highway

Anyone tired of their 991?

Is the engine tone getting you down?

Do you have cylinder envy?

Are you wishing you’d dug deeper for a 4.0?

Worry not. I’m here to help. If you want to sell your 2.5, if it’s low miles and low owners and had some spec, if it’s not damaged or a Cat car, drop me a PM. I’ll pay more than Motorway, Car Wow or any dealer, as it’s for me! Don’t be shy..

Problem is, trade do use it as a guide. Not necessarily on an exclusive basis. Perhaps CAP as well. Perhaps using some knowledge of a specific cohort of cars. But it is an indicator. Currently it’s clear they don’t want to buy. Unless their margin is massive. Fine if you are ambivalent about selling. But if you need your car gone, what do you do?

Anyone of a nervous disposition would do well to avoid entering the reg to wbac at the moment. The spread is enormous. I looked at a 4.0 Boxster on AT advertised at high £80’s. Wbac are saying close to £30k under that. 
12 month old Emira’s with 1k miles are coming in at £45-46k against asking prices of £70k plus. 
I’ve never bought a used car from a dealer but given what the market is doing lately, I thought it with enquiring about a 991 cab at Exeter. No sooner had I sent an email, the dealer called me back. All very professional and business like, as you’d hope. I shortened the foreplay to get down to price. He asked where I’d like to be. I explained my price would need to start with a 5. Against an ask of £66. The bloke started to stutter, like he was short circuiting. He sounded a mixture of appalled, nauseated and outraged. I recognise the tone as I hear it a lot from the Mrs. Clearly, not willing to entertain anything approaching a double digit % drop on the ask. 
It’s as well he didn’t ask me what number I had in mind after the 5. He may have burst into tears and soiled himself. 
There are no end of sellers, all wanting ‘yesterday’ prices. I fear many of them will remain owners for some time to come. I’m ready to drop a tidy sum for my next car, but it will be at a today price. That’s set at a worthwhile amount more than trade will pay. 
 

Andy appears to have left the building….

Super looking car. Good spec. PM sent. 

BMW put my 440 up for £4K more than they paid me for it. I don’t resent that at all. Time they’ve paid VAT and what not I actually thought it reasonable. Porsche dealers (indies as well) seem to want £10k plus if they outlay £30k. 
WBAC are vague for valuations. For reference the dealer buying my 440 paid over £6.5k more than their somewhat uncomfortable valuation. 
Again, I invite anyone to point at any interesting, low miles, well specced car, that’s priced even vaguely cheaply. 
 

Given that the news keeps telling me there is a cost of living crisis, interest rates are up month on month etc etc, why aren’t used performance cars plummeting?

Ahh the inglorious vid. Where our beloved chancellor took out the cash hose and sprayed £50’s over the masses. Without ever thinking to mandate they would ‘eventually’ have to pay it back. No, best give ‘some’ the best holiday they’d had since being at school, pay them up to £2.5k per month, let them bitch and moan about being bored. Then wait for them to start moaning how interest rates are up and inflation is soaring. 
Best not talk about it!

WTF is this ‘buttercup’ that keeps being mentioned?

Someone please show me a sports car,

currently advertised, low miles,

good spec, not a CAT- that is in anyway priced ‘cheaply’ I can’t see any. I just see no end of privately advertised cars at dealer level. 

The values of stuff priced north of £80k is a separate market. You start breathing rarified air at that point. 
I like the 981 but I don’t see that 11 year old cars should reasonably be £30k plus anymore. 
Likewise 2017 Elises with asking prices at 6 years old, of what they were brand new. 
loads of stuff has been pumped up over the past 5 years. If we return to pre pandemic levels of depreciation,

would that be a bad thing?

Having read this thread, my own experience is contrary to it. I sold my last car- a low miles 2 year old 440 Cab with mega spec, to a dealer. They paid strong money for it.

I always buy used cars privately and I’ve got a reasonable war chest ready to go again. There’s a 718S on AT that looks good. Offered 2k off asking price, less than 5%, rejected immediately.

A lovely Elise Sprint- overpriced at £45k, sold immediately at the weekend. 
Trawling the usual classifieds reveals less and less interesting cars advertised privately. I think many people just sell to Motorway, CarWow or dealers, especially as their offers on late year, low mileage stuff are quite generous. A lifetime Auto Trader ad is £90 and if you want to sell privately, you may wait a long time, especially if you are selling something common, that dealers are advertising at much the same price. 
I’d consider a 991, 981S, 718S, G series M4, post 17 Elise, 4C Spyder and several other cars. 
I don’t see anyone selling any of those cars, if the mileage and spec are desirable, at anything close to a ‘distress’ level. I don’t see prices dropping at all. The post 17 Elises I referenced, were low £30’s pre Buttercup. All £40k plus now- 3 years on. Same with 4C.
Please point out the bargain cars now available that I have missed- I see nothing but  dealers asking yesterday prices and private sellers who still think there is a chip shortage and their car is worth more than those on a main dealer forecourt. 
 

Here’s some option prices from 2014 of it helps-

PCCB - £4977

18 way electric seats - £2460

Heated seats £284

Speed limit indicator £284

Climate £518

20” Sport techno wheels -£1809

Wheels painted black- £801

Sport chrono £1085

Power steering plus £179

Sports tailpipe £365

Pasm £971

PTV £890

Park assist £348

Coloured seatbelts £179

Sport design steering £146

PCM £2141

Sound package plus £396

Telephone module £527

Auto wipers £332

Crested headrests £138

It’s not true to call these cars bulletproof. They fail and are expensive to remedy when that happens. Electric steering rack failure is a £3k fix. Engine mounts fail as do horns and loads of other bits.

