Kansas man buying cheap Porsche 911 sight unseen gets unlucky and is now facing $56,000 in repairs

Published on Apr 11, 2026 at 11:09 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis

Last updated on Apr 10, 2026 at 8:29 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Emma Matthews

This Kansas YouTuber bought a super cheap Porsche 911, and he found out immediately why it was so cheap.

The car was in terrible shape for its age and mileage, but that wasn’t the biggest problem.

There was also something wrong with the engine.

So wrong it ended up costing way more than the car.

The ‘if you can’t buy it new’ rule always applies

The adage has been revisited and reworded a million times.

Words change, but the meaning doesn’t: if you can’t afford it new, you can’t afford it used either.

This applies to luxury cars and supercars for two reasons.

First, as the price goes down, maintenance costs generally go up.

Second, you can’t expect Fiat maintenance costs on a Ferrari.

This YouTuber, for example, bought a Porsche 911 sight unseen.

But what started as a great day quickly turned into a bad one when he realized how much he’d have to fork out.

This Porsche is likely a write-off

Tyler Hoover is a collector and YouTuber based in Kansas who regularly spends crazy amounts of cash on cars featured on his channel, Hoovies Garage.

For once, the amount he spent sounded reasonable.

He bought a 2007 Porsche 911 997.1, sight unseen, for about $22,000.

To be fair, this should’ve been the first red flag, because that’s significantly below market value for a 911.

Hoover knew he’d face some mechanical ‘challenges’ considering the low price tag.

But the situation was worse than expected, and what he found was a catastrophe, not a challenge.

Summarized and simplified, the cylinders had a problem that allowed oil to bypass and just spread everywhere inside the engine, leading to smoke, noise, and eventually a total breakdown.

Rebuilding the engine would cost around $30,000-$40,000 in parts alone, which meant adding another $10,000-$20,000 or more for labor.

And there was more, because engine aside, Hoover noted this car was in ‘exceptionally poor condition’ for having only 83,000 miles.

Rust everywhere, ruined paint, damaged wheels, and the locking mechanism for the key was so worn that the key could be pulled out while the engine was running.

This looks like a ‘parts car’ and not a car you can repair.

Pity.

Then again, YouTubers love this stuff, so we wouldn’t be surprised if his next video was titled ‘Rebuilding my Porsche 911’ or something.

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After beginning his automotive writing career at DriveTribe, Alessandro has been with Supercar Blondie since the launch of the website in 2022. In fact, he penned the very first article published on supercarblondie.com. He’s covered subjects from cars to aircraft, watches, and luxury yachts - and even crypto. He can largely be found heading up the site’s new-supercar and SBX coverage and being the first to bring our readers the news that they’re hungry for.