996 running costs (newbie)

Hi, I am a new member and 'dont' yet own a 996. I current have a BMW 3 series and an Elise for fun and 4/5 track days a yr. I have been thinking that one car could do the job of these two, and that might be a 996. However, i am little concerned about the running costs and insurance... Annual mileage would be approx 7500 (i cycle to work).... Any pointers in this area would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks Graeme

HI Graeme, I've just sold my 996. I had it for 3.5 years and clocked approx 25k miles so similar mileage to what you indicated. In that time I've serviced it as needed, replaced brake pads, plugs and coilpacks, tyres and the front 2 rads. I previously had BMWs and found the servicing costs with my Independent similar, the pads, rads and other bits reasonable but fair enough as you would expect tyres ain't cheap. So on the servicing cost side providing you get a good 996 it won't cost you anything more in fact possibly cheaper than BMW! Just before I purchased it had a new clutch fitted. Hope this helps.

Hi Graeme, Welcome to the forum!! I bought my car a few months ago and was worried about insurance, running costs etc. I did a bit of research into parts and costs of labour and found that they were pretty reasonable if you avoided main dealers. A decent indy will charge half the amount on labour. The challenge you would face is that you would be going from two cars to one. I take it that the lotus is used for your track days. There is no doubt that the porsche could easily handle both jobs, but the maintenance required could add up if you take into account brakes, tyres etc. Also you you may have to take into account that if you need to work on the car will you have access to another car in the meantime. Insurance depends on where you live. I live in NW London. High Risk area. Both my wife and I have a claim each. £925 fully comp. I know that people on the forum pay much less than that. Always a good idea to get the car inspected before purchase in order to try and avoid any potential 'dogs'. One thing I will say.......once you have driven/owned a Porsche, you will not want another car. I only planned to keep the car a year and get it out of my system. Not any more........... Good Luck!!![ ]

The parts and labour themselves aren't more expencive, not much anyway. It's just that with a Porsche you want everything to be close to perfect all the time, on a normal car you don't care so much and may wait a year or two to fix things, but chances are you won't on a car like this. If you treat it like a commuter it will end up as one.... [ ]

Hi Graeme, I've had my 996 C4S for 2 years now, not my every day car, just my 'toy' [ ]..... Insurance obviously depends on location, age etc but I paid £422 last year with ClassicLine, guaranteed valuation, 5k annual mileage. I pay £270 for my disel Astra! Servicing is 12k miles or every 2 years, so as I'm on the latter, works out cost effective for me. I recently got 35.8 mpg en route to West Yorks, in traffic moving at 60/70 mph, a bit of 'spirited' driving whilst there, a slightly faster return but average for the whole trip circa 360 miles was 32.9 mpg. I was quite lucky to inherit a vehicle that had just had it's 48k mile service so ALL major replacement parts were done then. Hope this helps & enjoy when you join the fold. regards Paul

The money you save on shedding out 2 road taxes and 2 insurances I don't think you'll notice much of a difference. I pay approx £1100 a year on insurance, 200 on tax, had suspension and geo done at £1200 and few other things... But the thing is it is now "my" car the way I like things...I think you should factor in at least 2-2.5k per year running costs

I wrote a running report about my Carrera giving an indication on what I spent on the car in just under 3 years. A bit part of the cost was modifications like wheels and sports exhaust http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=581957

i use mine as an everyday car and it hasnt let me down. The only time i didnt go out with it was for 3 weeks last xmas when we had a foot of snow. insurance wise i paid 750 or so and im only 25 so it doesnt cost the earth, just look away from the meter when your filling up tho .

I'd allow a minimum of 1k a year for basic maintenance, but best to say 1.5k to allow for any things that may come up. 7.5k will see you through a pair of rear tyres, at around £250.00 each minimum for N rated. For services to keep the history up that will vary from 250.00+ additional parts to over 500.00+ additional parts at an Indi, or up to 1k at an OPC for a major. In the past 12 months I have spent a little over 2k on the car, but 1k of that were what I would consider 'upgrades'. There is another £1k+ on the horizon for me for shocks and rear brakes that I want to switch out as they are getting old before xmas as well. With regards to insurance, at 32 I pay 480 fully comp up to 8k mileage with a 600 excess, that is with 5 years of my no claims allocated to it.

My indy charges £155 for a 12,000 and £265 for a 24,000 on a Carrera, but I would agree with Steve that £1000-1500 for general service and maintenance would be a sensible budget.

This depends largely on make. If you invest a few more £££ and get Mich Pilot Sports, you should get a lot more mileage than that. I got 16,000 from rears and 24,000 from fronts and current wear indicates about the same on my 2nd set - and that's not hanging about either! My costs were very low in first 4 years - much less than £1000/annum - only regular servicing at an indi at similar prices to those mentioned by richard mentioned above, tyres, one window regulator (about 150 GBP) and one passenger door lock sensor. This year has been more, with a new radiator, header tank cap, plastic inner front wing liners, front discs and pads, new coffin arms, forked control arms, droplink and top links on front suspension, a service, fixing door seal and replacement hinge for central console cubby hole - but all that was only about £1.6K at indi prices. Insurance is 530pa and, of course, the VPower isn't cheap these days. The 996 is a great all rounder - can get my golf clubs and trolley in it, the wife and enough stuff for a 10 day touring holiday - have been as far afield as Italy and Norway twice.

I still think to allow a budget of much less than 1k a year would be too little, as you said you had more this year, if someone sets aside 1.5k and has any left over great, a few hundred towards any surprises. On the tyres, my pzeros lasted around 8k, I hear the conti's can get up to 12k, but it varies on whoever you speak to. I run Michi Pilot sports on the front of my daily driver as they are the factory fit tyres, £280.00 each for 225x40x18's so I'd imagine the porsche sizes are a fair bit more. I use them as they are soft. provide fantastic grip on my front heavy FWD car, but they get munched through in no time on it. The best tyres for wear I had found over the past years were Avon zz1's, but they were hard tyres (the pair on the rear of my ZT have lasted over 30k lol).

Just to tag onto an appropriate thread, what sort of tyre life and fuel consumption have owner's experienced with 996 Turbos? I may have a chance of a keenly priced one through a trusted source in the near future so I'm just doing a bit of research in advance. The car would seldom be used in towns. Thanks.

17-19 mpg in town, 28-29 mpg on the motorway. Rears are down to 3mm on Continental Sport Contact2s after 8k miles. Front have 4mm. Michelins may last longer. rear tyre wear was worse on the Carrera on the Continentals.

Thanks minny

Great! i just bought two Conti rears for my Carrera 2. Would you go for them again Minny?

Used Camskill this time but Blackcircles the last time. I'm in Belfast so our local tyre fitters are different than on the mainland.

I think he meant would you get contis again, i could be wrong tho.

Sorry, re-read post and you are spot on. I have always been happy with Contis. I prefer the wet weather performance compared to the Pirellis and Bridgestones. Michelins probably have the edge but they are rather pricey. I did find that the Contis wore quickly at the rear on the Carrera though. Down to 2mm in 4.5k miles. This was with the alignment checked and re-checked and completely spot on. On the turbo the wear rate seems to be half that. However the fronts are wearing quicker. They would probably last 20k miles instead of the 30k on the Carrera.

Thnaks Chris for correcting Min. Min, thanks for letting us know your experiences.