I Waited 15 Years For My Porsche. Now I'm Scared To Drive It | Listener Q&A
Eleven After Nine | A Porsche Culture Podcast
I Waited 15 Years For My Porsche. Now I'm Scared To Drive It | Listener Q&AEleven After Nine | A Porsche Culture Podcast · Jun 9, 2026
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Term
base or an S
Porsche often uses trim names like “S” to mean a step up from the base version. Usually it comes with more power and sportier features, but the exact differences depend on the specific car.
The Porsche Boxster is a Porsche roadster (a convertible-style sports car). People often compare it to the Cayman because they’re very similar underneath, but the Boxster has a top you can open.
When someone says a brand is “collectible,” they mean people want those cars enough that they can hold value and become harder to find. That can make you feel like you have to buy quickly once you find the right one.
Term
everyday super cars
“Everyday super cars” means super-fast cars that you can actually live with day to day. Instead of being only for special occasions, they’re usable for regular driving.
“Title issues” means there’s something wrong with the car’s paperwork—like who legally owns it or whether it has restrictions. It’s a big red flag because it can make the car hard or impossible to register properly.
A “Car Facts report” is like a background check for a car. It can show warning signs—like problems with the car’s paperwork or a spotty service history—so you know what to look into before buying.
“Gaps in maintenance” means the service history has missing intervals where the car wasn’t regularly serviced. For used cars, that can correlate with deferred wear items and higher odds of expensive problems later.
Concept
move forward
Here, “move forward” just means deciding whether to buy the car or not. The host is saying you should use the clues you find to make that call.
“Site unseen” means you buy the car without going to look at it first. The host is saying you shouldn’t skip inspection—get a professional check instead.
An “independent mechanic” is a regular repair shop, not a dealership. The host suggests using one nearby so someone can physically check the car for you.
Paint work means parts of the car were repainted, usually to fix damage. On a used car, that can be totally normal, but it’s something you should know about before buying.
Rock chips are little paint dings caused by small stones hitting the car while driving. They’re common on the front of cars and can make the paint look worse over time.
“Excessive ticking” means the engine is making a clicking sound that seems louder or more frequent than normal. Mechanics listen for this kind of noise because it can point to a specific problem area.
“Rattling” is when you hear a loose, vibrating sound—like something is vibrating or not tight. It’s a common clue mechanics use to figure out whether the noise is from something loose or from the engine itself.
“Porsche nomenclature” just means the naming system people use to refer to different Porsche models and generations. If you don’t know what the codes mean, it’s hard to make sure you’re talking about the same car when diagnosing problems.
The Porsche 914 is an older Porsche with the engine mounted closer to the middle of the car. It’s a popular classic because it’s fun to drive and there’s a big enthusiast community around it.
They’re talking about a simple decision: either you move forward with the purchase (“go”) or you don’t (“no-go”). It’s based on what you find out during checks.
“Walk away” here is the buying strategy of backing out when the seller won’t cooperate with due diligence (like a PPI) or when the deal feels off. In used-car buying, it’s a risk-management move: if you can’t verify condition, the uncertainty can cost you later.
“Creatively cropped” photos usually means the seller is taking pictures in a way that hides problems. It can make the car look better than it really is until you see it in person.
The Porsche 911 is Porsche’s most famous sports car, with a distinctive layout and design. Here it’s mentioned to make the point that even popular Porsches aren’t impossible to find.
A cold start video is a recording of the car starting when it’s been sitting and fully cold. It helps you spot problems that might only happen at first start, like rough idling, smoke, or strange noises.
Due diligence here means doing extra checking before you buy. Instead of trusting the seller or just doing a quick look, you gather proof (like videos and photos) so you’re less likely to get surprised later.
Underbody pictures are photos of the car’s underside. They help you look for hidden issues like rust, leaks, or damage that you can’t see from the front or sides.
Triage means you quickly sort what you find into “most important / most risky” versus “less urgent.” That way, the inspection can concentrate on the problems that would matter most to you.
Checking the oil means looking at the engine’s oil level and sometimes its condition. It’s a way to make sure the car has enough lubrication so the engine doesn’t run dry or develop a bigger problem.
An aspirational purchase is a “dream” buy—something you want for a long time and feel strongly about. When it’s a dream car, it can make you more anxious about using it or protecting it.
