2015 Sneak Peak

The 2015 911 has not been officially unveiled yet, but here is a link to some spy photos of it, at http://www.topspeed.com/cars/porsche/2015-porsche-911-ar162114.html.  Apparently it's getting a bit of facelift, featuring new air intakes and a new rear bumper and tail lights and air outlets. 

How to Sell a Used Car on eBay

I've been a member on eBay for many years, soon after it was established back in the mid-1990s.  It has grown into a profitable and fascinating business over the years when former CEO Meg Whitman was at the helm.  I remember being surprised when I first discovered eBay Motors and the mere fact that people were buying and selling used cars this way.   Back when I was looking for my BMW I cruised eBay a lot, but didn't find what I wanted at that time. 

But it works generally, and most of my transactions with other eBayers have been fine, and eBay is usually thorough and swift at handling fraudulent items and punishing shysters.  There is the exception here and there:  a couple years ago on eBay I bought on a whim a replacement battery for my MacBook Pro from somewhere in Brooklyn, NY, via China.  When I got the battery, it looked genuine but the imprint on it read Lithium Ion battery for MacBook Pre.  I knew it was a fake, and then confirmed that when it caused my screen to waver insanely.  Luckily it didn't damage my laptop.  It took some effort but eBay got my money back for me.  For related fun, check out this video of an entirely fake Apple store in Kunming City, China. 

So back to cars on eBay.  In my view you'll do better on eBay than on a forum like Craigslist.  I posted my 1998 BMW 323is to Craigslist twice last spring and received a total of 2 emails from people who were virtually kicking tires and not serious. One asked me if I would take $2000 less than I was asking.  I didn't respond.  So I began following similar autos to my BMW on eBay, seeing what they were going for, how they were presented, and what condition they were in.  Here's what I learned:

1) Presentation is key.  Post lots of pictures from hood to trunk, with as many interior as exterior pictures.  Show the odometer reading.   Clean your auto thoroughly first- not many folks want to buy a dirty car.  Clean those tar marks and give it a good wash and waxing too.  Vacuum the upholstery and dust everywhere else, including the trunk.  Clean the windows and mirrors, and Armour-all your vinyl.  If you're a smoker or have dogs or other pets that frequent your car, be honest about that in your listing.  Nothing is worse for a non-smoker or non pet-owner to find that the new car they just purchased smells like a bar or kennel.  People want to know what they're getting. 

Cleaner than clean helps sell your car

2) Don't price your old car, unless it's rare or very collectible, to make a killing because you won't. Do your homework on blue book values and take into account the usual things such as mileage, overall condition, what things have been replaced (ie new clutch? Suspension? rebuilt engine?  etc?) and what is original.  Ebay makes you post the VIN number so people can do a carfax, which I recommend.  It'll give you peace of mind, tell you how many owners -- be honest about this too-- it has had, and whether or not the car been in an accident.  Used autos can have either a clean, or sketchy history. 


3) Adjust the price lower by a bit if you're not getting many watchers or bids in the first few days.  This will attract more attention.  Often, most of the bidding action takes place near the end of the auction, and you can see people out-bidding another.  You want your car to be the subject of a bidding war, which is fun to watch.  

4) Answer any and all technical questions that viewers may have, and post the answers publicly.  If you have a desirable vehicle you'll get a lot of questions. 

Generally, there can be lot of junk on eBay, but many perfectly good autos, too. In my experience there were at any given time 3 to 5 other BMWs of my vintage and model on eBay.  Most were trashed or defective in some way, mostly because of their age and having gone through several owners.  Mine was the exception and I think back to my parents' drilling into us to take care of our things-- it paid off in this endeavor.  One 1998 E36 I watched had a seized engine, another's leather upholstery looked like the family dog had chewed its way through all the seats, and yet another's 323ci convertible top motor no longer worked. There were also the typical "Frankenvehicles" with different colored body panels.  A piece of trivia about BMW that is useful if you're in the market for a second hand one:  BMW stamps the individual VIN number on all the major body components of each of its vehicles that rolls off the assembly lines.  So if the front panels and doors, for example, are original to that car there will be a small VIN stamp on those matching the one on the hood cowl.  If the VINs don't match or one is missing, you've got a problem. 

EBay allows dealers to list their inventories too so there's more competition than from other private sellers, but you can beat the dealers, especially by disclosing everything about the car you're selling to prospective buyers.  Dealers almost always want more money for the same car a private individual may have listed, and in the case of older vehicles, many of the dealers' offering have come from auctions, and you may not know exactly what you're getting or where the vehicle has been. In a flood perhaps, or a fire? Or did someone die in that vehicle?  Carfax helps in this regard, but is not 100 percent perfect in its coverage. 

