Does this '89 C4 for sale seem out of whack?

[78silver]

I was looking at this ad on eBay for an '89 C4 with "23K" original miles, one owner, maintained by local Porsche dealer...

looks like a very clean car with the limited pictures available and ad seems to be legit.

Price seems very nice as well if it's legitimage. I'm thinking of going down to take a look.

Seem like a good deal to you guys?

http://motors.search.ebay.com/?from=R40&satitle=1989.5+porsche+911

[trconway]

Other than checking to see about being a flood victim car does seem nice and clean. Very low mileage for an 18 year old car! Almost too low.

Have you ever driven a 964 C4? I ask because I had a 1994 and while I liked it quite a bit you can feel the AWD. Kinda hard to explain but the cars tracks differently.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Tom

[mca]

23K 'buy it now' price seems ridiculously low to me.

maybe been in the swamp.

very pretty though.

[on-ramp]

it sounds too good to be true.

[trader220]

That cars been listed 3 or 4 times on eBay each time the price goes down. I dont get it either, spend the bucks for a PPI to see if its a Katrina flood car if it checks out the price seems pretty low to me

[Gene Wilkes]

If it seems to good to be true, it probably is! Buyer beware!

[aigel]

First year 964s had quite some teething problems, including the 4wd. This along with the car being listed in Southern Louisiana will be enough to scare folks away. People that buy pristine low mileage cars usually don't buy them on Ebay, or do they? This guy may be better off listing it in Panorama. Also, locally he probably has trouble, as there isn't much of a market for Porsches in Southern Louisiana ...

And one more thing: Would this really fetch upward of say 25k if it were in CA or the East Coast? I certainly would not buy a 964 for that much money.

George

[Eric Coffey]

From the picture, I'd say that speedo has been tampered with.

[Danny_Ocean]

I just ran a CarFax on it. Mileage is consistent. There is a "warning" notice the car was registered in a flood-prone area, but no mention of flood damage. One thing of interest...car reportedly had 23,201 mi. when serviced in 2002 and 23,281 when sold to new/recent owner (4/10/07). Either the car sat for five years, or the speedo was disconnected/malfunctioning (or it was rolled back).

If "78 Silver" wants a copy of the CarFax, just PM me and I'll forward it. The seller is offering a copy of the CarFax report. Might be interesting to compare the two.

[Eric Coffey]

Originally posted by Danny_Ocean
...One thing of interest...car reportedly had 23,201 mi. when serviced in 2002 and 23,281 when sold to new/recent owner (4/10/07). Either the car sat for five years, or the speedo was disconnected/malfunctioning (or it was rolled back).

80 miles in 5 years? HIGHLY unlikely.

As I mentioned, I am pretty sure the speedo has been tampered with (rolled back). A 911 VDO speedo in perfect (un-tampered) working order will display the numbers in very consistent alignment (all numbers level), not jumbled like that one (regardless of mileage, or if it is about to "click over").

Oh, and the genius couldn't even put the rubber gauge grommet back correctly:

[78silver]

Thanks for the feedback... that's kind of what I thought and the "80 miles" driven in two years is enough to turn me off anyway. Thanks for pulling it up for me!

[LakeCleElum]

Do some research on the early AWD systems. That would scare me off...

[KCPSG]

I don't know the seller, and I also find it hard to believe that the car was only driven 80 miles.
However I wanted to say that I have recently done some car shopping, and have found that nearly all the cars/trucks I have looked @ all have that warning on the CARFAX about being in flood area. Due to Katrina and Rita.
If I were to sell any of my cars I'm sure that the same flag would appear on the CARFAX because my Parish was deemed affected by the storms. In reality we didn't even get any wind or hardly any rain. Just thought that I would pass that along.....I believe that any vehicle sold in Mississippi or south Louisiana will have that same warning..

PPI and check for signs of water damage.

[CarreraDan]

Guys,
Just for a reference, my neighbor who is kinda weird did not drive his 89 cab for over three years--not one mile. He did leave it with stabilizer in the gas and on a trickle charger. They live down the street and I used to ask him to go on our drives but he would always reply he didn't want to put any miles on the car--had around 20k. Last spring it went down the street and a few days later the new owner was going to drive it across country. My neighbor thinks I am crazy for driving my Carrera 12-15k miles a year--I just told him I am not saving it for the next owner, I plan to drive it until it doesn't drive anymore. I wish I could have taken a picture of his face when he saw me driving in the snow last winter. So those owners are out there who missed the whole driving aspect of our cars. I do agree the numbers should line up on the odometer.

[aigel]

Good catch Eric! LOL! I went to the garage and checked my odometer, and sure enough, those numbers are lined up perfectly. Of course, nobody messed with my odometer, as it shows 125k!

Cheers, George

[rnln]

about the mileage, I am not saying it is true but you can't say it's false. My PO drove his car for 12km in 12 years. For the last 2 years before I bought it, he started the car once. He told me this after I bought/paid.
I do believe him base on the condition of the car. Consition of the garage when the car is at, mark, things around it, also it was hard to start and smoke/gas/dirt on the cover. When it's started, it ran like a charm.
You just have to do more investiation, PPI, test drive, etc. Don't just make the decision base on the numbers.

[aigel]

Originally posted by rnln
I am not saying it is true but you can't say it's false.

If I were in a jury, I would say that it is beyond reasonable doubt that the mileage was tampered with based on the circumstantial evidence we found in pictures and the carfax.

That said, we don't have to prove anything here, as we are only potential buyers and what we see here is enough to get scared away. This is not a private seller, it's a car dealer. It is good to see that people are careful and don't bid on this car.

George

[hytem]

There are a lot of reasons for avoiding very old, very low mileage cars--the least of which is they will depreciate rapidly if want to drive them regularly.

[trader220]

I asked for a copy of the carfax

[Por_sha911]

Read the latest Panorama. C4's in that year are iffy and VERY expensive to repair.