To sell or not to sell

Dear Rennlist Community, I'd like to get your advice on whether I should sell my 2003 911. I bought the car in California from a dealer (who listed it on Cars and Bids). I had preemptive maintenance done on the car (changed thermostat, changed and aligned tire rods, upgraded the ignition coils and replaced spark plugs). Mechanically it is in a better shape now than when I bought it (and it was well maintained by a single owner since new, I have the receipts from the high-end repair shops in the LA area he was taking the car to). IMS is upgraded as well, it runs strong. The reason I am thinking of selling it is that I recently gave up my rent (that included a heated garage) and I work remotely while traveling across the country (Southern California, Utah, etc.). I love my 911 but I am thinking of getting something more practical (like a Tacoma) for an extended road trip that may last up to a year if I decide to continue doing it. I reached out to the dealer I bought the 911 from and he offered to give me 20k for it, and a discount on some trucks in his inventory. This would potentially bump the value of the trade-in to approximately 22k. However, he did say that if I hold on to the car, the value will go up significantly in few years from now and I will regret selling it. I am torn between these options: - Sell the car now, get a truck - Keep the car, pay for storage for the 911, buy a truck (as I am moving from state to state every month, I will not be using the 911 at all) - Drive the car for the rest of the year (not sure if this impacts the value the car has slightly over 150k miles on it, but it is in a great condition) - Any other ideas? Here is the link to some pictures of me traveling to places with the car if anyone is interested, it was a fun trip so far: https://www.instagram.com/nine_eleven996/ Thank you for any ideas/opinion!

I think about selling mine sometimes� but getting back into another 911 in the future at a reasonable price looks increasingly unlikely. If it doesn�t fit your lifestyle anymore, that�s another story nice pictures!

Trade in, that�s crazy talk. You would do better with selling yourself.

I hear you, I am not happy about the trade-in value at all, ,my only concern selling is just that I am on the road, it would be a challenge to put the car up for sale, let people see it while I am traveling from one city to another...

Simple decision ,Drive the 996, adjust your lifestyle to suite..

Put a roof rack on the 996. If you must. Unless you're planning on going genuinely off-road, by which I mean lumpy rocky tracks versus dirt roads, the Tacoma gains you nothing besides more PtPS (Places to Put Stuff). In a former life I had reason to study the art of travellling lightly (randonneuring if anyone wants to google). There's a rule among those folk: your Stuff grows to fill the room you make available for it. Since we were providing the BTUs to move said Stuff, the obvious choice was to figure out how to take less Stuff. A 911 is a remarkably commodious car for its size. And it beats the living daylights out of a Tacoma in terms of driving experience. If you love to drive, make your stuff fit. Trust me -- it will. If you love your Stuff more, choose the Taco. I have one, it's the perfect pickup. But it's no 996.

Haha, great points all! Here is what makes me think I should get a more "practical" vehicle: - I am visiting national parks, some have great roads, some have terrible roads that lead to the trailheads. I hate parking 3 miles away just because the roads are bad and I want to save the suspension. - Bike rack: I got a Seasucker vacuum bike mount, works for short trips, less practical for long road trips (vacuum looses suction, must check periodically, not as stable as a normal rack) - Bike tools: Dont want to put oily stuff in the car, need more space for bike parts, tools, etc. - I can put up a tent on a truck bed and sleep anywhere.. Let me know your thoughts!

The question I am struggling with is, shall I hold on to a car that may appreciate later on even though it is not the most optimal for my lifestyle or is the depreciation (miles, age) the bigger factor and I should think of getting rid of it? Where do you think the value of a high-milage 911 is going? Will it go up or down eventually? This is not the main deciding factor, but it is a factor.

IMO seem that your lifestyle fits a taco more than a p-car. Nothing wrong with it, just different strokes and all. I�d sell the 911 outright and purchase a truck, shoot, if it�s in great condition you could make $25k or more all day. Trying to play the used car market is a risky gamble, I wouldn�t do it. We buy these cars as an investment in OUR well being, not our wallets well being.

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the Gt3 of pick ups. This hauls ***, and my Mtb to any trailhead I want. I do need to remove front wheel and use fork mount in the 5.5� bed. But bike stays nice and clean, especially well at keeping the salt off in the winter. I�m not a bike hipster who hangs their front wheel over the tailgate 😎 I�ve been considering selling my Targa and getting into Overlanding with my Raptor. Penalty for failure in the Targa at Supersonic is greater than what can happen with my truck.

A year isn�t enough time to warrant the transaction costs of buying and selling vehicles. Plus, the seats in a 911 tend to be quite comfortable for long distance drives. You won�t lose money keeping the 911 and you don�t have to worry about regrets.

In my totally non-professional opinion, I think the 996 (and everything like it) is near the top of its value for the next few years & won't change much. The rising COVID tide lifted up all the used & toy cars and we're near the top of that wave now. Once these become more of a "classic" in 10 or so years things might be different. But for the next few years I think we've seen all the appreciation we're gonna see. I'd loathe to sell it to a dealer at that price. It might be worth it to store it a bit until you can get a few weeks to sell it. Maybe BaT would work for you? I don't think you'll see much depreciation between 150 - 200K miles. Still, if you love the car and can afford to store it somewhere, keep it. I saw a video where someone put a tent on top of a 996. Nice pictures BTW.

