Thank you very much for your help. As mentioned in my original post, this is my first porsche and my first used-car. So i thank you for your valued input.

 

FWIW, my test drive - I doubt I broke 70mph - during a brief stretch on the highway, maybe. Fast on a smooth road in a straight line is about as boring a test as I can think of for a car like this - I see people doing stunts like that all the time in SUVs - can't be much of a test. My most meaningful bits of the test drive were probably 35-40 mph on reasonably curvy roads with plenty of stops and goes that let me feel what a great drive it is and how responsive. And to borrow the phrase - "I drove it like i normally do"...but...

"switched 2 lanes at once, had it over 100mph, etc." - if that's normal, then you'll be in trouble soon enough - your business - just sayin'.

The rest of the performance I could read about in the specs - it's a Porsche and I already knew it had way more ***** that I'll ever need to press...on the street. And for the track, if I ever do that, I'm confident, having driven many sports cars, that it is up to the task and more car than I am driver.

 

+1 for stevepows thoughts, comments and that was exactly his stevepows test drive was exactly how my test drive went too.

Bigmatt, I may not give you the best buying advice but do request you to enjoy your soon to buy Porsche safely and in good health. All the best in your search. I'm sure you are aware that there is more to Porsche than speed and speeding.

 

Thank you. Maybe i was a bit exadurated in my original post, but i did want to feel the car's true power. I've had multiple 11 & 12 second cars in the past. I wanted to see how this compared. It pleased me, a good baseline to start with. Not to share my life story, but i've been driving for 20+ years and have had no accidents (not even fender bender) or tickets (knock on wood).

Point being, i wanted to feel the car's power. i dont drive like a maniac.

 

Thank you for the clarification. Now I can go to bed with a serene mind. I just want all 6speeders to enjoy their respective cars for a long time safely and in good health. Now this thread can officially return to its original programming ie. back to your original question.

 

Your avatar seems to indicate that you are a cop. Are you a cop? Your driving description (switching 2 lanes at once) are the usual CA traffic cop 'free-to-do-as-he-pleases' driving mode... Even if you are a cop, that does not give you the right to drive that way, off-duty or on-duty.

The 'salesman seemed scared'... he should be as you confirm reckless driving in a type of a car you were driving for the first time and had zero experience with, or its driving dynamics.

It appears that you left the dealership, probably on a cold-engine car, and immediately flog it to triple digits... now you say you do not want the car, but it was fine with you to abuse it...

The smell (oil or something else) could be many things. Cosmoline (normal) or perhaps something else, like an abused clutch.

 

Well, I wouldn't believe anyone who tells you a cluttered DME report is "no big deal." I'd walk away from any car with DME counts above the second range and try hard to find one with nothing above range one. Of course, first you need to read those other links to find out what I'm talking about. DME is a computer record of the way the car's been treated. At least the drive train.

Beyond that, just a couple of comments about the other advice. First, this is my first Porsche, but I've been driving sports cars for about 45 years now and going to events with other sports car owners. I know their 'street' reputation very well. These are completely reliable as daily drivers to the extent the driver respects machinery. The only cautionary note is that with a sports car you do things that intrinsically have a higher potential for damaging the drive train, and you do them at much higher power levels than you would see in the Toyota one poster mentions. If you're a good driver, a Porsche still will last as long as the Toyota despite all those activities. We put 140,000 miles on an NSX, which certainly is comparable to the Porsche 997 in build quality, but not necessarily better. So don't buy a Porsche assuming it's going to break every week. Just respect it as powerful machinery and enjoy the hell out of driving it as it was designed to be driven.

Second, I personally recommend going to a dealer for a used car. The only reason to hesitate is if you think a car salesman can outthink you or just plain talk you into something better judgment would cause you to refuse. The advantage of using a reputable dealer is his people know about all those mechanical problems peculiar to a Porsche. Insist on a certified car if you can afford the year range in which Porsche offers CPO, ask certain important questions mentioned here, and you are much better off at a dealer.

Will it cost more? Probably, depending on who else you might buy one from. But if you know how to pick a dealer you can be more assured that the difference between a forty kay car over here and a fifty kay car over there is a real difference. You might get either one for ten percent less from a private seller if you knew how to sort out all the factors yourself, but you also might end up paying ten percent less for one that looks like the fifty kay car, while ending up with the other car. The one the dealer would have given you for forty kay.

I am not asserting that Porsche dealers are paragons. Simply that its naive to assume 'private' sellers are either. First, not all of them are as private as they pretend to be. Not in this age of the internet. Mostly though, people are people. A dealer chosen correctly wants to see you back some day, and if not you, then people who will hear about his treatment of you. And he certainly has people evaluating the cars they accept in trade who know a lot more about them than either yourself or -- usually -- a private seller, even when speaking of his own car.

When you're an enthusiast and you've torn down a few engines yourself and owned a couple of Porsches already, then you can look around for private sellers who treat cars the way you want them treated. Fine. Buy one privately when you reach that state. For now, go to a dealer after asking around to find one you can trust to be a reputable businessman. Expect him to make a good profit, because that pays for the pretty store and those aforementioned highly trained mechanics, but he's no more likely to be a crook than a randomly chosen private seller. Expect to get what you're paying for in terms of professionalism and you almost certainly will.

My point is these are not '57 Chevies where you can look under the hood, confirm it's a small block or big block and listen for bad valves. They are very sophisticated designs and you need to know what you're looking at even before you pick up some very expensive test equipment to see what's going on inside. A couple of graduate engineers on this site go to dealers in addition to bringing their own knowledge to bear on a purchase. Sounds like a good approach for anyone with less experience.

Gary