Second Hand Porsche

Porsche Buying Tips - Things You Should Know

There are several key Porsche buying tips that you should know. When you decide to purchase this “must have” vehicle, know the difference between leasing and buying. Although there are advantages to them both, you must be aware of the distinctive characteristics in order to appropriately make your final decision. Because each individual exhibit contracting habits and interests, it is necessary to be prepared when obtaining ownership of such nostalgic vehicles. For instance, if you are one that enjoys driving a new car every 2 to 3 years, it would probably benefit you more to lease. On the other hand, if you are one that enjoys creating your own customizations or accumulate excessive mileage, you may want to purchase the Porsche.

Certainly, leasing a Porsche will offer you freedom. You would have not made any long- term commitments. You are essentially renting, therefore the total cash expenditure is much less. Additionally, monthly lease payments are generally less than purchase payments. Subsequently, you are able to drive a more expensive vehicle, hence the stimulating Porsche. A vehicle that is usually $500- $600 monthly to buy, may costs $450 monthly to lease. If you decide to lease a Porsche, you will not be responsible for major repair and/or maintenance issues that inevitably occur as the car ages. When you lease the car, it will typically be under factory warranty for the duration of the lease. Furthermore, many lease contracts provide additional provisions that address routine maintenance, such as oil changes.

During the time that you are considering a Porsche, one of the key buying tips that you should know is satisfaction. You will gain the comfort of knowing that the car will be eventually paid for and the classic will be your free transportation. More so, once you own the vehicle, you would have built impressive value. The Porsche does depreciate through the years, yet it will always maintain some value which can be used as a trade- in or sold privately for the car’s current value. Furthermore, if you purchase the Porsche, you will have full control over mileage. Contrarily, the leasing agreement specifies its limitations and also includes penalties for passing the limits. Buying your Porsche allows you to make any changes to fit your interests that may even increase the value. Coincidently, buying a Porsche can be beneficial with proper care for at least 8 to 10 years and 100,000- plus miles.

Test driving a Porsche is extremely imperative. Undoubtedly, you will be attracted by the combination of styling, features, price and image, but all that adds up to be is a potentially beneficial purchase. A Porsche buying tip is to also test drive the dealership. Be aware of the Porsche dealership reputation. Also, be intuitive to your immediate impression of the sales staff. Upon visiting the dealership, expect to spend at least 20 minutes with the vehicle that you are considering. When you physically test drive the car, include the freeway as well as rough surface streets. This test drive is important in that it will determine some major factors to assist with your final decision. Bottom line, trust your gut feeling. The more time you spend with the car of your dreams and making your decision, you are sure to bank on riding quality.

Financial options are actually available to you during this process. It is imperative that you are aware of your budget in order to receive affordable monthly payments. Most lenders require a 20% down payment which will assist with obtaining low monthly payments, however there are some lenders that don’t require a down payment at all. Maintenance and repair costs may be kept at a minimum if you were to maintain regular service checkups as required by warranty. You may even obtain a vehicle service agreement with the Porsche dealer. Your goal, rather leasing or buying, new or used should be to obtain quality and personal satisfaction

Porsche Before Porsche: Ferdinand’s First Fifty Years

Ferdinand Porsche was around 72 years old when the first hand-made, hand-beaten Porsche 356 rolled down the road at Gmund. It was 1948 but Porsche had started his career before the turn of the century.

Just what was he doing for his first fifty years?

The one word answer is “plenty”. A slightly longer answer is designing some of the top motoring icons and fastest cars of the twentieth century. Or, getting all the experience, knowledge and skills needed to produce one of the hottest and most charismatic lines of sports cars in the world.

It all started in the late nineteenth century. Porsche’s father was a tinsmith, but young Ferdinand preferred the new-fangled electricity. He worked for an electrical equipment manufacturer before designing electric automobiles for Lohner. The Lohner-Porsche, with electric motors in the front wheel hubs, (one of the first front-wheel drives), was exhibited at the Paris exhibition in 1900 and won a Grand Prize for 25 year old Porsche.

Porsche kept developing the Lohner. Motors in all four hubs made it one of the earliest four-wheel drives and a petrol engine and generator instead of batteries made it one of the first mixed drive vehicles. Porsche himself raced one of the petrol-electric cars.

In 1905, Porsche moved from Lohner to Austro-Daimler where he became technical Director, and later Managing Director. His first petrol car there was developed into the sports model that won the 1910 Prince Henry Trial.