In the end, my 1998 BMW 323is had 546 page views, 61 watchers, and was the object of a bidding war on the last day of the auction.  I got significantly more than I planned on for a 16 year old car by selling it on eBay.  With some homework, full disclosure, and clear communication with potential customers, you can too. 

Bringing it Home

Fast forward a couple Fridays from my initial visit to Richmond.  I was on the train back to Richmond where Tom would pick me up to take ownership of the 911.  If you're familiar with Amtrak you know they often run late.  Today was no exception.  3 hours from Washington DC to Richmond is an unacceptably long stretch of time, but I'm used to this as I often take the trains to New York to go home, thus I've learned to always bring work to do.  And in some ways the train beats flying commercial airlines these days.  After an eternity the train finally arrived Richmond and I texted Tom.  He was there at the passenger pick up lane in 10 minutes driving my car, or more precisely what would be my car after we completed the title transfer.   
 

Everybody on the platform stared at us as I jumped in and we whisked out of the parking lot.  “You don’t mind my driving it one last time?” he asked with a laugh.  “No of course not. I would have done the same.”  He then proceeded to tell me a great story as we drove to his house:  his wife had long wanted a convertible to replace this 911, and he told me how he had bid for one on e-bay during the past week but neither he nor the one other bidder had reached the reserve the seller in Rhode Island had set.  Tom immediately called the seller, worked out an agreeable price, flew up there, and purchased and drove a 2012 911 convertible home just 2 days ago.  It was waiting in his garage when we arrived to complete the title exchange for my car. 

While I’m not a fan of black auto paint these days- I had 1989 black Honda CRX in graduate school (more on that in a later posting)- Tom’s new 911 cabriolet was still absolutely beautiful.  Not a scratch on it.  After he signed the title of the 2010 over to me we ended up sitting in the 2012 and he showed me all its features.  This is the redesigned 991 model.  It had some extra fine detailing, with the ability to drop the top at up to 31 mph, a 7-speed manual, a 96.5 inch wheel base, and a custom clear-bra on the front end to prevent excessive dings and scratches.  It was longer and had a wider rear wheel base than mine.  We started it up and had a great time discussing it.  This one even featured the Porsche push-button exhaust sound enhancement, formally called the Porsche Sport Exhaust or PSE feature.  It doesn’t actually create more exhaust and does not provide any power gain but works sort of like this:

Porsche 911 mufflers normally have 3 chambers in them. When you purchase PSE, you get an extra exhaust pipe from each muffler, which exits from the first chamber.  So with the push of a button you can direct the exhaust to bypass 2 of the 3 mufflers.  When activated it does crank up the exhaust sound considerably.  This is not something I would go for, but I can see where some people would really enjoy it.   It was soooo bad sounding as I described to Tom. 

We went through a few final details of my new purchase and synced up my phone with my new vehicle's bluetooth, and I programmed my home address into the navigation.

“You nervous?” he asked me laughingly as I got in and sorted my paperwork and backpack.   "A little, like a nervous bride in a way," I joked back but there was a hint of truth.  It was so different from anything else I had ever driven.  It was nearly a 200 HP increase over my last car.  And I kept reaching for the ignition switch with the key in my right hand.  911's are on the left, a holdover from racing design and now a tradition, dating from the early LeMans races where the  driver would start the car with their left hand and put it in gear with the right, saving critical time. 

I started it up-- on the left side of the steering column-- and began to head out the driveway, waving goodbye to Tom.  It was great working with him.  He had even filled the gas tank for me and let me drive back with one of his plates with the understanding that I'd mail it back to him.   It was not going to be LeMans during the 2 hour drive up I-95 in rush hour Friday afternoon Eastern Seaboard traffic, but I'd make the most of it.  It was fun driving home except for the backup near Springfield, Virginia, due to massive construction, and the challenge of avoiding potholes created last winter.  I-95 was full of them.  I got a chance to open it up north of Richmond, push it into 6th gear, and enjoy a hint of what it could do. 

When I got home, my husband was waiting for me in the driveway, and the twenty-something kid next door and his buddy came running over to look.  I switched it off and the engine cooling fan came on to do its after-run to cool the radiator following a long ride like that.  It was nice to be home.  Now to get it titled and plated, and study up on the manuals and learn how this remarkable piece of technology really works. 

