2 years of ownership.

Hi. What’s everyone’s opinion on owning a Porsche 996 c4s for 2 years and having to pay just under £8000 in maintenance costs? Would you have sold or kept? Is it even worth it? And will these maintenance repairs be beneficial for future sale of the car?

If I'd have invested that much, I'd want to enjoy it. And it's highly unlikely that years 3 and 4 would be as costly too.

That's a lot of money, what did your car need?

There are lots of factors at play here and we don't know any real details. Was the car a private or dealer/specialist purchase by you? Was there any warranty?Purchase price? Mileage at purchase? Were these repairs/maintenance costs incurred at an OPC or Independant garage? What was done for the £8k? Maybe you now have a great vehicle that has been brought up to a good state of repair and following years will be at a lot less cost.

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I bought th car privately. Seems like a trustworthy guy who owned the car for 5 years. Didn’t really do much miles, something like 1000 miles a year with history to prove. He was a regular at tower Porsche in London. Car was totally original including the ims. I purchased the car at a good price as the original ims was factored into it. Cars mileage was 81k at the time. Afew days after ownership I noticed the engine was smoking so it was straight to the indie (cavendish Porsche) for a major service, ims and rms, and found out the water pump had gone on the car as well as both radiators! I’m sure there were afew other stuff that had been replaced which came Upto a bill of just under £4000. 2 years later and booked in for the minor service, mot and new clutch. I later found out it hadn’t passed with both front brakes and pads were done. Air con condensers were done along with air con pipes and afew other things. This bill has come to just under £4000 now. Love the car to bits but the car now stands me over the 30k mark. Just wondering was this the right move.

Hi, I’ve been in a similar situation to you, having bought what I thought was a ‘cheap’ 996 and then got stung for a similar amount of repair money not long after. The way I think of it is this- Yes in hindsight we should have been more careful pre-purchase. A Porsche specialist inspection could have spotted things like the corroded rads, air con pipes, clutch life etc and paid for itself many times over. Or, buy from a dealer with a warranty next time, just don’t expect it to be so cheap. Things like brake wear is just common wear on any car, it’s part of the game. And once you purchase a used car with worn brakes once you’ll be much more observant on your own inspection time! No I don’t expect a 996 to cost £4k each year to run. It might be wise to budget for £1-2k. You’d be unlucky to have another £4k bill next year. No your car won’t be worth £8k more now but it will help if/when you decide to sell having had a number of the ‘big’ items done. A C4S with ims/rms/clutch/rads/brakes done and 80k ish miles is a desirable car. The way I’d look at it is this. Car ownership is not ‘free’. Usually depreciation is a factor no one thinks about. You could have bought a VW Golf, not had to spend a penny on maintaince other than minor services and still taken a £3k hit per year in depreciation. However a 996 hardly depreciates at all, in fact might appreciate over the next few years. I seem to remember reading that Porsche 911s are the most depreciation-proof cars ever. So you have that in your favour in terms of total ownership cost. Lastly, personal opinion but I think once interest rates come down in the next couple of years, classic cars (including modern classics like 996s) will appreciate again. Hang in there, put some miles on the car, book a trip in it. Good memories are the perfect antidote to bad bills. On your death bed you’ll think about the memories not the bills.

I agree totally with what's been said above. Looking positively, it's not an £8k bill as you mentioned that the IMS/RMS had been factored into the purchase price as I understand? A PPI would have been a good thing in hindsight. I bought my C4S from a good independant dealer/indi for £28k 57k miles and it had a load of jobs done pre purchase inc IMS/RMS water pump rads etc (proabbly a good few £k} but in the three years of ownership I've still spent circa £4.5k on servicing, maintenance and enhancements (not all needed!), and I've done a lot myself including suspension rebuild. So I don't think your bills are out of order but you have shouldered the costs of things that would have been picked up by a PPI and could have been used a bargaining fodder on the purchase price. Go and enjoy it, the bills won't stop but should be much lower.

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Your words have just made me ease a lot.

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Before buying my car I was considering buying another c4s in the same spec but with ims and all other things sorted. I was willing to pay £28k at the time for that until things fell through. When I purchased the c4s I own now I did have in mind that there were certain things that I would want doing myself just for piece of mind hence finding one that was cheaper but still in overall good condition with a good amount of history. Then having the funds to fix all the problems over time. Just didn’t realise how expensive things were I guess with everything that has been done to the car so far, all that needs doing now is a full suspension overhaul. Car should be bulletproof after that Thanks for all your opinions guys.

I bought my 2001 C4 a couple of years and so far I recon I've spent roughly £10k. This has included new clutch and plate, IMS direct oils feed, new alternator, new air con condensers, new water pump, new expansion tank, new coffin arms and the latest addition is new Low & High pressure pipes for power steering hydraulic oil, which by all accounts is an absolute ball ache of a job.

I have spent about 15k on my car in approaching 3 years, I bought it knowing it needed work (and paid a bit too much) but don't regret a thing, have done 25k miles in the car and it is exactly how i want it .. my experience/stuff done is in my sig and missing a few bits as I haven't updated in the last few months.

9 years = £12k over 50,000m including full suspension, 3/4 respray & rust, hi-fi, Aircon, water pump, exhaust and a load of niceties like spacers, SSK, steering wheel refurb, gear knob etc + all the usual servicing and other bits that go wrong on old cars. The lower cost comes from doing most of the work myself as labour really adds to the price, it’s mostly sorted now but there are always a few things to fix on old cars. I also got £3000 back when a driver clipped my wing when parked so it’s only really cost me £1000 p/a which is what I allow for in theoretical depreciation so it’s been a free car to run, touch wood!!

for me, just over 2 years ownership, first year was frugal, second year costly (around 7k) and i reckon this year should be ok apart from a few consumables. i knew going into 996 ownership it could cost a few quid but i try and drive it as much as i can and get some bang for my bucks!