Cheap Porsche – Pleasure or Pain?

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Cheap Porsche – Pleasure or Pain?

On the face of it $12,000 – $14000 seems incredibly cheap for any Porsche 911 Carrera.  After all, you’d normally be hard pushed to find one for double that price. And it’s not like there’s anything seriously wrong with this 1999 model with 89,000kms on the clock. So what gives?

Well sometimes not all that glitters is gold (or silver in this case). While it seems to be a good solid car with low kms there is a problem. It may not be an insurmountable problem but it is a problem. You see this lovely Porka has been imported and not yet registered for NZ roads. And as it doesn’t meet the latest frontal impact and emissions standards it can only be registered here under the “Special Interest” category. It sounds simple but it’s not. I’d like to say I read all of the requirements so you wouldn’t have to but I glazed over before I got halfway through so you’ll really have to do this properly yourself.

I did read some of the requirements and they include, but are not limited to, the car meeting the requirements of a special interest vehicle, which, according to the owner, this car does. So that’s good. But it gets more complex. You have to be a NZ citizen, not received a “special interest vehicle” permit in the last two years, have another car as a daily driver and not own any other special interest vehicles.  Then you have to deal with the fact it’s left hand drive. So it’s basically like adopting a child only more complicated. Oh, and they only issue a maximum of 200 of these permits a year.

Now I don’t want to put you off. If you jump through all the hoops and bash your head against a brick wall covered in red tape for long enough you could still have a very cheap Porsche. Or it could make a good race car project or be a gold mine of expensive parts.

The auction is this Saturday (15/08) at Turners Tauranga. And may I suggest some light reading here and here before taking the plunge.