Thinking of buying a 1999 996. Prince Check

hey guys im thinking of getting into a 99 996. dont have any experience with this model. i have found a car locally that looks like a nice candidate. it is silver with black interior, 18" turbo twist wheels, pioneer gps unit and clear front headlight/turn signals and clear side markers. very clean inside and out. scratch on rear bumper and he said it needs a new front hood latch. the car has around 130k miles, but it just had clutch and ims replaced. and something else that i cant remember right now. he says his lowest is 14k. good deal? anything i should check, look for or ask about?

14 is the lowest I have seen a 996... like... ever... so far...

ive seen them down to 10-11k but not with the same recent service. kbb value for private sale is 11k for this car with mileage and specs. so this sounds like a fair deal? any other trouble areas i should keep in mind for this model?

Do they have all the maintenance records?

that is one of the things i am going to ask. but he seems to be well together so i believe so. if no or few records, is that a walk away sign?

No, do a PPI and go from there. And HO LEE ***, KBB sure did a great job at adjusting the 996 values. Fair value for 1999 car is now below $8,000.00..trade in value is $6,000.00. LOL, 996s are now priced almost on par with hondas from the same years. http://www.kbb.com/porsche/911/1999-...category=coupe

pay a trusted mechanic to do a good PPI (prepurchase inspection). then depending on what issues are found, negotiate as needed

Here is a '99 for $11,900. I emailed for more info and received a non-response type of reply, so I cannot tell you anything about the car. The ad mentions a 5 speed manual so something is wrong. http://spokane.craigslist.org/cto/4279107332.html

This?

If the car is clean and checks out, $14k is a fantastic price for that car.

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Only if it is PURPLE ... and raining.

Update Waiting on WIN to check Carfax, but the owner said it will show an accident in the rear. He said he backed up into another car at a drive through and had to replace the whole bumper. Plausible? The car has a scratch on the current bumper from rolling into the garage door when he forgot to put it in gear. Also, the car has 104K miles. He's had it a year he said and got it at 84K miles. He has the service records from his ownership, but nothing from the Previous owner. And he bought the car at a dealership. IMS has been replaced with the improved bearing, Rear Oil Seal done at the same time with the clutch. Needs new tires, the current tires are bald he says. Thanks

IMHO, the CHEAP price to buy should always be balanced by COST to maintain/keep. best of luck.

kromdom: meaning? what maintenance to look for or expect on this? besides the AOS the big stuff has been done, cluths, seal and ims. thanks

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Follow this advise, and you should be fine. Sounds like a great price, and leaves room for repairs if needed, should they be missed by the PPI.

Anyone know of a good 996 PPI around Pasadena or Glendale? Edit, contacted House Automotive

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if the IMSB, retrofit seal and clutch has been done, then you avoid the biggest ticket repair. Make sure to get a receipt copy, and call or better yet, visit the shop and talk to the mechanic. How many done, look at other cars there, mainly Porsche work, etc... Tires will set you back $1500 at least. Negotiate with the buyer, though not an issue, rear bumper replace and crap tires are your best bargaining chips, look for other defects too, talk about having to respray the bumper, etc., etc. 2003 Carrera 4S Speed Yellow / 1955 356 Continental 1500 Rust Red

Jeez, at the price the seller is charging, if it passes PPI just buy it. Don't nit-pick the seller to death on minor items. It's a 15 year old car with 130K miles. If I were that seller and someone started talking to me about wanting a credit for a bumper respray or worn tires, I would start talking to them about getting the hell off of my property.

Thanks Cuda, I think I might jump on this if all comes together. The car actually has 104K miles, not 120 as I thought. He has deducted the bumper and hood latch from the original price already. Needs new tires but I'll need new ones eventually anyway. The clutch seal and IMS was done at House Automotive, whom I contacted about a PPI before I knew he had done work there. The IMS Bearing is the "LM Engineering" bearing. Is that a good one? Still a year warranty left on the repairs.