2012-2014 981 and 991 seem prone to the failure of engine mounts and steering racks. Not so common on layer cars. I conclude I wouldn’t want either if they were out of warranty. Everything is £1k plus to fix. 

JZM use a specialist to send the electric racks off to who then recondition. I did find and contact a company who could do it using some Google Kung Fu. Don’t remember the name now.

There are a number of specialists who can refurb the steering rack. I spoke to one who told me they were only set up to deal with trade. If you have a friendly garage who will submit for you, May be a good option. Refurb is about £600 plus vat. You then need it fitted and I think the modules on it coded to the car via laptop. I have my old rack which you could get refurbed, that way you could provide a garage with a rack to fit once yours is removed. That has to be quicker and cheaper than the £3k hit OPC will lay on you. The geometry needs resetting after steering each change as well.

I had this problem on my 14 plate car with 15k miles. Fault started as erratic. When the message appeared the steering effort required was enormous. Muscling it around corners was a nightmare. If I turned the engine off for a few hours the error would disappear then recur during next period of use at random. 
JZM can get the racks refurbished. The problem is you would need to get the car to them. I ended up buying a new rack then getting it fitted and coded to the car. 
You will be unsurprised today learn Porsche are well aware of this issue. Research reveals multiple failures on cars 12-14 vintage before the rack was revised. I kept my defective rack to sell on as it would let someone send it off to get refurbished then just remove their rack with one to replace. The entire episode was a costly nightmare with no goodwill offered by Porsche ad result of the age of the car. The rack itself looks like one unit with several modules built into it. No way to see which module faulty hence new rack or refurbishment via a firm who do that and guarantee it the only way out. 
In my experience of owning 5 Porsche cars, 3 from new, the reputation for engineering excellence and high build quality is ill deserved.

I think low mileage is subjective. Boxsters don’t tend to deal 10k PA. 3500 per year is low but 34k miles isn’t LOW given the type of car it is. Obviously it’s lower than average, certainly for the year, but the trade bids take LOW miles into account. That’s sub 20k. IMHO. 
I sold my 1996 993 T 72k. Low miles for the year. But not in abject terms. Not when some had covered less than half that. All relative. 
But the trade bid quoted by the OP is strong. 

It’s a nice spec held back by mileage. That’s why trade bids aren’t higher. These cars all tend to average far low mileages than regular cars. You can daily them, but not many do. Still held its money well considering age. 

Madness. Some people are going to get badly burned when the current feeding frenzy comes to an end. We know it’s coming. No one knows when. When it does hit things will change very quickly. No one wants to be holding something overvalued when the big correction hits 

My car now on with Brooklands. Must be a record price for an S…..

Sold mine today to the trade. Lost some confidence after the steering rack failed. Not uncommon it appears and not acceptable on a car with 15k. Still did very well largely as result of the inflated prices across the used xar market. Mine was for sale for some time one private enquiry everything else enquiry wise from traders. 
In my (recent!) experience you won’t sell a 981 for big money privately. People want the security and convenience of buying through a dealer. 
Quite chuffed I didn’t spaff £2k on PSE now as well!

When I read the toxic message on the dash stating ‘Lack of steering assistance’ I initially thought turning off/on would resolve. It didn’t. I researched the issue and it’s clearly a recognised issue affecting pre 2015 cars. It seems Porsche revised the rack but as ‘continued travel is possible’ they didn’t have to issue a recall. Clearly a nonsense but if we learnt anything from the European reaction to self destructing engines across 996 and early 997 cars, we know they won’t admit fault. 
You can get the racks refurbished and you don’t have to suffer the £3k cost of refurbishment Porsche request. I’d add that many had this failure whilst cars under warranty so frankly didn’t really care save for some minor inconvenience. This isn’t the case if you are running one sans warranty. 
 

The experience you have with all of these cars is, in my opinion, massively dependent on spec. If you just want to enjoy bimbling about, roof down on the off sunny morning, then frankly any Boxster can do that and leave you feeling good about life and the world. I’ve had 986S and 987S both brand new and used. The 981 is better than either as I’d expect it to be. Certainly better looking- never cared for the look of the headlights or side intakes on the 987 - preferred the earlier car. 981 is still pretty but really needs 20’s to look it’s best. Even then, the DRL’s on the 718 are better integrated, the hood profile when raised looks sleeker and the rear is again an improvement over 981. Is expect the in car tech to be superior as well.

On start up the 718S sounds shouty but it is, as Moospeed says, a bit of a one note chorus. Counters by being and feeling really quick though. 
Had a nice run out in my Boxster earlier. It had been out of action for a fortnight on account of the steering rack failing. Appalling for that to happen on a well looked after car with 15k and not uncommon either. Anyway, when you fly without the shield of extended warranty sometimes you take a missile hit. I’m hoping this was mine. 
I’ve long fancied a modern Elise and I have the opportunity to swap to my dream spec car in the next few weeks by selling the 981. Whilst I thought I really wanted to do this- the 981 is a second car and the Elise has more purpose to it and feels more special for a Sunday drive, I find myself not feeling passionate about actually making the change. The 981 isn’t as good as the Elise on a B road at 7am on a Sunday morning, but it’s so much better everywhere else. Lots of thinking to do next week