996 As a heavily used daily - would I be mad?

Hi all, I'm happy to have joined now that I'm in a position to (potentially) buy my first 911. Apologies if this has been asked a lot before but I've had a fairly thorough search without much of a recent, definitive answer and I'm hoping for your opinions and experiences. I've recently moved jobs and am looking for a new daily. The "head" choice is a Mk 7 or 7.5 Golf GTI. The heart choice is a 996 for similar cost, because life is short. Man maths says the Golf will depreciate but cost less to run; the 996 is unlikely to drop much in value but has the potential to throw up big bills and cost more generally. I'd be doing around 80 miles/day 3 or 4 days a week (around 12k miles/year), all year round, in Scotland. Mainly on the A68 which usually gets a fair bit of snow and ice in the winter and is obviously regularly salted. I would get some winter tyres for it and have a yearly application of Lanoguard. The car would live outside all year round. I already have a Series 1 Elise which ticks the fun box, but is definitely not for winter use, so the 996 would also serve this purpose - I'd love to take it to the Alps for example. Social media posts of filthy 911s adorned with roof bars and skis give me all the feels. So if I bought a well-sorted car would I be heading for financial/emotional ruin? Is this a terrible idea? Thinking specifically of things like corrosion, less routine servicing, tyre cost or other things I may have overlooked. Thank you for any advice you can offer!

I like your thinking. To be honest they are pretty cheap to run for consumables. Only big bills are engine related. They are getting to an age where rust is starting to be an issue though so that's what I'd be more concerned with. Treating and cleaning regularly is best idea. They are pretty good in the snow, plenty of traction. I'd look at a cheap hack to run in winter and use the 996 less so then but use as much as you can when salt is away.

They're a very usable car; safe and reliable if kept on top of and everything you'll need is readily available. My only 'however" however, is that the hoses, connections and fasteners that will corrode will not be easily, or probably effectively, protected by Lanoguard. These will be the things that result in ad hoc failures and time off the road. Repairs will take days to be booked in and completed, or arranged DIY. Do you have a contingency for the car being off the road for a few days at short notice once or twice a year? The 996 gives you the choice of all wheel drive. It's not going to make a lot of difference in snow, but it might be an option for your use with no downsides.

my first P car was a base model, 996 C2 tiptronic cab. bought it low mileage for around 18k, drove it for nigh on 3 years as my daily, added circa 45k miles and sold it for silly cheap money and regret it. Was a perfect daily, even in wet weather, snow the lot. My job was as a surveyor for a builders doing insurance works, so i pretty much went all over the place and sometimes had to hide the car around the corner because of the dodgy neighbourhoods that i was going to. So yes, a great daily driver :thumb:

My car has ~275,000 miles, so has been a ~10k+ per year car for its entire life - it can be used in the sense of "if you're doing a lot of driving, do it in something that is worth driving" However - you need to be a genuine 'preventative maintenance' type and not just hope to be luck/avoid nasty surprises and the odd big bill. Fittings, hoses, connections, anything that gets brittle or worn, bodywork that you can't immediately see... You need to be able to strike the balance of truly looking after it, without fussing about it. It will forever be in the daily/high mileage group and never re-join the 'garage princess' group. That said, I genuinely believe that the cars in the former group are the better cars for it(!). My car draws consistent attention, partly for the fact that it is seen in all weathers (although mine is garaged). I have two sets of matching 18" wheels and a rack on the garage wall - one set of winter, the other "3 seasons". It'll only spend a couple of months on the winters, but I definitely appreciate having them. I have the full roof transport system. Awesome(!) Although the 98-99 cars typically need to have the mounting blocks in the roof rails replaced/renewed as they left the factory with metal 'blanking' screws for while the system isn't mounted - they replaced them with plastic screws after the first couple of years which don't corrode into place rendering them unusable

Thanks all, this all sounds a bit more positive than I was expecting... Demon that's a particularly impressive mileage - hats off to you there.

That sounds awesome. Love reading about a genuinely high mileage car, rather than something that's just tipped 100k miles and the general public are scared by. At what mileage did you have the engine rebuilt and did you go with a capacity increase?