Car
1964 Rubin Red 356C
This is a Porsche 356C from 1964, in a color the host calls “Rubin Red.” It’s a classic early Porsche that many enthusiasts love because it’s part of the brand’s original sports-car DNA.
The Porsche 356 is an older classic Porsche. The key point here is that it doesn’t have rear seat belts like newer cars, so the speaker couldn’t safely bring their kids in the back seat.
An “A to A car” is basically a car you only drive from your house/garage to somewhere close and then back again. The idea is you avoid leaving it parked in public where it could get damaged.
This phrase means the car was owned by just one person and the owner kept paperwork since it was new. For an older collectible car, that history can help you trust what you’re buying.
They’re basically saying: don’t just admire it—drive it. Getting some miles helps you get comfortable with the car and can also show problems that only show up when you actually use it.
They’re using a metaphor: a “unicorn” is a rare, special car. The point is that some people keep it in the garage because they’re worried about damaging it or losing its value.
LIVE
Hey everyone, welcome to 11 After 9, the podcast.
I'm Derek, and this week we're doing listener questions.
Every week I get a lot of questions in through the website,
in through the comments on the videos,
or just straight emails.
And people are asking me anything from what cars should I buy,
these are the choices I have.
And a lot of times they turn into clients
kind of for the consulting services I have
to kind of answer the questions.
But every once in a while I find some that I think
are gonna be really apropos for the audience out there,
especially people that are might be looking
for their first car or maybe looking for their 10th car,
but keep running into certain roadblocks.
And so I wanted to answer a couple of those today.
I thought it might be fun to give you my impressions.
And I was hoping very much that as you watch this
or after you watch this to please add your comments
down below.
And I'd love to know what you think
about these topics as well.
I also wanna thank all of you,
really from the bottom of my heart.
The 11 After 9 podcast has really exploded
these last few months.
And it's all because of you.
The listenership is fantastic.
Everyone is so positive, so reactive.
I'll ask if you can, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts
or Spotify or any of the other audio services,
please give a star rating on those and leave a worded comment.
Believe it or not, those kind of things go really far
as far as bringing the podcast to the eyes of new people.
The services look at that kind of feedback
and think, well, this might be a podcast
other people wanna listen to as well,
and it will feed it to them.
And we can continue to expand the community.
So with that being said,
I really wanna get to some of these questions.
I think they're fantastic.
So the first one's from Davey987.
Derek, I've been about to buy a Cayman
for almost nine months now.
I've got a spreadsheet.
I've read every Boar scoring thread twice
and I know this stuff cold.
Every time a clean one shows up,
I find one or two things that I don't love about it
and I tell myself I'll sleep on it
and within a day it's gone.
My wife's starting to think I don't actually want one.
Am I being smart here or am I just scared?
How fast are you supposed to move on these?
Well, Davey, that's a really good question
and there's a lot of different ways to answer that.
So the first thing I might say is that speed
is actually a result of preparation.
I'm not saying that you have to be impulsive,
but what I am saying is that ahead of time,
and you've already done some of this
when it comes to getting your spreadsheet together
as far as I'm assuming finances,
figuring out what kind of options you want,
figuring out your financing,
having all that stuff in place ahead of time
is really important because that does allow you
to pull the trigger when the right car comes up.
I do know and I can probably speak from experience here
that when I was looking for my 72, 9, 11,
I had a search for almost two years
and you can get a level of search fatigue
where you come across a car and it looks good,
but you don't really wanna go through the process again
of reaching out and getting disappointed
or moving the ball towards a pre-purchase inspection
knowing that you're gonna be disappointed.
And so sometimes you might let cars go
just because it's work and you start to ask yourself,
do I really want this?
And so I certainly understand that.
And I think that ultimately one of the big things
that you have to decide is do I want this car
and if I do, to just jump in and make that decision
and buy a car.
See, the great thing about the Porsche market
is that I mean, quite frankly,
you're not really gonna get burned right now
as long as you get a good car.
If you find out you don't love it,
you can turn around and sell it and not take a haircut.
I mean, you might even be able to make some money on it
depending on if you buy it well.
And so I think that that's important to know
that the fires of failure aren't that hot
when it comes to getting a good car
and finding out maybe it's not for you.
I really share that all the time
with people that I talk to
because sometimes it's the indecision
that's the worst part.
I mean, don't be afraid of making a mistake
on a certain model, whether it's a base or an S
or you buy a Boxter and you really wanted a Cayman
or vice versa.
I mean, those are all okay.
