After buying my '73 2.0 I've kept in contact with the original owner, James. A great guy who has answered many of my questions, filled in a few blanks and provided some old pics and a statement of his ownership of the car.

He kept great documents on the car. When I bought it, it had most of the original receipts, the delivery sheet, copy of the original title, manuals, tools...everything except the invoice and window sticker. The original owner said he just didn't even recall having received them but if he did, he somehow misplaced them which was unfortunate since so much about this car shows his great attention to detail.

Fast forward to today....I had sent a note to James yesterday to ask him about the question I had related to the radio faceplate in my car which is a black vinyl instead of the basket weave vinyl. When I sent that note I also included a couple of pics of the car after doing some cleaning and also sent a pic of Sara and I with the car. Again, I thanked him for being such a great caretaker of the 914. James sent a note back thanking me for the pics and confirmed that the radio and faceplate are as they were when he bought it off the showroom in '73.

For reasons I can't explain about fifteen minutes after the first email I got another one from James saying, out of the blue, that he just didn't know why he had not received a window sticker or sales invoice when he bought the car. He mentioned that perhaps business was just done differently then than it is today. BUT...then James told me that he went back through his files and was able to locate the cancelled checks for the deposit and final full payment (no loan) for the car. He sent pics of the checks to me saying he thought I might want them. I couldn't believe it!

And if that isn't enough, while I was firing off a big note of thanks to James I got another email from him saying that he had located 1) the actual window sticker, 2) the purchase order sheet and 3) the invoice. He sent copies of each of them to me and said he'd be happy to send the originals. I couldn't believe it. What are the odds that he would even care to look for them 42 years later and actually find them!

Docs clearly show only two options added by the dealer:
- undercoating for $29.95
- Blaupunct radio for $179. Seems pricey for 1973!

So, forgive me for my excitement. Felt better than Christmas today.

Happy to post pics when I get the originals.

Steve

awesome

Radios and undercoating were money makers for the dealers.

Very cool!

My car also came with all receipts from new. I am the third owner, so after owning it for probably 14 years, I got a wild hair and decided to try to contact the original owner. After 5 minutes on Google, I was leaving him a message. He called me back about 2 weeks later (he is a commercial pilot), and we talked for probably an hour about the car. He had bought it new when he was a cadet in the Air Force Academy, and he kept it until sometime in the '90s. He still remembered a lot of details about the car (dings and so-forth). In honor of him, I have kept an AF parking sticker on the rear window that will never be removed. I told him that if he ever has a layover at CVG, I will come pick him up and let him drive her again.

Talk about luck. What do you want to bet that he is just as happy with the car's new owner as you are with the car. I luckily sold my Pristine Ghia a few month's back to a guy that is richer than ten foot up a pig's ass. I know it's in good hands,

I think you're probably right. He's 78 and only sold it because he couldn't keep up with it anymore. I know he hated to let it go so I've tried to make sure he knows it is being appreciated by our family and others.

Very cool. I have a '96 porsche that was owned by the former CEO of Grant Steering Wheels. He had a Grant sticker on the side window and I've left it there as a nod to him. He took great care of the car for many years....least I could do.

Congrats Steve. You really have a rare car there. Its great that you have such a complete picture of the car from the start.

we'll have to meet up sometime. Would love to see your car in person. Its beautiful in the pics I've seen.

Dee

My crappy junkyard car came with tons of receipts too. I don't know how they survived, but they did. The guy traded in a '70 Mach I Mustang fastback for a brand new '73 1.7 stripper 914 and they gave him a whopping $700 for it.

He must have wanted a 914 pretty badly.

Sweet score! Those docs will serve you very well if you enter that preservation class. It's a treasure to have that kind of history on the car.

Yeah, it's always fun to have the original paperwork. Excellent find for your car!

The radio price is correct. It was $150 in mine.

[$150 in 1974 = $710.90 in 2014 dollars.]

.

Mine came with rust. :-/

Half the value of a '68 Dodge Charger.

Oops. double post.

Here is my original sales slip. Gave me $350 trade in value on my 68 VW Fastback. Charged me $249 for radio, antenna, and install. Noticed that there are no area codes in front of phone numbers.

I didn't get my first Porsche until 1976 -- a 914-6. I can't remember what I paid for it but the battery tray and hell hole were terrible. I later sold it and bought an older 911. I could put a baby car seat in the back.

Anyway, the invoices in this thread are interesting. A 914 was expensive. I remember buying my first car, a 73 Vette convertible, when I was at the Naval Academy. Bulk purchases meant a good discount. I paid $4,700. It had a sticker price for a little over $6,000.

I also saw a Ferrari Dino for sale in Tampa in about 1976 for $10,000 and wondered who would ever pay that much for that car. But then, I sold a '73 911S not that long ago for $13,000. Not too bright......

Waiting for the originals to arrive in the mail but here are the docs the original owner is sending to me along with copies of the cancelled checks. Agree these old docs are very fun to read.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

cool!

It is nice to have all the original paperwork, however I feel I should pass on what I learned @ the last Okteenerfest. Having all the original paperwork resting in a folder in the back trunk is convenient, but useless if you're "AFC", looking @ other teeners. After the results of the peoples choice were announced I had to think about what I could have done different to get noticed, to get more attention. Going AFC is a big mistake, no matter how pretty or interesting the other cars there are. Also helps to have the paperwork on display, for easy viewing. Since last fall I removed all my paperwork from said folder & framed it all in one big poster frame, that I keep in my rear trunk. Next time I do a show out it will come to rest on an easel & me right next to it in my chair to answer any & all questions. No matter how nice the car is, it still comes down to marketing & presentation.

Great trove Steve!