I've run a 996 as my daily for the last 9 years. I go on holiday in it once a year minimum to the South of France and use it for everything else in between. I've done 80k miles in it now (on 165k at present) and on Thursday I drive down to St Tropez in it with my son. Bills on it will be similar if not less than the Golf. Most parts are cheap as chips and they're a very easy car to work on. Just take it to your local trusted mechanic and don't bother getting fleeced with OPCs or some 'specialists'. I say some as there are quite a few who charge reasonably prices, but others who charge more than OPCs. Just make sure you buy a car on condition, condition, condition as you don't need to be buying a headache wallet ripper.

[First] engine rebuild was done at ~180k - I bought the car at ~168k spent a year or so getting to know it... the main work was big end bearings, replacement of one conrod, de-ovalling and closing the deck. Currently considering when the [second] rebuild should be planned for - I spent a long time committed to a capacity increase as part of the next rebuild, but now find myself preferring the thought of it remaining 3.4... a 3.4 that's been reasonably breathed on doesn't get used hard enough on the road to "require" the extra capacity and torque necessarily... will be an ongoing debate for me assuming I'm the one to book in the next rebuild Similar sentiments as Alex - my 996 is far nicer to figure out, buy parts and sort problems on than my mothers 2015 VW Polo BlueGT(!) Realistically, I feel like you need to be able to cope with potentially £3-4k per year (more likely £2k in reality if you handle the spanners) for daily driving a high mileage 996 with a comprehensive attitude to preventative maintenance - that said, I have owned mine for 12 years with no immediate plan to sell, so I likely spend more on preventative maintenance than if I viewed myself as owning the car for a few years

I agree everything said before (pretty much) I bought my car at 73k 3 years ago (was a bit needy) and am now at 95k so while not at the mileage of some the others my car sits outside and is my daily driver and has been superb. I would be a little wary of the "cheap as a golf" comments though because you can easily be landed with a 3k bill for a simple seeming problem, mine has cost 18k over the 3 years (excluding purchase) but this in itself is misleading because i would say that a third of that has been personal choice/improvement as opposed to repairs/needed maintenance, AND very importantly I bought a car knowing it needed work. My personal impression is if you expect on average 3k per year you shouldn't be far off, also bear in mind that some guys here are talking personal maintenance. I'm still considering whether i'm mad, but I don't think so

I use my 996 turbo all the time. Modified it may be but ultra reliable and only consumables required in over 60k spirited miles! Go for it man. Insurance is cheap too compared to a R I am sure. Keep us posted

The figure of £3k per year sounds like quite a lot for just preventative maintenance - certainly much higher than my Elise which is of a similar age (1998), albeit doing much lower mileage. If I find a car with a full suspension refresh + IMS/RMS/clutch, maybe radiators, is it still likely to be as much as that? Or is that covering consumables with the mileage I've suggested? I don't have the resources or knowledge to do much work myself so I'd have to factor in labour cost too. This has been a great help, thank you all.

Forget about anything 'done' with the ims or rms, it's all tosh in reality. 3k per year is also a bit excessive. Have a read of my 4 year cost of ownership thread detailing every penny I spent in the 1st 4 years: http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=126419

My 996 has been run in parallel with my r53 mini JCW over the last decade and they cost about the same to run in fuel / tax / repairs / etc Only thing is 911s cost more on tyres and you have to change them more frequently.

Let me get my "self to indy" calculator out .. errrm ... yep! that's a total of £3000 a year :grin: Jokes aside £666 for a clutch/ims/RMS and all engine drop labour that is unbelievable, would have cost me £1500/£2000 at any of my Indies!

I've had my C2 almost 9 years, it's my main car all year round but I do have a pickup and motorbikes which I also use and that keeps the mileage down so end up doing about 6,000m a year. Averaging over 8 years it works out at £1250 p/a on maintenance (more in the early years, highest was £2500) including a full suspension refresh and a few trinkets and bits that didn't need doing, mind you nothing major has gone wrong. The body work is now pretty shabby & stone chipped from use and living outside all year, I imagine a respray will be quite expensive. I do 95% of the work myself which has allowed me to keep the costs low and apart from paint and a couple of small rust spots on the rear arches, which I will sort, the car is mechanically in top condition. I'm sure it's worth more than I bought it for, psychologically I devalue it by £1000 a year so even if it goes bang I'm quids in and have enjoyed owning a 911 before I got old. The 996 can easily be a sensible daily driver as long as it gets a good regular run and not just very short journeys, you will need to start with a good one though and even then you can never be sure a potentially big bill isn't just around the corner but that's true of any car. Preventive maintenance and regular oil changes and oil sampling gives peace of mind. When I park it I still look over my shoulder as I walk away and give it an admiring glance, it puts a smile on my face when I get to an empty road and makes daily driving fun. The ULEZ expansion is also going to cost me about £1200 p/a though which is very annoying as the company car park is only 1 mile into the zone!

