Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

As said on previous thread I'm looking at the possibility of buying a 968 (or 944t lol)

Thing I need advice on is prices. I have been looking at 944t prices for over a year now and think I have a pretty good handle on average prices and what factors lead to differences but 968s !!!!! I can’t seem to work it out.

The obvious one is Club Sports are the most desirable and carry a premium that’s fine and as I’m not looking for a club sport does not effect me. But there are coupes up for sale with similar mileage similar service history and recent servicing and repairs and the prices can be £3k apart. Sometimes the cabs are more expensive that the coupes but sometimes cheaper and where does the sport fit in to the equation ?

One thing does colour have a big influence on price, I love black cars and they seem to carry a premium over say violet and there is a very nice (in my opinion) Tahoe blue cab on piston heads that seems very reasonable compared to the less in your face colours

I understand that especially in private sales that often the quoted price can be unrealistic and not reflective of what the cars are actually selling for and personally am happy to pay a premium for cars that have been enthusiast owned a in the end they always are much better value but any advise or comments would be gratefully received.

I think the 968 is at a difficult place right now. Not old enough to be a classic and too old to be a modern car in most people's eyes. Seem to be a lot for sale at present and there aren't the buyers out there, so you should be able to get a bargain if you look hard enough.

Have you looked at the 968 website... http://www.porsche968uk.co.uk/

Good luck with the search

Check out Jim's 944 buyers guide and add cams and pinion bearing to the list for a 968. Then see what recent work any prospective car has had done. Might explain some difference in pricing.
Coupe's do seem a little less desirable than Sports for no reason I can see so will be a little cheaper.

Rich

Rich

Condition was a huge factor when I looked to buy mine. There's a lot of difference in how they have been look after.

Towards the end of last year I bought a white 968 Coupe and I'm glad I did, I bought cheap but have enthusiastically put lots of money into it. It's a 20 year old car and it needed it, at least buying cheap and needing the work done and having the budget to do it I can relax knowing that it has all just been completed and to the level I wanted.

Cam chain, cam inspection, Poly belts, all rollers, crank pulley, all front oil seals renewed, leak down test, new hand brake pads, new discs and pads all round, refurbished rear callipers due to plate lift they weren't working at all, new Spax adjustables fitted, rear tailgate squeak/rattle fixed, rear seal fixed, new throttle pedal as it stuck wide open once and I had to lift the pedal off the floor (£5.70 for new pedal). Slight surface rust formed on front drivers wing where it meets the front bumper below the headlight, had both sides cured and blown in and front PU re-painted

I've just returned from Stuttgart Porsche museum trip with her and she did great and lapped all 1500 miles round trip up.

So I know now that she is fit and ready for another 20 years

I can't get passesd the two stage registration at moment as don't have a car !!!

silly system for registering on a forum.

Yep that's what has put me off registering.

I did message the web master who told me just to put any car in, but messaged him back to say as I sold my car on monday have nothing to put in - not heard anything back yet

I can understand wanting funds to pay for the server and keep the forums running but it is a weird way to go about it.

I do exactly the same with my cars, buy them at a good price knowing they need a bit of work. Then do it myself.

Rich

If you're willing to do it Rich it makes sense, most of it I had done by a very good specialist. This is one of the reasons I bought the car, to get some old school motoring and tinker around. I'm so glad I did and I've learnt so much from it, there's a guy at my work who's really interested in the car. I'm in two minds of what to do next, keep it or get excited about the next project!?!?!

When it comes to Porsches it’s important to buy with your head and leave your heart for the driving otherwise you’ll end up buying something you can’t afford to run. Decide what you want, set yourself a budget, ignore what people are asking and go find the best example you can, get it professionally checked out and if you’re still interested haggle the price down.

If the car has been “professionally” maintained then mileage shouldn’t be a big factor but remember these cars are approaching 20 years old so things will need to be replaced even on the lowest mileage cars. Metal rusts, rubber perishes and paint fades and gets chipped.

If you can do the work yourself, you’ve got somewhere to do it and this isn’t your main car then you’re in a good place and you’ll save yourself a lot of money, but the parts are expensive and the following is just an example of what to expect:

Rear brake discs - £134
Front brake discs - £139
Front brake pads - £75
Front shock absorbers - £320
Vibration damper (rear shocks) - £444
Camshaft-exhaust - £441
Camshaft-inlet - £442
Balance shaft drive belt - £54
Tensioning rollers - £39 + £27
Ignition lead set - £125
Distributor cap - £40
Mobil 1 oil - £71

If you hunt around you can probably buy cheaper but if you want OEM parts then the above is a good guide and without wishing to alarm, all of these could need replacing within the first 12 months if you don’t buy the right car.

If you take into consideration all the other things that can go wrong with a car (rust, worn interior, curbed wheels, etc.) you may start to understand where I’m coming from when I said to ignore what people are asking. I was after a 968 about 18 months ago, the car had been advertised at £13,995 but no one was interested even though it had a full OPC service history. The seller gradually dropped the price and even after 12 months hadn’t shifted it. I asked him if he’d consider £9995 as the car was some distance from my home but my offer was too low for him, however a couple of months later the car was advertised at that price. Unless the car is immaculate or seriously cheap, 968s do not sell quickly and if like me you look at Piston Heads every day you’ll see that the same cars have been up there for months.

Buy the one that suits your needs best. Many years ago I had a manual 968 couple which I sold in favour of a tiptronic one. I bought the tiptronic one because the mileage was low and unlike my manual one the paintwork was in good condition. It took me 12 months to work out that I liked the tiptronic gearbox and when I eventually sold it I bought another car with a tiptronic gearbox. Manuals are faster and more engaging, but the tiptronic gearbox suited my needs better because my daily commute involved a lot of slow moving traffic.

If you want a car for the weekend to blast along the country lanes for the pure pleasure of driving buy a Club Sport. If you want the aforementioned but it’s going to be your daily commute then the Sport maybe a better option. If you need refinement then go for the Coupe.

Now to answer your question about prices I think you should be able to get a reasonably well sorted one for £9995 which probably means you should be looking for private sellers advertising them in the £11-12K range. Don’t be afraid to walk away because there are plenty of them available and they don’t sell fast. Just make sure you get it professionally checked otherwise it could end up breaking your heart and your bank account.
If you’re thinking £10K is too much consider this:
1. My car has needed £4200 worth of parts in the last 12 months just to fix mechanical problems.
2. It still has the original exhaust and a direct replacement is £1500.
3. Getting paintwork problems corrected is not something most of us can do and to do it properly is expensive.

Good luck and happy hunting.

£4200 worth of parts....blimey

Did you listen to your own advice?

Oh course not! That's how I know all this stuff.

I was in an awkward situation. I was stuck abroad due to the ash cloud, the car was priced well so stood a good chance
of being sold, or so it seemed, a bank holiday was coming and most importantly I wanted that particular car because it was my old car.

I look at the money I've spent as a long term investment. It only gets driven at the weekend so the work I've had done will last for years.