The 911 and the BMW 323is right before it was listed on Ebay

Just Looking Isn't Cheating

A couple weekends ago I was in Chicago attending my to-be son-in-law’s master’s degree graduation from DePaul University.  It was a fun and exciting event, and we were lucky that the weather was absolutely perfect.  Too, a perfect weekend for all the auto nuts to be out and about, and they were en force.  Saw a lot of nice cars in Chicago that weekend, including a Lamborghini. I'm not as familiar with Italian cars as I am German varieties.  I could not see myself buying an exotic Italian sports car because I’m too happy and comfortable with German engineering and true to the simple elegance of Porsche design. Nevertheless, the Italian brands, and I’m talking Ferrari, Maserati, and Lamborghini, are pure eye candy to look at.  They simply scream “Look at me!!”  You can't help but look, and look again.  

Here is what we saw on North Michigan Avenue on a lovely Saturday:

If I did own one, I’m not sure I would have taken my Lamborghini out on the Chicago streets in June, which were undergoing significant repairs in the wake of the brutal winter we had in North America this year, particularly in the Midwest.  Come to think of it I wouldn't take the 911 out either on such beat up roads.  But I suppose the warm weather had drawn everyone out and the chance to drive a Lamborghini when is sunny and 70+ degrees would lead anyone to throw caution to the wind. 

Brake pads, fluid, pedal stiffness, and bite

My friend Bill kindly provided his take on the test drive he and Jen did last week in my 911. As you can see Bill really knows a lot about high performance cars.  He races them.  Bill thought that my brakes did not grab as tightly as he would have expected.  Also I have drilled brake rotors on the 911, which is more for appearance than anything else.  As always, this is an opinion presented below, not necessarily the right thing to do for everyone. Some people really love the way drilled rotors look, for example, even if they don't enhance braking performance. Like Bill, I LOVE the stiffness of the brake pedal too, and I do wonder if getting more aggressive street brake pads would be overkill and give too much initial bite.  Don't think I would like that.  I'm still not planning to take my car to the track anyway.

Enjoy Bill's thoughts below. 

Just thought I'd follow up after the test drive re: the brakes after some thinking. I really don't think there is anything to worry about, especially if you are comfortable with the level of braking effort required from the system. The only thing that stood out is how little initial "bite" the pads had, which is normally indicative of how track/race pads handle (lower initial bite than street pads, higher coefficient of friction as pads/rotors get up to operating temps). I have no idea what Porsche stuffs in their calipers from the factory now, but I do recall a 2004 911 I drove having more normal brake "bite" in line with other lightweight cars I've driven with big braking systems (S2000, Evo, STI, Corvette, etc.). Again, it wasn't bad, just different and very little initial bite... very strange for a street-oriented car.

I will say however, I LOVED the stiffness of the brake pedal. This indicates very good master cylinder hydraulics, fresh fluid, stiff lines, and a killer gravity bleed job (suction or pressure bleeds usually don't get the pedal that stiff). If the previous owner never did maintenance on the braking system, that is officially the stiffest pedal I've ever felt from a factory car.  I would probably love it on the track because of how linear the pedal felt. You could probably keep getting additional braking out of the pedal all the way up to standing on it. Considering how stiff the pedal is, adding more aggressive street pads may be too much initial bite and you may get jerky braking behavior, which may or may not be your cup of tea.

When you DO replace your brakes (whenever that may be) here are two guidelines:

1) Get street pads for the street (duh). They have higher initial bite at low operating temperatures, which is important for "oh shit!" braking moments. This is important because on the street you aren't ever working the brakes enough to get up to proper operating temps required for track/race pads. They are also much more quiet than track/race compounds. Race cars sound like school buses when coming to a slow stop. :-) However, street pads are insufficient for track driving because they don't hold up to heat and their coefficient of friction drastically drops off once you get to high temperatures. It is a trade-off, but important to consider.

2) Drilled rotors provide little to no cost or performance benefits. They absorb less heat (less mass), wear quicker (easier to crack because of drilled holes), and are more expensive than blank rotors. They do, however, look good and that is why they are OEM on performance cars. You may not have a choice with factory Porsche equipment, but you can most likely find blanks by going through another generic parts supplier. I like Centric rotors as they are cheap, hold up very well to track conditions, and are made by Stoptech, which is in the same category braking equipment-wise as Brembo, Wilwood, Alcon, Performance Friction, AP Racing, etcetera. You'll find real race cars use two-piece slotted rotors, which are light weight and direct hot gasses away from the rotor face and pads. This gets very expensive and is totally unnecessary for the street (and often for the track, too, if you are on a budget and aren't sponsored by a team).

