Hopefully soon to be 996 owners perspective from across the pond

Hello great people! Been reading here for a while, first when I was looking into a boxter (albeit on a different subforum) and now when I'm looking for a 996. Well, my search ultimatly lead me to a '98 C2. It has the good diff options (LSD etc), full leather and 030 suspension from factory. In 2007 (or about 33.000 KM's ago), it got a X51 engine, new clutch, new flywheel, new gearbox, a newly fitted 030. The car has gone about 95k miles (150 000 KM) and feels and drives like it's new. The seller had to leave on vacation for a few weeks before my funding was in place so now I'm just running around waiting for him to get back so we can do a PPI and hopefully trade cash for car ;-). Anyway, the interesting thing is the differences in prices between the US and Norway - not just for the cars but for gasoline and insurance. This is not here to whine, I just think it's pretty interesting to see :-). First, gasoline. Currently, a US gallon of premium unleaded (ie euro 98 octane) costs about 10,4 USD here now (or 2,74 usd per litre). Second, insurance. Insuring a 996 costs me about $3660 per year. And thats with a fairly limited distance (8000 km) and a deductable of about $3600 ;-). Third, the car itself. This 13 year old, pretty high milage car costs about $70000 here. Mindblowing, eh? A brand new 997.2 would easily cost about $250k, that sort of puts the used price into a more reasonable bracket I guess. Luckily, wages are higher and all that so it's not all that bad, as I said, I just think it's interesting to see. For $40k over there I could've had a 4S, a bit more I could've had a TT. But that's the way it is. Taxes alone are easily $40-50k if I where to import a used one from the US or germany or basically anywhere else. Oh well, I just hope the PPI turns out ok so I can get my dream car. (This post is mostly just time filler for me waiting for the weeks to go by ). Love the comunity here, you guys and gals are great at sharing pictures, info and just general good vibes.

Congrats on the new-to-you 996! MK1 C2 with LSD are great. very similar to mine! Actually mine is a US Spec 99' C2 which is now on boat about to arrive at Zeebrugge late this week. I hope to have my Belgium car insurance ready to pick it up soon. I am here from US on a work assignment and figure it would be awesome to have a Porsche here (since I agree it cost a lot more for used cars especially when you work into the exchange rates!) I heard taxes isn't that bad here in BE and neither is car insurance. The prices you mentioned in Norway is crazy!! WOW! One thing I don't look forward to is filling the my gas tank over here.. Though at least I will have 95 octane or 98 if I feel generous. good luck with the PPI!

Good luck with the PPI, let us know how you go. I do feel your pain... Prices in Aus are similar and when the guys round here talk about US prices, well...

note to self: no trips to Norway until you find that winning lottery ticket

Hehe, prices are only supersilly because we can compare them across the world at this point, most countries have fairly sensible prices compared to average income and all that. That being said, Norway has one of the highest taxations on cars in the world. But then again, what is generally considered "minimum wage" over here for, say, flipping whoppers at Burger King is around $20 / hour before taxes (which, incidently, are pretty high as well, 20-38% is pretty common depending on how much you earn). Ironically, a medium whopper with fries also cost around $20 over here. Anyway, all this interesting international taxation discussion aside, I really am looking forward to this car. Really, really hoping the PPI will turn out OK as the car is a dream to drive. But I've had horrible maintenence issues before with older, once expensive cards and am prepared to walk away if things turn sour. I've had faster cars in the past, but there is something truly special about a 911. It's just so... well done.

I have a neighbour from Denmark who was living in my city temporarily. He was really drooling over my 996, saying that it was something he could simply never afford at home due to their "sports car tax" or something like that. I guess it always surprises me in a way that it is cheaper to buy a Porsche halfway around the world, in California for example, than it is to buy it in its country/area of origin - Germany / Europe.

Yeah it's kind of strange, I'll agree to that! Here it's a remnant of the old, postwar politics where cars where considered a luxury item not freely sold to anyone. It's sort of stagnated after that. At this point it's a far too big a source of income for the government to drastically reduce it. It has fairly recently been changed to include a (very big) CO2 emissions component, it didn't really help for the sportier cars to put it mildly. The net effect is a very, very old and dangerous fleet of cars, people simply cannot afford to buy a new car right of the bat. It's a shame, but apart from voting there's not much that can be done about it :-).

