Now that the auction has ended without the reserve met, I feel more at liberty to comment on the car (VIN WP0AA2963RS820398).
The owner, Luke, whom I never personally met, was very accomodating for me to come see and drive the car, and his nephew was waiting when I arrived. Luke had advised me the previous night that he purchased the car for $22k and was now asking $15k (hence, the only auction bid for $13k did not meet his reserve).
Exterior:
* The car looks in to be in good shape. The car was dusty, so I couldn't discern other flaws in the black paint, but it seemed consistent with a 14-year-old car having only 47k miles. It was sitting outside with a cover on it when I arrived, and Luke had told me it was previously always garaged when he purchased it in Florida, that it had been sitting outside only since moving to Texas.
* The front engine cover, spare tire, and interior cargo-area cover were missing. Perhaps he has them, but they weren't with the car when I was there.
* There was a slight dent on the passenger-side door, that looked like a door ding but hadn't chipped the paint.
* The front nosepan was hanging a bit on the passenger-side, something that would be concealed easily with a bra if it's not just as easily repaired.
* The lower body valence on the driver-side had a gap where it curves upward at the rear, and the gasket was loose.
* The 17" wheels had a few scuffs. (At which purists might scoff!)
* Michelin Pilot A/S 255's in the rear, 225's in the front, with plenty of tread, perhaps fairly new.
* Brakes appeared to be original, not worn, though there was minor surface rust on the rotors that I had to ease off with a few gentle applications of the brakes when I started driving.
* Motor oil looked a tad dirty, and was about half-way down the fill mark on the dipstick. Didn't the oil get changed when they rebuilt the head?!
Interior:
* The interior was in very nice condition overall, almost flawless save for a slight bit of wear on the driver-seat piping.
* The passenger-side sun visor clip was broken.
* The Kenwood Excelon head unit worked well, but it was improperly connected such that the memory was lost when the keyswitch was shut off.
Driving impression:
* Aside from the noted brake rotor corrosion, the car drove flawlessly. I had opportunity to accelerate fairly hard into a 2nd-to-3rd-gear corner, and my impression was that it was not equipped with LSD; also, that it had stock struts/shocks and was no M030 equipment. However, it shifted perfectly, with plenty of pedal feel in the clutch, and revved happily to redline. I took occasion to brake hard, from approximatley 45 mph to 10 mph with my hands off the steeing wheel, and it was as perfect as a 968's supposed to be.
Is it worth $15k? Well, I think the market has spoken at least once, perhaps twice in light of rob76turbo's comment above. And, in light of a contemporaneous auction involving a 70k-mile LSD car in Minnesota, where the bidding is presently up to $17.9k or a $19,995 "buy-it-now" price, I think anyone would be a bit gun-shy about a car that's already had a timing belt failure.
Regards,
Janke
