Originally Posted by javadog (Post 8952072)

I don't want to pee on anyone's cornflakes, so I'll preface this by saying I'm maybe a little older, a little more conservative and a little more experienced than the average Porsche owner. What floats my boat might not float yours.

If I was going to buy a 911, I'd buy one with half that mileage. I'd buy one that is stock, or close to it.

It comes from a state I'd rather not buy a car in. Bad weather, bad roads, usually means a less than stellar underside.

The Ebay ad is poor. Not enough photos, not enough description. I'd assume the engine and gearbox haven't been rebuilt, otherwise he would have mentioned it. Not a good thing at 131k miles.

Look at the front valance. It's bent. Fog lights fit poorly. Why?

I'd bet the car's had some paint work. Be nice to know what, and why.

Everything the owner has changed on the car has lessened its value. Some of the things he changed are popular around here. They fall in two camps for me. Boy Racer, and Stupid.

Boy Racer mods:

Small steering wheel. Race cars have small steering wheels usually because they have not a lot of room in the cockpit. It's not because race drivers like tiny little wheels. Larger wheels give you more leverage, more precise steering and you can actually see the gauges, which is sometimes useful.

Pedals. Again, trying to make it look like a race car, except that's not what race cars look like, exactly. Got the aluminum piece over the pedal cluster, too. Left the upper carpet piece off so he could see his aluminum.

Shifter. See above.

Stupid mods:

Poorly painted (red!) bar in front of the front condensor. WTF?

Ruined a really nice set of wheels painting them black. Then accessorized them with non-matching caps.

Yanked the rear bumper guards off, which always looks like ass to me, and whoever did the work did it poorly.

Back-dated the heater the cheap way, then left the hose off the heat exchanger, so it's back-dated to no heat at all. As a bonus, the heat exchangers can now rust inside as well as outside.

Took off a perfectly good muffler and cat, installed a POS muffler which looks like crap on the car. Going to be expensive to fix that, if he didn't keep the original parts.

Lowered the car to well below a sensible ride height. Made the handling and ride worse, just so it looks "cool." I personally can't stand people that use the words correct and stance in a sentence. I want to slap them upside the head...

Then there's the crap stereo, the key fob without a fob, the peculiar ventilation control position and a bunch of other little things. Bottom line, I would not want to buy a car from that owner.

Nothing personal, no bad feelings intended.

JR

Originally Posted by MZ3 SBC (Post 8949941)

Visited 3 exotic / high end performance car shops in long island to view thier 911 offerings. 1 place dealt in absolutely prestine examples and was commanding strong prices. The other 2 are in the business of buying anything with a 911 badge and slapping some duct tape and shoe polish on the car and asking for record setting prices.

Originally Posted by pmax (Post 8952202)

How would you know the 1 place was commanding strong prices ?

Originally Posted by javadog (Post 8952072)

I don't want to pee on anyone's cornflakes, so I'll preface this by saying I'm maybe a little older, a little more conservative and a little more experienced than the average Porsche owner. What floats my boat might not float yours.

If I was going to buy a 911, I'd buy one with half that mileage. I'd buy one that is stock, or close to it.

It comes from a state I'd rather not buy a car in. Bad weather, bad roads, usually means a less than stellar underside.

The Ebay ad is poor. Not enough photos, not enough description. I'd assume the engine and gearbox haven't been rebuilt, otherwise he would have mentioned it. Not a good thing at 131k miles.

Look at the front valance. It's bent. Fog lights fit poorly. Why?

I'd bet the car's had some paint work. Be nice to know what, and why.

Everything the owner has changed on the car has lessened its value. Some of the things he changed are popular around here. They fall in two camps for me. Boy Racer, and Stupid.

Boy Racer mods:

Small steering wheel. Race cars have small steering wheels usually because they have not a lot of room in the cockpit. It's not because race drivers like tiny little wheels. Larger wheels give you more leverage, more precise steering and you can actually see the gauges, which is sometimes useful.