I've seen a couple of really well priced C4S recently, and I would not hesitate to use one as a daily. I've used mine as a daily (997 C4) for the last decade and have no plans to stop using it as such. I do agree with Demon though, as usage in winter with salt roads is not kind to these cars and the more fiddly consumables. As for maintenance costs, realistically it's broadly similar to any other car of the same age; costs tend to spiral when you start to tinker if you get the bug. Which is not so difficult to justify when the cost of a new car is considered. The new cars are great, as I've driven 991 varieties, not sampled the 992 yet. However, they're a bit asinine in comparison to the 996/997. 911munKy is right about use and oil changes too. Mine has had an oil change every 6 to 9 months, is warmed fully before pushing it, and anything that has started to wear or show signs of failure or require pre-emptive change has been done immediately. I am on my second clutch though and the same number of RMS. The engine has never skipped a beat and has been entirely problem free. Regarding practicality, I've used mine with the roof bars to carry my bike across Europe; it carries the annual Christmas tree, and has been pressed into service to pick up plasterboards. Looks brilliant with a ski box on. It is absolutely not mad to consider a 996 as a daily driver. Practical, fun, relatively inexpensive to run, great looking with a suitable amount of power and control which can be taken on track a couple of times per year, and won't look at all out of place. With a winter wheel/tyre combination, there are many places it will be able to go that a 4X4 with summer tyres can only dream of.

Been using a 996c2 then a turbo as a daily for 7 years now, about 7k miles a year - go for it!

Did 23,000 miles in a year in my first Porsche, a 996.2. Faultless. Just service regularly and look after it. And enjoy every mile

I daily a 987.2

I daily my 996.2 March until October and can honestly say apart from needing coil pack, plugs & a service this year its been faultless and it puts a smile on my face every time I drive it. been to the Nürburgring this year without any issues

I dailied my 987.2 R (2 of them) which I bet next to no-one does as most of them seem to be garage queens, and now daily my 996. Other than a bit of a persistent hot-start issue it's been great. I probably should look at some sort of underside treatment though, considering the various stories of rust that I've seen on some cars.

Just as a comment on the running costs of the Golf: we ran a mk7 GTI for 9 years from new, and serviced it religiously. Sadly it was not short of large bills. At about 82k (km) we lost a piston skirt on #3 (which was an engine out, engine open job), and at 130k we lost the turbocharger after a CEL popped up on a test drive (it was for sale).

Note to readers This thread started in July 2023. The original poster went on to buy a 987.2. He hasn't visited this site since February 2026.

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Yeah - but still nice to re-read about all these high miler 996's....! I love my C4S. Was my daily until I bought the 993 and daily London commute that one now. Although blasting up to Tring for dinner this evening in the 993 and the stetch of A41 from Jn19 of the M25 all the way to Amersham is (was...!) a great bit of road. My 996 has 112k. Hasn't cost me £3k per year in my nearly 4 years of ownership. more like £1k. Am I underspending....? Yesterday had annual oil change plus brake fluid and gearbox oil change. Have new coil packs and plugs which will fit next week. Not sure why I'm doing it other than because they've not been changed in a few years. Doesn't seem to be anything wrong with them. My wife took the 996 to her work today - just because it hasn't been out for a couple of weeks. 100% you should daily a 996. Or a 993. Life's too short, no? Just drive it I reckon.

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Nearly at 183k on my daily.

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I've had the Starter and Y-cable replaced, which sorted it for a couple of weeks, but then the problem returned after a spirited Sunday morning drive, leaving me unable to start the car for an hour. Have since replaced the engine to body ground cable, which has improved things, but it still struggles to start when hot. I think the next port of call is the junction box under the car near the gearbox, as I had it looked at when I had it serviced and they said it was pretty crusty.