I mean, you can take the car, you can drive it,
you can put that experience in your Rolodex
of experiences when the Porsche brand
and then you move on to the next thing.
And I think that's perfectly reasonable.
But what I can tell you,
and this comes from personal experience,
is that with good cars, you cannot wait at all.
There are a lot of people out there
looking for probably the same spec you are.
I mean, Porsche has become a very collectible brand.
People love the cars as daily drivers.
I mean, everyday super cars in some respects.
And so I think it's really important
that you're just honest with yourself
that once you make the decision to buy,
you really do have to jump on it.
And if you see a car that ticks those boxes,
it will be gone in a day.
It might even be gone in an hour.
And so you really have to be very vigilant
and keep the surveillance up every day.
But I mentioned tick the boxes.
And I think that that's maybe an important point
that we should mention on this podcast
is that a lot of us have our dream car,
whether it's the color,
whether it's a manual or PDK automatic,
sports seats, a color of the interior,
all-wheel drive, two-wheel drive, et cetera.
If you're looking in the use market
and you're not buying new,
it's exceedingly rare that you're gonna find a car
that ticks every single one of those boxes.
And you might be looking for years,
finding that perfect spec.
And then who knows,
maybe gets nipped away before you can even put a bid on it
or call the potential seller.
And so what I share with people
when they ask me these questions are,
if you have five must-haves,
whittle it down to three.
And be prepared to,
you have one to two to three non-negotiables.
I want a manual, no matter what.
I love these three colors, but I don't like white
or I don't like black.
If those are your non-negotiables, that's fine.
But you might have to give on the sports seats.
You might have to give on whether it's a two-wheel drive
or an all-wheel drive car.
I'm not necessarily saying you should lower your expectations
because you do wanna buy a good car.
You wanna buy a well-maintenance car.
You wanna buy a car that reflects the type of ownership
experience that you're gonna give it under your purview.
But what I'm saying is pick your favorite must-haves
and let the other ones go.
And I think that you might learn to love a green car
instead of a blue car.
You might learn to love the all-wheel drive
versus a two-wheel drive.
And again, that goes back to my first point
that if you don't love it,
well, you'll have had that experience
and then you can sell it along.
Overthinking is a real thing.
You know, this paralysis by analysis.
You've done your spreadsheet.
You know what kind of car you want.
You are hopefully in a good financial situation
where it's not gonna be a strain on you or your family.
And so if you're in that situation,
the overthinking turns into stalling.
And that's when you have to be honest with yourself
of do you want this car?
Again, I'll just go back to the fact
that even if you do buy a car
that might not tick all those right boxes,
you can still move it along.
If you're worried about spending a few hundred dollars
on a PPI, you know, I think you need to get over that.
There's a solid chance in my experience
that I might PPI 23 maybe even four cars
before I find one that is perfect
and that I think is a car I wanna own.
So you might say like, well, Derek, that's 1500 bucks.
You know, that's 2000 bucks and it is.
But you know, that's $2,000
and you're avoiding tens of thousands of dollars
of potential headaches.
And so while it is onerous to go down the road
of another PPI and get a car checked out,
just think about the fact that every one of those
that doesn't work out is gonna take you one step closer
to the car that's gonna make you happy.
A few hundred dollars and maybe an afternoon of your time
is cheap insurance compared to a potential mistake
you could make.
And so be at peace with that,
that the search itself might cost hundreds,
if not a thousand or two,
but the result is gonna be a high quality product
that you're gonna have for a very long time
and really enjoy.
All right, moving on to question number two.
This is from Montana Plate 726.
Living in Montana means the nearest decent 987
is basically a plane ticket away.
There's a clean looking S in Denver.
The seller says full records,
but I'd be buying it off photos and a couple of phone calls
and then flying out to drive it home.
Everyone in my life thinks I've lost it.
Is buying one site unseen actually insane?
Or is that just how it works
when you don't live somewhere with options?
Well, listen, I wanna put your mind at ease.
I think the thing that we have to recognize
is that the Porsche market is national and global.
And so the chances of you finding a car
right down the street are increasingly slim.
Listen, it does happen.
Sometimes you can search nationwide
and find one a couple of towns over
and that's the best case scenario for sure.
And maybe it even plays into the calculus
if you're looking at two different cars
that are relatively equal.
One that's closer might be
a little bit more advantageous for you.
But I do wanna put your mind at ease
is that we all face that.