Well, this suddenly went up **** creek. Three weeks ago the seller and I reached agreement, made up and agreed upon a contract (albeit per email) and things where good. Last night, two days before PPI and switch of money and cars, the guy calls me telling me he's changed his mind. The damn car has been on the market for 9+ months and now he changes his mind two days prior to me taking it off his hands? So now I've wasted the last three weeks waiting for him to get back from vacation and I'm left as the obviously loosing party here. 30th of july me and my girlfriends vacation starts and the whole thing was planned as a roadtrip in said 911. If I'm to get a new one by then I probably wont have time to do it properly (ie PPIs etc) which again means I shouldn't do it at all at this point. It's not just the car (allthough this seems to be one perfect example), but the whole fact that my roadtripping summer vacation is now basically off and that I've let other good cars go in the meantime. And I really don't like feeling like I got the short end of the stick. This was the whole point of the contract, avoid stuff like this and have a trouble free and relaxed transaction. I wonder how he would've taken it if I called him up yesterday prior to him changing his mind and saying I didn't want to honor the contract anymore. I somehow have a feeling he wouldn't be all that happy and easy going with it. What on earth is wrong with people?

Nyegaard, I'm sorry to read about your car buying experience. What a shame. What happened to honor and integrity? A person's word should be their bond. I realize that it will not help you with your vacation, but I would be happy to help you shop for one here (ie. I could assist with getting the ppi done and get the car to the shipping company). I sold a car to the Netherlands (an Alfa) a couple years ago and it was pretty painless. $30,000 or less will buy you the nicest low mileage MK1 996 on the market.

Thank you so much for the kind words Mfletch! I guess these things do happen, it's just very disappointing. Those where my questions as well, what happened to honor and integrety? My long passed father thought me that whatever I did in life, make sure my word is good. It's ultimately all you have to show for. Thank you so much for the offer to help, I will definately keep it in mind! The kindness one can find on the internet from time to time is truely heartwarming.

Sorry it didnt go through.... one day it will happen, you are wise to be patient.

Well, looks like there was a happy ending here after all. I decided to spend a bit more on this and get what I really, really wanted and ended up with a 2002 C4S that I picked up yesterday. Living in Oslo, the very recent terrorist attacks put a damper on things (I live a few miles away from where the nutty nationalist blew up the bomb on friday), but I decided to not let terrorism change my plans for me. Anyway, that whole thing is just far too sad and horrible, the good news is that the car is great. Factory aerokit, all black, 19" sport design painted in the same color as the car, leather everywhere, X51, GT2 breaks, PSE, new engine, rebuilt gearbox, new clutch, all bushings and arms and struts replaced, new dampers and springs.. Basically, everything that moves on the car has been replaced int he last few years and it's not been driven a lot since. Has done 113.000 km. A few minor problems, that I've found thus far that google, this board and renntech should resolve: 1) Looks like I have a borked window regulator on the passenger side. The window barely moves down when I lift the door handle on that side. The motor turns, but the window doesn't move. If I push it down manually, the motor gets it back up as expected. 2) Every now and again, regardless of wether or not the stereo is on or off, I get a buzzing sound from the left front speaker. The buzzing picks up the dynamo, but it's still there if the engine is off (disappears if the key is removed and reinserted). 3) There's a rattle from the left exhaust pipe, it's most likely not a cat because if I just barely nudge the tip of it it stops. Sounds like a heatshield or something silly like that ;-). Thats basically all I've found thus far.. I went the stupid route and didnt get a PPI (I know, I know...) but due to circumstances it was either that or walk away, not because the seller balked but other things I had to consider. Love the car so far, drives amazingly and looks great . Plans ahead is to fix the issues mentioned and fill out those blank switches with at least a PSE button and maybe try to get some footwell lightning installed (I'm a huge sucker for footwell lights for some odd reason). Cruise control would also be nice to retrofit, doesn't seem as if the job is that big, just need to get Porsche to reprogram after the hw is added?

Some pictures, older but still very representative, she looks just like this :-).

Oh yeah! Nice snag....

That Porsche is beautiful, congrats to you. Guess that initial deal that the seller botched worked out for you after all. Hope you enjoy your vacation after all in your Porsche.

Thank you, I do belive it worked out for the best in this case :-). Looking forward to the vacation now, driving off on sunday

Congrats on the car, and drive safe!!

Beauty! Glad it worked out, now go enjoy :

Hope you enjoy it. Great snow plow accessory on the front for the winter snows! Perfect for Norway. ;-)

Great looking car.

Haha yea, I'm actually considering putting this car into winter storage when that time comes. She's probably quite fun to plow the snow with and all that, but there's something really reassuring with the thought of just putting her away for those horrible months we call winter (which, for the most part, is more or less from oktober-november to april - sigh). Had a look on the winter tires, it's downright silly with 295's stretched onto the original hollow turbo IIs, it's utterly crazy. We'll see, but spending a few $$ on keeping her fairly warm through winter seems like a great idea at this point.

congrats!

Very nice! enjoy