Do not adjust your screen. That really is the factory color. What you are looking at is a 2001 Porsche 911 Turbo finished in Meridian Metallic, which Porsche calls a platinum metallic, but you can make your own call on it. Personally I think it almost looks pink or rose gold, but whatever you want to call it, it is a rare shade. Even better, this example has just under 21,000 miles. What’s the catch then? You know where I am going with this.
In my opinion, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class AMG coupe is as close as a personal jet you can on four wheels. I’ll put it up against any current offering from Bentley and Rolls-Royce and say it is better. Decade after decade, Mercedes seems to do it right with these and the prices reflect that. Funny how that works. The C217 generation that just wrapped up production raised the bar again. The example I wanted to look at today, a 2015 S63 AMG, is now a hard to believe six-years old, but still could pass as a new car. The price? Take about $100,000 off the sticker. Sounds like a deal, right? Not just yet.
I’ve been harping on and on about the new Porsche 718 GT4 and for good reason, it is a really great car. I love it and if they ever dropped about $25,000 off the sticker price, I’d find a way to make that happen. I doubt that will ever be the case, so they just aren’t worth it to me yet. However, there is a really great option if you want a 718 to feel special without spending over $100,000 just to get in the door. The 718 Cayman T. The best part? It starts at $69,000. Nice.
The 996 Porsche 911 Turbo market seems to have a little something for everyone. If you want a sub-$40,000 example that you can drive and enjoy, there are plenty out there. Want a super-low mileage Turbo S? $90,000 will do it. Thanks to Porsche for cranking out a ton of these, a little over 22,000 to be exact. Compare that to just 6,200 993 Turbos, so chances are the 996 Turbo will be around for a while and maybe not at crazy prices. This 2002 up for sale in Miami has a few special touches, but seems to be on the higher end of the price range. Worth it?
One of the more interesting subsects of the automotive world are cars that seemingly are common, but in reality extremely rare. If you see a Ferrari F40 driving down the street or parked on a lawn somewhere, you have a pretty good idea that is a rare car. A 1999 Mercedes-Benz S600 parked at the grocery store? You can find those anywhere, right? That would be wrong. Very wrong.
The W140 chassis was wrapping up in 1999 as Mercedes already launched their new flagship W220 all over Europe. So whatever leftover cars they had came to the US to sell off. Turns out they didn’t have many of the M120 V12s to offer up. Just 14 S600 sedans and 15 CL600 coupes were produced for the 1999 model year. That is it! A generation that saw 432,732 examples built came down to a final 29 cars. Guess what we have today?
I wanted to swing back to the GT3 Touring market after seeing the example a few weeks ago get snapped up quick, along with a 1,000-mile example sell for way over sticker. Even with the 992 GT3 finally breaking cover as the worst secret ever, it is looking like the 991 GT3 Touring will be the one to have and to hold. Still, this is a gamble to pay over sticker price with the expectation that the price will always hold at that. Especially considering there is talk of a 992 GT3 Touring in 2023 with a traditional manual gearbox. Still, this is Miami Blue we are talking about. Worth rolling the dice?
Believe it or not, March is here. Funny to say that since it happens every year, but spring fever is going to get hot and heavy. Especially since, well, you know the drill. With spring, comes convertible season. At least for us who live anywhere else but California and Florida. The options are pretty wide when you are looking for top down cars, but dollar for dollar, the R230 SL55 AMG continues to be one the best values out there. As expected, most of these don’t have many miles on them. Even with that, $25,000 buys you a decent example. However, this 2003 up for sale in Florida has an impressive 98,000 miles. Even better? It’s from the original owner.
Last week’s 911 Turbo Cabriolet was a quick lesson on how not to sell a car. Today I wanted to have another refresher, but this time on how not to buy a car.
This 2014 Porsche 911 GT3 seems enticing enough. Sapphire Blue Metallic, 16,000 miles, and under $100,000. Clearly a catch here. Photos are average, and the seller says the there was a “minor bumper accident”. Well, that is unfortunate, but maybe it was just a parking lot accident? After all, these are expensive body parts and some damage could trigger some replacement parts. Oh how I wish that was the case with this one. Just wait until you see what “minor” really is.
The 964 Porsche 911 Speedster is still one of those models that I can’t believe Porsche actually produced. In a time when the company was strapped for cash, they went through the trouble of engineering a bunch of new parts only to produce 936 examples. Maybe it had something to do with 427 of them going to the US for big profits? One would think they all would be sold with the traditional 5-speed manual gearbox given this was a homage to the original Speedster and that is overwhelmingly the enthusiasts choice, but believe it or not, a handful of them were made with the 4-speed Tiptronic automatic gearboxes. Perhaps they had some leftover as the 964 production was wrapping up or some kind of market research said it was a good idea, but either way they are out there. This example up for sale in Japan is exactly that.
Oh boy. Today’s car might be a nice refresher on how not the sell a car. In general, the modifications you make to a car do not appeal to other people when it comes time to sell. If they do, they very rarely add any value. Let me repeat that. They do not appeal or add any value to said car. Unless the modifications fix a problem factory, i.e., an aftermarket charge pipe on a BMW 1M after the OEM one explodes, you are better off selling the car as stock. This only increases as the value of the car goes up. $7,000 Honda Civic with wheels, coilovers, and an intake? Someone on Craigslist might bite. Lime green wheels and accents on a 997.2 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet? Grab a heat gun and start pulling.
