Today’s Tempting Porsches are at both ends of the spectrum, both price and performance wise.
Tempting Porsche #1
The first is one I found on an auction/salvage site called EZSalvage.com. Pretty interesting site. I did a search for Porsche narrowing it down to only Clean Title vehicles that Run & Drive. Of course I was amazed to find 7 Porsches that fit the bill and ECSTATIC to find a 1986 911 Turbo Slantnose that looked amazing on the outside and going for only $6000.
Now, I’m a fairly skeptical, yet overly optimistic/trusting person when it comes to cars and how people describe them. Yeah, I know those two polar opposites don’t logically seem like they’d fit in the same brain, but in this case, I think my heart was going, “Holy crap!” but my head was saying, “Easy tiger”. Things got a bit worse for me when I got to looking at the pictures and noticed the words “RUF” in place of the Porsche badge on the hood and under the whale tail on the back! SWEET MAMA!!!
I decided to screw what my brain was saying and go with my heart (with a fair amount of lust mixed in I’m sure), opened up an account and placed a bid of $11,000. I figured worst case, if everything was toast, I could part things out for that amount or possibly drop another $10k to $15k into it and still have a great car at a decent price.
Long story short, I was the highest offer, but EZSalvage said it was too low. I was kind of figuring that would be the case. The next time I visited the page, I noticed an Insurance Auction offer of something like $25,600.
It’s not often you see a car like that up for sale, and even at $25k, it would still be a great great deal if everything was in order. The few details I had were that it was a 1986 911 Turbo (I’m assuming) Slantnose in black with 32,172 miles on it. That’s pretty much it. Too much risk, sight unseen, at $25k, but a heck of a fun daydream for a couple of days!
Tempting Porsche #2
The second Tempting Porsche is a 1985 944. Based on the pictures, it looks pretty dang nice. Would prefer the updated interior that came mid-way through the 1985 model year, but this one seems like a great deal. Here’s some points from the ad:
146K AIR COND PWR WINDOWS MOON ROOF, ORIGINAL PAINT, ROCK CHIPS ON NOSE, NEW BATTERY CAT EXHAUST 2-11 TAGS, SOME CRACKS ON DASH.COMES WITH COVER, RUNS AND DRIVES VERY NICE, BRAND NEW BFG”S PERFORMANCE TIRES
Asking Price: $2995. That seems like a great deal, even with some of the interior stuff that needs to be dealt with. If I had the space, this would be one I’d pick up to have a little fun with.
Saw a good deal around here on a 944 turbo. Car is twenty years old yet would still eat most modern cars.
WOW! First pic jumped out at me even before i read the post, I saw RUF wheels …”Somebody put RUF wheels on that thing”…OR…. Sure enough! dude, inch up a little more. Insurance company doesnt want it…Because they dont know what to do with it…Pencil pushers lol
Porsche #1, too risky, even at 11k.
Porsche #2, if the ask is $2995, the buy is probably $2500. Average retail is $5,675, so if you can drive it for the first year without putting $2000 into it, you’ve done good.
Both of those are nice options. I really wish you would have won the first one, what a steal.
Buy your older 911’s soon they are going up in prices.
I dont know bookie, if that RUF could be had for 11 k …I`d say snag it…If one found out a grenade went off in the drivetrain, the new owner is in the parts business and could get it back.If whatever state its origin is in that got the clean title is as tough as NH (where i`m from) Having that makes a huge difference. A bookie uttering the words “too risky” …so sad lol
You found my slantnose for me. And ruthless is right it would be risky but if you could get it for 25% of what it was worth it may be worth the gamble even if you had to put a little money into it.
even if it cost $2,500 I think thats a pretty good deal. It has to run for a few months…not bad at all
Personally, I would risk $20k on the RUF. Probably a pipe dream, but still…would be an amazing car if you got it at that. Can you imagine how exciting that’d be climbing into it for the first time sight unseen? Kind of like a grab bag of goodies. Don’t know what you’re going to get.
to clarify why I think the RUF is a risk:
Unless you can walk around it, inspect it, run the motor, do ATLEAST a compression test on the cylinders, etc…it’s a risk to buy a $11k fixer-upper online.
