Response to What's this car worth: 84 911Champagne coupe

[umfan866]

Looks like a member posted a question in the cars-for-sale forum but he meant to post here.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-cars-sale/589812-whats-1984-911-worth.html

Here's what I responded with:

If you can get that car for 6-8k that would be good. Because you could dump 6k into a paint job, 1k into tires including alignment and balancing, $200 for a radio (non-original), $800 for a new dash (screw dash covers), and now you have 8k into it. Buy the latest issue of Excellence magazine --they say how a nice decent car of this type should sell for 16k. But that is only for pristine, most of them are going for 10-14k, recently one in similar condition to this sold for 8k.

I have been looking for 7 years, about to buy this month. Don't look for more than
6 months to a year, but drive and look at AT LEAST 5 older 911s before buying, so you don't fall in love with the first one. Also buy the book "The gold plated Porsche" from amazon an read it cover to cover. It shows how a guy dumped >100k into a car that he could only sell for 12k today. Yes these are money pits.

[Macroni]

Between 10K and 15K for a low mileage carrera.. if he is highly motivated less.

[carjmark]

Agree w/what "Umfan" said plus can't overemphasize the need to get a thorough specialist PPI. With over 110K miles, unless rebuilt the 915 transmission is likely getting close to rebuild time which will mean a $2K bill w/clutch unless you do it.

Another issue is whether the valve guides/etc. are worn requiring a top end rebuild (some do, some don't). If it does, you fall into not only the cost of a top end rebuild, but the while we're here and 80% of labor's committed why not do the bottom end too? Add $10K +/- $2K on who does the work.

Carreras are great cars but can also be a "poster boy" example of the old adage it's cheaper to buy the best car. You could easily end up with $30K+ in a car worth $15 - $18K (but it would be good for another 10-20 years). I'd think about buying an excellent, low mile or fully rebuilt car for $18 K. Few hassles, little time, get your money back. My long winded 2 cents.

[techweenie]

I think a lot of Porsche people exhibit less confidence in 911s than they deserve. Bought a Carrera with 227K miles last Summer at a good price, partly because everyone else was frightened by the miles. I've only put about 6K miles on it, but no big issues. Everything works except the cruise control, which doesn't trouble me much.

Consider that the low mile Carrera you buy now is less "low mile" every year you own it. Miles are secondary to care.