Advice on buy: Car inspection check

[Guest]

I am looking for advices on buying a second hand 2.5 LHD boxster that looks suspiciously underpriced.
It is in very good condition with options but I would like to perform a car inspection check. Just called AA that told me they don' t do Boxsters (don' t know why). Do you have any advise on an other company (RAC maybe?)

I am a bit suspicious as the price seems low to me compared to other adverts:
It is a 1999 2.5 with only 20K miles and the asking price is 19K. I thas been imported from japan one year ago and it' s LHD. Could this hide sthg ?
Will the car inspection reveal for sure if the car has had an accident and been repaired ?

Your advice will be much appreciated.

CD.

 

[Guest]

I believe it was mentioned somewhere else on this forum that OPCs do inspections (I thought it said c. £100).
Being an import, I' m not sure they would have any accessible records of accident damage, so would rely on finding some visible sign of it.
What I find strange, Japan drives on the right, like here, why would an import be LHD?
In general a non-UK sourced or specced car would be lower in value, LHD is also lower still.
If it doesn' t have a full history, I would be suspicious. Why take the risk, there are others that will allow you to sleep easy at night.

Rgds, Stuart.

 

[Guest]

Northway Porsche (Ray Northway) near Reading do a very good pre purchase vehicle inspection and can recommend them. They advertsie in PP

 

[Paul Fraser]

I got my 996 inspected by an OPC (Glenvarigill in Edinburgh) for 110+VAT (which I believe is less than the AA would charge, but the OPC just gave me a fairly bare bones work sheet and I had to coax the detail, what it meant, out of them). Am in the process of getting one done on a LHD Boxster (ex-German). This second one is also at an OPC but slightly cheaper.
I' d certainly recommend getting an OPC or good independent to have a look at it.
Good luck - I hope it turns out OK for you.

 

[Paul Fraser]

Oh yes, be warned that they will come up with _anything_ that isn' t right. Some of it you may not want to bother fixing for awhile, if ever, but ask them to quote you a price for sorting all the snags while they are doing the inspection. At least then you have some idea what you might be letting yourself in for.

 

[Guest]

I had my Boxster 2.5 inspected before I bought it by the RAC for around £220 last year before I bought the car. They spent at least 3 hours looking it over, called me with a verbal report straight away, and sent me a 7 page report noting every single fault with the car, even tiny scratches. Furthermore they guarantee the inspection with no time-limit, so if anything major does go wrong with the car that should should have spotted, they will correct it. They also undertake an HPI check
Fantastic!

However, note that the RAC do not know the Boxster well, the inspector stated in his report that the white smoke on start-up is a worry, although this is normal for a Boxster (as long as it dissapears after 15 secs or so), and the report claimed the oil leak under the car could be seriously expensive to fix and should be further examined by me, even though this is also a relatively trivial problem with the oil feed connnector tube. Moreover, they could not check the engine without a ramp, although they did test drive the car thoroughly.

I would definately recommend them!

 

[Guest]

Hi

Just wanted to share my RAC experience with you. A few years back the RAC did an inspection for me on my first Porsche - a 911 3.2 Carrera and gave me a ' thorough' inspection document detailing every scratch, whirr and clunk. The car felt underpowered and I took it to a local specialist where it was diagnosed with low compression on 5 cylinders due to worn piston rings (I think). I had to claim the money back from the car dealer and the RAC - this took over 4 weeks, most of which I was without my new pride and joy. Once the fault was proved, the RAC were very helpful, but their excuse was that this was the RAC engineers first Porsche!! Since then I' ve always had my cars inspected by either a Porsche dealer or recommended specialist - whichever is easier or closest to where the car is being sold from.

I don' t bear a grudge against the RAC though I' d only ever use them for a ' normal' car. Hope this helps.

By the way my current car is a LHD 2.5 Boxster - can' t beat it for cheap Porsche motoring - roll on summer!!! []

Cheers