A few years back I bought a 1988 Alfa Spyder Veloce from a seller in Florida. I’m in CT, so I’m not going to be able to inspect it. I called the seller during the bidding process, and he promised me the only thing I needed to do to it was stitch in a new plex-window into the convertible top.
I won the bid – 5k, which is a STEAL for a car that was book value around 8k at the time.
add $250 for shipping, and a week later I’m looking at a 1988 Alfa sitting in my driveway, complete with it’s very own dry-rotted top.
$1700 and one new top later, I bring it to my mechanic. We go through the car, and…$980 later, I have a nice car.
Total cost: $7500.
2 weeks later, the power window relay goes. then another week later and the a/c comprsssor dies.
Total cost in under one month: $8800
Had I just been able to perform a basic mechanical inspection, not to mention the obviously crappy top, I’d have offered no more than $3750, or passed on it all together.
Alfa’s are pretty simple cars, mechanically. If this is what can happen with an italian go-cart, imagine what can happen with a finely engineered german sports car.
I stand by my assessment – buy the 944, leave the RUF for a specialist.
Ruthless has a point there. Always that risk involved.
I would have to agree with Ruthless. Buying a Porsche without having it inspected can be very costly. We routinely tell people who come to us that it isn’t cost effective to restore their car. Our advice is unless they have a sentimental attachment to it, go out and spend the money to find the very best car they can find and enjoy it. Anybody considering buying a cheep Porsche and fixing it up should first pick up a Stoddard catalog and look at what the prices for parts alone will be. If you have the ability to make the repairs your self great, but if you have to pay to have the car worked on expect it to be very expensive. The truth about fixing old cars is that it always costs more than you think, it always takes longer to get them done and something always goes wrong. I hope that this helps somebody, I have seen people get in over their heads to many times and they end up losing money because they just didn’t know.
A point you make is for sure bookie…But it almost seems you made one bad deal and tainted your risk taking forever lol. I play by averages. If you think i dont have any tough stories you would be wrong, If you would say all of them were bad you would be wrong too…So it all comes out in the wash. 50% went worse than i wanted, 50% were better than i expected…with reasonable common sense and not total abandon of that always intact… some risk taking had to enter the mix.
Aww, sorry you didn’t get a sweet deal on the slantnose. You tried though & you never know, sometimes the stars in heaven align just right. It pays to be optimistic and determined.
Brad – My dad was an auto part dealer when I was growing up, so ALL my cars were fixer-uppers. The point I was making was in the context of online bidding without seeing / inspecting the car first.
Another option that exists is contact someone in POA in the area where the car is for sale and throw them a few bucks to look it over. I suppose they could steal from under you if they like the car too …theres risk everywhere 🙂
I hope nobody thinks im reckless. I guess my hypothetical view here is based on what if the car was agreed to be let go for 11k? I really think you get your funds back on parts if you find the worst with this car….More than 11k? the hypothetical picture changes 🙂
I hear ya bookie!
I have a client who specializes in restorations, and I ran this one by them, and the first thing they said was “I’d have to see it first”. But, they also pointed out that if you were buying it from a Porsche salvage specialist, you can ask for a detailed inspection report before bidding, and that would bind them as sellers to a statement of the car’s condition. If the car didn’t meet the condition stated in the inspection report, you have a good case for getting your money back.
Adding things up i`m thinking also that those RUF wheels alone are worth probably 3 to 4 K,,They are the desirable satin finish. …And that slantnose clip….Gotta be a good haul there. …If the drive train turned out to be a bust.
Not all of the cars on that ezsalvage.com site look that easy to actually salvage. I wonder if I’m going to see my car I rolled on Monday up on there. It would be tough/risky to gamble on that side with the hopes of getting a steal of a deal.