6SpeedOnline - Porsche Forum and Luxury Car Resource

:D Well, my lovely bride has given me permission to buy my check out ride before I leave the planet. (Well, I hope maybe not my last ride). I was going to wait till the end of the year but started looking because when the bug hits you, well there is no other option, right? My strategy was:

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Nissan GT-R or Corvette Z51. We went and looked at the GT-R’s and my wife did not like the styling (me too).

Audi R8?? I really like the look but I kept getting drawn back to the PDK.

Ferrari F430-prices are significantly higher than I wanted to spend and frankly the clutch replacement issue scared me buying a car out of warranty. Maybe in a couple of years I might entertain a 458 Italia-ha…. BTW-I know a manager of a Ferrari Dealership and after having a lengthy conversation with him he told me to go with the 911.

Called several dealers and spoke to lots of sales personnel and managers. I was leaning towards an “S” but after talking to a boatload of different folks, decided if I found the right car and it happened to be a non “S” I would go for it especially since I am not going to track the car and will most likely never use the car to its full potential. Most people that have been in the Porsche business for some time including mechanics tell me they notice no significant driving difference in the two vehicles.

Thought about buying a CPO car from a dealer but after many failed negotiations, decided to buy a private party sale-mostly because no 8.1% sales tax which is a huge amount of money. I overspent my budget (of course) but after speaking to the owner on numerous occasions I was confident the car was pristine.

I did not have a PPI done as I found that the car just had the two-year service done (at 2700 miles) including oil, brake fluid and cabin filter (80 bucks for the cabin filter-yikes!). I spoke with the service people and the tech-they assured me the car was pristine. Had a DME done and I asked them to e-mail it to me and found out it was 117 pages. 12 over-revs in range 1 at 139.0, six over-revs in range 2, same hour mark, zero over-revs ranges three through six, so I am sure the car has not been abused.

I love the car-could easily be a daily driver. I was so focused on the condition I did not notice the car has no steering wheel controls-what?? Suncoast want $750 plus shipping. Probably will have to reconsider that add especially since I most likely will drive the car a couple of times a month.

FYI about insurance. I have been with Allstate for years and Hartford before that. I got severe sticker shock when I went to add this car to my policy. I shopped around and went with Geico. For all three cars the premium is less than what I was paying for two vehicles with Allstate. Tried all the major players too, but Geico had the best rate. Liberty Mutual was a close second.

I did lots of reading on this forum and I appreciate all the great information I was able to garner prior to my purchase.