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Old 08-19-2011, 06:12 AM   #20
Perfectlap
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 8,709
Have you ever owned a black car?
Not the best choice for a daily driver if that's your intent. Man every little scratch and chip that is inevitable just becomes magnified. Now toss in chrome wheels, probably the most labor-intensive to keep looking purty. And that black interior that picks up every little piece of lint. You'll spend 3 hours buffing and cleaning and its dirty by the end of the day. As they say everyone owns a black car once.

Upgrading those lights is very expensive. I paid $1400 aout 6 years ago in a group buy with a Porsche dealership when the Euro was still soft. They probably go for closer to $2,000 now. But before even doing that I would upgrade the IMS bearing to the unit from the forum sponsor Flat6 innovations. Any Porsche spcialist can do the job in a day. Along with the clutch and upgrading to the Cayenne RMS seal you'll be looking at $2,000. I'm guessing the dealer probably changed the oil, if he didn't and if you get the car inspected get the mechanic to cut open the oil filter abd roll it out to check for IMS seal fragments. If they're cracked peppercorn size or bigger you'll have some negotiating room because that means there's a great likelyhood that the RMS seal is disintegrating and could go at any momment. Kaboom new engine. And of course don't bring this up ahead of time because the dealer might go and get the oil changed before you arrive and claim the old filter was tossed. Either way the IMS should be the first thing you change, personally I wouldn't evend drive it before fixing that. In general you want to point out every possible repair because its more leverage for you.

As far as price, I'm the biggest ball buster I know. But this car might make a little less aggressive. The color is a definite negotiation point in your favor. If there are no service records for the oil changes that's a big minus for them. at barely 2K miles a year that could be a big problem if the car's oil sat idle for a long time (weeks or months) or if the car wasn't driven frequently, even for at least a local 10 mile spin around town. I'd try and reach the previous owner to see what his driving patterns were like. If this car sat still for weeks at a time over the last 10 years there could be a whole bunch of isssue that won't become visible until you start cranking up the avearga miles per drive in a big way. A definite plus for you as far as bargaining power. Low mileage means nothing if you don't know how often the car was taken out of the garage or if the oil was changed regularly regardless of mileage. Without that knowledge they're basically waiting for a buyer who knows little to concede that the low mileage is a plus for the dealer's asking price. And of course those headlights are very dated now. Actually they were dated for 2002 because the next year Litronics were standard. Without the service records its hard to say what this car is worth and what potential issues there may be. In general the more frequently the oil was operating at temperature at least 3,000 RPM the better the drivetrain's life expectancy.
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Last edited by Perfectlap; 08-19-2011 at 06:35 AM.
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