[b55er]

And I thought when I bought my 986, 11 years after manufacture I had low milage.

This is how I bought my low milage 1998 986 base.. I went 986 shopping and came across a lot of "rats" of dubious quality. Most cars were far from perfect.

I wanted a pristine example 986. I am really particular about my vehicles and wanted as new as possible. I wanted new, but only had a fraction of the funds for a new 987.

January 2011, I visited a Bay Area Porsche dealer and bought a base 986 with 22k on the clock. The dealer showed me all service records done since new. 2 years / 2k miles before I bought the car, the dealer installed a new engine (under warranty). Service Manager told me it was the latest version engine for this car. Service Manager allowed me to view all service records for the car since new.

Car came with a matching hardtop that was installed. P-mechanic took off the roof and showed me that the original protective papers from the factory was still on the rear plastic window. Dealer then had a hard time closing the soft top since it was never opened and while the fabric while looked new, it was rigid. Dealer agreed to fix the soft top prior to sale.

No dents, dings or bodywork. Headlights are like new, not even micro scratches. Rubber seals and gaskets looked like new and very pliable. The interior and exterior was flawless. Dealer performed fuel filter, brake pads, brake flush, new tires and alignment check prior to delivery to me. Showed me their internal ppi and I spoke to the mechanic at length about this car. My bs detector was dead silent.

I asked the dealer to put it up on the lift, I looked underneath, and it was flawless. No wear, looked brand new. P-mechanic hooked up PIWIS and gave me a tour of the menus. After sale, same mechanic allowed me to set a few parameters such as activating the OBC in the cluster and activating the airbag deactivation bar that I installed myself.

Sales dept treated me like a king as if I was buying one of the $190k GT3's on the showroom floor.

I knew I would pay top dollar for the car but not far off from kbb or edmunds. I was able to negotiate a bit from their ask, but I wanted THIS car bad. Having a 22k mile Porsche with a new engine sealed the deal for me. I made the deal, took her home replaced the gearshift with a new one from Suncoast, took out the Porsche/Becker cassette deck and installed a iPhone compatible Alpine radio.

Two and a half years later I now have 29k and have done little to the car outside of aggressive scheduled maintenance and tinkering. Car is still a flawless garage queen and when given the opportunity, I love taking it on the coast and mountains of northern CA.

I paid less than a new Corolla.