There is no substitute

From My 911

Ever since I got rid of my 944 I've been regretting it and been plotting my way back into another Porsche. I figured the Cayman was my shot since it was much closer to my price range than a new 911. I finally had a chance to sit in a Cayman at the Seattle Auto Show and quickly concluded there was no way I could fit in out without losing an arm. As usual leg room was fine, but the car was just too narrow for my shoulders.

Having ruled out the Cayman as a possibility left me with either going back to a 944 or finding a 911 I could afford. I don't really have the right setup right now to keep a 944 running. They frown upon doing oil changes in my apartment's parking garage and hauling my tools in and out would be a pain. So I started researching 911s.

I did some very detailed budget projections and figured out what I could truly afford and worked that into a price range then went hunting for cars to look at. In Bellevue I found a nice 2001 911 Carrera with 65k miles. The colors weren't quite right (light gray interior) and the car was a bit dinged up, so I kept looking.

Turns out across the street is a place called Park Place which I fear will forever have a hold on me. They only handle used high end, collectible, and sports cars. They are a new dealer for Lotus, but there is no way I'll ever fit in one of those. They had exactly what I had been looking for a 1999 Black/Black Carrera 2 in my price range. It only had 45k miles and was in perfect condition. Not even any swirl marks in the paint. It also has the manual seats which seem to give you a bit of extra head room over the powered seats. I need every fraction of an inch I can get, but there is just enough space and I can drive it very comfortably.

To do my due diligence I checked out a higher mileage car at another dealer in Seattle, but it again was the wrong color (silver exterior). I figure if I'm getting my dream car it needs to be perfect. So I headed back to Park Place to see what kind of deal they had come up with while I was out. After a couple of round of back and forth we basically agreed they would give me what I owed on the lease on the Mazda and I'd pay sticker price for the 911. I signed the papers and drove away with my new(-to-me) 911.

I love it so far, I haven't had too much of a chance to really push it since its been raining so much. The only real downside is that I am now limited to only having one friend at a time since the backseats are a joke. Either that or I need to start befriending smaller people :-)