Hello everyone. I just joined the club after completing the purchase of a '91 GT.
I have loved the look of the 928 since seeing them in car magazines as a teenager. I had never driven one or even known anyone who had one until just a few weeks ago, but have frequently entertained myself in the past by looking at them in classified ads online. When an '89 GT popped up for sale within 30 minutes from my home, I knew I had to test drive it to know once and for all whether I wanted to own one or could cross it off the list. Since my wife and kids were out of town it was easy to make that happen without getting "that look" from my disapproving spouse. One drive and I knew I had to have it! I spent the rest of the week perfecting my approach to discuss the purchase with my wife upon her return. She's not a "car person" and doesn't understand my desire to own vehicles for more than just transportation purposes, but in the end she conceded that I work hard and don't ask for much. I took that as a green light and began negotiations with the dealership that was selling the Dove Blue '89 GT with just under 100k miles on it.
Included in the negotiation was the fact that the air conditioner was not cooling very well, the valve cover gasket was leaking oil, and the clutch was near the end of its wear life. I had asked them to recharge the air conditioner and discount the car by enough to fix the oil leak. They wanted to "fix" the air conditioner before selling the car but wanted me to first commit to a number higher than their asking price to help cover the cost of a repair that they would not guarantee. After a few offers and counter-offers, the sales manager called me back after hours and agreed to fix the air-conditioning and sell me the car for a few hundred dollars under the asking price. I was to call them the following day to make a deposit and then take delivery of the vehicle after the AC was fixed. Upon repeatedly calling the dealership the next day I was consistently told that the sales manager was unavailable. Despite explaining the purpose of my call and leaving multiple messages for him, I was unable to get through to the sales manager until just before closing. He then informed me that he had a couple driving up from Florida to look at the car and would let me know. I later received an email telling me that he had sold them the vehicle.
The positives in the failed attempt to buy the '89 GT were (1) that I had the green light from my wife to buy one and (2) that I learned about the 928oc from a sticker on the windshield of the '89 GT. I knew that any purchase would have to be my last for quite some time. I also have a one owner '95 Mazda RX-7 and only have garage space for one more car, the latter factor being critical to my wife's approval. I have done a lot of research online in the past couple of weeks, mostly on the 928oc forums, and had refined my preferences to the point that I knew I was looking for an '87 or newer 928 with a 5 speed and under 100k miles. It was really cool being able to find vehicles for sale in the registry! I called a couple of sellers and considered their 928's, but ultimately decided to hold out for a GT in either blue, green, black, or silver (with midnight blue being my favorite).
Given the specificity of my search, and not wanting to exceed the roughly $20k that my wife had previously agreed to, I anticipated the hunt lasting for a good while. Surprisingly, I found my car in the Hemmings classifieds a few days later. I'm hugely excited about the midnight blue 1991 Porsche 928 GT with roughly 83k miles to be shipped here from Cincinnati. I will have to be patient as, thinking it would take longer to find my car, I had just committed to having my garage doors replaced and my home insulated with spray polyurethane foam. The seller has agreed to hold the vehicle for me until these items are completed in order to not put my new purchase in harm's way. I will also need to have a new water pump (included in the sale) installed, and so will have the car shipped directly to ProTech Motorsports in Greenville. I'll have them replace the timing belt and address the cam gears if needed while they're in there.
I'm obviously very excited about my new purchase and am looking forward to joining the 928oc community. It looks like there are at least a couple of you nearby (I'm in Spartanburg), so I hope I can get to know some of you soon.
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