Need advice - 996 C4 short Daily Drive

Hi Guys, New to the Porsche community myself, my father had a few different 911s but I was never really old enough or around to drive them. I wanted to break into the community and start with a 996 as a daily driver. I personally am the worst manual driver ever, and just so happens that my wife set 3 conditions which i'm not too displeased with: 1. has to be automatic (so she can drive if ever needed) 2. has to be AWD (safety first) 3. has to fit a car seat in case needed (rarely going to need it) so I found a nice 2001 996 C4, with just under 30k miles, at a steal of a price (several k below the KBB). Cosmetically the car is beautiful. For a 2001 it has very little blemishes around the exterior, the guy is a 3rd owner of the car, and has owned it since 6.5k. He's basically put on 4,5k a year and used it as a weekend car. I'm taking it to Formula Motorsports in LI for a PPI before I go any further but just wanted to get some feedback... Am I crazy to think I could drive this as a daily driver to the train station year round? I'm 3.5 miles to the station, so talking about 35-40 miles a week, and maybe 100 miles on the weekends, so not much use per year. I have the flexibility to work from home in bad weather, and plan on keeping it in the garage. I did read a thread and it seems like alot of guys are driving them year round, I just dont know if me driving 7 miles a day is going to be bad on it versus driving a good 30-40 miles a day at least. As far as the IMS and RMS issues, I know there isnt much to really do as far as "look" for these two issues, so is there anything else I should really be noting or looking for? Formula Motorsports appears to be a top class Porsche repair and service company, and if they are able to determine that the car is in good condition, should I really have any concerns besides just the regular issues that can happen to anyone on any particular day? i.e. needs new brakes, tires, etc? Is it worth doing the preventive IMS upgrade when I buy it, or just be all on really on top of maintenance and care. Looking forward to hopefully joining the 996 community if everything works out!

Nothing wrong with driving year 'round in whatever kind of weather. Three and a half miles, though, isn't really good for any car. As I'm sure you know, the engine, fluids, etc, really need to get up to temperature. Twenty or thirty minutes (or longer) would be ideal. Some do like what you have in mind and, once a week, weekend or so, get in the car and put some hard highway miles on it. An hour on the road is good therapy for the driver anyway.

Your plan sounds reasonable. As mentioned, take the car out once a week or so and get the engine up to proper operating temperature. As for AWD - the system used in the 996 doesn't do much for you in terms of safety. It was designed for improved performance in spirited driving or track use, not for traction in bad weather conditions. A good set of tires will provide you more safety than the AWD system. This is especially true in the winter.

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I'm with Dennis. I drive my C2 more or less year round and have Blizzak's on it in the winter. Note that it does better in snow and ice than our 2012 Touareg did with its regular tires. I'd say PSM is more important for safety than AWD in this car. Note also that my avatar is my car with Blizzaks only (no studs) on a frozen lake autocross (Georgetown). Somehow I came in second place OVERALL among Porsches no matter 2WD or AWD or 911 or Cayenne or Panamera or C4S or Turbo or studs etc. (Did get beat by an '83 944...)

Do what I do. Plan to leave early and take the long way. That's good for both the driver AND the car. TC

I daily drive my 1999 C2 and my comute is around 60 miles daily, 4 times a week and I have a car seat in the back since I take my daughter to child care (1 mile away from my house). There are more issues with the 3.4L engine such as intermix issues due to cracked cylinder head, broken cylinder sleves, etc but these have been corrected on the 3.6L engines. Try to get a 2002+ car to avoid these extremely expensive problems.. Also, if I am not mistaken, all 2001 996's have single row bearings so I recomend you swap the bearing to a ceramic one.

I appreciate all of the advice guys, I definitely plan to use it a lot more on the weekends, the guy put on all weather tires about a year ago, but i'm going to look for some good snow tires later on in the fall. As far as using it during the week in the morning, Should I give it 5-10mins to warm up at least? Any harm in getting a very reputable shop to install a good quality remote start? Ideally it would be nice to start it up earlier to get it going. As far as the bearing swaps, Mark at Formula Motorsports did mention people do get them replaced as a preventive measure, is it pretty much the groups consensus that its worth getting done? Is it more so because i'm going to be driving it a total of 7-8 miles a day, or would that not really have anything to do with it.

