Warranty

If I had a 5 year old 996 (which I soon hope to) and assuming I do not want to shell out £1,500 for an official warranty, who offers the best warranty terms and value for money?

There are various people (Indy's) offering warranty at the moment but I am very weary of these schemes myself....... The OPC warranty is £1400 with the check, and then you have "bumper to bumper" cover by Porsche..... The Indy's schemes vary from £700 to £1000 and cover you for one service and labour only SHOULD something go wrong. My car has 2 year service intervals as some other 996's do so make of that what you will. Although the initial cost is less, I feel should you have any major problems it will cost you more in the long run. When my warranty is up in May I will think long and hard about this, and at the moment I fell putting £1400 under the mattress and keeping should anything go wrong is a good idea rather than lining anyone's pocket, I'm confident in my car and it has had pretty much most wear and tear items done under warranty since I took delivery anyway :lol:

Thanks - That is my thought too - would rather spend the money on the car than pay it to an insurance company. Its a bit like gambling at a casino - the odds of a warranty have to be stacked in favour of the warranty co otherwise they would go out of business. I guess you pay for peace of mind.

Where do you plan on getting the car serviced? Depending on where you live RSJ (Slough) and Hartech (Bolton?) have good aftermarket cover, which isn't lining some insurance guys pockets. The deal with RSJ is that everything is covered (including wear and tear + servicing) for a fixed price every month. The only downside is that you pay for the parts. I think it works out at something like £85 / month, which is stonking value when you consider that a) includes service + materials, b) you'll need new brakes every couple of years. The obvious concern is the big ticket items, eg. gearbox and engine, but you can reduce this part cost by using a warrantied reconditioned (and strengthened) engine (either from Hartech or Autofarm). Well worth looking into IMO. I fortunately have insurance, but I'm not sure that my items are covered (eg. my driver seat has developed an annoying clicking movement on the RHS), my electric seat keeps blowing fuses (don't think it's related), the PSM/ABS light has come on a couple of times and I need new rear brakes/pads shortly, because they've rusted on the inside). But, it's certainly piece of mind and I suspect will have some value when I come to sell it (although not much!) and a nearly new 997.2 is looking very tempting right now. Cheers.

Thanks GD, that is a good alternative, and RSJ are close enough to make that viable. One of my issues is that this is going to a bit of a toy. I know it will be an expensive luxury, but if I can keep a lid on it then it is more justifiable (to the other half!), but if I am only going to do 3000 miles a year it is a case of weighing up the cost of cover against the likelihood of a problem and the potential cost of fixing it.

What 911 are you looking at getting? There is a HUGE difference in running/fixing costs between a C2 and say a Turbo!

Pretty much sold on a C4S.

Well in that case you REALLY need some sort of warranty, it shares a lot of parts with the Turbo and can be VERY costly to fix when things go wrong I bought my C4s from Porsche Glasgow last May. Since then I have had circa £8k's worth of warranty/good will work done on my car. I dont know about you but I wouldn't like that bill after the initial purchase, regardless of how cheap the car was :what: I've got a nice C4s which I have considered selling............. did I mention it has OPC warranty.................... uh:

Sorry but thats really not true is it Its a widebodied C4 with turbo suspension and brakes Anything likely to go wrong with it is going to be based around the costs of a C4, not a turbo Main reason a turbo is more likely to cost more is the engine and its ancillaries, though it is in general terms likely to be more reliable than a C2 or 4 due to the GT1 derived engine

warranty I have posted very similair questions on one of these forums, I have a c4s widebody and love it, it does share some parts with the turbo but not the engine etc. I cover 3000 miles with my expensive toy, and the whole warranty thing worries me too. Just look at the failuers on the forums its scary. Yet my indie has never seen one and he deals with hundreds. What to do ? I believe that if the car is good with reasonable mileage and is warmed up properly etc it should be very reliable. The only things to look out for are rads rms maybe discs but these can be done by an indie very reasonably. I have just had rms clutch two ac condensors and two new rads all for 1900 inc vat. Porsche would be much much more ecpensive i am sure. I sold a boxster with 80k on it and it was as sweet as new with original engine etc. I think I will save the 1500 each year and take the risk it seems calculated. also porsche will want whatever they deem necessary doing first so more money. Why not buy one with the 111 point check and warranty on it ? hope my twopence helps best regards Mike Brown :dont know:

Thanks guys - particularly glad to see the last two posts, as Gilford did worry me. I have heard so many conflicting views about 911s. On the one hand there is the school of thought that says these are well made highly engineered German made cars with the associated reliability. Then the others seem to spread doom and gloom and describe a car that is waiting to go wrong in so many ways. What I don't get is if a 911 is so expensive to maintain because the parts are so costly (presumably because they are the best quality) and the labour rates are so high (presumably because you are getting the best engineers) then why would a 911 be more susceptible to breaking than your average Ford, which is way cheaper to fix?

good point. and one only usually observed by the non Porsche infected (yet) the term i think is "Badge Tax"