Hello there fam. Is this worth buying?? Found a 997.1tt, manual/stick, original owner, about 48k miles, serviced entire life through porsche, PPI mostly checked out minus minor service issues, DME mostly clean, one ignition worth of over-rev in range six at half way through its life, bumpers need some help. Biggest issue is the accident history, big accident to the front of the car, airbags deployed. I have the service invoice from porsche detailing the parts/services, it spent three months in the shop. Owner willing to accept $50,000. What are your thoughts?

 

If you plan on keeping long term and not selling and you are ok with the accident history and cars condition than perhaps. How long ago was the accident?

However when you go to sell, an accident with airbags deployed will be a deal breaker for 80% of potential buyers I'd say.

I'm sure there are better examples to be had IMO

 

Accident was in 2.5 years ago. Definitely better examples out there, considering this one because of the price. I'm looking for a driver to keep long-term, definitely not expecting this to become a garage queen.

 

Well good that the accident was older and I assume a fair amount of miles have been put on since which is encouraging. Gives any issues a chance to be seen/fixed.

At that price, it's fairly well depreciated, so driving it won't devalue it a whole bunch more if you ever do sell, but I think that would be the worry with this car, if you have to sell you'll have to have it priced very attractively or else most will walk right by. The price has to be right in order to justify it.

I'd play hard ball and see if you can get it around 45 I doubt there is a huge market for the car honestly. Especially as summer is starting to wind down.

 

Appreciate the feedback. Owner is trading up to a new gts and admits that trade-in is less than $50, but still wants $50. I really did try to get it down to what I thought was reasonable, $46,600. Didn't work.

 

Another idea is to pick one up with 55k-60k miles for around 5-8k more but it will have a clean carfax. From my searching, a lot of turbos have been in some sort of accident so personally I'm open to minor paintwork as long as the carfax and autocheck is clean.

 

There are some cars with minor accident report which didn't affect structurally but cosmetic touch touch up. This is no big deal IMO. but airbags deployment, that's a hard hit. $50k with that record is risky especially not knowing how it was fixed. I rather do higher miles over that

 

Thanks for all the input thus far. I have the Porsche invoice from the accident, all 7-8 pages of repairs (labor lines and parts) associated to the accident. There is one line on the invoice that worries me, "align unibody". Think I would have a difficult time reselling it for $48,000 if I had to?

 

"Align unibody" is a dealbreaker for me. I agree with au2bahn that high miles is preferable to an airbag deployed car. $50k will buy a really nice 996...

 

I'd only consider this if a beat up car was my only way into a 997 turbo. Can you swing the $65k to get a nicer one?

 

I'm selling a manual 997.1tt with 45xxx miles for 68 right now and no accidents to report. Car is clean. Also has close to 20k in essential upgrades every Porsche turbo should have before 50k miles. Black on black. Let me know

 

I'm surprised they didn't total the car. Definitely pass. Be patient and wait for the next one with better history at your price point. Took me several months till I found one in my budget with good history

 

TimeTomorrow, can swing 65, just have to figure a way to finance the difference, wife capped me at $43K if I buy an "old" car. Have seen a good amount of 997tt manuals in the 55-65k range between Autotrader and eBay, just not looking foward to going through the entire PPI thing again.

Cameronc08, sent you a PM.

au2bahn, assuming they didn't total it since accident was ~ 2.5 years ago when the car had a lot more value in it, less than the ~$35k tab to fix it.

 

I think also when you are considering your budget you need to set aside funds for repairs because they will come up, it's just a matter of time. When something major comes up like leaking coolant fittings it can easily cost you $4k. If the clutch start slipping it will set you back another 4k. When I was looking for a 997.1tt, a lot of them had deferred maintenance. Some had leaking water pumps which can cost 1.5k. When was the last major maintenance done and/or the spark plugs last changed? That can be another 1.5k. What about the pad/rotors? The list goes on and on. I went through 4 PPI's before I found one. Searching for a decent 997tt is not for faint of heart when you are on a budget. You have to really want it. Many times during the process I thought about giving up and getting a BMW M4. I stuck through it and I'm taking delivery of my 997.1tt in a few days.

 

Very true . Buying used, you need to factor in consumables. Everything you listed above happened. even a PPI didn't catch clutch slippage and waterpump seepage. All happened under my watch. It's really no big but still has a cost on parts and labor if you need them installed. Parts are slightly higher than BMW.

Congrats on the new purchase