Pedals. Again, trying to make it look like a race car, except that's not what race cars look like, exactly. Got the aluminum piece over the pedal cluster, too. Left the upper carpet piece off so he could see his aluminum.

Shifter. See above.

Stupid mods:

Poorly painted (red!) bar in front of the front condensor. WTF?

Ruined a really nice set of wheels painting them black. Then accessorized them with non-matching caps.

Yanked the rear bumper guards off, which always looks like ass to me, and whoever did the work did it poorly.

Back-dated the heater the cheap way, then left the hose off the heat exchanger, so it's back-dated to no heat at all. As a bonus, the heat exchangers can now rust inside as well as outside.

Took off a perfectly good muffler and cat, installed a POS muffler which looks like crap on the car. Going to be expensive to fix that, if he didn't keep the original parts.

Lowered the car to well below a sensible ride height. Made the handling and ride worse, just so it looks "cool." I personally can't stand people that use the words correct and stance in a sentence. I want to slap them upside the head...

Then there's the crap stereo, the key fob without a fob, the peculiar ventilation control position and a bunch of other little things. Bottom line, I would not want to buy a car from that owner.

Nothing personal, no bad feelings intended.

JR

Originally Posted by MZ3 SBC (Post 8952281)

Too funny....while you are probably spot on in all your comments....the smaller wheel ( assuming he did not cheese out the rest of the car) could help a larger drive use the clutch pedal more easily...especially in the non electric seat car.

Originally Posted by javadog (Post 8952457)

Well, I'm sure the small wheel was bought for looks, not anything practical. It's a common modification and the number one choice amongst the herd is the Momo Prototipo, largely because that's what the herd thinks was used in the race cars, back in the day. The fact is that they were sometimes used, but a whole host of other wheels were used, too. I recently saw a post by someone that enumerated all of the old race cars that used the wheel. His list included cars that never used it, but hey, what do the facts matter...

JR

Originally Posted by javadog (Post 8952457)

Porsche offered an extended hub steering wheel, which worked a lot better to solve that problem. Back in the days before electric seats, the steering wheels were asymmetric, to give more thigh clearance. JR

Originally Posted by ENENEN (Post 8952462)

I'll admit it, if I buy an SC I'll most likely be changing out the steering wheel. I just think the original one is terrible looking. I would obviously hang on to the original one though, since many buyers care about originality, but I think the SC steering wheel looks horrible.

Originally Posted by NYNick (Post 8952805)

Chase him down MZ! He even lives in your smelly old state!:D:D:D
Maybe you can $$$talk him into selling again. You know, make him an offer he can't refuse type NJ thing?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-cars-sale/897733-fs-84-carrera-driver-bolt-mods.html

Originally Posted by MZ3 SBC (Post 8952271)

Because - this is not my first rodeo. I put my self through college selling cars in Jersey City. I know where and what to look at as far as condition goes. I lifted carpets, looks under the dash, pulled back trim....found overspray, rust, mildew signs of collision and other what not that was not disclosed. The seats were painted up nicely to look fresh-r.....typical used car dealer tricks.

There was a car that arrived on a truck while we were on the lot. The owner looked the car over and realized he bought a real pig...windshield seal was pulled back, rust bubbles down in bottom of fender under the antenna...car was full of mildew....etc. Ran nicely but had 130k miles. Was an 82 SC The owner of the shop said....I day offer only...you can have this car as is for 42k....LOL....bet If I go back next week that car will be all dolled up...it was a roach

Originally Posted by javadog (Post 8952072)

Took off a perfectly good muffler and cat, installed a POS muffler which looks like crap on the car. Going to be expensive to fix that, if he didn't keep the original parts.
JR

Originally Posted by pmax (Post 8953246)

I gather this was not the place with the pristine examples commanding strong prices.

Originally Posted by matt930s (Post 8952174)

So I take it you weren't the buyer then?

MattR