The idea of a car that might be 1,000 or 3,000 miles away
is a very real thing.
And where we are today compared to where we are 20 years ago
in terms of technology and the ability to suss out
if there's gonna be any issues with the car
that are obvious or maybe even hidden by the seller,
there's a lot less places to hide these days.
I mean, Car Facts is your friend.
Looking back at the history of a car,
sometimes you can see outright if there's title issues.
But you can also see,
and I know I've talked about this in the past
and I probably should do a video on this in general
just talking about how to really decode a Car Facts report.
But if you see gaps in maintenance,
if you see a car going in
for the same problem over and over again,
these are things, this gives you information about a car,
whether to move forward or not towards a PPI
before you even spent the money.
That wasn't something that was available a while ago.
So you do have a lot of technological tools at your disposal
which are gonna really help you make an informed decision.
And remember, site unseen does not mean inspection unseen.
And this really is where PPI comes into play.
A pre-purchase inspection is an absolute necessity
if you're buying a $6,000 Porsche or a $600,000 Porsche.
Taking it to a mechanic,
taking it to an expert that knows what they're looking for
is very important if you can't be at the car
and really walk around yourself.
It's gonna be very important to,
in the local city where the car is being sold,
go find a independent mechanic,
someone who has been working on cars,
on these cars for 20 or 30 years
and has a level of comfort with them.
You can take it to a Porsche dealer.
If it's an older car, I find that sometimes the techs
are used to working on newer stuff
and might not know all the little idiosyncrasies
of these cars.
Some Porsche shops have the old codger
who's been around for 30 years
and they're the person they put on those special cars
and that's fine.
But it's the independent shops
where these folks were techs for 15 or 20 years
and then broke off and started their own shop
that really specialize in the older Porsches.
And that's probably somewhere
that you're gonna wanna take your car
to have it looked at.
You can find those online.
You can do a simple search.
The Porsche Club of America is a fantastic place
to find recommendations for pre-purchase inspection shops
but absolutely have that car looked at by these shops.
It's very important to dig down
and depending on the generation of car
that you're looking at,
you're gonna specifically ask them
in that inspection to look for certain things.
Outside of the normal wear and tear issues
or potential rust, body repair, things of that nature.
Ultimately, it's up to you
if you are not a person that likes paint work.
Most cars that start to get beyond 10 years
might have had a ding or dent.
It might have a couple of rock chips in the front bumper
that someone's had painted over time.
So technically that's paint work.
I mean cars, once you start getting into that 30, 40,
50 year run, they might have had a bumper too
where there's been some repairs
and the price might reflect that.
The price might not,
but to get a truly pristine example with very low miles
might be in multiples of what you're looking to pay.
So just realize that when you do get a car looked at,
you can be reasonable about it
and just realize that these cars have lived a long life
and someone who really knows what they're looking for
in that PPI, they're gonna be able to tell you
exactly if this is a go or no go situation.
So here's another little tidbit
that if you are buying a car sight unseen far away,
I think is very important
and that is the cold start video.
The cold start video actually tells you a lot of things
and you're gonna have the seller put their phone
on video mode behind the car,
down low where you can see the exhaust pipes
and they're gonna start the car,
have them put their hand on the exhaust
before they start the car to show that the car is cold.
And then when it starts up,
there's certain things you're gonna look for.
Do you see a puff of smoke coming out of the car
when it starts up?
Do you see a continuous plume of smoke
coming out of the car?
How does the idle sound?
Does it sound loppy?
Like there's a hunting issue where finding idle.
Does it do a normal warm-up cycle
where it's a slightly higher RPM
and then it'll drop down?
You can have them pop the back hatch
and you can have them have the phone right up in the engine
and see if you hear any excessive ticking
or rattling or wrapping in the motor.
And if you're saying to me, well, Derek,
I don't even know what the Porsche Nomenclature
for the numbers are.
I don't even know what a 987 versus a 991 is.
How do you expect me to diagnose over a phone
listening to a motor to see if there's some issues?
I'd say, well, that's a really good point, listener.
And I'd say that the one thing you can do
is go to your local Porsche mechanic,
your local Indie mechanic,
or even your Porsche dealer
and ask if there's any way that you can show a video
to someone and have them diagnose it.
I mean, even if it, you know,
show up with some donuts or offer to pay, you know,
50 bucks or 100 bucks just to give me 10 minutes
and listen to this.
