997, good daily? - Page 2 - 911/Carrera GT - PistonHeads UK

Hi all. As per really. Just wondering if anyone runs a 997 as a daily driver. Not massively stressful miles and approximately 10,000 a year. Had a bunch of 944’s over the years including a turbo a few years ago so know they are built well. Thank you in advance.

For me no - too old, and daily grind destroyed it - both rust and wear and tear. But there’s many others who say it will be fine

I did circa 12.5k hard miles a year in one for just under 4 years. In that time it needed front dampers, coil packs, a clutch, and a side muffler, and could have benefitted from a suspension refresh when I sold it. It was a fantastic daily that I knew inside out, and despite it's use it never stopped feeling special. That was 13 years ago, and I still regret selling it. I also had a gen2 a few years later, but it lacked the character and feeling of being slung between all 4 wheels that the the gen1 had (difficult to describe, but get one properly set-up and you'll know). I preferred the gen1. Despite the relatively inexpensive purchase price these days, it could prove to be an expensive way of covering 10k miles a year, but as long as you allow for the running costs, and keep a contingency fund, you'll be fine, subject to the usual essential pre-purchase checks.

silverback mike said: Hi all. As per really. Just wondering if anyone runs a 997 as a daily driver. Not massively stressful miles and approximately 10,000 a year. Had a bunch of 944’s over the years including a turbo a few years ago so know they are built well. Thank you in advance. As per another thread, I’m just doing this, jumping from a BMW 650i (not a low risk daily driver I’d readily accept although mine had been trouble free for 8 years/ 100,000 miles) to a 997.1 Fingers crossed, but checking one out gave me a good feeling, there’s just something right about the whole package. Edited by Slippydiff99 on Thursday 31st March 08:38

currently using a 997.2 RS as my daily, does the job well enough imo.

Thanks all, all noted. My bmw fsh F11 has cost a fortune this year to run, all sorts going pear shaped so I’m prepared if a porker does the same!

I'd say the car can take it but it will cost you. Personally I wouldn't as I live in London and for traffic much prefer a modern automatic car. I've averaged 3k mi & £1500 /yr maintenance alone (plus tax, ins., upgrades, etc.) over 10 years. Your yearly mileage is 3x so you'll easily spend 2x = £3k a year. This will go higher once engine needs work and keeping on top of bodywork, depends how long you plan doing it for. Weight it up with what you'd spend on running something new/ish and finally "account" for the pleasure / value to you of running a 997 daily. My main concern would be hassle of upkeep of an older car, you'll need to allow for downtime.

I have been running a 997.1 Turbo for the last 2 years, no real cost apart from servicing. I thoroughly enjoy it, brings a smile to my face every time I get in it. I did upgrade the music unit to get carplay/phone.

Iv been using my 997.1 c2s for 6 months now as a daily and I'm still loving it - no regrets at all. The only thing that is essential is sorting a way to have bt phone connection - at the moment I'm using one of them FM transmitters as I'm still looking into what would be the best for me.

Midasman17 said: I have been running a 997.1 Turbo for the last 2 years, no real cost apart from servicing. I thoroughly enjoy it, brings a smile to my face every time I get in it. I did upgrade the music unit to get carplay/phone. Do you mind telling me which head unit you went for? it's quite hard to buy electronics at the moment, everything seems to be on back order. Also where'd you get the fascia panel and adaptor cables from? Thank you

RiccardoG said: My main concern would be hassle of upkeep of an older car, you'll need to allow for downtime. Exactly this. My 997.1 is my only car and I only do 4-6k a year, I often go a couple of weeks without using it. In 2 years and 8000 miles is has been great but it still annoys me when it breaks. So I do think the OP needs to approach it with the right expectations for runnings costs, repair and downtime. There is also going to be a big difference between a 2004 Carrera with 150k miles on the clock and a 2011 Turbo S PDK garage queen.

olv said: RiccardoG said: My main concern would be hassle of upkeep of an older car, you'll need to allow for downtime. Exactly this. My 997.1 is my only car and I only do 4-6k a year, I often go a couple of weeks without using it. In 2 years and 8000 miles is has been great but it still annoys me when it breaks. So I do think the OP needs to approach it with the right expectations for runnings costs, repair and downtime. There is also going to be a big difference between a 2004 Carrera with 150k miles on the clock and a 2011 Turbo S PDK garage queen. Definitely this. 3K a year in maintenance doesn't sound too bad when compared to the lease costs of a new car, but you definitely need to go into it with your eyes open, and much better if you have alternative transport if/ when it needs stuff doing. As you say it's all about having realistic expectations. In my case my current daily driver has twice the miles on it so I hope I'm not umping from the frying pan into the fire.

I run a gen 2 as my only car, but I’m often away and whilst it gets a run at least once a week it doesn’t always get that heavily used (6k a year miles probably). It’s a great car, love the drive, love the feel - realising a long held desire to own my very first 911….but…… It is 12 years old, and as a sole vehicle it left me stranded with a catastrophic failure when the serpentine belt tensioner failed, and took out the water pump. This happened 2 days after moving house, just before Christmas. I had to hire a car, and the parts took a few weeks to arrive. It’s had a couple of minor annoyances like the window regulator failing one side, and the door position switch the other. Each of these is an impact I don’t really have the luxury of time or the patience to fix. I’m thinking of moving mine on this year, and possibly buying a 991 with some warranty, to avoid the downtime. If it was a Golf I’d let anyone I trust fix it, but with a 911 you want the right people doing the work. Maybe a bit of food for thought? When you’re in a freshly cleaned one on a sunny day, you can’t beat the grin they give you, and they do always feel special in a way an M car or RS variant of a 3 series or A4/A3 never can

I wouldn't want to use my 997.1 as a daily.