Cars weren’t the only mechanical designs of the self-taught automotive genius. In 1912 he designed a four-cylinder aero engine. Its layout was a flattened X, almost a flat four.

World War I had Porsche working for the military, designing gun tractors, motorized artillery pieces and an enormous road train carrying an 81-ton gun and pulling four trailers each with eight-wheel drive. Total weight was 150 tons! It used the Lohner-Porsche method of electric motors in the hubs with a 20 liter, 150 hp traction engine providing the power.

In 1917 he received an honorary doctorate from Vienna Technical University.

Porsche turned to small cars after WWI, designing the Sascha, which could hit 89 mph with a tiny 1100 cc engine. These cars came first and second in their class in the 1921 Targa Florio. However, differences of opinion with other directors of Austro-Daimler led to a move to Daimler in Stuttgart, as Technical Director with a seat on the board.

Here Porsche fixed the poor performance of Daimler’s new two-liter supercharged race car, which went on to take the first three places in its class in the 1924 Targa Florio, including first place overall. Porsche was awarded another honorary doctorate, this time from Stuttgart University for his achievements.

At Daimler he designed one of the most famous cars of all time, the seven-liter six-cylinder supercharged Mercedes which progressed through the K and S series to the SS, SSK and SSKL. These cars dominated racing in 1928-30. As well, he worked on diesel engines for trucks and airplane engines.

Daimler merged with Benz in 1926, and the combined board rejected Porsche’s push for small and light Daimler-Benz cars. Porsche quit and moved to Steyr where he designed a large luxury car with a 5.3-liter straight-eight.

Steyr collapsed in the great depression though, and in 1930 Porsche was unemployed.

At the age of 55, when many people these days are taking early retirement, Porsche opened his own design bureau with a select group of engineers that he had previously worked with, including his own son Ferdinand “Ferry” Porsche.

His first job was the Wander W.17, a small medium-priced six-cylinder car. A small car for Zundapp followed. Named the Volksauto, it was an early ancestor of the Beetle, with a rear-mounted radial engine and fully independent suspension. It didn’t go into production because of an upturn in Zundapp’s normal market of motorcycles.

In 1932 Russia offered Porsche the job of State Designer. It was an attractive offer, but he turned it down.

Another tilt at a small car came from NSU. The Zundapp was dusted of to give the basic ideas, but this time a flat-four air-cooled engine was used at the rear, along with torsion bar suspension and swing axles at the back. Three prototypes were built before the project was abandoned, but the VW Beetle was getting closer.

Hot racing cars were still on the drawing board, with the Porsche team building a real monster for Auto-Union. It had a 4.4 liter supercharged V16 mounted at the back. With the weight at the back, swing axles, skinny tires and tremendous power, (it’s reported they could spin the wheels at 100 mph) these cars were a handful to drive, but they won races!

Meanwhile, Hitler was also gaining tremendous power, and one of his ideas was for a “people’s car”. Porsche got the job of designing it, and all his previous experience went into the best selling car ever, the Volkswagen Beetle. Three Beetles were turned into lightweight sports coupes for the proposed 1939 Berlin-Rome road race.

The race never took place because the Second World War started.

During WWII the Beetle was turned into the Kubelwagen, the German equivalent of the Jeep. Porsche designed the Tiger, Ferdinand and Maus Tanks, which all used the mixed drive with an internal combustion engine driving hub-mounted electric motors.

The war ended and the French threw Professor Porsche, son Ferry, and son-in-law Anton Piech in prison as war criminals. (Totally unfounded). Ferry was released after a few months but the Professor was kept with France demanding 1 million Francs for his release.

Ferry and the design bureau took on new projects to pay the money. When the Professor was released, the design of the very first Porsche branded sports car was well under way. This car was the 356, the start of a line of exciting thoroughbreds which are some of the most desirable sports cars in the world today.

Ferdinand Porsche may have had a humble start in life but he was an automotive genius and for half a century he designed some of the most magnificent machinery ever. The Porsche cars of today continue his legacy.

In comparison of the engine, The Porsche Cayman is positioned between the Boxster and 911. Still, it has its own different personality.

It is snappier, easier, and not burdened by heavy weight hanging
out the back and the need to manage the effect of that weight.

The Cayman is strictly a two-seater because the engine sits
where the rear seats would otherwise be. This means that the
engine is not quite readily accessible, although there's a way
into the oil filler via the boot. Read the rest of this entry »