There's an incredible amount that you can really diagnose
from a video.
I was helping a client and a friend find a car.
It was out in the Midwest, it was a 914.
And it actually dovetails into the next question as well,
but the seller would not let us get a PPI.
And I had him go under the car
and give me a good five or 10 minute video
of all the panels of the underside of the car,
of the startup, of all these things.
And I sent that video to a friend of mine
who's a Porsche mechanic and said, you know,
would you buy this car given nothing else
but the evidence that you see on this video?
And it came back a resounding no.
And they saw things that I didn't even know what to look for.
And it was a huge benefit to me.
And so don't be afraid to do that
if you're looking for pieces of evidence
that are gonna help you with a go or a no go situation.
But here's one thing that you can do as a potential buyer
to help give yourself confidence
in buying a car, sight unseen.
And that's reading the seller.
I mean, I think as humans, we are,
we have this innate ability to kind of have a feeling
when someone isn't being completely truthful.
You feel it in your gut if they're being dishonest
or they might be hiding something.
And I think by having a long conversation
on the phone with the seller and asking questions
pointedly, you know, not in roundabout,
but pointedly asking questions
and listening to how they answer them.
If they're pausing, if they're hunting for words
or if they're very definitive
and they feel very confident in their maintenance history.
You know, do they say things like, well, I'm not really sure
or I got to look for those receipts.
I don't know if I have them.
Things like that, you know, definitely add up
when you are trying to say, well,
are they trying to get rid of a problem car
or was this a well-serviced, well-loved car?
Sometimes what I like to do is I like to ask the same question
a number of different ways, a number of different times
over the course of a 45 minute conversation.
And that helps me hone in if there's an issue
where this potential car might have
or if I have a sneaking suspicion
that maybe they're trying to hide something.
So don't be afraid to be a little bit of a detective,
have a long conversation with the person.
I mean, you're gonna have a sense
if that person feels honest to you,
if they're giving you straight answers
or if they're being very dismissive
or they're being very cagey and that goes a long way
and you have to be prepared to walk away.
Willing to overlook issues because of the idea
of owning the car is only gonna hurt you later
and don't ask me how I know.
And so if you do get feedback from a phone call
with the seller or if you get feedback
from your video PPI that you're showing your local shop
or ultimately of course a real PPI
because any seller should 100% move a car right to a PPI
if you wanna do it, then you be prepared to walk away.
Even the rare cars, they are out there.
And there's no, I should say there's very few
unicorn cars where you'll never find another one.
The cost of making a mistake is certainly higher
if you ignore your gut.
But you know what, I do wanna mention one thing
about the idea of buying a car a long distance.
It's the romance of it.
And I know this is gonna sound crazy
and those of you that might be long-term listeners
know the story about that I've actually bought
quite a few cars sight unseen and from a distance.
And the idea of the fly, buy and drive
is something that I find incredibly romantic.
It's the idea of it harkens back
to the adventure of owning these cars.
And my most recent example was I bought a 991
out in Salt Lake City.
I live in New Hampshire and I brought my then,
gosh, I think he was 12 years old,
my 12 year old son with me.
We purchased the car and we spent four or five days
road tripping home, staying in hotels,
stopping and seeing the world's biggest ball of yarn
or the biggest round of cheese.
And we still talk about it.
And especially as a dad, it was so formative
in getting that amount of time with my son
today with the tablets and the video games
and the activities.
I just, we don't get to spend a lot of one-on-one time
with those that we love.
And having this unadulterated time
in a very small cabin for hours every day,
he still talked to me at the end of each day,
which I think was really good.
But it was, I feel like a really great bonding experience.
And I don't think that people should overlook that
as part of the purchase process
of buying a car sight unseen.
Falling in love with that car over 1,000 or 1,500 miles,
getting to know it, its idiosyncrasies
is a really fantastic thing.
And that's a cool side benefit of buying from a distance.
A huge shout out to listener and contributor Ben
for 11 After 9, who I had been kind of talking to
off and on for the last six months.
And he did just that, he's flying out from,
I think it was Wisconsin out to Boston with his son
and buying himself a 997 and driving it home.
And so I think that's fantastic
and I think that should be done more often.
I did a video on my main channel on 11 After 9
of hopping in my Boxter and going camping
and just taking it for a trip.
And I think enjoying your car on those road trips
is a very important thing.
So long winded answer to question number two,
but it does dovetail nicely into the next question
from guards red Greg 69.
