Buying 996 - Newbie advice

Hi, First post on the forum so please be gentle lol. Long story short - I do around 25 to 30k per year and could stretch to £15k, I need to sort something out in the next two weeks and pretty much decided that an M3 would likely be my best option, that is until I saw that I might be able to afford a 996. Having spent 2 days boring my girlfriend and last 3 hours looking through previous posts I thought I should just ask, the car that caught my eye is: http://search.autotrader.co.uk Am I being stupid? I've read Richard Hamilton and Rodney Naghar buyers guide and many of the post quoting RMS problems etc. I so won't to believe that a high mileage 996 might be suitable and not cost a fortune to run for another 100k miles but having spent 6k on keeping a Subaru going over the last 12 months only put a hole in the piston on Christmas day wonder if I would be setting myself up for more problems. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hi and welcome... My advice as a relatively high mileage 996 owner would have to be - Don't Do It!!! These are £60-70,000 supercars with running costs to match! Also it would be a braver man than me that would expect to get 190,000 miles out of a 3.4 engine. However, if you feel lucky, consider using the Hartech scheme - where you pay a fixed monthly payment to cover servicing and a labour warranty (you just pay for the parts if something goes wrong) I would also invest a few hundred pounds in a pre-purchase inspection - especially on a cheaper 996: It is very easy to end up with a bill for several thousand if you need a new clutch, new pads and discs, a radiator or two and suspension bushes for example.

Thanks for the reply Wattie, to be honest I guess I already knew, its just I have had a 535 sport that went to 170k with virtually nothing more than servicing and consumables, I friend runs a 928 not so many miles per year but its also round the 170 mark and again suffers very few problems (excd the odd eleictrical glitch) guess I really just wanted the same out of the 911. I have previously gone down the 2nd car route but without a garage hate seeing the car just sat there, specially since I live near the sea, so I'm sure the salt would enjoy a good munch on the rear disks. Back to the M3 I guess, shouldn't complain but its no 911 :roll:

Shaggy IMO there is no reason the 3.4 996 should not do the mileage you hope for any less than any other German car. The engine is mostly very reliable but because the car is relatively expensive, owners have very high expectations and issues become much larger amongst enthusiasts than they actually are. Owners also spend a large sum of money on warranties (which are simply expensive insurance policies) servicing at official porsche centres or independants, which when the residual value of the vehicle is high makes sense at selling time. Now the 996 is more reasonably priced (it is after all a mass produced product) looking after one need not be as expensive as some might have you believe & risk of ownership is no worse than with any other performance car. The engine, for example, has life long timing chain, hydraulic tappets, and life long coolant & so if you know a trusty garage servicing involves usual oil/filter change etc. and at Porsche you will pay the rest of the bill for "inspection" and plug in diagnostic check, the latter can be gotten FOC from some Independents should a sensor or WHY fails. Brake system etc is as any other car, and doing many miles will prevent the usual brake disc corrosion that owners who use the car infrequently suffer. Producing just under 300hp to propel 1300Kg, the engine does not have to work too hard. People change clutches at 50K miles but I have driven 996's with 100K miles on original clutch & I think that if the dealer finds pedal travel or weight of clutch indicates that the clutch is wearing (which it will of course) they persuade the owner to renew - or people do it whilst unnecessarily changing a weeping rear main seal (totally unnecessary). I ran a Boxster for business and over 62K miles it cost less to service and own than my A4 diesel. The 996 will give you 24mpg, you will enjoy every single mile and you will smile when you see it in the car park. I bet you haven't driven one yet... it makes the M3 appear just what it is, an over engined 3 series with rock hard suspension and Halfords styling! That said the car you have found is v. expensive, you should be able to find a very good 60K miler yr 2000 for £15K. I would avoid the GT3 kits - why pretend your Carrera is something else, and red is not the best colour. Find a private sale from somebody who has owned & cosseted the car for a long time, make sure it drives & looks correct & buy on condition, but don't forget that the advert price is largely to be ignored, it really is a buyer's market.

I would tend to agree with DouglasBader's thread to be honest, although Wattie's point about getting 190k is also valid (I'm not sure of many cars that will do 190k miles without work though?) Forum members tend to be enthusiasts who really take care of their cars and replace stuff well before it wears out - I bet there are tons of 911's out there still running fine where the owners have merely followed the service schedule and only replaced bits when they needed replacing. Wattie's advice about a PPI is spot on.

Just for the record, I run my 996 without warranty and use the cheapest Independent that I know of (who fortunately appears to be very, very good). Nevertheless, my car has nearly bankrupt me a couple of times when large bills have to be paid on the spot to keep my daily driver on the road. If my engine was to let go, I would have no choice but to leave the car in the garage for an indefinite period until I could afford to fix it, keep paying the monthly payments, and get some old knacker to drive to work in the meantime. Not a very palatable option tbh I think Doulas Bader is overly optimistic in his expactations of the life expectancy of the engine or the clutch (I know of someone who completely destroyed the clutch on a brand new 996 just loading it onto the top deck of a transporter - i.e. in about 20 metres!) This is not a good car to buy if you are on a tight budget: Much as I love my car (and I personally don't like the standard 996 styling and would not buy one without the GT3 kit), in hindsight I would not have bought it if I had realised just how much it costs to run at my sort of mileage. IMO buying anything with more than 50k miles on the clock when you are going to be doing 25,000 miles per annum is madness (unless you just happen to be a motor technician perhaps).

From past experience it's cost me in the region of £2,000 pa to keep a 993/996 on the road based on approx 12,000 miles p/a (excludes insurance , road tax, petrol)

As a comparatively very new Porsche owner let me add my 2 pence to the discussion. I bought my early 2001 Carrera 4 Tiptronic S in April 2008 for, what was then a very keenly priced, £21.5k. 3 days later the alternator failed and as out of warranty that was the thick end of £500, and the new battery was £100. Total: £600 A major service was due, which I knew at the time of purchase, and I wanted the warranty as well. £600 of work was needed for the warranty, which was another £900, and with the major service and plug change etc that bill was circa Total: £2000 Then, in preparation for a trip to the 'Ring, I decided to have new pads, tyres and a geo. Total: £1700 So total cost of ownership thus far (not including the decrease in mpg compared to my previous fully paid off BMW 323) is: £4300 Then of course there is the cost of the finance for the car to consider and, naturally, the sleeping death of depreciation. I know that depreciation is meaningless until you actually come to sell the car, and it's the cost of change that is the key factor, but it is still galling to think that I have lost at least £5k in the value of the vehicle in under a year; £5k that could be nicely sat in my bank account. However, what value do you put on the engine note under full load in top gear at 6200rpm down a deserted German derestricted autobahn? Priceless I think. Car feels very planted and stable at an indicated 175mph; Or indeed when the back end bites in 2nd on the uphill right hander coming out of Breidsheid? These are the moments when 911 ownership delivers its true value. I guess the point of my ramble is that you should enter into ownership with eyes wide open and just because you pick up a 911 for less then the cost of a recent Mondeo doesn't mean it will be cheap to own. Get a PPI done and ensure a warranty is in place; 2 things that I did not do. Is it worth it though? Well, I think we can all make our own decision on that