Finally proof: Why you don't buy a car based on the Odometer!

I bought mine at 123k. Anything less, to me shouted FRAUD at me. An 84 with less than 90k...how? I discovered the web page of a guy who had an 88 Carrera he bought with low miles (under 100k). You can see our correspondence and the email I sent him....
Anyone feel like helping this guy out?

Kurt B wrote:
>
> Your entire page is a delight. The effort you put into it is greatly
> appreciated.

Thank you.

> Thanks for the chip install instructions. I'm going with Weltmeister,
or I
> think so, but we'll see.

Let me know what you think of it.

> I'm also wondering about your 0-60 times. You have an 88 Carrera ,
but
> your 0-60s are highly unusual for that car.

That's what I was thinking too.

> I have a pro-tech accelerometer. My car is an 84 Cabriolet (145k
miles),
> and I get a very easy 6.3X as per manual, and a tougher 6.26. My car
isn't
> really modified. I pulled the A/C, I have a K&N cone (rather than old
air
> box, little difference except for more room on that side), a Bursch
muffler
> (sounds cool, way cool, but difference? unknown as yet), and the
quick
> shift kit.

Have you rebuilt your engine yet?
My car seems to be really sluggish lately and is burning a lot of
oil. I didn't think much of it all until I was at a track event
recently where my instructor also had an '88 911 similar to mine
with only exhaust modifications. His car pulled so much harder
than mine that I'm starting to think that something serious could
be wrong with my car. I was always a little concerned about my 0-60
times but now I'm very concerned.

The season is over for me and I just got back from a long trip so now
is the time for me to take it in and have it seriously looked at.


> I see on your head to head page, a confirmation of the 6.8...
>
> Even when my car had 3 bad injectors (really bad at low RPM, less so
at
> high), it got 6.6s and 6.7s.
>
> Let me know what's up.

--
Gregory Gulik NEW! http://www.drivingevents.com/
greg@gulik.org or greg@gagme.com http://www.gagme.com/~greg/



------------------
Kurt B
1984 911 Carrera Cabriolet
75 914 1.8

Hmmm...was this from another thread? There are low mileage 911's out there. My first one, an '85 Carrera, I bought at 60,000 in 1996. It was so clean you could eat off the engine case. Knew the car since the previous owner bought it (buddy of mine) at 45k.

But there are those examples that are totally clapped out that have sub 100k odo's that just scream "lies lies lies" to me.

Well, hope all goes well with your example...

Dave
--- http://members.nbci.com/dtwinters/garage/

My '85 Carrera bought in May had 47,000 original miles. The original odometer had to be replaced as it was brought in 2 months prior from Canada & its a US requirement, so my new odo reads only 3,000 mi. I'm sure of the mileage as the record book is stamped by the Porsche dealership listing the dates & km's at time of service. Various repair records also verify the stamps. I paid a real premium for the car, but its the next best thing to new! My sister's '87 red Carrera in Atlanta has 37,000mi... (she bot it new)... they're out there...you just have to get lucky.
regards,
jlex.

Found my 85 911 Targa on the internet two years ago. Had been owned by the same guy since 86 and driven on weekends, with its having 62K miles since new.

Yes I know, I had real questions about the mileage as well ... but I did as well get COMPLETE service records from day one and they confirm the mileage. Paid $17.9 for it two years ago and have only put a clutch and a 60K major service in it in two years, thats all.

One funny thing... the PO wanted to keep the car and give it to his son when he turned 18. He asked the kid three times "do you want the car" and when he said no the third time, he put it up for sale. Someone needs to check the oxygen level to the kids brain. I would have begged my Dad for something like this!!

Oh well, its been a very good car for me and I hope the now 20 year old kid realizes what he missed.

JoeA

It isn't unusual at all for a car to have low mileage. My existing "toy" car is covered under an insurance policy that limits me to 7,000 miles/year. I believe other variants of the insurance policy exist with mileage limitations as low as 4,000 miles a year. The policies are obviously not for daily drivers, but rather weekend toys. A lot of Corvette owners, and I would assume a lot of Porsche owners do the same thing. If someone had one of these 4K/year policies on an '85 bought new and the owner adhered to it, it would obviously have 60K miles or less. Needless to say, the price for these policies is considerably cheaper than one someone would get for a commuter car of equivalent value.

Low mileage 911s ARE out there. I wouldn't be concerned about low mileage unless it was REALLY excessively low (like 10K miles on an '85...either someone's playing "numbers" games with the odometer or the car's been in storage for a VERY long time).

As far as your contacts low 0-60 times go keep in mind that unless both of you are testing the cars under the same conditions, your comparison may not be very reliable. He may accelerate completely differently than you do, and he, for all I know, may live on the biggest mountain on the face of the Earth and his engine is starved for oxygen. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with ANY car that can influence performance negatively, and they don't nessecarilly mean the engine is shot or worn out from too many miles.

They are out there. I have a friend who picked up his 88 Coupe at the factory, it now has 8,000 miles on it! I have a standing offer to buy it from him but he will never sell. The car still smells new.

I bought my '87 from Team Motorsports last year for their usual premium price. At the time it had 52,000 miles on it and the service records and Carfax supported the mileage. Companies like Team always have a good selection of low mileage cars but you do pay the price.

However, you can never be too careful. Odometers can always be swapped out and I've even heard of people with boxes of spare odometers ready to swap out on the unwary

There are a lot of low milage cars on the street in Germany - like mine. Most of the 3.2 are only in use as a second car (like mine). The drivers care for the cars.

The other type of owners just drive and donīt care. Itīs quite easy to recognise those cars. No bills, no sevice-book, no clear history, no first paint.

Regards Tobias