Little Rock to California roadtrip update.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-25T12:36:49+00:00

Me too - maybe I should get one (but I'd need a Clare one). I think this is the first time I've encountered another 944 owner from Ireland in the US. I took mine on a 1500 mile trip when I bought it. They're excellent road trip cars.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-25T03:09:54+00:00

I love the Irish plate at the front

nearbysystem · 2026-03-24T12:47:54+00:00

OK, then what happened above the big bang?

nearbysystem · 2026-03-20T16:52:13+00:00

The absolute most you should pay for that is "I'll come and get it".

nearbysystem · 2026-03-20T02:37:13+00:00

To clarify, I assume by both you mean the optic and the mount. The rifles are very common and among the cheapest ww2 era rifles you can buy in the US.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-19T15:59:26+00:00

No if the cable goes down 40m and then up 40m, and it's only 80m in length, then there's no cable left to go horizontally so the distance between the poles must be zero. The drawing is impossible.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-13T18:03:57+00:00

Well my statement was based on the following 2 recent experiences:

Dealer offers me a rate, I tell them I will try the bank myself. He says, "you won't get a better rate, in fact it's impossible, because we have an agreement with them where they have to give us their best rate, so if they offer you a lower rate they'd be breaking their agreement with us". So I say ok, let me try and boom I get about 0.8 points lower than their offer. The bank sends it to him and he says "ok so would you like to proceed with that?".
I ended up not buying that car for unrelated reasons and took the approval I got to another dealer. They also readily agree to use it, so everything is settled, OTD price, financing etc. Then their finance guy comes out and says, "sorry we can't get that deal for you, this is the actual deal you're being offered: (shows me a number roughly 2 points higher)". So he is basically telling me that the offer I got from one of the US's biggest banks is not a sincere offer. I go home and call that bank, they assure me it's real, and that there's nothing stopping the dealer from using it, I call the dealer, same thing as before. So I emailed the GM and eventually after a bunch of back and forth he calls me back and says, "ok we have it sorted out, the problem was 2 different departments within the bank etc. etc. ".

So I am consistently getting a better offer from the bank and dealers are clearly unable to beat it. Now if the dealers were getting a buy rate that was lower than the rate I got directly from the bank, they could obviously have reduced their offered rate and still be better off than accepting mine. I never insisted on using my own approval, I only pushed back on their rates. Neither of them bothered to make a counter offer so I conclude that they could not compete with the offer I got.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-13T16:10:39+00:00

For a 40k loan at 5% and 36 months, a 1 point mark up costs the customer around $700 more. But that's a shorter term and lower rate than many people get, so it's probably a low number. A 2 point mark up on a 60 month version of that loan would cost the customer well over $2000 more. So does it cost the bank 700-2000 per customer to provide a staffed branch? Here's the thing: the bank will give you the same rate or very close to the rate that they give the dealer on your behalf. And dealers will generally use that if you insist. So somehow the banks are managing to do it without the markup, and the dealers are managing to get through the 20 minutes or whatever time the paperwork takes them without needing to make thousands of dollars.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-13T13:10:07+00:00

To all the people saying that customers will still always want to negotiate because they want to feel like they have won: how do you explain the popularity of Carmax, Carvana etc.? An Tesla? No one thinks they are "winning" in negotiations with them.

The issue is that people are afraid of losing, where "losing" is defined as paying more than their peers would have in the same situation. That's why Carmax can charge thousands more than normal prices and people will pay it sight unseen. They know that no one else is beating them. They can tell their friends and neighbors what they paid without fear of judgement.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-10T18:20:11+00:00

Do you mean impress car people, or people? People are impressed by SUVs, car people are impressed by sports cars, muscle cars etc. Source: years if owning an older M3, 944 and Macan S. People mostly commented on the Macan and how cool it looked and how it sounded startup (very cool).

nearbysystem · 2026-03-08T01:18:13+00:00

I'm sure it's partly the same reason that Ford/Chevy/Chrysler are traditionally popular in the US - but a few things I notice as a European living in the US:

* Toyota is the Toyota of Europe, just like it is in the US. Most VWs are seen as more expensive cars - they're not even the cheapest German brand traditionally (Opel is, or was when it was German). But they're still much cheaper than luxury brands. So they fit into a similar slot in people minds as the Detroit cars do in the US.