The bearing is "LN", not "LM." Yep, that's the one you want! If it's only 104,000 miles and nothing "funny" shows up, looks like an excellent deal. Be aware, you will almost certainly need to spend some thousands your first year fixing stuff up. That's true of any car of this age/mileage. The main thing is a very thorough PPI. Of course, there is never any guarantee with any used car that something won't go wrong. But, any major things that are relatively obvious should show up in a PPI. Search around here on RL, somewhere there's a thread that has a good punch-list of PPI items. P.S.: At the PPI, ask the mechanic how much it will cost to fix the hood latch. As you may already be aware, even simple mundane parts tend to be very expensive for these cars.

8 different sets of tires available right now on Tirerack.com for '99 996 with 18" wheels for under $600. Even with shipping, mounting and balancing you're still well under $1,000 for a decent set of tires.

yeah I saw that, not bad. What is the big difference? I don't drive much and I don't race. And I actually have a full set of practically new tires on my 17" Turbo Twist Boxster Wheels from my 944 that's not running. I might throw them on in the meantime. There shouldn't be any problems putting 17" boxster wheels on the 996 should there?

You don't have be air-cooled to turn me on I just need your flat six howling, baby, from dusk 'til dawn You don't need to spend your nights awake, full of doubt... Just drop the tranny and pull that stock IMS bearing out. Ain't no other marque I'm more compatible with I just want to find an affordable, low-mileage 996

Hi 5CHNE3LL, The IMS has been replaced with the LN Engineering bearing last January by House Automotive, along with the clutch, master cylinder and ROS.

Buy it. That is all.

Thanks We're doing a PPI at House on Friday.

Keep us posted, mharish! Schnelly, I started a thread to consolidate all such crappy Porsche poetry. It's buried on RL somewhere. EDIT: Here it is: https://rennlist.com/forums/off-topi...he-poetry.html

Here is the PPI findings No faults in system Over revs: Range 1 / 560 revolutions (not sure what they mean) No airbag activity No signs of body repaint Oil pan seeping Bank 1 cam cover seeping Bank 1 spark plug tubes seeping Bank 2 oil scavage pump seeping Front hood latch does not open Rear Shocks seeping The repairs quotes on the different items aren't too bad so I think doing them myself eventually will be fairly cheap. The most expensive parts being the rear shocks. but they didn't feel too bad when i tried it. The rest of the test points were a pass. Any advice? Sounds like a good solid car doesn't it?

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I am also starting to look at getting a 996 and will be interested to see what people say about the oil seeping issues. Oil seeping is part of life with the classic cars I am familiar with and means nothing in most cases. We'll see if the experts say those are significant issues because they can lead to other problems.

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Picked it up on Friday. Still getting used to it. The clutch especially is very touchy, compared to the 944.

Wow. Looks great. I know what you mean about the clutch since I too came from driving 944s before my first modern flat 6 Porsche.

Thanks yeah, I've stalled it a couple times, the worst was on a really steep hill on a red light. The clutch actually stuck for a couple of seconds when I finally got it going. But getting used to it, slowly

congrats! could not help noticing the location of the photo shoot...pretty sure you know the area well to safely get to it

^^^ The lovely Los Angeles River. I go there often for salmon fishing. So far, have caught 3 sneakers, four tires, and a portion of a semi-decomposed corpse.

$14K? Wow.....incredible. Congrats it looks stunning. 99% of people will think its brand new ;-)

Congrats! Nice looking car, and it seems you got it for a pretty good price. I've had my 2000 996 for almost eight years and it's been my Daily Driver. It has 157,000 miles on it right now and still runs and looks great. They are pretty easy to work on, so I do almost all of my own maintenance. Yes, the clutch can be tricky, for sure. I've driven manual gearbox cars and trucks my whole driving life (34 years of driving), and I used to stall my 996 so often in the first six months, you'd think I'd never driven one. The hood latch on your '99 (as it is on my 2000) is purely mechanical. It's a cable directly to the latch. The later cars went with an electric latch. Enjoy the car.

Hehe glorious LA river but looks nice for photos, except the day I was there, lots of rotting algae stuff. I'll try again this summer when it's dryer. I've shot there for a music video once so I know how to get there safe and easy Very happy with the purchase and yes, it's easily mistaken for a newer car that's for sure. I still can't believe it's 15 years old! I've ordered a used hood latch from ebay so hopefully my first wrenching on it will be an easy one