Bought my car today!!
 

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!http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/04_s1486793248.jpg

Awesome! Just needs clear side markers.

Looks great. You will enjoy driving now.


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

P.S.: Chrome windshield trim, awesome.

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!

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

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

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.

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

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

You will love this car!

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.

Outstandingly and congrats on a beautiful car!

Gorgeous!!

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.

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

Very nice, enjoy

Beautiful car!! Congrats and enjoy :cheers:

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!