I have a 99 and it says I'm my manual not to warm the car up at idle , also to keep revs low until engine is warm

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^ True. It doesnt seem to do much at low speeds such as getting unstuck, but will come into play somewhat once moving. 2nd/3rd gear power slides in the snow made it noticeable but its never going to be an Audi. If you have Blizzaks I dont think you will have an issue

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I would avoid these guys for the PPI... They went through mine and found nothing wrong with the exception of what the owner already told me. No written PPI report or anything, other than a call saying "hey.... it's a good car" I got it home and the brakes were completely worn on all 4 tires (all pads and rotors failed inspection), and the rear driver tire was completely bald caused by that wheel being way out of alignment. Also the coolant tank had a decent leak in it, and two of the coil packs were completely corroded.

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Mark from FM did it for you right.? It says right on their site they do a full written report...how much did this cost you?..we're talking about the same one here...the two time President of the Porsche Club of America and current Technical Chairman of Metro PCA. Not doubting it just want to make sure we're on the same page

As has already been said very short drives aren't good for any car just be gentle. Most wear occurs at start up but again that's true of any car. Standing idle isn't good for any car either. As for winter use I drive my C4 all winter with winter tires and the only problem I've had is with deep frozen snow and this relative to ride height any vehicle will have a problem. With the right tires they are a excellent and fun winter just turn the PCM off.

If not FM, anyone else have a good recommendation for a PPI in or near Manhattan?

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Same guys.... I talked with Mark, and he seemed very knowledgeable. He had told me that he personally was going to perform it, but he wasn't the one who did the PPI... was another guy from his shop. After I got the car home and it failed state inspection (I drove 500 miles to pick the car up), Mark told me they checked it, and the shop I've been using must be scamming me, that Porsche brakes start much thinner than regular brakes.... went back to where I had the inspection done, and I alluded to that... they took me out and showed me how worn they all were.... also was clear that the left rear tire had absolutely no tread left on the inside (outside of tire had minimal tread left).. in other words, made me look like a jerk for questioning their integrity.... thanks FM.... total cost was around $500 I think. .... OH, I'm still happy with the car.... just ended up costing me $2500 more than I thought it would, which is why you get a PPI... but even with that it was a good deal... 2002, Tip, Cab, 50k miles, 1 owner, seal grey for $26k

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thanks for the info..think I missed out on a good opportunity... 2001 C4 w/ 30k miles, tip, car fax shows 4 owners, the guy said he was the 3rd one... asking $23k for it... maybe I should have just bit the bullet and got the PPI, but I knew after the $425 PPI charge there was probably going to be a laundry list of things I needed to get it up and running smoothly...so I passed. the 99-01 just scared me because of all of the potential issues...the guy said it needed new breaks, doesn't have any service records, but said he had the oil changed every year. I donno maybe I should of just did it, but I figure i'll find something else

I have used Formula for a PPI before and had a very good experience- 97 911 Turbo (decided on new turbo when they found out this car was in a heavy collision.) They filled out a PPI form for me and estimated all the costs of the services the car did and would need going forward and ran a carfax. Mark was extremely knowledgeable and the PPI was done at the dealer location by Mark the next day. Whatever you do don't let the seller give you a person, I have been down that road.

for a car with 30k miles on it, assuming its been serviced every year, and the driver has put on roughly 4-5k miles a year...hasn't changed the break pads since he bought it at 6.5k miles, and just replaced the battery and tires last year..what are the possible things that need to be replaced, fixed right away or within the next 10k miles. Obviously this question may sound a little dumb/idiotic/hard to answer. Anything can be wrong, and anything can happen at anytime, and who knows if he really serviced it properly and took care of it the past 4-5 years (hopefully a PPI would be able to tell this...but what is normally needed for a porsche that is taken care of around the 30k mark (2001). Do I need to start replacing things like breaks, and other parts in the next few k miles, or if everything is working well, do I still have just regular issues/things pop up? I'm just trying to get an idea of what i'll need to pay for in the next year or two if the engine doesn't randomly blow up on me. I know I can spend the 1-2k on the IMS & RMS upgrade/replacement but is there any big 30k maintenance that is recommended for it? Basically i'm comfortable buying the car as is, have some extra money to put into it upfront to get working, and deal with the issues as they arise, just trying to get a rough idea if its even possible?