Just thought this might be a little helpful. Didn't mean to sound alarmist if I did last week, just haven't felt a pedal like that before. 

Impromptu Rally

My husband and I have a wide variety of friends, young and old.   Among those who are also auto enthusiasts, Bill and his fiancee Jen stand out.  When we first met Jen she was driving a ninja motorcycle, then when she got together with Bill they discovered they were both into high performance cars, and it was a match made in heaven.  They've just bought their first house, a cute townhouse that is very well situated, but they're still far more excited about what they drive.  Understandable, see for yourself:

This is Bill's 2003 Corvette.  Stick. With a whopping 400+ horsepower under its hood.  He and Jen brought their cars over and we went to brunch and hung out for a while.  They test drove the 911 and we all had a good time. 

Bill and Jen like to work on and modify their cars too.  Jen recently acquired a BMW 1 series M coupe in a unique light blue color with light grey interior.  Has iDrive but not too tricked out.  She drove me around in it and for such a small car-- well actually isn't too different in size from the E36 that I just sold-- it had a lot of kick.  Surprisingly roomy inside, too.  

What a fun car!  Also a manual.  The brakes grabbed very tightly I noticed.  Felt the way a BMW is supposed to.  M's (M is for Motorsport) are unique, fast, tight, and sometimes problematic.  I had often thought about buying an M3 but went for the 911 instead.  Maybe someday I'll check an M out more seriously.  

Looking good you two.  Hope the test drive lived up to your expectations. I know you and many others have asked me if I'm going to take it out on the track and the answer is no.  I don't want to go through a new set of tires immediately and tear up my car- I waited too long to find this.  But my clever husband has a better idea in mind for me than the track.  I'll reveal that surprise in a posting sometime later on.   

Test Drive

En route to Richmond, Virginia. Home to great BBQ, big tobacco, and the former headquarters of the Confederacy.  It's hot, humid, and laid back.  It's not a big city, maybe 200,000 people, but it has a definite air about it of tradition, the real American South, and oozing charm.  My host for the day, Tom, the owner of the 911 I was to look at, simply radiated all of these qualities.  A modern day Rhett Butler in the opinion of this girl from New York.  From the time we walked into his beautiful home to the time I said "I want to do this," we talked cars: Porsche, Lexus, Audi, BMW.  He and I went for a long drive, changing drivers along the way and he ended up giving me essentially a Porsche driving lesson.  So much fun!  I admit I was a little nervous because the thing had so much more power than my BMW.  He explained that the shift was probably gentler than I presumed and it certainly was.  "Don't wrench it-- it'll glide into the next gear."  And it sure did.  "You got it- now let's rev it up to 3500 and shift up."  Again.  Just plain fun driving through Richmond's gorgeous west side of older stately homes and greenery, and out past the city limits.  Ok, he advised that I needed to learn to engine brake better so that I wouldn't wear out the brakes sooner than necesssary.  Everyone has an opinion about this.  But I tried it. I can do it no problem, and have been learning to more than I used to on my old car, rather than pulling it into neutral then braking. 

As we drove he explained some of the intricate electronics it had to monitor tire pressure, oil, fuel usage, and many other things.  This car does not have a dipstick.  Rather, you measure it's oil level electronically.  Yet it still had an analog tachometer, fuel, temperature, and other displays, another thing I love about Porsche design- it's simplicity and austerity.  Not too many distractions so you can focus on driving. 

When we returned to Tom's house we went through the car front to back. He showed me the trunk (in the front end), battery, tire inflation kit--these don't have a spare-- more features in its console and controls, and the engine, which on Porsches is in the rear.  The rear tires tend to wear out faster than the front on these cars as a result, but that's just part of the territory.  I was pleased it had manual seat adjustments.  I know many people want electric seats but when the motors wear out then you have an expensive and unnecessary problem.  One of the things I loved the most about this car was the wrap around leather seat design.  It makes you feel snug and more plugged in to the vehicle.  I had driven almost the same model about 4 years earlier with those seats, and I loved them then.  In contrast, one of the models I had driven at the northern Virginia dealer did not have that feature, and I felt like I was sliding around in the cabin the whole time.  

Together Tom and I went through its service records, and I visually inspected it.  I already acquired a carfax report for it and no accidents.  He had obviously taken meticulous care of it.  It was still under warranty so Tom agreed to take it to his mechanic for a final thorough check the next week.  I had made up my mind.