Well, Greg, we'll call you Greg.
I found a 997 that looks right on paper.
It's a fair price.
The owner seems like a decent guy,
but when I brought up the PPI, he got a little cagey.
He says he doesn't want a bunch of shops poking at it
and he's really busy and that the service records
speak for themselves.
I don't want to insult the guy if he's legit,
but something feels a little off.
How hard do I push before I walk?
So this is a real situation that I've run into myself.
You know, you have some people that have that attitude of,
I know what I got.
So, you know, I don't need you poking around
or I don't need to spend the time.
I don't want to waste a time or an afternoon
taking this down to get the car checked out.
It's perfect.
It's a dry car.
It's lived in the desert, it's whole life.
So there's no rust.
How dare you even insult me by saying there could be rust
that you want to try to find.
And so, you know, you don't even need to do a PPI.
Believe it or not, that comes up a lot more than you think.
And so my quick and easy answer to that is,
well, it's going to be a walk away,
but I do think that you should try one more time
with this person and just reason with them very gently
and say, listen, you know, said seller,
this is a lot of money for me.
It sounds like you have an absolutely amazing car
that you're looking to sell
and I want to be the buyer for it.
But at the same time, I would like to know
what I'm getting into.
I mean, certainly the car you're trying to sell,
it looks like it's legit and it's 100%,
but if there is any maintenance that I'm going to need
to deal with in the next 100 miles or 1,000 miles,
I'd like to know when I'm buying it.
You can even assure them that, you know,
if you do find something,
as long as it's not something catastrophic
that you're not going to change your proposed price
that you're willing to buy it for,
but you just want to know that what you're getting into.
You know, that might give the person a little bit of ease
because they might be afraid that if you find,
I mean, gosh, like a small scrape on the underbody
or that there's a small stain
on the removable carpet in the back seat
that you're going to try to get them to give you $2,000 back
on the asking price of the car.
I mean, that's a real thought that sellers have.
And if you assure them that that's not the case,
but it's really that you just want to have a clear picture
of what you're getting into,
but you're fully committed to buying the car,
as long as there isn't anything
that's going to be a major thing
that you're going to have to deal with,
then that might get them to a place
where they're going to be willing to take the car.
Now, of course, you're going to call the PPI shop.
You're going to get the appointment set up.
You're going to interface with the seller in the shop together
to make sure they're both comfortable on a time to get there
and drop it off or stay.
I mean, heck, you can even Venmo the guy $25 to go get lunch
so he can feel good about dropping off the car
and go get a bite to eat.
I mean, these are the little things
that you can help grease the skids.
If you have a seller who is more of just a curmudgeon,
but you think he's an honest person
and you think it's a good buy,
you just want to make the whole process
as easy as possible for him.
However, the other side of that is again,
as I described in the last question,
is you might have a seller
that knows there's an issue with the car
and they're very careful to take pictures from certain angles
or only on one side of the car or only in certain light
or the pictures they do send you
might be creatively cropped
to not let you see a certain detractor of the car.
And they know that if it goes to a PPI
that that's going to be right in the report.
And so I think ultimately having those conversations
with the seller, getting a sense of
are they honest people is going to be very important.
And ultimately, it's just the ability to walk away.
I mean, these cars are valuable, but they're not rare.
And you have to remember that when it comes to Porsche.
911s, Boxters, Caymans,
I mean, even the quote unquote rare cars
aren't rare in the grand scope of things.
And so there are others to find.
And you have to have the ability to walk away
because if you don't, you're going to inherit a problem.
You're going to validate their crappy sales process
and you're going to be stuck with a problem
that's going to cost you potentially tens of thousands of dollars.
You should also assure the seller
that you're absolutely going to be paying for it up front
and that they're simply going to pick up the car and drive away.
And that the shop knows that as well.
I mean, gosh, I've even paid for an oil change for a car
to get it in the shop.
You know, I said to the seller, listen, I know you're busy.
I know the car might be coming up for an oil change.
I really want to have it looked at.
It's a car I absolutely want to move forward in buying
and tell you what, while it's in there,
I'll pay for an oil change for it.
And if for some reason I don't buy it,
well, then you have a free oil change for your car.
And if I do buy it,
I've bought myself an oil change for the car.
And that actually got someone to say,
well, that sounds reasonable.
Okay, I'll spend the time
because I think I'm going to get something out of it
if this whole project doesn't move forward.
