After 6 months of searching for my first Porsche with 5 potential purchases that did not pan out, I have finally purchased a 1994 Porsche 968. With a little over 152k miles on it, it has seen its fair share or use by carfax claimed 5 owners. Now I wish I would only have praise for my new purchase, but buying a 23 year old car sight unseen rarely goes without a hitch.

I initially saw the car on ebay but never thought anything of it. It was listed with a starting bid of $10,500 but did not sell. I kept on searching but with the market for the 968 being so tight (a little under 13,000 built, with only about a 1/4 of them in the coupe manual spec I was looking for) I was starting to tighten my search. With the prices of the 968 rapidly increasing, I decided to be more active in my search by reaching out to the seller of the unsold porsche. The seller said the car was still available and asked for me to make an offer before the car was discussed further. It was claimed to be well maintained with a couple minor issues, and a major heater core leak. The only cosmetic issues mentioned were some scratches on the fender and the plastic trim coming loose. With that in mind, I offered 9,500.

After a couple phone calls and texts I decided to proceed to a pre purchase inspection (PPI). The car was located in Maryland and I was located in Southern California. I needed to find a reputable Porsche shop that I could trust to inspect the car. I always thought finding a car was the hard part but I found out that finding a good Porsche shop to inspect the car on short notice was just as hard. After calling a dozen shops I finally found one that could do an inspection that week. Online they were very highly recommended and the owner claimed to have owned a 968 himself. The shop, Tif’s Foreign Car Care in Annapolis MD, was very kind and easy to work with. They performed the inspection and came up with only a couple minor issues such as window switches, mirror adjustment, sunroof leak and worn wipers. I asked about any signs of an accident or botched repairs and they claimed to not see any. Compression check showed an even 175 psi across all cylinders while the leak down check was poor and inconsistent. They suspected carbon buildup on the valve seats, which can occur with use of poor quality fuels (more common outside California). Some lifter noise was also noted when the engine was cold. I already knew the timing belt and heater core would need to be replaced and with the issues noted, this seemed like a good purchase. With this good news I proceeded with the purchase. After confirming the seller actually owned the car, I wired him the money and arranged for transport.

The PPI shop agreed to prepare the car for shipment by sealing of the sunroof and setting up a drip pan for the leaking heater core. With a storm coming in on the east coast (hurricane Matthew), I was glad the transport company as able to pick up the car before it hit. After three delays, the car finally arrived at 7:30 am on Sunday.

So far, everything has been going by the book. Nothing exciting, everything as expected, until I walked up to the car while it was still on the truck. I was greeted by cracking paint on the passenger side exposing what looked like bondo. Scratches and dents all around with more bondo showing on the bumper. Prior to removing the tie straps the driver chocked the wheels and tells me the hand brake does not hold. The truck driver got into the car to drive it off the truck. Click-click Click-click, the battery is dead. Great! He asks me to get into the car so that I can roll it off as he directs me. I got into the car and was greeted by the smell of incense, which I could only assume was the brilliant freshener the previous owner used. I go for the shifter to put the car in neutral and the shifter with the boot comes right off. I haven’t even started driving this thing and its already falling apart. We get the car off the truck and jump start it. The driver hands me the paperwork to sign. I was expecting to have to inspect the car for damage to make sure the driver didn’t damage it. You know that picture of a car you find on a valet ticket where the driver is supposed to mark where the existing damage is. Well on the paperwork, this picture is so marked up that I can barely see the diagram of the car. There are just so many dents on it that even if the driver damaged it, it would not matter.

The driver leaves and I decide to take the car for a spin around the block. Totally discouraged I try to see the positives. The brakes work. There we go. One positive.

I park the car in the garage and attempt to lock it up but realize that the drivers door does not close properly. The door sags about an inch at the aft end requiring a significant amount of force to shut the door. I notice some black tape on the weatherstripping where the door rubs. Clearly a known issue that was never mentioned in the PPI. Further investigation shows the upper hinge pin is worn and a botched weld repair was performed on the hinge plate. Looks like the lower weld is also broken. I slam the door shut, lock it and call it a day.