Well, well.
The seller collected me from the station, he seemed a nice enough chap, and then we headed off to his place for a cuppa as the 944 wasn't ready to be collected yet. It turns out he lives in a small village and the chap whose doing the MOT has absconded with my Porsche - which meant a bit of sitting around and waiting before I could hit the open road. At this point I hadn't even laid eyes on my new baby.
In the meantime I had a chance to view the extensive history, original owners manual and other sundry documents. It was certainly reasurring to see all those invoices and it was clear that each owner had taken good car of this car. In amongst all the bits was the actual pre-delivery invoice for this car from December 1985! The first owner kept this car for almost fifteen years, and it had done less than 1000 miles in the last couple years. I handed over the cash before heading off to the garage.
After what felt like another eternity waiting for the garage-owner-come-mechanic to arrive back after an extended lunch with my 944 - he arrived, reassuringly for me, driving the car. "Well, that's a good sign", I thought as he pulled it up on his lot in front of a few Austin Healeys and a beautiful Mini Cooper. My 944 was lovely!
As we walked over my eyes were all over this beauty - those lines, those bulging arches and swooping profile. It was all supercar and I couldn't wait to drive it home.
"Unfortunately there's a couple problems," announced the chap, "it's failed the test on account of a small rust spot within twelve inches of the seatbelt mount and leaking power steering pump, and there's a couple advisories too." Well, well. That was a spanner in the works and not part of the listing on eBay.
The seller looked at me sheepishly and I felt a wince of disappointment. The car was supposed to have that valuable MOT pass. I questioned the tester about the rust spot as it was tiny and on the famous sill where all 944 galvanised bodies begin to rust, but as it was within twelve inches of the passenger seatbelt mount it was a fail. Bearing in mind this car was over twenty years old, she was otherwise in fabulous nick according to the tester.
I was mildly reassured by his enthusiasm but still had a problem: I could reject the car as being not as advertised and catch a forlorn train journey home; or get a discount and remedy the faults.
As I had anticipated some work, and squeezed the seller for some cash back, I elected to take the car and head for home. I was only slightly disappointed in light of what I'd paid for such an otherwise great car. And did I mention I owned a real Porsche?
I collected my thoughts, corrected the mirrors and fired her up. Now to drive my 944 home!
The seller collected me from the station, he seemed a nice enough chap, and then we headed off to his place for a cuppa as the 944 wasn't ready to be collected yet. It turns out he lives in a small village and the chap whose doing the MOT has absconded with my Porsche - which meant a bit of sitting around and waiting before I could hit the open road. At this point I hadn't even laid eyes on my new baby.
In the meantime I had a chance to view the extensive history, original owners manual and other sundry documents. It was certainly reasurring to see all those invoices and it was clear that each owner had taken good car of this car. In amongst all the bits was the actual pre-delivery invoice for this car from December 1985! The first owner kept this car for almost fifteen years, and it had done less than 1000 miles in the last couple years. I handed over the cash before heading off to the garage.
After what felt like another eternity waiting for the garage-owner-come-mechanic to arrive back after an extended lunch with my 944 - he arrived, reassuringly for me, driving the car. "Well, that's a good sign", I thought as he pulled it up on his lot in front of a few Austin Healeys and a beautiful Mini Cooper. My 944 was lovely!
As we walked over my eyes were all over this beauty - those lines, those bulging arches and swooping profile. It was all supercar and I couldn't wait to drive it home.
"Unfortunately there's a couple problems," announced the chap, "it's failed the test on account of a small rust spot within twelve inches of the seatbelt mount and leaking power steering pump, and there's a couple advisories too." Well, well. That was a spanner in the works and not part of the listing on eBay.
The seller looked at me sheepishly and I felt a wince of disappointment. The car was supposed to have that valuable MOT pass. I questioned the tester about the rust spot as it was tiny and on the famous sill where all 944 galvanised bodies begin to rust, but as it was within twelve inches of the passenger seatbelt mount it was a fail. Bearing in mind this car was over twenty years old, she was otherwise in fabulous nick according to the tester.
I was mildly reassured by his enthusiasm but still had a problem: I could reject the car as being not as advertised and catch a forlorn train journey home; or get a discount and remedy the faults.
As I had anticipated some work, and squeezed the seller for some cash back, I elected to take the car and head for home. I was only slightly disappointed in light of what I'd paid for such an otherwise great car. And did I mention I owned a real Porsche?
I collected my thoughts, corrected the mirrors and fired her up. Now to drive my 944 home!
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