Had the car a couple of months so I thought I'd put up a running report as I did with my previous 996 C2:
My 2002 996 Carrera 2
Like that thread, I'll document what I'm doing with he car as time goes on. this will be wordy so I'll apologise in advance!
As much as I loved my C2 I did miss the punch of the B5 RS4 that I had previously. That car was tinkered with by Unit20/MRC/Viper and was putting out ~475BHP – It really did fly. Didn't handle that well, and the C2 was a far better, more balanced, drivers car, but was a bit lacking in the go department.
A friend who has a 996TT let me have a drive of his and that was it: I needed one in my life. Shortly after I had a go in another that has had the 9E treatment and I was then totally hooked so I found a buyer for the C2 and the search began.
Like my C2, this would be my daily driver. I have had toy cars (the RS4 was one) but my work and other interests means that they rarely get used and just end up sitting in the garage which, for me, is pointless as I wanted to enjoy driving it as often as possible.
My prime concern during the search was to find one in the best possible mechanical condition and history so that it would not let me down as a tool to get to and from clients, and would not drain my wallet straight after purchase. My ideal spec was black/black facelift with hardbacks and no PCM but I was actually pretty open about spec as none of the colours are horrific and they come loaded anyway. I was happy to look at modified cars as, from the advice I've been given by people I trust, these cars can take a level of modification in their stride as long as it has been done by somebody who knows what they are doing.
I often read threads on here about protecting resale value by buying low mileage unmodified cars, and I can understand that viewpoint but I buy a car for me, not the next owner, and any car I bought would accumulate miles (approx 15k PA) through daily use and depreciate anyway.
In the end I looked at a total of 6 cars. Initially I wanted to avoid the dealer margin so looked at 3 private cars, 2 of them nice enough but not for me, but the third, which was in nice condition (at least as far as I could see), had a decent history and drove really well. I really liked it so we agreed a price and I arranged a PPI.
The advice often given on here about getting a thorough PPI is spot on. Northway found £4k of remedial works to bring it to A1 condition, of which £3k's worth required immediate attention. Was still willing to take the car on as it was fundamentally sound, but the seller and I could not agree on a compromise price so it fell through.
After that experience I decided that a warranty and some comeback might be worthwhile so I began looking at dealer cars. It would stretch my budget but it seemed the best way forward. I took a couple of days off and went to have a look at 2 dealers (all Porsche specialists, one of them VERY well regarded with a lot of very expensive stock) and have to say that for the price they wanted (mid-to-late £20k's) both cars were, frankly, dogs. Bad paint work, suspect history and in one case obvious accident damage that was vehemently denied by the dealer.
At this point I had a rethink and decided I needed to save a bit more cash. Cancelled the sale of my C2 and tried to put it out of my mind. This failed and after a week of sulking I got permission to divert some cash from our house project fund and the search was back on!
As luck would have it the next day a car popped up locally on PistonHeads. Car was a 65k 2003 in Seal grey with Metropole sports seats and some nice mods, including RUF tuned PSS9's setup at Centre Gravity. Car was at ePorsch in Bisley so I popped along and had a look.
If you read my other thread you'll know that I believe that you know the right car when you see it, and in this case I got that feeling. As soon as I arrived I could see that the car had been well looked after, and this was further confirmed by the massive history file that came with the car, showing lots of care throughout its life at OPC's and good indys. Also had a lot of recent expenditure for the common turbo issues such as rads and condensers, coffin arms, actuators and pads/discs all round. Only things marking it down (that I could see) were 2 lowish rear tyres, an unidentifiable engine map (believed to be Superchips), a stone chipped front PU and an aftermarket Kenwood double DIN unit (thats a personal thing, hate the look of them!).
None of this put me off so after a really easy negotiation with Roly (ePorsch Owner) we agreed a price for the car including a fair trade in for my C2. It needed a major service, which Roly was going to do as part of the sale, but we negotiated a further discount as I wanted Northway to do it. Roly agreed to an inspection, as long as it was done at his premises and agreed to let whoever inspected it use his ramp so a full underbody examination could be done. This stipulation obviously limited my choice of inspector and the only real candidate was Peter Morgan. Now I've read a lot of commentary about Peter and the quality of his inspection, but in my case I think he did a thorough job and carried out all the things I asked him to do, with the exception of a boost and vacuum check which I would have liked to be done, but I thougt it was worth the risk as I had the warranty. Peter identified a few issues which Roly fixed without complaint, and finally the car was mine!
