What to watch for on a 996 4S Tip?

For around a year I'm driving around Europe in a 997 Turbo manual. I love the car, the transmission but the coupling is tricky. My wife also likes the car a lot and want a Porsche 911 for herself. We are looking for a 996 4S Tip, a manual is also ok but I think a Tip is a saver choice, because - its saver to drive - impossible to overrev I know about the IMS problems and the cylinder linings so it must be the 3.6. We are planning to take out the engine and replace the IMS first thing. So we are looking for some tips and opinions. Please share and thanks in advance. Rogor

Hey Rogor , Driving a 996 C4S manual myself, in the confederation of highlands I have nothing but praise for the C4S. It's a dream to drive and is as glued to the road when pushing corners (and we have A LOT of them here) This said, how is the Tip safer than the manual? I can understand the convenience of having an automatic, but nothing beats a manual tbh and the driver is more in control. I think the IMS issue (was it really such a big issue after all as I believe only a small percentage of all 996's suffered from this) is more or less been taken care of by this stage as most have gone a good number of km by now but again you never know. On the over rev issue, this can be checked by any Porsche garage as it all is stored in the CPU, at least that's what I'm made believe... I would be more interested in getting a car with a comprehensive service history (either stamped service book or separate receipts on all that has been thrown at the car) and of course the PPI which goes without saying. Personally, my experience owning a 2002 C4S with only 84'000 km on the clock from "new" (to me new anyway) have been anything but bad. It handles like a joy, very fast and quite economical (relatively) if you can help yourself from not pushing 'er too much OK, I had to change the radiator, air-con compressors, set of four new tires and get a new indicator module as well as the yearly service(s) so no big surprises...

I do miss the manual shifting, BUT keeping both hands on the wheel through tight corners and being able to flip up and down gears is awesome in my tiptronic 4S .. And the wife loves driving it too.. Had to sell my Mustang and Z06 due to the manual ( just frustrated her) .My uncle owns a manual, and everytime i see him he comments on how he should have gotten the Tip.. My aunt wont drive the car..

We call the manual drivers 'tender feet'.. tha's what it's all about plus having the car in the correct gear at all times.

Make sure that tip fluid changes were done on schedule. The 2002+ automatic transmission in 996s are Mercedes GOAT units; the 722.6 unit. It is a bullet proof unit that was backing 600HP V12 AMG cars. I wanted a tiptronic, and I am extremely happy with performance of the car. Transmission is quick, responsive, and very smooth. Acceleration difference with manual cars is negligible. Here is my car doing 0-80ish on slight up-hill on I60. 2002 Porsche 911 Carrera Acceleration - YouTube

Thanks for the quick responses and the video. My reason for choosing the tip instead of the manual for safety reasons is that my wife has both hands on the wheel (if she isn't putting on make-up while driving). Indeed you can check the car for over revving, but a tip never over revs, right? And I believe the 996 can be somewhat trickier than the 997 on wet roads? Good to know the 2002+ is the better tip. But we are looking for a nice 996 4S now and I think we'll go for the car that "feels right". It that is a manual of a tip, is not the main issue.