I've been lurking for a while and looking at these cars everyday. I wanted something that had low mileage and a warranty. This has lead me to solely looking at Turbo S'. I've found one that seems to be a good deal and it has extremely low miles. It's a white Turbo S with all the goodies, not a lot of trim but the main options. It has GT3 wheels and other than that it's stock with 3k miles. It is a 1 owner car and has a clean bill of health. Is 93k a good deal for this car?

The in service date was 9/05 so the car is under factory warranty until 9/09. I'm on the fence a little because I know I will mod the car and loose my a$$ on the mods. Should I buy something like this for the peace of mind of having an almost new car with a warranty or buy the modded car already done up? The problem I have with the modded cars are it seems they all have more miles and have been a little more USED. I know some of you have went down this road and you probably have been there and done that. Let me know your thoughts. I have the bug and I want to buy something. I'm just trying not to be to anxious and jump into the first deal I see.

 

If you are trully going to mod I would skip the S version. You will replace the turbos, suspension and possibly brakes anyway...save the money and get a non S version and mod away (unless of course you can get the S for the same price as a non S).

 

I guess I should clarify what I would mod. I only do minimal mods. Whatever will give me the most power for the least amount of money. In this car I don't know what that is but I would guess exhaust, ECU flash, DV etc... I'm not that familiar with these cars so I don't know if I'm off base or not. I just need to do enough mods to make this thing faster than what I'm getting rid of, E55 that runs 11.3's at 123mph. Will the mods above get me there or close to it?

I guess all in all the number doesn't matter because I'm looking for something with more of a fun factor. The E has that in a straight line but that's it. I just need to make sure I can get close to those numbers without heavy modding.

 

Oh, OK different story...get the S in that case...ECU flash, exhaust, wastegate springs, DVs...good to go.

 

I wanted to mod less and valued the factory warranty, also wanted a car that hadn't been driven hard much. 04 996tt x50 with 15M miles had the options I wanted and a tip trans means no over rev problems and probably not tracked much. Replaced the exhaust with Europipe stage 2 quiet...great mod that does not affect warranty (I think). When out of warranty I'll do an ecu flash, and for my purposes I'll be where I want to be.

I agree that if you want to heavily mod the x50 or S may not be the best choice. And the warranty will be compromised. Some guys take their cars back to stock before selling...and some good used mod parts are available at discounts. Just some ideas, but I think you will really like the 996TT performance. The 05 Turbo S sounds very nice.

 

So is 93k a fair number for this car or can I do better? Most all of the 05 Turbos going through auction went in the mid to upper 70's. Do I even look at auction numbers when looking at this car?

 

Yes, and point it out to the seller in a non-obnoxious way... ("Geez, I don't know- the manhiem report has these at $X and you know dealer trade prices are driven by auction- I just don't know if I should sit tight for a month")

The price on 2005s has remained stiff. 2003s have tanked for the last 6 months, and 2004s have dropped in the last 2... I've not be focussed on 2005s (just 3 and 4s) but 85-88k would be a real good buy with 10k miles... this has less miles so adjust accordingly.

YMMV

A