Hello and hoping for a little advice

Firstly a hello (only proper as a new poster) - and congratulations on a very informative forum. I am looking at getting my first Porsche (hopefully a 911 - approx MY1999/2000) and currently have an Audi TT Quattro Sport. I wonder if someone could please advise me on a few points? 1. What makes the OPC warranty at £895 a better bet than one from say Warranty Direct or a similar non-manufacturer warranty company 2. C2 Carrera v C4 Carrera - I've driven and like both but are there any pitfalls to one over another? Any major differences to be aware of (apart from the obvious extra driven wheels / weight / loss of part of the storage space)? 3. Given the choice of earlier car with 50,ooo or so miles (say a 1998 version) or a 2000 version with 60,000 or so miles is the newer one a better bet (all otehr things being about equal) and is it the case that you should buy according to condition and not get hung up about mileage? 4. Lastly (I promise) is there any benefit to pushing the budgetary boundaries and going to a 2001 version - I won't be able to push it out to the facelift which I believe was 2002. Many thanks in advance for any help or pointers you can give me - hope to be a more active member with a 911 soon. Cheers Guy

1) Forget WD warranty and any other warranty for that matter (excluding PW). They are not worth the paper they are printed on. 2) C4 better in wet. C2 faster and according to purist better handling. My grubby self couldn't notice the difference. 3) for 1998 you can only get 1yr warranty (last day that you can purchase 1yr warranty from P is on car's 9th birthday). 4) No Idea HTH , Voya

1. Porsche warranty has no excess and no claims limit. Others do beware. If you want the full details of the Warranty PM me. You will have to undertake a 111 point inspection (which has to pass) beforehand (pices vary from ~£150-250) 2.C4 comes standard with PSM (Porsche stability management), whch was only an option on the C2 after MY1999. No pitfalls, it's a very reliable system. Steering will feel a little heavier in the C4 (less feedback?), but feels a bit more planted at the front due to the extra weight over the front wheels.Most of the time only 5% of the drive is directed to the front wheels (but can be up to 40%). The C4 will be slightly less fuel efficient and harder on the front tyres. 3.MY99 brought about POSIP (Porsche Side Impact Protection system), a better sounding exhaust, and clear lenses front and rear.You also get E-gas (fly by wire - making retrofitting of cruise control simple) and an improved engine management system. Those are all the changes until the facelift model in MY2002. 4. See above. Nothing really except a younger car.

Hi Guy, Sounds like you're in exactly the same position as me earlier in the year. I'd been (seriously) looking for about 9 months and finally have purchased a 2000 year C2 996. To answer your specific Q's ... 1) From previous personal experience 3rd party warrantee's are only useful for wiping your derrier on. a) they try and wiggle out of everything (we had a broken driveshaft rejected as 'wear and tear' - see other stories on pistoheads re warrantee co's claiming contaminated oil etc. b) they'll delay you and c) fail to pay up. Also they probably have value limits on either value of claim and/or hourly rate. Not much use when an OPC charges 110/hour and a relacement engine is in the order of £12K. I went for the OPC warrantee on mine, after a successful 111 point check (£110 + VAT) - which I wanted to have done anyway, buying a car of such value. 2) I went for a C2 in manual for the purest driving experience. I may have been tempted by a C4 (having had various 4wd performance cars in the past (Audi Quattro, Celica GT4, Imprezza) were it not for the loss of boot space. The C2's boot is so deep you can get about £120 worth of Sainsburys in it or plants (this weekend), or an axe (last weekend) or my daughters school books / bags etc. Also got a huge bag of fertilizer in it a month ago! Makes it a very versatile car. 3) I was specifically looking for a 2000 or 2001 model for these reasons. a) some say that the earlier engines (from 97, 98 and early 99) were less reliable than later ones (2000 or 2001) - although some of the stories you hear on various newsgroups are probably not representative of the marque as a whole. b) An OPC warrantee is only available till the car is 10. Hence many 98 model cars will no longer be able to get a year's warrantee on it. c) I prefered the clear rather than coloured lenses and 1,000 GBP for a conversion seemed too much to pay for a cosmetic improvement.d) I didn't want to pay the premium for a 2002 facelift model and figured that over the next few years the extra money would be lost in depreciation. Coming back to your two options, I don't see the extra 10,000 miles as being that significant assuming the higher mileage one has had full service history. It could be that the 60,000 mile one had already had a new clutch, whereas the 50,000 probablyt hasn't - that could save a bit on the maintenance over the next couple of years (depending on your mileage, of course). 4) There was only one change between the 2000 and 2001 model and that was the boot and bonnet releases went over to an electrical operation (with remote keyfob activation) and switches on the sill, rather than the silver coloured plastic levers of the pre-2001 models. The electrical operation has the advantage of not having scuffed plastic levers and, of course, remote activation. The downside was that if your battery goes flat, you have to mess around with plugging in a battery to a connection in the fuse box to be able to open the boot to get to your battery. Either way, it wasn't a big thing for me. My ideal choice would have been an X-reg model from Jan to March 2001. This would give all the benefits of the 2001 year, without tripping into the post 1st March 2001 (i.e. Y-reg) when the car tax became CO2 based. Hence annual tax is still 175 rather than 225 and who-knows-what in the future. As it was, I got a nice W-reg 2000 (March 2000) C2 with 46K on the clock, full history, in the colours I wanted, with 17" wheels (which I wanted) at the right price. Got it inspected and the warrantee on it for worry-free motoring. And its great!! Good luck in your search.

