Chesapeake Region
A Used Porsche Purchase Journey. James B Beavan III When I bought my 981 Boxster S four years ago, like many Porsche owners I started thinking about what my second Porsche would be. For a long time I contemplated a 996 cabriolet or 928 S4 or GT. A V8 Porsche coupe seemed cool, but good ones have been getting pricey and I heard they were a bit costly to maintain. Eventually I decided whatever car I choose should be historic designation in Maryland. So in line with the 928 I started seriously considering the 968 with its powerful 3.0 4 cylinder engine and looks similar to the 928. The 968 is among the lowest volume sellers in Porsche history with just over 4400 cars imported to America during its four year availability (1992-1995), with a near 50/50 split between coupes and cabriolets. The 968 has the unique distinction of having been offered in more colors than probably any Porsche ever. In early August 2020 I found a car locally that seemed a good deal and worth checking out. So Aaron Miller and I went to take a look at a 90K mile 1992 968 cabriolet in Slate Gray Metallic, not a color I would normally consider, but it looks sharp on the 968. The owner wanted $11K which would be fair for its condition if I were to do all the required work it needed. The car drove well, but hadn’t been maintained in a decade, so I knew it needed about $6-8K of parts/labor to bring up to spec. I passed on buying the car, the owner took some new photos and relisted for $15K and by luck had two owners bid it up to $18K, which is easily #3 car money…for what was a #4/5 condition car. The other thing I decided was I no longer wanted a 968 cab because I didn’t want to deal with a manual top (many owners disconnect the power top due to cost of repair), lack of a back seat, I already have a convertible…and the sloped hatchback styling of the coupes just looks cool to me. Of course like all Porsche’s the coupe version of the 968 is a bit more expensive, so I had to rethink what I wanted to buy as I wanted to pay cash. Somehow I ended up looking into the 924 series cars and found two in particular I was interested in on eBay. There
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