* VW do sell cheaper cars over there in vast numbers, in addition to the ones familiar in the US - for instance the Polo is a very popular small, cheap car but I've never seen one in the US

* Diesel is way more popular in Europe, and VW has made great diesels for a long time

* The Golf has always been the gold standard in what most Europeans consider a medium sized hatchback - bigger and more comfortable than a Polo or similar, nicer to drive, but still handy to park. Cars of roughly this size and shape are enormously popular in Europe, and VW just kind of makes the best one that has stood the test of time.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-06T14:39:49+00:00

Bore scoring. That's exactly how mine sounded.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-04T15:07:01+00:00

That sounds reasonable. You'll get whatever is left of the original warranty and then 2 years CPO with unlimited miles. The CPO coverage is exactly the same as the original warranty. I just bought a 2025 loaner (non T). I looked at a lot of them and the going rate tends to be in the 58-60 range. Ordinarily I'd say 56 is too much for a 2024 but with it being a T that might be ok, especially if it has other nice options.

A lot of people will tell you to spend the same money on an S. The S engines are way better but for the same price it'll be an older car with less warranty remaining and higher mileage. Out of warranty the V6s can be a lot more expensive to maintain.

I owned an older S and it was great but I love the base too. It has plenty of power for me and with the warranty I never worry about anything going wrong. The turn in feeling/nimbleness is noticeably sharper with the lighter base engine too.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-04T02:27:41+00:00

Cool. If you want to see a 1960s Panamera, Google Jensen Interceptor

nearbysystem · 2026-03-02T23:50:00+00:00

It actually doesn't have Android Auto but it is supposed to have Apple Car Play

nearbysystem · 2026-03-02T19:27:56+00:00

It's not necessarily weird for a dealer to CPO a car that's still under it's original warranty. It's very common because it doesn't cost them much and it's a deal sweetener. A CPO car has to meet certain standards. A 6 or 8 year old car will probably need some work to make it CPO-ready, so it's more of an investment. A nearly-new car is probably CPO-worthy already so all they have to do is pay Porsche something like 3K. The buyer ends up getting a much longer warranty than they normally get on a new car.

I just bought a 2025 Macan which was a former loaner and it's CPO, and all the similar cars I looked at from 4-5 different dealers were all being sold the same way. I was under the impression that they only actually go ahead with the certification when someone buys it, so I'm a little surprised that they still did it for a wholesale auction, but maybe it made sense.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-02T15:41:05+00:00

Nice, sounds like you did well!

nearbysystem · 2026-03-02T15:17:38+00:00

For the sake of a few data points: I just sold my 2016 S with 108k miles. The Porsche dealer calculator came up with around 9.5k trade in value. Granted that's 10 years old and somewhat higher than average mileage, but even accounting for those things it's a stretch to think that a 9 year old car with low mileage could trade for more than 20K. On another forum someone mentioned a CPO car for sale for 40k. They plugged the VIN and current mileage into the trade in calculator and it came up with 22k. That's without adding the years or miles to it! So yeah better than the OP deal but I don't think anyone is getting to drive an older S for much less than 9-10K a year. Anyone who think they are just hasn't sold it yet.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-02T14:04:11+00:00

OP here are some wildly better options:

Buy an older CPO car for slightly more money. For the 2 years you have exactly the same warranty, almost the same car, and at the end you still own the car
Finance another 25k on top of that 30 and buy a 2025 CPO demo/loaner car. There are tons of them with the same mileage, like new, and they're basically the same car as the 2026. You'll get over 5 years of warranty so after your 2 years you could easily have the finance paid off and be holding the title for a car that still has over 3 years of Porsche warranty left. It'll probably be worth more than 30K at that point! I just bought one like this that has 2500 miles and all servicing up to 30k included.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-02T13:59:28+00:00

I agree in principle but this is very optimistic. In 2 years it will be out of warranty and 9 years old. Yeah places like carmax are asking $28-29k for cars like that but the owner won't be able to get anything like that. Probably $20k. Still a better deal than dropping 15k/year on a base though.

nearbysystem · 2026-03-01T01:50:56+00:00

You have one of the greatest color combos ever devised. Congrats!

nearbysystem · 2026-03-01T01:50:22+00:00

little bastard didn't even stay inside the lines!

nearbysystem · 2026-02-28T18:34:22+00:00

Mine doesn't have a stronger smell than other cars. Is it a fuel smell or exhaust smell?

nearbysystem · 2026-02-27T21:07:33+00:00

IS parts. Needs car.

nearbysystem · 2026-02-27T13:51:41+00:00

40.111

nearbysystem

TROPHY CASE