Bought my car today!!

[paulb]

Hi all,

Title says it all. I bought my car today. Been looking online for couple months & test driving seriously looking for the last 3 weeks or so & today its finally mine

Saw a lot of cars, read lots of posts, articles & blogs. Huge thank you to all of you who take your time to give out so much info that has helped me from jumping in too fast & not looking at all the right things when making this purchase. especially this forum, mike focke & his blog & pedros blog. Thanks to this information I knew how to talk to the sellers & mechanics, what questions to ask, what to look for & caused me to spend more than I originally planned (but will save me thousands over the next several years)

If you read my test drive notes post from a few weeks ago I started out looking at several brand roadsters & quickly narrowed it down to the 986 boxster. (I never did get around to test driving that BMW Z4)

At this point I got a bit bogged down with concerns about the porsche, including IMS issues, whether or not low mileage cars may be problematic, not having service records, which year is best, base vs S (because the first S I drove was a tiptronic & I couldn't feel a performance advantage over base) I also had difficulty finding a nice condition car that had all the records locally. Over the last couple weeks I drove about 8 local boxsters ranging in price from $7,000-$17,000 then expanded my search out nationally, looking at literally hundreds of cars. By this Monday I had narrowed it down to 10 cars all over the country & made my calls, a few had sold, a couple I didn't like the vibe of the dealer. I explaining to the dealers that the process I planned on pursuing was to come to a preliminary agreement on price but it would be dependent on a PPI by a local specialist, all the dealers I spoke to said the inspection was fine & they had no problem with that, but almost none of them would follow up or return my calls after that?? Finally after days of calls, examining photos & carfaxes I made a deal on a car, found a mechanic & in the couple hours before the PPI appointment they tell me they sold the car locally & cancelled my deal. All in all I ended up negotiating on 6 different cars, none of which panned out. Then I came across one that had all its records including IMS replacement, the car looked clean & it all went smoothly from there, dealer agreed to PPI, transported the car there & back for me. The independent porsche mechanic gave me a thorough inspection & told me the car is in excellent cosmetic condition, mechanically & electrically sound. I need to do a few things (brake rotors soon, wiper blades now & oil pan gasket is seeping) nothing else needed.

The point of this long story is to have patience there are lots of cars out there & If one doesn't come together the next one will & you may just be better off with it in the end. I believe that by telling sellers I intended to have the car thoroughly inspected by a porsche specialist has filtered out those who didn't really have confidence in the quality of what they were offering. I mean why else would a used car salesman not call back someone with a hard offer?

My new car is an all black '04 "S" manual w/88k & excellent condition. Its being shipped out of Texas tomorrow & I should have it Monday. How awesome is that!

[Fintro11]

Originally Posted by paulb

Hi all,

Title says it all. I bought my car today. Been looking online for couple months & test driving seriously looking for the last 3 weeks or so & today its finally mine

Saw a lot of cars, read lots of posts, articles & blogs. Huge thank you to all of you who take your time to give out so much info that has helped me from jumping in too fast & not looking at all the right things when making this purchase. especially this forum, mike focke & his blog & pedros blog. Thanks to this information I knew how to talk to the sellers & mechanics, what questions to ask, what to look for & caused me to spend more than I originally planned (but will save me thousands over the next several years)

If you read my test drive notes post from a few weeks ago I started out looking at several brand roadsters & quickly narrowed it down to the 986 boxster. (I never did get around to test driving that BMW Z4)