And the PPI isn't the first test, it's the last test.
Because again, you're spending 45 $600 on a PPI,
sometimes even more if you're doing a boar scope
or some more in-depth investigative work.
And I think it's important that you do your due diligence,
that cold start video we talked about,
talking with the seller,
exclusively getting underbody pictures if you can.
I mean, heck, you can even reach out to the PCA
in the forums, find out if anyone lives in that town
that might be open to potentially swinging by
and taking a look at the car for you.
A lot of people, including myself, if they have the time,
you know, would love to spend 20 minutes
going and checking out a car as a third party.
So there's a lot of things that you do to categorize the car,
triage the car before it goes to PPI,
and that's going to be your last thing.
But if someone's really pushing back on a PPI,
a lot like I explained about that guy
from the Midwest with the 914,
they are trying to hide something.
And it's just better to cut your losses and move on
and let someone else make that mistake for you.
All right, I'm going to move on to the final question here.
And this one comes from Steven T. 2526.
So I finally did it.
I picked up a 996 two weeks ago after wanting one cents college.
And this will sound nuts, but I'm a little bit miserable.
I'm scared to park it anywhere.
I'm listening for noises.
I'm checking the oil three times a week.
I've waited 15 years and saved up all my money
and I'm not even enjoying it.
Did I make a mistake or does this go away?
So this is a really interesting question
because it kind of gets to the heart of are these cars just cars
or are they an aspirational purchase
that might mean more to you than just a fun hobby to go enjoy?
And certainly someone who has worked really hard
for a decade and a half and saved their money
to buy their dream car,
I can absolutely see why you're afraid of it going away,
whether that's because it's going to break on you
or you're afraid it's going to get stolen
or any of these issues.
And so I want to validate you, Steven,
that this is something that we all deal with
and this is something where I remember driving a car.
It was a fly buy and drive and driving at home
and I had to park it outside my hotel
and I parked it like right outside the window.
It was not a nice hotel and I was on the ground floor.
And I picked the nicest hotel I could
in the area where I was staying,
but I think I might've got up maybe five or six times
in the course of the night, just peek out the window,
make sure my baby was still sitting outside.
And so yeah, it's a real thing, right?
And that does fade over time.
These are precious cars to us,
but they're not precious cars if you know what I mean.
And so the more you drive them, the more that fades
and it becomes a really enjoyable hobby and part of your life.
And I would say that the best cure for this
is to literally get in that car and try to drive it
as much as you possibly can doing completely mundane things.
Take it to grocery shopping,
of course, parking the back of the lot,
as far away from anyone as you possibly can,
right up against a curb on one side
to make sure someone could only park next to you
on one side, do all the things, right?
But use it as a car, continue to use it as a car
and slowly that will fade and it will become
just an enjoyable thing for you to take out when you drive.
I think when it comes to being worried
about things breaking, we're our own worst enemies.
You know, we listen to YouTube videos,
we read forums about problems with cars,
are they overblown, you know,
because sensationalizing the issues with certain cars
and certain generations, you know, gets clicks
and it gets people talking and almost always
it's overblown, almost always, but it gets in our heads
like a little earworm and we start thinking about it
and we start checking our oil
or we check under the car to make sure nothing's leaking
or we feel like a tick, tick, ticking in our mind
of a stopwatch as I described in the last podcast
with my buddy Andy from while you're in there
that, you know, you're using the car up somehow
and it's gonna be really important
to if you buy a well-maintenance car
and you continue to maintenance yourself
is you have to put that out of your mind, okay?
The idea that a car is gonna break by using it
is the wrong thought when it comes to Porsche ownership.
A Porsche will break if you don't drive it.
So I want you to think of it this way,
every time you get in their car and you take it to coffee
or you take it to grocery shopping
or you go take yourself a 45 minute therapy drive,
you're actually helping the car, you're exercising it.
It's like a thoroughbred that just gets stuck in the barn.
It's gonna weather and die.
And so you take it out, you get the oil circulating,
you get the fluids hot, you get the motor
doing what it was built to do and the car's happy.
And the more you drive that car,
the healthier it's gonna be
as long as you keep up on your maintenance.
And quite frankly, the more payback
you're gonna get from your investment.
I mean, this is a car, Steven, that you've wanted forever.
And why would you wanna leave it in the garage
and be afraid to drive it?
I mean, this is your aspirational purchase.
Now I am gonna have one very small caveat to this.