If you go in with your eyes open you’ll be fine. It’ll be expensive one way or the other but the driving experience will offset the costs plus, life’s too short to drive a boring car! If i gets too bad, sell it. It’s a Porsche 911 so it’s not going to be too painful to sell. I’m echoing what has been said in this thread already but i ran my 996 C4S as a daily for the last year i owned it after i decided that there was no enjoyment keeping it in the garage. This resulted in the joy of using something special everyday and was probably the best year of ownership i had in the 3-years total that i owned it but the list of things that needed to be maintained was massive! Effectively everything needed replacing. A 997 is a reasonably old car now, so every component will remind you of that; suspension will creak, infotainment will look dated, the interior will rattle and squeak, air con will be knackered, exhausts will rust etc. and while you can fix or improve these bits, they all add up. In the end, after a year of daily driving it, i traded my 996 C4S in for a 981 Cayman PDK with a Porsche approved warranty. I ran that for two years and it didn’t once need me to use the warranty (perhaps some would see that as a waste of money) and the only expense was one service. It was the exact opposite of the 996 experience, everything worked and it was modern in every way. Whatever you do, the car was built for daily use and it won’t be fragile. The 997 was designed to be used every day, as was the; 996, 993, 964, 911 etc. that’s the best thing about Porsche.

That's all great advice, thank you very much (and apologies to the OP for slightly hijacking your thread!)

Slippydiff99 said: That's all great advice, thank you very much (and apologies to the OP for slightly hijacking your thread!) That’s no problem all good info and all comments appreciated. Looks like I’ll look into one a bit more seriously now!!

MDL111 said: currently using a 997.2 RS as my daily, does the job well enough imo. Back in the day I ended up using 2 of my GT3s as dailies. 996.2 and a 997.1 - Not ideal to be honest and was for a month at most in each case . Wouldn't say that grinding out a commute was a lot of fun , in a GT3 at any rate. Clutch a heavy thing in traffic, ground clearance tricky, rattly dif. But a regular 997 is much more adapted to the job. Always took the fun route there and back so some epic drives nevertheless. I think there are better cars to cope with commuting and return loads of fun on the weekends though than a 911

Dblue said: Back in the day I ended up using 2 of my GT3s as dailies. 996.2 and a 997.1 - Not ideal to be honest and was for a month at most in each case . Wouldn't say that grinding out a commute was a lot of fun , in a GT3 at any rate. Clutch a heavy thing in traffic, ground clearance tricky, rattly dif. But a regular 997 is much more adapted to the job. Always took the fun route there and back so some epic drives nevertheless. I think there are better cars to cope with commuting and return loads of fun on the weekends though than a 911 Good points made and I have a weekend thing so the Porsche would be my all rounder. I’ll have a ponder!

Slippydiff99 said: Do you mind telling me which head unit you went for? it's quite hard to buy electronics at the moment, everything seems to be on back order. Also where'd you get the fascia panel and adaptor cables from? Thank you Take a look at NM Automotive, they do setups that upgrade the PCM3.0 system to run Carplay and Android Auto while retaining the OEM kit. To the OP I run a 997.2 GTS as a daily and its fine.

dibblecorse said: Take a look at NM Automotive, they do setups that upgrade the PCM3.0 system to run Carplay and Android Auto while retaining the OEM kit. To the OP I run a 997.2 GTS as a daily and its fine. noted re daily

Slippydiff99 said: Do you mind telling me which head unit you went for? it's quite hard to buy electronics at the moment, everything seems to be on back order. Also where'd you get the fascia panel and adaptor cables from? Thank you Sorry, been away a few days, I got a Pioneer AVIC-Z930DAB, there was already Bose speaker system so sound good, they matched the colour surround with the fitting and a Porsche logo on for start up. Overall very happy with it. B&B Audio Concepts in Cardiff did it for me, they do all my alarms, dash cams etc, they are excellent.

997.1 S has been my daily driver since January 2016. It had 50,000 miles on it when I bought it and 164,000 now. Probably cheaper ways to do that mileage, but I’d wager 99% of them are s t/boring/make you reach for the chair and the rope. I think 997s suffer from lack of use, I don’t think they suffer for being warmed up, revved and serviced. If you’re going to do it, just do it.

Superdavros said: 997.1 S has been my daily driver since January 2016. It had 50,000 miles on it when I bought it and 164,000 now. Probably cheaper ways to do that mileage, but I’d wager 99% of them are s t/boring/make you reach for the chair and the rope. I think 997s suffer from lack of use, I don’t think they suffer for being warmed up, revved and serviced. If you’re going to do it, just do it. I like the cut of your jib!! I’m all for using cars!

I have a manual 996.2 which I have owned since 2005 and I use as a daily driver. Current mileage is around 115k and I’ll do 10k this year. I’ve had a slightly different experience to that described by others. It’s been pretty inexpensive basically. I have done the clutch once, starter motor twice, a coil pack or two twice, battery twice, coolant reservoir once, air on control once, and that’s about it mechanically. I have perhaps scrimped on steering and suspension and expect to spend a little on these items in the coming years but I’ll probably wait for the MOT to say something needs to be done. I’ve spent maybe £2k or so on bodywork / wheel refurb / headlight refurbs. The car is garaged and I don’t do more than 2k revs until it’s warm and after that I don’t so often do more than 3.5k. I’m careful to check the oil. All in all - touch wood - pretty inexpensive. The only thing I wouldn’t do without for daily motorway driving is cruise control as speedo watching is tiring on a run in these cars.