Porsche purchase..Any advice?

[Lemming]

On the off chance there are some Porsche 928 lovers, throw me any pearls of wisdom you may have.

I am finally in the position of fulfilling a lifelong dream, its the only car I have ever REALLY wanted. I am in the market for a nice 928 S4, got my heart set on a black one as a first choice, luckily I have even found one to buy . The chap wants a little more than i was planning to spend so have mentally set myself to wait until Saturday to go look at it, if I fall in love with it then (as if that wont happen!) its probably mine. Seems to be an excellent price for its age, dont duppose I will make money on it but if I had to sell in a few years time I expect to have a chance of getting pretty much all the money back.

Initially it looks to have the details I wanted, reasonable low mileage (comparitively for a 13 year old car) 65,000, full main dealer service history and only two owners, current one for all but 12 months. I have not checked for a belts change, but as a main dealer serviced expect this to have happened at about 45,000 miles so I have another 20,000 milesish to go before that expense.

I was intending to get an AA check done with full HPI, £290, are there any better/equivalent checks from other firms?

[Rave]

There was a buyers guide to the 928 in one of the Porsche mags I saw recently, I don't know if it might still be the current issue. Worth a quick look in WH Smiths anyway.

Rich :¬)

[Jiff Lemon]

As well as HPI, make a note of the dealer who did the servicing. Then phone the dealer up. Check that they do actually exist and did actually do the servicing. Make sure the dates correspond too. See if you can check out the previous owner too, he's got no axe to grind anymore so is likely to tell you if he spanked it in the first 6 months...

If you have any friends who are bodyshop people, take them round with you - they have a natural knack of spotting damage repair at 500 yards.

[blockers]

Sorry to a possible dampner on things, but do the porsche 928 not sometimes have really dodgy electrics? or am i thinkin of the 944?

[Moby-Dick]

I'll shall have to see how they compare to the nissan

[Lemming]

Thanks for the replies gents.

i have decided to get it inspected at the porsche dealer locally, only £260! (wheres the "sick" smiley when you need it)

Car has only one previous owner who had it for 6 months, this chap has had it since 1992.... amin dealer service history apparently, will wait til I see it on saturday to check. Fingers crossed he doesnt sell before then....