How many miles are too many miles?

Questions. I've got a million of them. Good thing the people on this forum have even more opinions! At what point does mileage on a 996 cause a potential buyer (me) to no longer consider a Porsche? I know car troubles can arise at any time, but at what point do problems generally go from possible to imminent?

if all scheduled maintenance (major and minor) was done properly (backed by verifiable service records) coupled with a good PPI.......... mileage should NOT be a show stopper. In theory, preventive maintenance helps reduce risks for big headaches. High mileage cars tends to be priced "lower" so bargains may be had in that segment.

these cars require money to operate - if the parts wear, they need replacing....if they work they dont so high miles means things should be replaced - lots of things - lots and lots parts have a life span, some die prematurely some outlast their projections - some are relatively cheap and some are enough to cause spouse issues I have seen many great cars with over 100k miles - I dont see it as a problem. - my car is pushing 200k and I know many with more - if I was buying a 996 I would try and stay south of 100k unless I found one with a factory replacement motor...chassis miles cause paint problems too, and suspension and glass, seals, bearings, trans - on and on right down to every **** and switch I should drink...I normally have a beer before typing so much

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Kloftus, you keep asking the same questions I have. Keep up the good work.

I typically prefer higher mile cars as in my opinion miles are not a reliable indicator of the condition of the car (and pricing is often favorable. Of course now that my car's for sale, it would appeal to a smaller group of buyers). The maintenance/treatment of the car's much more important IMO. My (daily driven) car's in significantly better shape/drives better than many I've seen that've covered a fraction of the distance. I really enjoy it at 176k miles. To be fair, I did refresh the engine and drop in a new transaxle/clutch ~10k miles ago, (but it hadn't had a catastrophic failure). To me the car's aged amazingly well. According to the records, it's had I think 3 wheel bearings, two water pumps, an alternator, a starter, coolant expansion tank and I put in an air oil separator. I think I'm forgetting a window regulator somewhere. For reference: Of course I'm used to keeping cars to past 200k miles. I've owned more than one M3 that saw track use past that point.

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It is not the miles so much that are important but the car's condition. A higher mileage car by the fact it is in good condition with the higher miles suggests the car was given good servicing, taken care of and while driven not abused. The issue becomes then what is one's tolerance for repair costs? If a new clutch job's price scares you then a higher mileage car on its original clutch might not be for you. The same could be said for say the AOS, water pump, fuel pump, or even something a bit deeper more expensive like a VarioCam solenoid/actuator. There is a tendency when someone buys a higher miles car to be reluctant to put any money in the car. The owner has already given up on the car even as he buys it. As a result the car doesn't get the same servicing, maybe gets treated worse, and little things are ignored. The car becomes ratty, leaky and then something a bit serious comes up and the owner then just doesn't want to put money into the car. Thus an otherwise high miles but good/sound car becomes a high(er) miles clunker and is viewed as a money pit. The car is blamed when it is the owner who is at fault for this. Last but not least is the biggest expense of owning a car is depreciation. A higher miles car has already depreciated (provided you do not overpay for the car) so you lose less money on depreciation.

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+1 Owning/operating a car carries a cost.... 1) Buy a new/newer car, and the cost of ownership will be somewhat ameliorated by the new car warranty, but keep in mind that the cost of the warranty is included in the price of the car. And depreciation is quite severe at the beginning of car ownership. 2) Buying a car past its warranty exposes an owner to repair costs that are not longer covered by the warranty, and thus are "out of pocket." And depreciation continues unabated. 3) Buying an older/higher mileage car avoids significant future depreciation, but the repair costs thusly replace the cost of depreciation. One benefit of an older car is the opportunity to reduce insurance costs. So, there is a real cost of ownership regardless of the car's age. Macster's older car no longer suffers from the severe ravages of depreciation, yet he is presented with repair costs from time-to-time. We can choose our pain, insofar as when/how we incur our costs. Some people are comfortable with the first category, some people are comfortable being in the second category, and some people are comfortable in the third category. It's your choice.

No more older cars for me unless it's a case of wanting something that was available only for a limited number of years. Properly maintained older cars aren't really about saving money in my experience it's about wanting that particular car and it not being available anymore new. Porsche 993 example.

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Your post is why I love this forum so much! Information, wisdom, opinion, and fact combine to educate newbies like myself. Thank you! I guess what I'm trying to figure out is where (in general) does a well cared for 996 begin to deteriorate or become more likely to have mechanical issues. 75k? 100k? What I don't want is to get a great deal on a car with 65k miles on it, drive it for a while, and discover that its now a shagged out piece of junk because it has hit a magical mileage mark where all 996s start to fail. Yes, I worry about silly things.

The amount of miles till engine failure.

Did you see this recent thread (LESS THAN 50K miles): https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...nd-advice.html https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...s-learned.html Less than 75K miles: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...i-can-get.html And here's a ddifferent perspective: http://www.findaporsche.com/porsche-...nes-the-truth/ IOW, the HEALTH of an engine cannot be ascertained soley by the car's odometer reading.

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Didn't see those threads. Thanks for the links! The power of search is strong with you. And you're right: the odometer doesn't necessarily represent an engine's health. I'll check out those links and see what else I can learn. Who would have thought there was so much information to consume before buying a car?

