Scruffy old Porsche with 200k miles
Discussion
I bought this car on a bit of a whim. It popped up in my favourite Whatsapp group of petrolheads as a link back to this very site's classified section. The price was right, blue on blue was perfect, 3.4 engine ideal, the aero kit was a bonus and the mileage was intriguing. I rang the seller after, ooh, about 30 seconds deliberation with myself over whether I really needed another car right now. As it happened, someone was due to view the car about an hour after I rang. I simply said that perhaps he could call me back if that person didn't show, and thought nothing more of it. Luckily for me, the other chap didn't show and my phone rang, so I went to view the car that evening. It was a 240 mile round trip, but I wasn't doing anything else, so why the hell not! I got there just before dark, viewed the car, went for a test drive and did the deal. The next day I caught a train and drove home in my 200k mile Lapis Blue 996!
I should point out that I did absolutely no due diligence on this purchase. The previous owner seemed like a sound chap, everything he told me checked out so what's the worst that could happen?! I know, I'm a naughty boy, but I was always going to buy this car. Btw, please don't check the MOT history if you're of a nervous disposition. I had a look once the car was back at home, and I'm not concerned because I'll be going through the car quite thoroughly over time.
What a way to buy a car; rather than walk five minutes from the station to the previous owner's house, we went to the pub next to the station and had a pint while sorting out paperwork:
The previous owner had this car as his only means of transport for 17 years and did well over 100k miles himself. How excellent is that? Here's the starting mileage for my ownership:
Statutory forecourt shot of the first fill up. The previous owner was an absolute gentleman and gave me £50 for petrol as a parting gift.
At this point in the story I should let you in on a small detail of the advert and a point of discussion when viewing the car. The engine has a known issue that the previous owner had checked out at his usual garage. He was told cylinders 1 & 6 are low-ish on compression. I bought the car with this being highlighted to me. Lets add some jeopardy and drive it 120 miles home!
The car didn't miss a beat. The test drive we did was pretty thorough and showed the engine to feel pretty healthy still. No smoke, no odd noises, plenty of power. I'll get to the bottom of it for sure.
Once home, I did the standard battery test to see how it was doing. The PO has been unwell for some time and hadn't been using the car regularly at all, hence the sale to me. Luckily the battery tested good and I plugged it in to my Ctek charger and let it recondition over night.
The next thing to do was clean the interior. Most of it is leather which cleaned up very well given the age/milage. The steering wheel may need some work in the future but I'm happy that it changed back to blue with not too much effort. Some of the dye appears to be coming off the steering wheel as my microfibre cloth will testify but it's in great condition considering.
Before:
After:
General dirt now needed to be cleaned. The colour coded mats have done a great job of protecting the carpet:
The seats came up very well with some basic cleaning and leather balm. I'm no expert but they look nice to me. Since these pictures were taken the leather has dulled down nicely. They look a bit shiny here where I'd only just applied the balm.
Time to clean the exterior. High mileage means lots of paint imperfections. I love it. That means I don't have to worry about taking it anywhere and can just enjoy driving the thing. That said, I've been told by LadyGPM that I need to sort out the lacquer peeled rear quarter... I fancy just removing the rust and driving it around with primer or rattle canned blue bits just to keep it solid, and leave the 'patina'
Anyway, I really rate Bilt Hamber's wheel cleaner stuff. It's almost good enough to rinse off and not touch the wheels with a sponge if you spray it on very well:
Typically, as soon as the car looked smart, it started raining. You can have some slightly beaded water pictures instead:
I've already bought and fitted the correct pre-2001 font number plates, because they look so much nicer.
Lets get fixing some bits! The driver's door handle is broken so that's the first port of call. Off with the door card:
Handle removed and it was very obvious what was wrong. There is a metal eye that goes through a pin on the handle and it had rotted away to nothing. The handle itself is stiff to move so I may need a new one unless I can get the hinge mechanism apart and grease it without breaking the plastic. It's all a bit old a brittle so I may end up just needed a whole new handle.
I left it like this for now, because it means I don't have to lower the window and open from the inside this way!
I'm low on time because I really need to concentrate on fitting the new bathroom I've been building for over a year now... I keep getting distracted with other important house project bits and pieces or buying Porsches. I think I'll employ a local Porsche specialist to give the engine the once-over and see how we go from there. I need the compression issue confirmed or denied as the PO didn't have anything in writing, then I can work out whether I need to drop the engine and give Hartech a ring or not! I can't wait to make this car my daily driver
I should point out that I did absolutely no due diligence on this purchase. The previous owner seemed like a sound chap, everything he told me checked out so what's the worst that could happen?! I know, I'm a naughty boy, but I was always going to buy this car. Btw, please don't check the MOT history if you're of a nervous disposition. I had a look once the car was back at home, and I'm not concerned because I'll be going through the car quite thoroughly over time.
What a way to buy a car; rather than walk five minutes from the station to the previous owner's house, we went to the pub next to the station and had a pint while sorting out paperwork:
The previous owner had this car as his only means of transport for 17 years and did well over 100k miles himself. How excellent is that? Here's the starting mileage for my ownership:
Statutory forecourt shot of the first fill up. The previous owner was an absolute gentleman and gave me £50 for petrol as a parting gift.