At this point I got a bit bogged down with concerns about the porsche, including IMS issues, whether or not low mileage cars may be problematic, not having service records, which year is best, base vs S (because the first S I drove was a tiptronic & I couldn't feel a performance advantage over base) I also had difficulty finding a nice condition car that had all the records locally. Over the last couple weeks I drove about 8 local boxsters ranging in price from $7,000-$17,000 then expanded my search out nationally, looking at literally hundreds of cars. By this Monday I had narrowed it down to 10 cars all over the country & made my calls, a few had sold, a couple I didn't like the vibe of the dealer. I explaining to the dealers that the process I planned on pursuing was to come to a preliminary agreement on price but it would be dependent on a PPI by a local specialist, all the dealers I spoke to said the inspection was fine & they had no problem with that, but almost none of them would follow up or return my calls after that?? Finally after days of calls, examining photos & carfaxes I made a deal on a car, found a mechanic & in the couple hours before the PPI appointment they tell me they sold the car locally & cancelled my deal. All in all I ended up negotiating on 6 different cars, none of which panned out. Then I came across one that had all its records including IMS replacement, the car looked clean & it all went smoothly from there, dealer agreed to PPI, transported the car there & back for me. The independent porsche mechanic gave me a thorough inspection & told me the car is in excellent cosmetic condition, mechanically & electrically sound. I need to do a few things (brake rotors soon, wiper blades now & oil pan gasket is seeping) nothing else needed.

The point of this long story is to have patience there are lots of cars out there & If one doesn't come together the next one will & you may just be better off with it in the end. I believe that by telling sellers I intended to have the car thoroughly inspected by a porsche specialist has filtered out those who didn't really have confidence in the quality of what they were offering. I mean why else would a used car salesman not call back someone with a hard offer?

My new car is an all black '04 "S" manual w/88k & excellent condition. Its being shipped out of Texas tomorrow & I should have it Monday. How awesome is that!

Awesome! Just needs clear side markers.

[walt2810]

Looks great. You will enjoy driving now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BRAN]

That is really awesome, congrats and welcome.
Most probably you are infected with the incurable PORSCHE virus by now.

P.S.: Chrome windshield trim, awesome.

[Bootlegger]

Nice car, great story. The 2004 model is the best of the 986's. Love the wheels, lose the amber side markers... Drive it like you stole it

Congrats!

[alex.rhodes]

Nice looking car. Instead of de-ambering the lights, why not add orange highlights to the car. I suggest calling in sick Monday and going for a nice long drive.

Alex

[DWBOX2000]

Car is perfect the way it is. I wouldn't change a thing. Congrats, excellent color.

[KevinH1990]

Nice car. Right of the bat you have three great things going for you:
Glass window top
Factory litronics
Nice wheels

The IMS replacement is also a plus in a 2004.

[Chuck W.]

Great write up and great find. You did it the right way! Enjoy.

[rexcramer]

Congrats and safe travels. Long live the orange side markers.

[paulofto]

You will love this car!

[boxxster]

Nice! I think you're really going to like it. First thing I did to my 04S was ditch the orange side markers. It's a must do on the facelift cars IMO.

[BruceH]

Outstandingly and congrats on a beautiful car!

[geraintthomas]

Gorgeous!!

[heliguy]

Can we ask what you paid? Beautiful car.

[paulb]

Originally Posted by heliguy

Can we ask what you paid? Beautiful car.

$12,500 + another $1,000 in fees shipping,& inspection.

I'm already working on my to do list, in addition to the things from inspection
- drive it
- side markers
- drive it
- move The ac controls down to install double din touchscreen head unit (it already has the Bose with sub & speakers behind seats)
- drive it some more
- New floor mats & pedals
- drive it again & again & again

Maybe next winter ill do a sport exhaust, gotta see what the stock sounds like first.

This weekend is just crawling along. Tomorrow I'm cleaning the garage.

[PaulE]

Great car, nice story. welcome to the fold. Enjoy it!

[Pirate50]

Very nice, enjoy

[GoBlue]

Beautiful car!! Congrats and enjoy

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by paulb

$12,500 + another $1,000 in fees shipping,& inspection.

I'm already working on my to do list, in addition to the things from inspection
- drive it
- side markers
- drive it
- move The ac controls down to install double din touchscreen head unit (it already has the Bose with sub & speakers behind seats)
- drive it some more
- New floor mats & pedals
- drive it again & again & again

Maybe next winter ill do a sport exhaust, gotta see what the stock sounds like first.

This weekend is just crawling along. Tomorrow I'm cleaning the garage.

Unfortunately you're going to be in a lot of pain installing a double din f you have the bose system with an amplifier. You may have to replace a lot (amp, speakers, etc). Have a little look on google at people who have tried a similar thing, it's very difficult!