Tråd: £8000 Porsche Boxster S - kup eller katastrofe?

Tanken om en billig Boxster S synes næsten for godt til at være sandt, men nogle gange kan det bare være værd at tage chancen. Telefonen ringede, og efter blot et par sekunder ved at lytte til personen i anden enden, mit hjerte sank.
Det var min far, som er 76 år, men stadig håbløst besat af biler, der ønsker at vide, hvad jeg mente om ideen for ham, at købe en 14-årig Porsche Boxster S.
Hvordan i alverden er du formodes at reagere på et spørgsmål, som på en elendig morgen i januar?
Svar jeg første mindede ham om hans alder, og derefter gik ind i nogle mindre detaljer om, hvor meget en 14-årig Boxster kan koste at lave, når, ikke hvis, det går galt.
Men på det tidspunkt var han allerede godt i hans skridtlængde, at fortælle mig, hvor meget af en god handel netop dette eksempel, viste sig at være, og om, hvorfor han havde allerede gjort op i hans sind, at han gik til at købe det.
Så på det tidspunkt besluttede jeg at lytte-dens hans penge, der forsvinder ned i tændrørshullet "når regningerne begynder rullende i, efter at alle. Og på det tidspunkt ting gik fra slemt til værre.
Det tilhører en meget rart klingende kinesisk mand, der bor i Twickenham, sagde min far. Og sine kun gjort 15.000 miles.
Og hvor meget vil den pæn kineser fra Twickenham for sin eventuelt clocket Boxster S? Jeg forhørte mig.
Otte grand, svarede han. Selv om Im håber fanden tog syv og en halv.
Åh Gud, jeg troede, han virkelig vil købe det. Og på det tidspunkt hvad kan du gøre? Så jeg foreslog skulle han gå og faktisk køre bilen før du afleverer nogen penge i et rasende udbrud bil naivitet. Som han den meget næste dag, og kom tilbage endnu mere begejstret ved hvad han havde opdaget.
Pågældende bilen har været ejet af den samme dejlig person fra ny kinesisk, det viser sig, og han syntes at være så ægte som de får. HED købt den i sommeren 2000 fra Porsche MORMONER i Chiswick.
Ikke længe efter at han gik til at arbejde i Usa for fem år, selv om, i hvilken tid han fik MORMONER til at kigge efter bil ved at køre den op på en regelmæssig basis, af alle konti.
Og da han kom tilbage til ENGLAND, han brugte det som en anden bil, som et stykke legetøj, dybest set, og fortsatte med at få det til eftersyn af MORMONER og havde hver enkelt regning for at bevise det.
Det også havde en splinterny elektriske hætte, og havde lige haft 1100 arbejde udført på det at lave en lille utæthed i en af sine karme. Og når min gamle mand kørte den hjem et par dage senere, at have skiltes med 7700, jeg tror, han kunne, bare for et par sekunder, har været de lykkeligste menneske på jorden.
Et par dage senere jeg gik over og tog et kig på det, og jeg kunne ikke helt tro mine øjne-fordi der, sidder på min mor og Dads drev, var hvad der lignede en helt ny Porsche Boxster S. Det så faktisk, som om det lige var kommet ud af samlebåndet.
Så jeg kørte den rundt om blokken for lidt og der var ikke så meget som et pust af et hvin fra hvor som helst. Dæmperne stadig føltes rart og munter, gearkassen syntes fejlfri, som gjorde den styring, bremser og gashåndtag svar, udstødning Bemærk, handlingen hood, kabinen, to støvler foran og bagtil... du navn det, bilen virkede perfekt.
Ikke kun gjorde det til at ligne en helt ny Boxster S, men det viste sig, at drevet temmelig meget som en, også.
Og nu mit hjerte er ikke længere sænket - i hvert fald ikke indtil næste bizar telefonopkald om biler opstår. . .

The idea of a cheap Boxster S seems almost too good to be true, but sometimes it might just be worth taking the chance. The telephone rang and after just a few seconds of listening to the person on the other end, my heart sank.
It was my father – who is 76 but still hopelessly obsessed by cars – wanting to know what I thought about the idea of him buying a 14-year-old Porsche Boxster S.
How on earth are you supposed to react to a question like that on a miserable morning in January?
In response I first reminded him of his age, and then went into some minor detail about how much a 14-year-old Boxster might cost to fix when, not if, it goes wrong.
But by that time he was already well into his stride, telling me how much of a bargain this particular example appeared to be, and about why he had already made up his mind he was going to buy it.
So at that point I decided to listen – its his money that will disappear down the plughole when the bills begin rolling in, after all. And at that point things went from bad to worse.
It belongs to a very nice sounding Chinese man who lives in Twickenham, said my father. And its only done 15,000 miles.
And how much does the nice Chinaman from Twickenham want for his possibly clocked Boxster S? I enquired.
Eight grand, he replied. Although Im hoping hell take seven and a half.
Oh God, I thought, he really is going to buy it. And at that point what can you do? So I suggested he should go and actually drive the car before handing over any money in a frenzied outburst of car naïvety. Which he did the very next day, and came back even more enthused by what hed discovered.
The car in question has been owned by the same nice Chinese person from new, it turns out, and he seemed to be as genuine as they get. Hed bought it in the summer of 2000 from Porsche AFN in Chiswick.
Not long after that he went to work in America for five years, though, during which time he got AFN to look after the car by running it up on a regular basis, by all accounts.
And when he came back to the UK he used it as a second car, as a toy, basically, and continued to get it serviced by AFN and had every single bill to prove it.
It also had a brand new electric hood, and had just had 1100 of work carried out on it to fix a small leak in one of its sills. And when my old man drove it home a few days later, having parted with 7700, I think he might, just for a few seconds, have been the happiest man on earth.
A couple of days later I went over and took a look at it, and I couldnt quite believe my eyes – because there, sitting on my Mum and Dads drive, was what looked like a brand new Porsche Boxster S. It looked, indeed, as if it had just come off the production line.
So I drove it round the block for a bit and there wasnt so much as a whiff of a squeak from anywhere. The dampers still felt nice and perky, the gearbox seemed faultless, as did the steering, the brakes, the throttle response, the exhaust note, the hood operation, the cabin, the two boots front and rear… you name it, the car seemed perfect.
Not only did it look like a brand new Boxster S but it appeared to drive pretty much like one, too.
And now my heart is no longer sunk – at any rate, not until the next bizarre phone call about cars occurs. . .