You want the taco. Sell me your P-car. I’ll go $20,005.

Do you have any family member or reliable friend you can lean on to help you sell the vehicle if you were to park it somewhere safe & reliable to sell private party? You could just buy a truck right now and then pay down the loan when your 996 finally sells. For a 2003 with 150k miles I agree that the dealer is not offering top dollar on trade but I don't think by holding out you're looking to amass a fortune in appreciation over 5 years.

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I appreciate your input, yes, the car is certainly comfortable and spacious for trips.

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I am alone in the States (actually on the entire continent) as I am here on a working VISA from Europe. I don't really have anyone I can ask to help me out selling or storing. I guess I will give it a month or two to see how I feel about the road trip in a 911 and will make up my mind later. THANK YOU EVERYONE for your thoughtful comments (and the amazing offer of $20,005, totally sold on that )

As for the dealer, he did admit the car is worth much more (24-25k), so he was honest about trying to make some money and also advised against selling.

Another aspect to think about, that no one else mentioned, is right now is a horrible time to buy a truck, especially a Tacoma. So if the market normalizes again and they start selling for bellow MSRP, and used prices go back to something reasonably normal, you will likely lose big when it comes time to sell, unless you keep it for a long time. If you only want the truck for a year of convivence than in my opinion its a bad move and you should just deal with the 996 being less than ideal for a year. However, if you had been wanting a truck anyway and this is just the kicker to make you finally do it than it could make sense.

This is a great point too! Trucks are super expensive and the used car market is beyond crazy at the moment. Thanks for weighing in!

Are there any places to consign it in your area?

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Turn it into a safari.

At 150,000 miles, I would sell the car before major issues crop up, and then you're really out money. Unless you truly want to store it. The Tacoma will be infinitely better for what you're looking to do, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with a car/lifestyle change.

Yep, if you want a 911, any 911 or sports car, you will have to put money into it to refresh parts. It's not the cost of buying the car, it's the cost of keeping it running. So you better really love the car and want to keep it. I am going thru my second refresh with my 996. Bought it in 2002. Refreshed alot of the key parts about 10 years ago, and doing it again. Not cheap. But I got alot of enjoyment out of it over the years and couldn't imagine not having it going forward. If you don't feel that way, get rid if it. No sense in spending money on something that you don't really want. Life is too short.

FWIW, my partner and I spent 4 months last summer essentially living out of my C4S w/ a roof rack (yakima bars w/ thule box). If you get a skinny/long box, it looks like there's enough space next to it on the bars to fit a bike too. We hit like 15 national parks and covered around 11000 miles toal (at least 50 of those being dirt roads). Roof box held our camping gear, extra shoes, and dirty laundry. Frunk had tools, jump starter battery, and valuables (backpacks w/ laptops). And the rear seat area was packed with everything else. Despite being this loaded, we never impacted rearward visibility and the car dever felt weighed down. I also suggest checking out 996roadtrip -- he has a roof top tent on his C4S and off-roads it constantly. Seeing him do what he does to that car made me feel a lot more confident that my C4S could handle the trip.

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I still think the transaction costs for the OP would be similar in maintaining his 996. Our family daily driver was a $48k BMW SUV. We traded in our Audi SUV for it, about $15k. We lost $18k on the Audi over time (depreciation) and had to pay nearly 8% sales tax on the BMW, so that�s $3,800. The trade-in might cost nearly $5k, so in 1 years�s time, the 996 will have to accumulate $8,800 in repairs to break even the transaction costs I listed. Not to mention the depreciation or insurance on the new car.

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This would be my approach too. Not to speak of the memories of living out of a 911 over a year, it�s a rather unique way of doing such a trip. Try it, if you hate it after two months, sell it and buy the truck.

Especially if you will be travelling alone, the 996 has plenty of space to make that work, even without a roof box. Put a set of 17" wheels under it and run it with normal suspension (no M030) and you will be fine on any road that is not 4x4-only. And it will be much more fun than a truck!

You Tube

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Ultimate daily driver, anywhere and anytime. Love it.

Do what you can to keep the 911, and get a Tacoma. I have both and it's a great combo for anyone who wants to have a life with thrills and practicality.

Hi everyone, thank you, for weighing in! I decided to keep the car for a few months and see if it limits me getting anywhere, so far I like the roads in Utah much better than in New Mexico, this makes me feel better about the car than I did a few weeks ago. Here is a picture of me driving around in Zion:

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great decision! Now over the next few months ask yourself if you would be taking pictures of the Tacoma as much as the 911 and that could assist you in deciding too

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Tacoma pictures would be just as cool, if not better.... ​​​​​​

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nice pic! This could sway the decision to keeping the 911 and getting a Tacoma too

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Where did you get that roof rack??? A