Buying a 2001 996. Need advice.

I'm considering buying a 2001 996 C4 cabrio. This car had 65k miles on it when the original engine was replaced in 2006 with a replacement engine under the warranty. Since then another 65k miles have been driven on the new engine (so the car now has 130k miles). My question is whether this new engine has the improvements that will reduce the risk of an IMSB failure? Or should it still require the IMSB upgrade? And any suggestions about what the car should be priced at?

USA = $16K Canada = few thousand higher but I would not pay more than $19K for it. Porsche revised the IMSB design in 2006 so it is a crap shoot if your replacement engine has the new design or the old. I would find a car without the engine replacement and negotiate a clutch, RMS and IMSB replacement into it. Revised bearing design have been known to fail but at a lower rate.

Wow. I'm not seeing prices that low in AutoTrader or other sites. Most seem to be in the low 20's. Where have you been seeing prices in the 16's?

You are asking me what a 996 MK1 with 130k miles is worth. I gave my opinion in both US and Canada markets on what I would pay not people are trying to sell it for.

Understood. I guess that I'll have to keep looking and making low offers. Are C4s worth more than C2s? How about cabrios vs coupes?

"Wow. I'm not seeing prices that low in AutoTrader or other sites. Most seem to be in the low 20's. Where have you been seeing prices in the 16's? " At *Lilly Whites Party. *Lilly white was the color of your bed sheets. Old saying when Mom wanted you to go to bed. "Want to go to Lilly White's Party and have sweet dreams?"

These broad "996s sell for peanuts" statements are getting old. Most are just plain wrong. Somebody show us a 2001 cab in good mechanical and visual condition with less than 150k miles offered at or recently sold for $16,000. I'm not saying that cars don't occasionally trade hands at low prices. Sometimes sellers are motivated by other factors to let a car go cheap. And dealer trade-ins/wholesale values are irrelevant for most buyers - we are talking retail here folks. post-script Since I wrote this chsu74 clarified that $16k was the price he would be willing to pay for the car... an important difference. Nevertheless, there are not good, well-maintained 996s to be generally found for less than $20k. They are occasionally out there perhaps, but rare and most probably deserve a very careful inspection and lots of questions.

The above is really cryptic but seems very intriguing (the post about the sheets) Id say that C4 is worth more than C2 and cab is (potentially) worth more than coupe all things being equal. As for what to pay thats sort of tough. I think you need to spend some timing watching the market and determine what's currently "real". Thats what I always do. What you'll always hear on any forum is that "a car is worth what a buyer is willing to pay", but most forum advice is, IMO from spending over a decade on car forums, going to be that you should be spending *way* less than what you are likely to be finding out there in the real world. Why that is, I do not know. Until people are ready to *sell their car*, they tend to have a massively conservative view of what one should be spending. Then of course once they're ready to sell, that view dramatically changes. If well sorted, no issues (albeit high miles), 01 C4 cabs are $16k all day long then I guess Boxsters are what? Like $6k maybe. I guess at some point you'll have to *pay the buyer* to take a 996/986

Quotes source post: 10127697

The replacement engine is from the same run as when the original engine was made/installed. Thus the engine could be the 1st engine off the engine assembly line, the one just before the original engine, or the one immediately after, or the last engine off the engine assembly line. If the replacement engine was built after the original engine it may have some internal improvements -- for instance, seals, gaskets, rail guides, tensioners, etc., though it will have the same IMSB *unless* there was a change over at some point in the engine assembly line and the replacement engine was built after this change over. Th engine serial number might help you determine if the engine has an upgradeable IMSB. I'm not current on what what's regarding this upgrade path. As for what the car should be priced at? I have no real idea. Typically Cabs take a huge depreciation hit. While they command a premium when new they suffer a huge depreciation hit. (They do not always command that much of a premium when new: I remember back in early 09 dealers were discounting Cabs $30K off of MSRP.) What you can do is visit various sites that offer used car value and gather them together and come up with some numbers or even number. Generally the car is worth right now its low book trade in value. This is approx what a dealer would give the owner towards a trade in for another car. This is what the dealer could get for the car if he had to put it up at an auto auction. Now the dealer may sweeten the trade in number by taking some of his profit from the new car and applying it towards the trade in if the dealer senses the buyer is a trade in buyer, one who is almost maybe more concerned about what he's getting for his trade in rather than what the total cost of the transaction (trade in/new car). How much you pay over this amount is between you and the seller.

