Price Check: 1996 911

[umfan866]

Hi,

Please help me value this car, which I have seen in person, not driven (yet), and talked to the owner extensively:

1996 911 (model 993) with 3.6, 6-speed and 94,000 miles.
Color: White/black.

Options:
329 Radio ( replaced by Pioneer)
454 Automatic speed control
650 Sunroof
C02 Equipped with catalytic converter

Negatives:

- Carfax shows 2 accidents, which current owner acknowledges.
- 1 (5 years ago) was a parking lot accident when backing out - hit another car, rear bumper replaced.
- 2nd (2 years ago) was a pop of clutch and resulting jump up over and onto a curve late at night, backed out/off,
causing lotos of underbody damage.
- Both professionally repaired/replaced at high quality local shop, the 2nd accident included repairs to front left bumper, unibody frame pull / adjustment on a rack, and replacing the entire rear bumper (again). The frame damage scares me a bit, but the body shop is going to send me pre/post pictures to look at, and the person who did the body work has 35 years of experience on German cars and is Diamond certified with a high rating.
- car has been on the track 3 x, autocrossed 2x, and once at the track it was in a 180 spin, no damage since on track and/or light gravel (and bumpers reconditioned since)
- car has been driven/pushed hard as part of driving school/track time
- left rear exhaust pipe slightly bent (barely noticeable)
- owner had 1 of 2 keys stolen - in order to get 2 keys working again, apparently a Porsche dealer would have to rekey the locks and dealer only issue, and all this is a hassle due to the "immobilizer" system
- noisy gear noise when manually lowering / raising rear spoiler / stabilizer
- no known rebuild yet (either top-end or full)
- 1 tool in the porsche toolkit missing
- original Blaupunkt missing (may be able to be tracked down) -replaced by Pioneer deck
- when owner bought car, the Porsche dealer had been using the car as a dealer demo for a little while
- both front headlights have what looks like yellow-tinged stuff inside the lights, owner says this is due to aging but since they are working fine they haven't yet been replaced

Positives:
- car is immaculate looking, owner has taken great care of little things, very clean
- recent new windshield due to owner not liking a lot of pits due to aging, also front bumper reconditioned
- current owner has only put on 3k miles per year and has a lot of maintenance
receipts (e.g. clutch done)
- owner has a bunch of track goodies: recently added PSS10 suspension (installed) and the tool to install it goes with the car, various flares/german triangle, car cover, some PCA books/articles, original compressor
- in front, electrical work has been professionalyl done to keep a "battery
warmer" hooked up - ie so car does not drain battery while in garage.
- car feels/handles great (the best handling 993 I have bee in - probably due to the PSS10's which were set to "comfort" when I rode in the car).
- the A/C is meat chiller.
- owner revs engine strong and knows how to drive it (took driving school). During last PPI compression was 200, 200, 195, 195, 195, 195, 195 so no rebuild seems imminent (but I'll want to retest)
- no odometer issues, no SAI/CEL issues, or smog inspection issues -- as in some other 993's

[johnsjmc]

If it has a salvage title I would value it around $15.If a clean title then more. I have a similar one with a clean title and no carfax accident report but the drivers rear corner has been painted. I paid less than $20 also has Pss9 but fewer records

[umfan866]

I have pulled the Autocheck report and the title (it is a California car) is Clean, not Salvage. In California, you have either clean or salvage.

Autocheck reports all green / clean etc but with 2 incidents:

I guess one it calls "minor accident or vehicle damage" , and then 2 of them are called "accident or vehicle damage" and those last 2 are also tabulated on the first page.

5/18/2005 "accident or vehicle damage"
6/09/2005 "minor accident or damage" (probably the same claim adjuster came out
twice)
8/20/2008 "accident or vehicle damage"


I can verify this because another car that IS salvage came up with salvage in red all over the report.

-- with frame damage and repair -- and a unibody -- is it really possible to put it back to spec?

[johnsjmc]

I am sure a good body shop can get a unibody car within spec.. If it wasn,t declared salvage it shouldn,t have been that bad. With a clean title and 2 accidents I would value it between $15 and $20 . I wouldn,t sell mine for that now that I have it and have paid the taxes etc on the aquisition. Car could be a good cheap daily driver not a collector.

[umfan866]

Thanks. Currently owner is asking 20 firm but I have not made an offer, and I am still waiting for pics from the body shop of the pre-accident damage.

[Flatsixhead]

Seems like a good buy at $17-18K with a clean title.. Top end job could be in the near future so haggle while you can..

[umfan866]

Update.

I got some photos of the accident (pm me).

Here are the details of the accidents:

2005 accident

Fender bender to the Rear. She Pulled out of a parking spot and a
Lexus hit rear. The insurance paid the claim for the bumper repair.
Owner paid the body shop herself (extra) to have the front bumper
reconditioned and a new windshield installed.

2008 accident - owner popped clutched, jumped over curb, was late
at night, no other cars involved.


Body shop has photos of the vehicle when it was brought in for repair in 08,
and says this

"As you can see the vehicle barely looks damaged but she is very meticulous
with her vehicle.
- The rear bumper and reinforcement were replaced
- the front cover was repaired-
- the left quarter panel was repaired and refinished.
- we did a frame rack setup and pull to straighten the kink on the left
quarter panel.
(I see in the photo -- it is near the engine cover on the left and the sheet metal
has a kink there)

- I don’t have any photos of the repair in 05 but that was the rear bumper
as well.
-The bumper and reinforcement and time to replace them are over $2,000
by itself so that is a major portion of both repairs.
- receipt totals $3800, biggest part is the "rear bumper cover for $1,600.

[aigel]

The issue with the accidents appears to be that they are on the carfax. Not so much the extent of the damage. This is important if you want to re-sell sooner than later.

I have been out of the market a little, but I doubt you'll do much better at the lower end of the 993 for $20k. Every one I have seen for under 20 on here had some major issues (salvage title, needed paint etc..)

Cheers, George