At this point in the story I should let you in on a small detail of the advert and a point of discussion when viewing the car. The engine has a known issue that the previous owner had checked out at his usual garage. He was told cylinders 1 & 6 are low-ish on compression. I bought the car with this being highlighted to me. Lets add some jeopardy and drive it 120 miles home!
The car didn't miss a beat. The test drive we did was pretty thorough and showed the engine to feel pretty healthy still. No smoke, no odd noises, plenty of power. I'll get to the bottom of it for sure.
Once home, I did the standard battery test to see how it was doing. The PO has been unwell for some time and hadn't been using the car regularly at all, hence the sale to me. Luckily the battery tested good and I plugged it in to my Ctek charger and let it recondition over night.
The next thing to do was clean the interior. Most of it is leather which cleaned up very well given the age/milage. The steering wheel may need some work in the future but I'm happy that it changed back to blue with not too much effort. Some of the dye appears to be coming off the steering wheel as my microfibre cloth will testify but it's in great condition considering.
Before:
After:
General dirt now needed to be cleaned. The colour coded mats have done a great job of protecting the carpet:
The seats came up very well with some basic cleaning and leather balm. I'm no expert but they look nice to me. Since these pictures were taken the leather has dulled down nicely. They look a bit shiny here where I'd only just applied the balm.
Time to clean the exterior. High mileage means lots of paint imperfections. I love it. That means I don't have to worry about taking it anywhere and can just enjoy driving the thing. That said, I've been told by LadyGPM that I need to sort out the lacquer peeled rear quarter... I fancy just removing the rust and driving it around with primer or rattle canned blue bits just to keep it solid, and leave the 'patina'
Anyway, I really rate Bilt Hamber's wheel cleaner stuff. It's almost good enough to rinse off and not touch the wheels with a sponge if you spray it on very well:
Typically, as soon as the car looked smart, it started raining. You can have some slightly beaded water pictures instead:
I've already bought and fitted the correct pre-2001 font number plates, because they look so much nicer.
Lets get fixing some bits! The driver's door handle is broken so that's the first port of call. Off with the door card:
Handle removed and it was very obvious what was wrong. There is a metal eye that goes through a pin on the handle and it had rotted away to nothing. The handle itself is stiff to move so I may need a new one unless I can get the hinge mechanism apart and grease it without breaking the plastic. It's all a bit old a brittle so I may end up just needed a whole new handle.
I left it like this for now, because it means I don't have to lower the window and open from the inside this way!
I'm low on time because I really need to concentrate on fitting the new bathroom I've been building for over a year now... I keep getting distracted with other important house project bits and pieces or buying Porsches. I think I'll employ a local Porsche specialist to give the engine the once-over and see how we go from there. I need the compression issue confirmed or denied as the PO didn't have anything in writing, then I can work out whether I need to drop the engine and give Hartech a ring or not! I can't wait to make this car my daily driver
Ruskie said:
Great find! I can see the appeal despite the milage.
Part of the appeal is because of the mileage for me! I sold my E90 M3 a few months back with over 160k on the clocks. That was a fantastic engine.DaveyBoyWonder said:
Following this one. Keep looking at 996s.
I'd been looking idly at them for a long time. I thought to myself that I might think more seriously about getting one next year, but this one almost fell in to my lap.rfn said:
This has lived in the same village as me for some time. Glad it's gone on to a PHer. Enjoy and keep the thread updated!
Brilliant! I believe the PO is a PHer too. I'll link him to this thread as he wanted to know what's going on with the car going forwards.
This looks fantastic. By fantastic, I mean crap which is all the better. That corroded arch and lacquer peel is just perfect. Is it cheap enough that you can just drive it until something big breaks and you can part it out, or do you need to actually give it some good care and feed it some parts?
The MOT history isn’t even that awful to be fair, I think the tester was the type that likes to advise everything judging by the huge amount of corrosion advisories on a 23 year old car with 200 large on it.
Good luck, though I’m not sure you’ll be able to get the pence per mile figure as low as on a diesel Golf of old Puma.
The MOT history isn’t even that awful to be fair, I think the tester was the type that likes to advise everything judging by the huge amount of corrosion advisories on a 23 year old car with 200 large on it.
Good luck, though I’m not sure you’ll be able to get the pence per mile figure as low as on a diesel Golf of old Puma.
Not sure who was worse - the MOT tester in 2023 listing all those advisories or the owner for re-testing it without remedying any of the issues! Maybe they thought they'd try their luck at another MOT station?
Despite the cosmetic issues and a few other bits this could turn out to be a decent buy. Sub-£10k I would hope! Drive it, enjoy it and if it goes pop then it could be a donor car for something very interesting - I've heard a 4.1 conversion can be fun...
Despite the cosmetic issues and a few other bits this could turn out to be a decent buy. Sub-£10k I would hope! Drive it, enjoy it and if it goes pop then it could be a donor car for something very interesting - I've heard a 4.1 conversion can be fun...
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