And I think it's an important one.
And that is if you have a car that is very special to you
and I'm gonna, again, as with everything,
throw myself on the fire here
and give you an example of my 356 that I had.
I had a beautiful 1964 Rubin Red 356C.
It was a really fantastic car.
And at that time, my sons were very, very young.
They were still in car seats.
I had two car seats in the back of my 993 at the time,
but the 356 doesn't have seat belts
and or mine didn't at the time.
Actually, no seat belts in the back.
I think this might have had lap belts in the front,
but suffice it to say, they couldn't come in the car with me.
And I found myself just not really driving it very much.
And when I did drive it, the 356 was what I'd call
an A to A car.
And by that I mean, I'd leave point A,
which would be my garage and I'd go out for a drive
and I'd always come back to point A,
which would be my garage.
I would never take it and park it at a restaurant
or on a busy street or take it for an overnight somewhere
and leave it out in a parking lot.
Because this was a car and it was my own mistake
in buying such an amazing, beautiful car.
I bought it from Nathan Mers
and it was just an absolute example
of just the car you wanna buy, one owner, records from new.
I mean, this previous owner had a book of every gallon
of gas that had ever been through the car.
And this was like a car you wanna own for a collection.
But I got really nervous and I felt that it was
such a weight of responsibility to keep up on the maintenance,
keep the story of the car that I was afraid to use it
because God forbid I pull into a parking lot
and someone opens their door and ruins my,
gosh, what was it, 60 year old paint job
and I have to put new paint on one side of the car.
I mean, God forbid that would happen.
So I found myself just not driving it
and not taking my wife out to dinner
because I didn't wanna put it in a parking garage.
And I would just do these A to A drives
and after a while I realized
that maybe this wasn't the car for me.
So, you know, whether this is a very fast track car
or a very old Porsche or whatever it is
and it's good for one thing
and you find yourself not using it all the time,
that's okay too.
But it is important for you to say to yourself
that maybe this wasn't, this was a good purchase.
It was what you thought you wanted, Steven,
but maybe a base Boxster is gonna be something
that's gonna be less expensive, less precious.
And that's okay too,
because if what you really wanna do is drive,
I think that whatever Porsche you're in
is the right Porsche for you.
And so I don't think you're in this case.
I think that this is just,
you need to get used to your car,
you need to put some miles on it,
you need to make it yours.
It needs to become much more of a companion,
like a loyal horse that you ride every day
rather than this unicorn that lives in the garage
that might break if you look at it wrong.
But for those of you out there that do have a precious car,
that you just spent $40,000 on a brand new paint job,
windows out, Concord Edition,
and now you're afraid to drive it,
it's not uncommon for people like that
to just sell the car and say,
you know what, I'm a driver, I need a driver.
And this has become not a driver and that's okay too.
You can tell it to someone that wants to collect them.
So with that being said, this is the 11 After 9 podcast.
I wanna thank all of you for listening to me blather on.
As always, next week we continue the cavalcade
of amazing guests that honor me to be on the podcast.
And I'd encourage all of you to check out the main channel
on 11 After 9, have some fun videos that we put up.
Most recently, a video I made as your wingman
to talk to your significant other
about why you should get your first Porsche.
And I try to keep it a little bit humorous,
but I do think there's a couple tidbits in there
that maybe you might be able to take
in your discussions about getting into the brand
or just put it on their phone and walk away.
But with that being said,
I really wanna thank all of you again for the support
and excited to see you next week.
Thanks very much.
This is 11 After 9 and I'm Derek.
We'll see you next week.
About this episode
Listener Q&A tackles Porsche buying and the anxiety that can follow. The host explains how to shop smart—define must-haves, move quickly, and treat a pre-purchase inspection as “the last test.” For long-distance purchases, he stresses evidence like cold-start and underbody videos, plus decoding history reports and watching for seller pushback. Once the car is yours, fear can fade: “The best cure” is driving it on mundane errands, building familiarity, and remembering “A Porsche will break if you don't drive it.”
Buying a used Porsche sight unseen, talking a cagey seller into a PPI, or finally landing the 996 you waited 15 years for and being too scared to drive it. This week on ElevenAfterNine it's a full listener Q&A: the nerves, the second-guessing, and the search fatigue that come with buying and owning one of these cars.
If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, drop a star rating and a few words in a review. Believe it or not, that goes a long way toward bringing the show to new people.
