Anyone live in the Phoenix AZ area?

[sasilverbullet]

Anyone here live in the Phoenix Az area?

There's a 2006 Porsche Cayman S at Plaza Motors in Tempe that I'm interested in, but I'm here in San Antonio Texas.

Would anyone be willing to go take it for a test drive and look it over?

 

[Nick1994]

I'm not so sure they'd be too happy with a 23 year old test driving a Porsche

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I'm not so sure they'd be too happy with a 23 year old test driving a Porsche

Aw man you know they'd throw you the keys and say have fun!

 

[yeti]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I'm not so sure they'd be too happy with a 23 year old test driving a Porsche

Aw man you know they'd throw you the keys and say have fun!

nick would just use the test drive as an excuse to make his famous instrument panel cookies.in a Porsche.that would go over well.

nick -- you never know.stranger things have happened.have a good night.

 

[silverrat]

I would get the local Porsche dealer to do a PPI. Maybe you could get the selling dealer to arrange that for you.

 

[SirTanon]

I'm sure they'd probably let me take it for a test drive, but I'm not sure when I'll be over in Tempe next.

 

[dishdude]

That dealer is only 15 minutes from me, I'd be willing to go take a look at it for you. Keep in mind I'm not a professional so I wouldn't recommend relying solely on my opinion of the car.

 

[sasilverbullet]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
That dealer is only 15 minutes from me, I'd be willing to go take a look at it for you. Keep in mind I'm not a professional so I wouldn't recommend relying solely on my opinion of the car.


Sending you a PM...

 

[JustinH]

My advise is to let one of the BIOTG members drive it to a local indy mechanic, preferably a highly rated GERMAN one from yelp.

Then you pay the mechanic for his written condition report, and email a PDF to you.

Then the member drives it back to the dealership.

Surely you could call the dealer and say I am having a "friend" come by to drive the car to the mechanic for a once over.

 

[RooflessVW]

That's a sharp car, smart color combination.

You are aware it's a tip, right?

As above, whoever goes to look at the car should take it to a dealer or Indy for a proper PPI - or you can roll the dice like I did. I came out ok.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: JustinH
My advise is to let one of the BIOTG members drive it to a local indy mechanic, preferably a highly rated GERMAN one from yelp.

Then you pay the mechanic for his written condition report, and email a PDF to you.

Then the member drives it back to the dealership.

Surely you could call the dealer and say I am having a "friend" come by to drive the car to the mechanic for a once over.
A good shop I recommend, that worked on my previous VW a few times and a neighbors BMW, is German Motors in Mesa.

If you set it up with a salesman that I'd take it to a mechanic for inspection I would, as long as they're ok with me being young driving it (I have good insurance too!

). I'm available in the mornings during the week.

 

[02SE]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I'm not so sure they'd be too happy with a 23 year old test driving a Porsche

Why not? I bought my first Porsche at 23.

 

[Dave Hess]

Originally Posted By: 02SE
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I'm not so sure they'd be too happy with a 23 year old test driving a Porsche

Why not? I bought my first Porsche at 23.


Which Porsche model ?

 

[02SE]

'89 944 Turbo. Not my actual car, but it looked just like this. I bought it a few years old from it's original owner.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: 02SE
'89 944 Turbo. Not my actual car, but it looked just like this. I bought it a few years old from it's original owner.


So, not at a high-end-car dealer.

 

[02SE]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: 02SE
'89 944 Turbo. Not my actual car, but it looked just like this. I bought it a few years old from it's original owner.


So, not at a high-end-car dealer.


Not the one that I ended up buying. But I test drove several Porsche's at the Porsche dealership beforehand.

 

[RooflessVW]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
So, not at a high-end-car dealer.

Doesn't matter. You know the old saying: "money talks."

There's no more liability test driving a used Cayman than test driving a new Mustang, which is something your age group is likely to do.

 

[Dave Hess]

Obviously salesmen take a person like dishdude more seriously when they see his SRT.... than a guy the same age in a Civic wanting to test drive a Porsche.

 

[dishdude]

Hopefully OP doesn't mind me sharing, but I think they would have begged anyone to drive this car.

OP emailed me the salesman's name and number and I set up an appointment to see the car without looking at it online. As soon as I saw the car, I immediately thought this is not a car for a BITOGer or anyone looking for a fun weekend driver. My impression was it was a multiple owner car, the original owner had cared for it but the second owner treated it like a beater. It obviously had bodywork done to the front end, appeared repaired correctly as all the panels lined up but the telltale signs were there - you could see the left headlight had been replaced and the right one was yellowing. I suspect the bumper cover and hood were repainted. Clearcoat was just starting to fail on all horizontal surfaces other than the hood, the interior was dirty, the wheels had curb rash, Michelins on the front, Nankang tires on the rear and minor blemishes on every panel of the body. I normally wouldn't have bothered with a test drive if I were buying, but I wasn't sure what the OP's objective was so I took it out. Engine and transmission were solid, steering had a slight pull to the right but otherwise no play detected. Suspension appeared tight and quiet. Brakes had a terrible feel to them and a click sound that you could feel in the pedal at a certain point in pedal travel. A/C was adequate but not as cold as my car (it was 110 out). All the interior gadgets worked but showed a decent amount of wear.

The OLM was going off, salesman said only Porsche can reset that, we don't do that. He said they checked the oil and it's clean. I said I didn't think these cars had a dipstick - he says oh you just stick your finger in the hole and touch the oil.

This was after he tried showing me how clean the brake fluid was and dropped the cap for the master cylinder behind a trim panel that took 15 minutes for them to fish out.

I came home and looked at the car online and couldn't believe the pictures in the ad were the same car I saw! I was dreading giving the bad news to the OP but he was very thankful I had saved him a trip out here, I have no doubt he would have been disappointed and left without the car.

 

[RooflessVW]

That's rough! It's unfortunate but you often see it with Porsche - they're typically either cared for from day one and have one or two owners that kept it in concourse shape, or they've been run through the wringer by multiple owners and they're just junk.

I'm looking at a 964 right now and have huge reservations about buying it sight-unseen. Wouldn't be my first time, but with an air-cooled it's a little stressful. Could easily get burned.