Thanks for the replies so far guys - some great helpful info in there. I'm going to see what can be done in the next few days to secure a deal but I want to get the car 111 point inspected and OPC warrantied as well. Also, I know already that I am going to want the OBC and cruise done and then the stereo upgraded to a decent double DIN unit wwith Sat Nav (looking like the Pioneer Avic D3BT at the moment as I want ipod control too). So that little lot is going to set me back an additional £2,500 on the purchase price. Looking about it seems that the Michelin Pilot Sport tyres are well thought of (by me too as I have them on the TT). What are the stock speakers in the 996 like? If I change the head unit will I be wanting to change the speakers too?????

I just got a set of Michelin Pilot Sport N2's: 135 each front + 142 each rear incl valve, balance and VAT @ Autofit, Ipswich.

i too am a recent member and am looking at purchasing a 911 (996) turbo around 2003 model. any thoughts/advice on the car, price etc. also is it better to have 111 point check or rac inspection. i realise that to get porsche warranty you need to have 111 point check, but have been told that the rac inspection is more thorough. Is this the case ?

The RAC will (I suspect) look at a different set of things. The 111 is very warranty-specific (ie they want to be sure that nothing that the warranty covers is already broken). That means they don't really care about (eg) the clutch because that would not be covered by the warranty. On the other hand RAC might give advice on the clutch but the average RAC chap will have zero experience of a porker. You are best getting a PPI from a recognised Porsche independent (a garage or someone like Peter Morgan - google his name to find his web site). Trouble is that will cost you 2-300, however they nearly always find a few hundred pounds worth of faults you can then negotiate on. All that said, I used the 111 inspection plus a long chat with the mechanic who did the check. I could not find an indy to do an inspection where the car was located. (If I'd had a fuller inspection I probably would have saved myself about 500 quid in the end).

I checked mine over myself first, armed with PM's excellent 996 buyer's guide. Then I had my 111 point check done at Colchester and they were very thorough ... they showed me underneath the car, talked through the Porsche plug in 'early-learning-centre-esque' computer thingy and took me on the test drive. They did comment on the clutch feel (quite easy to depress, so not well worn) in the workshop and on the test drive, so not sure what else the RAC could add about the clutch without dismantling. They also pointed out things that were not warranteeable - e.g low tyre wear / nick on tyre sidewall (since replaced!) and a scrape to the bottom edge of front spoiler from speed bump grounding. So overall, very impressed. Took about 1.25 hours, but charged for 1 hours labour (110+ VAT). My thoughts would be to go with OPC if you want the warrantee and PM or similar specialist if you don't or feel you need a 2nd opinion. Obviously the cost of PM inspection is a much smaller percentage of the total purchase price of a 2003 TT compared to my 2000 C2 I doubt the RAC have much experience of 996 TT's - or maybe they do as Porsche Assist is subcontracted to them !!

thx 4 ur input. in a bit of a dilemma cos the turbo i have seen is in leeds and i am in london. i have been to see the car, looks and drives fine to me. a few stone chips on bonnet and bumper which they can sort. car only has 12.5k miles on clock ( 03 53 reg) with fpsh so seems pretty clean car to me. however, the ppi (111) i guess is still worth having and the warranty which is another £895. should i pay the £150 + vat for the ppi check from porsche and then based on that negotiate price further for car ? currently we are 2k apart on our prices, but that excludes the cost of the warranty which i could probably agree to go halves on.