Many dealers then, now & in between only gave the buyer window stickers if they asked for it! That happened to me with my 85 BMW 325e (which I still own) that I got when my 914 was crunched in May 85 & the then "soon to be wife" said that I need a car with a back seat for the kids we'll be having, but since it started off on a 3 yr. lease - they didn't bother to even ask me about the sticker, since I wasn't technically the owner (GE Capital as lessor had that honor).

It's a good idea to email some better quality pix of these docs. & your COA to Jeff Bowlsby to add to his database on these docs at his Classic 914 website.

If you compare your COA & this window sticker, you'll see that NONE of the "N/C" Options listed on the Mulroney window sticker are listed on your COA - even though they are clearly listed as options on the Mulroney above & included in the base price.

This is one of many flaws in PCNA's questionable COA program - not listing the "included options" (N/C ones) on the COAs - along with staff who don't bother to correctly research the option codes, color codes, etc. for the era of P-cars & other rampant errors on the COAs (BTW the VW COA on my 88 Westy was correct the 1st time for 1/2 the Porsche COA price which took 3 tries & only corrected on the 3rd cuz I called the PCNA Customer Care GM!).

It happens on almost all of their special models - including the 914LEs (which at least have an optional paint code to identify them), 911RS, etc., etc. - which IMHO is a pretty stupid policy or procedure. They could at least include their own model code # on them (473644 on your window sticker) to show that they included certain options/groups in the standard equipment fitment.

That's what got me into heavily researching the " '914S' options included package" of your & my era 914-2.0 models, so that I could do a proper & complete restoration, since it had had several options "stripped" by the dealer when I bought mine from the original owner in Dec `75 - including: the fog lights/grills/dash switch, Fuchs 2L alloys changed out for Rivieras & a steel spare, & the center console/3-gauges removed for another 914 buyer - which the OO didn't mind since it gave extra 3rd passenger legroom for the owners 2 kids (3rd kid on the way was why they sold it). I never did confirm if the OO paid full price for their "914S" missing on their car from these clever dealer thefts!

Without the window sticker & since PCNA couldn't even get the interior color code correct - let alone the options list & no model # (Jeff's website provided copies of the interior color codes to force PCNA to correct their error), I literally had no way to prove out what was originally on my 8/31/72 build 2.0L.

When Rick Perkins the PCNA Western Regional Service Manager (whom I've known since the 1970s at Iverson, Circle & Rusnick Porsche+Audi dealerships out here in SoCal) came out to confirm that my 914 never got the mandated NHTSA Recalls - HO (fuel lines & full battery cover) & BO (wrong non-hub-centric alloy wheels), he suggested using the Porsche+Audi "914S" sales literature & related documentation to "prove out" that the options would've been included before the selling dealer had "stripped" them for sale on another 914. I could show him the wheels & the cut foglight wires & hole in the dash/face-material where they once had the "missing options"

He also said that the dealerships where he worked could swap full interiors of 2 side-by-side 914s in under 45 mins. if a customer wanted a different than factory interior color, & suggested getting a copy of the old dealer option book with the codes to send to PCNA's COA staff - ergo my going to Jeff's website for that documentation, which the COA staff & supervisor still refused to correct until I called their GM.

He also confirmed that it was common for the dealers to steal/swap the alloy spare for a steel wheel & then sell of 4 "stolen" spares as a full set at 100% profit on the parts side! He said the dealership owners/bosses called it "stripping the spares" & Chick Iverson in Newport Beach was notorious for doing it on both 914s & 911s/912s - as well as on the Audis!

Also on the radio/face-material - the VWoA optional Motorola Radios/Stereos were about 1/2 - 3/4s the cost of the German Blaupuncts & just as good a unit - if not better sound quality back then, so most 914 buyers went with them, as did my OO for the Motorola made AM/FM/8-Track (I've seen these on other 1972-73 dealer invoices at $95 IIRC) - which did have the basketweave pattern hard plastic surround to match the dashface material included in the radio/installation kit.

My guess is that the selling dealer on yours just used some of the dashface/seat insert/door panel basketweave material that they had on hand for customer car repairs to do your install for the OO, if that radio in yours didn't come with or "lost" it's molded plastic dashplate radio surround.

So now you're all fitted out with full factory & dealer documentation for your Parade CdE adventure!

Cheers!
Tom
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Check out the $226 dealer prep for doing what the factory paid them an allowance off their dealer invoice cost of the car to do anyway - clean off the cosmoline & wash/vacuum the cars for sale!

Now that & stealing the alloy spares for sale were the big profit makers & usually more than the dealer profit on the car in those days!

Mine came with conflicting ownership history/story...

The original invoices and window stickers that were posted were very interesting.

Suggestion: make a new sticky in the historical section for people to post them.

That is a good idea Cuda. I will also send to Jeff Bolsby for his site.

I love how simple the paper work was back then.

Times were simpler back then I remember when I went to Jr College my Social Security number was my student ID number !

Great idea, but I think that Pat Garvey has to do that for O&H Forum as the "Mod".

Me too at Santa Monica, Mesa (San Diego) JCs from summer courses, & even at USC for 4 yr IIRC - so now today I hope that they don't have those records digitized & hackable!!!!

Steve that is so cool having those documents. The old paperwork is neat. Simpler times, a look back in commerce history. Awesome stuff.

And it's one of them elusive Porche cars too!


PS: I would have fired that guy ...

Yup ... Porche ....

My Dad's running joke when he was still alive, was to ask if I still had my "Front Porch" or "Back Porch" in the garage or driving/running!

He liked it how it handled & rode when he rode with me on a couple of occasions when he was out in CA for business back in the 70's - even if he drove a big Olds Boat & loved it's "magic carpet ride"! ....

TT
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Received the originals docs from the original owner. They are in such good condition! Thought I would share.Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

….and additional docsClick to view attachment Click to view attachment