I purchased a 1995, 993 with 155,000 just a couple of weeks ago. The one previous owner traded the car in for a new one at the same dealer. The dealer painted the car, inspected the car and put on new rear brakes and fixed some other minor issues.
Compression test was acceptable, not outstanding. The car uses about a 1qt of oil every 800 miles but no smoke...I figure a top end and new front brakes and some other stuff would need to go into the car eventually.
I paid $22K. No service records, no PPI. I got a price that I thought I could put money into the car and it would still be a good deal. The service book was stamped and the car was in very good shape, plus one owner so you could tell it was well taken care of. It took me over a year, walking away for a couple of deals for this one to show up, I am glad I waited. Trust your gut..not your heart.
Do some research and find out the wholesale value on the car. Use that as a starting point. You know the dealer has to make a buck. I would not pay much over $5K over wholesale on the high side from a dealer. The dealer will not have paid much more than wholesale for the car anyway. If he did he gave too much for it and you need to walk away from it.
If the car has had several owners then risk of poor maintenance increases greatly. And for me miles is not an issue, in fact the higher the miles the better price you can get and its likely that the big stuff has been fixed. These cars are built to run, not sit in a garage and develop leaks. My car does not drip fluid, anywhere, any kind.
Sorry I can’t help with your other questions but thought my experience was somewhat relevant. Good luck.
And I am not looking to talk you out of a PPI! The location of this car was away from a local independant or else I would have.
Here is my car…