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Not to take your question lightly but if I could see into the future regarding used car issues I'd instead focus my forward looking gaze upon oh say the stock market. Really, no one can know the future regarding a used car purchase. One can make assumptions, flip a coin, research this subject until his eyes bleed, but when it comes down to it the decision is just a guess. Most of the time the guess is right. Why? Because most of the time the car is in good condition. (Also, some people are good at whatever it takes to make a success out of playing a hunch, going with their "gut" feeling.) All you can do I believe is find a good car. You want one that has been taken care of, treated well, loved. The fact the car checks out even after it has racked up some miles strongly suggests while the car has been taken care of in as much as this can play a role in the car's future the car is also possibly an exceptional car. This ain't a bad thing. (Years ago when I was tuning a car engine with 2 twin side draft Weber carbs I came across a very good book on car tuning in general and Weber tuning specifically. I no longer have the book and can't recall its title or its author (though even then I think he was deceased). Anyhow, he mentioned that while many tuners are interested in sick engines why they are sick he often wondered why no one seems interested in tearing apart in an intelligent way those engines that perform above the norm, make more hp, use less gas, to not burn any oil, last longer, run smoother, to try to figure out what factors contribute to this exceptional performance.) Anyhow, no matter how well you check out a car if the car is driven things will go wrong. Speaking for myself, little things wrong do not bother me. What do I consider little things? A water pump, fuel pump. AOS, MAF, 02 sensors, window regulators, door locks, a wheel bearing or two, CV boots, and certainly the more common wear items are in my opinion little things. I can stand, have withstood dealing with the above in my 02 Boxster over the years and over 260K miles. What I have not had to stand for, deal with, is catastrophic failure of course everyone's favorite subject, the engine. While I might be able to tolerate even this I would naturally not want to if I can avoid it. The only way to avoid it 100% is to not own a Porsche, or in fact any car, at least not out of warranty. But it is not always possible for me to own a car new enough to be covered by a warranty. Also, it is costly. If one flips cars as they come out of warranty for a car that is in warranty, one will almost certainly experience a depreciation hit for each flip and over time this can represent a big loss. I might add for me that if felt Porsche cars (in this case) represented such a large risk owning one out of warranty I'd not own one in warranty. I'd find a better car. If all cars were all the same in this regard then I'd just buy a cheap car and treat is as a disposable piece of equipment and cut my losses. Anyhow, if you are looking for a no risk car the only car that can provide you with as little risk as possible is one that is covered by a warranty sufficient to cover anything you can think of going wrong with the car and of course even those things that you can't think of going wrong wit the car or any of its expensive subsystems. The engine gets all the press but a bad A/C unit can run up into some money to repair though of course generally a bad A/C doesn't render the car useless. You are not being silly, worrying about silly things. You are just coming to grips I guess with how risk averse you are towards owning while a good car one that like all other cars can have things go wrong. Given we are talking about a luxury sports car they are generally more expensive to fix than lesser cars. You may decide the more upfront cost of owning one of these cars under some warranty plan is the lesser of the two evils. At least with a warranty plan your exposure is known. Provided of course the warranty company is there when (if) you need it and doesn't find some reason to deny successfully your claim. Oops! More risk. Sorry.

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I love it! And I completely agree with you. When it comes to cars, I am plagued by "analysis paralysis". I will sit and do research until the wee hours of morning only to conclude that I need more research and repeat the process ad-infinitum. Sometimes I just have to tell myself to take the plunge, trust my gut, and turn off the brain. My gut says there are a few cars on the local market that will be perfect for me. All I have to do is take the time to get out from behind the computer and behind the wheel of the car. For instance, I just located one that is available from an individual owner. Over 70k miles (more than my current daily driver) but he has complete service records and he's had the clutch and RMS replaced. The pictures of the car show it to be absolutely beautiful inside and out. My gut says "excellent car" but my brain says "too many miles". Stupid brain. After I call the guy about the car, I plan on punishing it with a few beers.

Seventy thousand miles is not a lot. As the years go by lower mileage cars become harder to find, they're out there but you'll pay more for them. I would prefer a car that was driven and well taken care of. Condition, condition, condition.

I've got a 112K mile C4s that has had about $23K in warranty work over its lifetime. For me milage matters a lot less than the value of all the stuff that's been fixed.

When I was shopping in earnest last year, wife and I agreed to a max of $30K. Other factors that came into play: must be in-state, tip, cab, silver, under 100K miles, verifiable service history and pass PPI. These criteria, with the MAX PRICE as the primary, helped narrow my search to 3 cars and within a week, bought my first P-Car. P.S. Have to admit that I started researching/window shopping 2 years ago but did not make the decision to buy till OCT last year. So I can relate (a bit) to analysis paralysis.

+1 on DNS... condition, condition, condition . But consistent with Ron Reagan's wisdom "Trust, but verify!"; show me the paperwork! relinuca

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+1 for the Ronny Reagan reference. There seem to be a lot of cars available in my area and in my price range that have around 60k miles on them (give or take a few). Some private sellers are upfront about the work that's been done (clutch, IMS, RMS, etc) while others don't get into those details in their advertisement of the car. No big deal. Easy enough to ask. But then there are the dealers that don't have a service history available for some reason. While some have the car's history available the vast majority do not and that makes me a bit hesitant. I'm surprised at just how nicely some of the cars are kept. Even with 50-60k miles on them, some of the cars look like they are brand new. That gives me some hope that I'll eventually find the right Porsche for me.