My 2002 996 Carrera 2
Like that thread, I'll document what I'm doing with he car as time goes on. this will be wordy so I'll apologise in advance!
As much as I loved my C2 I did miss the punch of the B5 RS4 that I had previously. That car was tinkered with by Unit20/MRC/Viper and was putting out ~475BHP – It really did fly. Didn't handle that well, and the C2 was a far better, more balanced, drivers car, but was a bit lacking in the go department.
A friend who has a 996TT let me have a drive of his and that was it: I needed one in my life. Shortly after I had a go in another that has had the 9E treatment and I was then totally hooked so I found a buyer for the C2 and the search began.
Like my C2, this would be my daily driver. I have had toy cars (the RS4 was one) but my work and other interests means that they rarely get used and just end up sitting in the garage which, for me, is pointless as I wanted to enjoy driving it as often as possible.
My prime concern during the search was to find one in the best possible mechanical condition and history so that it would not let me down as a tool to get to and from clients, and would not drain my wallet straight after purchase. My ideal spec was black/black facelift with hardbacks and no PCM but I was actually pretty open about spec as none of the colours are horrific and they come loaded anyway. I was happy to look at modified cars as, from the advice I've been given by people I trust, these cars can take a level of modification in their stride as long as it has been done by somebody who knows what they are doing.
I often read threads on here about protecting resale value by buying low mileage unmodified cars, and I can understand that viewpoint but I buy a car for me, not the next owner, and any car I bought would accumulate miles (approx 15k PA) through daily use and depreciate anyway.
In the end I looked at a total of 6 cars. Initially I wanted to avoid the dealer margin so looked at 3 private cars, 2 of them nice enough but not for me, but the third, which was in nice condition (at least as far as I could see), had a decent history and drove really well. I really liked it so we agreed a price and I arranged a PPI.
The advice often given on here about getting a thorough PPI is spot on. Northway found £4k of remedial works to bring it to A1 condition, of which £3k's worth required immediate attention. Was still willing to take the car on as it was fundamentally sound, but the seller and I could not agree on a compromise price so it fell through.
After that experience I decided that a warranty and some comeback might be worthwhile so I began looking at dealer cars. It would stretch my budget but it seemed the best way forward. I took a couple of days off and went to have a look at 2 dealers (all Porsche specialists, one of them VERY well regarded with a lot of very expensive stock) and have to say that for the price they wanted (mid-to-late £20k's) both cars were, frankly, dogs. Bad paint work, suspect history and in one case obvious accident damage that was vehemently denied by the dealer.
At this point I had a rethink and decided I needed to save a bit more cash. Cancelled the sale of my C2 and tried to put it out of my mind. This failed and after a week of sulking I got permission to divert some cash from our house project fund and the search was back on!
As luck would have it the next day a car popped up locally on PistonHeads. Car was a 65k 2003 in Seal grey with Metropole sports seats and some nice mods, including RUF tuned PSS9's setup at Centre Gravity. Car was at ePorsch in Bisley so I popped along and had a look.
If you read my other thread you'll know that I believe that you know the right car when you see it, and in this case I got that feeling. As soon as I arrived I could see that the car had been well looked after, and this was further confirmed by the massive history file that came with the car, showing lots of care throughout its life at OPC's and good indys. Also had a lot of recent expenditure for the common turbo issues such as rads and condensers, coffin arms, actuators and pads/discs all round. Only things marking it down (that I could see) were 2 lowish rear tyres, an unidentifiable engine map (believed to be Superchips), a stone chipped front PU and an aftermarket Kenwood double DIN unit (thats a personal thing, hate the look of them!).
None of this put me off so after a really easy negotiation with Roly (ePorsch Owner) we agreed a price for the car including a fair trade in for my C2. It needed a major service, which Roly was going to do as part of the sale, but we negotiated a further discount as I wanted Northway to do it. Roly agreed to an inspection, as long as it was done at his premises and agreed to let whoever inspected it use his ramp so a full underbody examination could be done. This stipulation obviously limited my choice of inspector and the only real candidate was Peter Morgan. Now I've read a lot of commentary about Peter and the quality of his inspection, but in my case I think he did a thorough job and carried out all the things I asked him to do, with the exception of a boost and vacuum check which I would have liked to be done, but I thougt it was worth the risk as I had the warranty. Peter identified a few issues which Roly fixed without complaint, and finally the car was mine!
No - although I do sometimes miss the old girl. 
