This post was sent in by Ken. Hopefully it serves as the inspiration to get more of us out shopping for a Porsche 911.
Why we all should go get a 911:
1. Be the Man. Or Woman.
It is my firm belief that every man, at one point in his life, should have a Porsche 911. I’d only be preaching to the choir in this Porsche Perfect Community about why, but just in case we all need to reminded, lets consider a 911. All you have to do is see a 911, any 911, rolling down the road. When you see one…you pay attention. You take notice. I’ll be honest, my heart beats a little faster. I get overcome with a feeling that somehow I am missing out on something. A person driving a 911 looks like they are going someplace fun, to do something fun, and are having fun getting there. That is the mystique with the 911 driver. They are having fun…it is almost impossible to not have fun in a Porsche (with some notable exceptions from Paul in his articles “Why not to lend your Porsche to me”.)
Last year while driving with the Porsche Club at PIR, I was fueling up mid day at the nearest gas station. Next to me pulled in a beautiful 911 Turbo, probably a 2005 or so. She was also at the track day. Yes…you heard me right. She. She was a middle aged woman that looked like Ray Ramano’s mom in Everybody Loves Raymond. Yeah…I know. It didn’t make sense. The fact is, I’m pretty sure she was having more fun than I was. Her smile was bigger, she didn’t have to impress anyone on the track because in a 911, just getting gas was pretty impressive.
This is to say that when you are driving a 911, life just seems to be better. You don’t have to dress up. You don’t have to pretend. You don’t have to pose. You don’t have to look at any other car and think…wow…if only I was driving that car instead. No, when you drive a 911 you are the man (or woman). It is just that simple.
2. Now’s the time to buy.
In fact, buy one soon. If not now, when? There is never going to be a good time to buy a Porsche. I can almost promise you that. You are probably already “upside down” in another car. The depreciation of cars these days is staggering. When you consider that a new car depreciates half of its value in the first three years, it is a no brainer to look at cars that hold their value. A Porsche 911 absolutely depreciates in an astounding way. None of us would want to be on the wrong end of a 911 bought near MSRP and then trying to sell it in a couple of years. This is where the value comes in. Buying a used 911 that is at least 3 yrs old, preferably 5-7 yrs old is, in my opinion, the best way to own a 911. You are paying a big chunk of change, but the depreciation slows way down. Just look at the values represented in some of the cars on this website that have been advertised. A lot of car for the money. I’m not suggesting that it won’t depreciate…but the chances are great that you are already buried in your SUV or Mini-van, so why not get buried in a Porsche 911?
3. Your wife is going to be mad about something anyway.
I would like to add that if the 911 you want is an old one don’t wait much longer. Good deals on nice clean old 911’s are getting fewer and farther between. We have a nearly perfect 24,000 mile original 67 911 in the shop right now and the asking price is over $100K. We also recently finished a nut and bolt restoration on a 67 911S and the appraisal came in over $125K. The classic car market is ruled by supply and demand and every year there are less and less old cars, so finding the one you want is going to harder and more costly.
I agree w/ point 1 & 2, but point 3 means piss off your wife, and expect to give her half of the car she never wanted when the divorce comes.
Ok i concede, I will put my CGT off for a bit to oblidge for a 911….. Must be a GT-2 however ..Maybe a little easier for me to reach than the CGT ..so who wants to start that kitty pot for me lol
3) DONT GET MARRIED! Do what you want when you want! lol
I agree with Ben. Skip marriage and a family for a Porsche and travel.
number 3 means another post on porscheperfect about a disgruntled person destroying a porsche
Yeah, good points and I guess the real deal is we all just need to go ahead and buy a 911. They are the ultimate car so we might as well get them while we can still drive them.
I’ve wanted to buy one for years, and I’m serious now. But I get intimidated by the vetting process. It is just SO extremely complex and impractical to evaluate the candidate late 1980s cars! There just does not seem to be a way to get a car and know that it is sound. Nobody is going to let a potential buyer go through a 50-point, step-by-step checklist that requires hours to perform. The frightening prospect of paying say 20k and then finding out it needs 12k of engine rebuild is keeping me on the sidelines.
@Gearhead – Yeah, it can be paralyzing. I think you need to strike a balance between a reasonable checklist and gut instinct. Also, there are plenty of shops that will do a Pre-Purchase Inspection for you. It’s only a couple hundred bucks, but well worth it. I posted up a couple of examples a year or so ago if you’re curious about them.
Porsche Clubs of America has a good list of Porsche mechanics. Or, members would be glad to share names of local mechanics. I live in Athens, GA, and have found a mechanic trained to work on Porsche and other Euro cars. My seller allowed me to take it to the mechanic for a study. It was sound….pristene….I got lucky. I’ve loved every minute of it.
I have the opportunity to buy a 1992 911 for $10,900, the car has 241,000 miles on her but has had alot of engine work done reently (preventive). The car is a great price and in great shape……but my wife thinks i am crazy. We want to buy another home and we have a little one on the way in march 2013. But that is a great price and when will i see a car for that price again…and it’s a 911….she doesn’t understand….What do I do?????
My two cents is the car seems like a decent deal. The 90’s 911’s are some of the most desirable right now, however nearly 250k miles is a lot. On any car. If it’s been well taken care of and the owner has receipts to back up what’s been done, that at least helps. As for what your wife thinks, I’ve learned over the years that peace at home is a heck of a lot more valuable than pretty much any material thing. If she’s not on board, I’d think twice about getting it. It will likely end up being a miserable experience.
Totally agreed,i am in the car market for more than 15 years and I can see all Porsche 911 except 996 can hold their values compare to her competitors such as Mercedes,bmw or now days jaq for example a 2009 SL500 is about $15k to $2k5 difference between a 997.2 and the SL was $20k more when they were at showroom.