[996_Bound]

Hey everyone,

Man I am so excited!!! I've always been an American muscle car guy, Vettes, Grand Nationals, Chevelles. I have also owned to older 911, a 79 SC and a 68 912E. Anyway I have drooled over these 996 cars ever since they came out and I sold my last muscle car and have been searching desperately for several weeks now, all the usual sources (cars.com/autotrader/ebay/forums/etc.) Anyway I have found a gorgeous, sliver/black (my favorite color) coupe with tiptronic, and a black coupe manual, and I am close on buying one of them but have a couple questions for you experienced guys. Here is my problem:

I have been researching prices for weeks now and basically it seems like 18K is the magic number that will get you a cherry 1999 911 with between 60-70K miles and documented history. Some guys ask a lot more then that for identical cars and I don't think they will sell them in this market (just based on what I have seen) and they probably don't care too, but as a buyer I have to look at that. I don't want to pay more for one then it is worth today, regaurdless of what may happen in the future.

I can get the black coupe (second choice) and it has regular halogens up front which I don't really want. The price is 18K and it is a 2 owner car with the current owner having it the last 10 years and documented history of service.

The silver coupe, the one I REALLY REALLY WANT, he won't come down from 19K and here are the specs on his car. Total mileage on the chassis is 119K with a new engine replacement at 96K. Had a new suspension put in it 10K miles ago, an M30 (which I don't know what that is). It also has the HID projection beams on it which I really really want. It is a tiptronic auto which doesn't bother me, I can go either way on that option.

I just can't see paying more for a car with many more miles on it, but it does have a new engine (and all paperwork was given to me everything is documented). But maybe I should? I don't have any concept of how an engine replacement hurts/helps the value of these cars. Does it make them worse less, more, who says and why??? I have found a perfect silver coupe as well with the HID's and 49K original miles but the guy wants 21, 500 which actually seems very fair but I don't want to pay that much for a toy right now but I am mentioning it as another point of reference. Help, what do I do here? Thanks for any help.