Hey Pelican forum, hoping you can give me a sanity check on this.
I'm looking at buying this 2002 C4S for $25k. The price looks good but there's a back story. Local used auto dealer bought the car at an auction knowing it needed "a little work", but then were surprised to learn from their mechanic that it needed quite a bit of work. They decided instead of doing several repairs to the engine that had 90k miles, to put a "new" engine with 4400 miles into it. So that means new engine, clutch, alternator, the whole deal. However, the car has no other records whatsoever, beyond this recent maintenance. Carfax has several service records (as vague as those are), and an accident - which the dealer said required repainting the front bumper, but nothing major. The title is clean, not a salvage.
Here's the car:
PORSCHE 911 CARRERA 4S
This dealer has been in Santa Cruz for a long time, although they only have two Yelp reviews, they're at least positive:
Beach Auto Sales - Santa Cruz, CA. But even though I think they are honest dealers, this could still be a bad idea. My concerns:
1. No records. This is probably normal for a lot of auction cars but... yeah... obviously not a good thing.
2. Engine and body #s won't match - I understand that's crucial for a vintage Porsche, but how important is that for newer ones?
All that said, the price is very good. The car is exceptional in appearance inside and out, and drove nicely when I opened it up, took some curves, braked hard, etc. And if the story is right, it's a major deal to get this car at this price with a almost brand new engine, right?
I'm getting a PPI done tomorrow, then I'll need to make a decision. What do you think?