. I think this is a plus as Porsche ships the entire engine from Germany in a crate when they do a replacement. I'm told that the engine come shipped with oil in it. Your are not getting bits and pieces put back together! Nice car!

No worries at all, go for it. You may also have some more warranty time based on the service date of the new engine.

To answer your question......I would prolly shy away from a buying a car that had had the engine replaced, presuming I knew about it in the first place.....That having been established, There are lots of good clinical reasons why there should be no worries about it, as others have stated. And it appears you paid a very fair (good for you) price for this car. Was the original computer replaced with the engine? It would be interesting to find out what really happened to the original engine....... But since you own the car, maybe it is better to let history be and rely on the warranty. Nice looking car, good luck.

the motor is designed to come out for maint. So no reinstall issues.. New motor from porsche.. I do not see this as a bad thing.. Plus we see a lot of engine replacements anyway.. if it runs good and all looks well I would keep it.

I would go for it.. Best of luck...

Sinec it was replaced by the dealer mean its a factory motor. I wouldn't worry, and you have a warranty to boot. If your that worry you might want to consider an extended warranty if you plan to keep the car awhile just for peace of mind.

Your deal may be done, but if it were me, I'd be totally fine with it... That being said, I would not act like I was happy to the dealer. I'd act worried and kind of upset, then ask for enough $ off to off-set the price of an extended warranty. Whether you actually buy an extended warranty or not is up to you, but the chips for more $ in your pocket are there if you play them. IMO

Thanks everybody. Can't wait to pick it up. Your posts made me feel a lot better about this. I was kind of freaked out in the beginning when I found out about the motor. This is the first time we've spent this kind of money on a car. Sound like all should be well. Looks like I may be picking it up sonner than we thought. It's looking like a road trip on Thurs up to Ohio. I've already starting looking into the fabspeed bypass pipes. How bad is that? It's not even in my driveway yet and I'm planning on changing stuff.

I had a motor replaced in my Targa at 19,000 Kms after a flange bearing snapped, no big deal, I like having a new engine...Any other car maker would tear the engine apart to fix, enjoy!

The replacement motors that Porsche uses to replace orignal motors, are usually "hand massaged" by Porsche technicians. So in some ways, they are almost better than the one they are replacing.

I would think twice about that Fabspeed bypass, it can be very loud, most people end up removing them after a short time. I would strongly recommend a quality aftermarket muffler set, like Fabspeed , or PSE if you want to spend a bit more money.

If I were looking for an old 911 or 356, I would certainly prefer the original engine. Vintage collectibles without the original engine are worth less than ones with the original components. Porsche lets us trace this with the Kardex documentation. Since your car is an '02, I wouldn't be too concerned unless you plan to keep it forever. I would, however, use this discovered fact to renegotiate the price. I have an '02 carerra with few options which I bought for $72k new. 2 years later it's probably worth less than $60k.

Not sure what market you're in, but nationally they average (cabs) about $70K for an 02 with low miles. The cab brand new with no options is around $78K. I've searched high and low on all the big locator sites and haven't seen one for less than $65K. I have a copy of the window sticker on my car and it was $96K. $24K would be a big discount off a brand new car. I think $66.5K is a very good price. That's $30K off the sticker in only two years. Glad I'm not taking the depreciation hit on this one. I'll take the noise on the bypass pipes into consideration. They didn't sound too bad on the website, but I guess I should hear them in person. What is the PSE? I'm not familiar with that? Does it stand for porsche standard equipment or something?

DeputyDog, Seems like the general concensus is not worry about the new engine since it was done under warranty. Since the deal is still somewhat negotiable (you could just back out), if you are buying it from a dealer, have them certify the car, so you get 2 more years of warranty and up to 100k miles. Gives you a little more piece of mind. Otherwise, looks like a beautiful car...good luck!

I'm going to go ahead with it. It's the price I want with the options and I color I want. You would not believe how difficult it is to find an 02 yellow manual cab. I guess it's only popular with a small segment of porsche owners. If I was looking for silver or black I'd have three dozen to choose from at any one time. I'm not going to worry about certifying it. That adds over 4K to the price and this is a second car for us.We both have company cars so we put very little mileage on our fun cars. I'm getting two more years of warranty as it is. I'm sure if there is a problem it will surface by then.

I would go for it for another reason all together. I know Marshall Goldman motors pretty well and they are a terrific dealer and extremely reputable. Always have an awesome collection of cars and only buy the best.

one of my 996 had it's engine replaced due to RMS related issues. the new motor was far far better then the orig. never leaked again. i wouldn't worry about it if it's done at dealer with warranty.

yep, all warranty work. verified that the orginal porsche dealer in atlanta did it on 10/30/02 with 3800 miles on the clock.

I was told that the cost to the dealer for a car to be certified was around 1500.00 -- did they tell you it would be 4K. ?? I only say this because the plan from Porsche is quite good. They do a full service on the car and they have to check to make sure that all items are within a set range. Depending on the condition of the tries and brakes -- this could be why they want more to cert it. Just some information to think about - I just went through this!

the dealer didn't tell me that. another used porsche locator told me that the dealer adds 4K to the price. of course he's probably a little biased. might be worth looking into.