Quick introduction

[Aggie93]

I’ve been lurking on here for several months trying to figure out what to buy. Like many of you, I’ve wanted a 930 since high school. I’m now in a position to buy one. I’m not one to do anything in haste and often over-research decisions. While I thought I might end up wanting a 930, I looked at other cars with the goal looking for a car that would be the most fun for under $50k. Other cars that made the short list were: Viper, Corvette, Lotus Elise, a few Ferraris.

While researching the purchase, this forum was very helpful. I cannot give this board enough credit for helping make a decision. After reading posts from others in similar circumstances, I had to determine what I wanted to do with the car. At first I thought I wanted a convertible. I knew it wasn’t as solid, but I didn’t really think it would matter and it would be more fun driving on the street. My first car was a MGB, so I have a soft spot for convertibles. Then I found out that in order to track it, I’d have to install a roll bar. Since I thought there is a chance I’d track it, I’m not considering a cabriolet anymore. I also thought I’d want a completely stock car. This forum helped me realize that if I planned on putting a few thousand miles on the care, the car will not be an “investment.” So now I’m looking for a stock car and do the bolt-on mods myself or buy one already modified (I think I want one with original parts included with this route). I’ve also learned that low mileage cars pose more problems than higher mileage cars.

One of the last reasons for going with the 930 is the ability to wrench it myself. Or at least get to that level within a year or so. I have not worked on a car in over 20 years, but it seems the 930 is a car that I could learn to do more wrenching than other cars I was looking at.

I’ve started reading The Used 911 Story by Zimmerman and 101 Projects by Dempsey. Zimmerman does not discuss the 930 much, so I’m not sure how helpful it will be beyond background knowledge. Since so many owners modify their 930, I thought the Project book will help determine how well the projects were done.
I’m pretty open to what I’m looking for, but still trying to figure priorities and scale of the pros and cons. I think I want a US version, but I’m not sure how much downside there is to a Euro version. I understand some owners prefer it. I’d also prefer a 1989 due to the 5-speed, but not sure at what premium.

I’d prefer to buy one from a poster here or on rennlist. I’ve looked at most of the cars available here and there are a few I’m interested in, but I know there are others that are unadvertised. I think the more possible route might be a dealer, just out of simplicity. I live in Pittsburgh and there are very few within a 5 hour drive. It makes sense to pay a little more to a dealer if, I can go to one area and see a few cars. Are my best bets Sloan, Voiture ltd, AIC?

I have yet to test drive any yet. There is/was one in Pittsburgh and it seemed pretty messed up. Owner took out the back seat to put in a speaker box. The driver seat was removed for a Cobra racing seat, but he said he never tracked it. I guess the previous owner did. Not sure why else you would put that seat in it. The owner was going to put it in storage last month if he didn’t sell it. Since I wasn’t going to pull the trigger that early I didn’t go look at it. In hindsight I should have and should have driven it, just to establish a baseline. I know as soon as I drive one there will be a lot of other questions.

I hope this was not too long winded. I look forward to joining the community and welcome any advice or comments. I look forward to the day I can repay my debt to this forum.

[mooney265]

My advice: shop around; find a sorted out car; buy it for a good price [maybe $35k]; drive it at least 5k miles before doing any major $$ upgrades [this will be hard]!

My reasoning [coming from personal experience]: Modding these things gets to be expensive!! Take your time with your new gal; give her a chance to give you what you're looking for. Then, when you're head over heals in love; go out and buy that ring [big mod]!

The one thing about modding a car is it takes time away from driving... And, it's addictive -- sometimes, you don't even know why you're doing it; you just know you need to... Like others have said, "it's a slippery slope!"

Keep that $15k in reserve as long as you can - - you just don't know what may happen?????

Good Luck!

[RarlyL8]

Welcome!
I let a real good one go a couple months ago. Low miles, over maintained, all the expensive mods done (400WHP), and all the stock parts came with it. Sold for $28K.
Good ones are out there but you may have to get on a plane to go get 'em.

[Noah930]

Drive the ones locally, if you can. To give you an idea of what these cars feel like (or what they're not supposed to feel like). Even if you have no plan to buy it, at least it'll be seat time so that when you do find the car, you'll know it. I bought my car after a plane ride away to a neighboring state from a seller I found via the PCA. In general, if anything I'd steer away from dealers (unless they specialize in Porsches), as they often have no knowledge (or aren't going to honest) about service history/prior owners/etc. I always get that shady feeling. Maybe that's just my prejudice.

Sloan has some pristine-looking cars, but they're at a super premium. Good for a museum IMO, but not for something you actually want to drive. The value of the car will drop by half if you start putting some miles on it.

Sign up for the PCA. There's some sort of trial period (forget what it's called) where you can sign up even if you don't have a Porsche. Something like 4 months for about $45 or so. The benefit is the ability to search the online classifieds, which is pretty active. At least those cars are being sold by an enthusiast population, theoretically (much better than the average used car dealer, who's just trying to make a buck and would say anything to do so).

Best of luck, every year there are a handful of cars that surface on the internet that seem like great buys. You just have to be willing to go/fly out and get one of them.

[mark houghton]

Aggie, you're going about this entirely correctly. I too would stay away from a dealer for two reasoins: price markup and the tendency to "gloss over" the facts. Buy from a private owner, preferably a car with few previous owners, lots of documentation on car care if possible. And do drive a couple (even if you don't intend to buy) to get a feel for what's normal.
As to modding, doing it yourself is half the fun and you gain intimate knowledge of the car which will come in handy the first time you're stranded. If you can find a stock car with no mods, it may mean that the car was treated well during it's life (not necessarily, though....mine came stock but as I proceeded with upgrades it became apparant that at some point in it's past there may have been some level of mods).
I was really stupid when I bought mine, paid too much (by todays standards, anyway), fairly high mileage, not as complete a level of documentation as I would have liked, but the condition of the car was excellent and I didn't have to pay $$ to fly out for a preview or to have it shipped. So the couple grand that would have represented just went toward the car instead.

Oh...almost forgot, Aggie....my first "sports" car was an MGB as well. '73 to be exact. And believe it or not, I still have a '60 MGA in the garage. The 930 just laughs at it.