Quotes source post: 10127776

I think C4s are worth more in Canada than C2s. A 130K mile car would have to have a second major done to it. It means clutch, plugs, coil packs, AOS ya da ya da. In addition, there will be additional parts that would have worn out for the first time that will need to be looked at like seats. Who would want to buy those potential problems at a several thousand dollar discount? You end up paying to address those issues and then be at the same cost basis as a similar car with half the miles. I love how people here, who have never sold one, tend to say that a high miler MK1 996 is worth over $20K. Do it and then let's compare notes.

Per Autotrader, currently the lowest asking price for a 996 Cab within 300 miles of me is $23,900 for a C2 with 79,800 miles. Black on Black. I never see cars advertised in the teens here. Of course, I can't tell what the actual sold prices are. But, $16k...doubtful.

Quotes source post: 10127997

You are making a comparison between a car with less than 80K miles and a car with 130K miles. How are these two cars in the same league/zip code?

Quotes source post: 10128043

Re reading my post, you have a great point. What I was trying to convey is that I never see 996's in my market asking under $20k with any mileage, and I look several times a week. Maybe they sell for $16k, but I would doubt it unless it was trashed.

Two great cars. I don't have any skin in it anymore. https://rennlist.com/forums/10128141-post13.html OP, GL with your hunt and be patient. Have your checkbook ready when the right car pops up. I waited 2 years for the right 993TT to pop up and have been loving it ever since.

Sale prices are all over the place depending on cars condition and sometimes location. Compare similar models and get a better idea about prices.

I wouldn't even consider the car. It had its engine changed at 65000. Its done another 65000 which potentially could mean its ready for another change of engine.. Don't even consider the deal even at $15000. You could be buyin g a load of crap. Move on. Just too many 'ifs' 'but's' and 'maybe's in that car. Pay more for the car you really want. Thats in MHO.

^ Wow! Tell us how you really feel... I don't think this car is a load of crap but one has to go in eyes wide open knowing that your resale value on the car if you buy it is going to be in the crapper after putting 30K miles on it. Maintenance records are key..

I think what hes saying is it has too many miles on it. He should look for a much lower mileage 996, maybe @40K to @50K. All the IMSB, RMS, etc. issues are worked out by then.

Quotes source post: 10128223

If I were looking I'd buy that white one in a second!

Quotes source post: 10128216

I've seen a decent amount under 20k when the economy tanked awhile ago but have since noticed a slight rebound. The ones I tend to see just under 20k these days are all high mileage junk cars that need attention or mk1 cabs with tip.

Quotes source post: 10127697

You should buy mine. Everything is sorted and I'm buying a brand new one and need to get rid of it fast.

Quotes source post: 10129021

They are?

How about "usually are"?

How about rarely are. Far fewer Pcar owners have done anything about their IMS/RMS and I would wager that the majority have never even heard of them.

Quotes source post: 10129998

Given the amount of 996 models that were made vs the amount of members we have on these forums and the fact that a good portion of Indy and Dealer mechs do not either know or actively recommend IMSB replacement, I tend to agree. Also coupled to the fact that the low entry price of 996's tend to bring a new crowd where they tend to overlook or not really care about religiously maintaining their car and view it as just another transportation, I can see several items going unattended to until it breaks and or it's too late. My $.02 of course...

Quotes source post: 10130211

~$25,000 is a huge amount of money for a used car to most of the planet. The wealth on this forum taints our perspective. Back to the original topic, for some private sales (where there is a personal association between buyer and seller) I think bargains happen. Otherwise, I don't think there's enough 996s listed for sale in Canada below $25,000 to recommend 'holding out'. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think prices for 996s have leveled out to a degree (in Canada). That's how I could justify buying mine two years ago - and why it's for sale right now at $33,000. There's always room to negotiate, but talk of $19k (in Canada) is unrealistic on the open market. Of course, I have a vested interest in this conversation...