Should I sell?

Checking through the paperwork to book in for the annual service (as I do less than 9000 miles a year) I realised I have infact only done 4000 miles in the 2 years I have owned the car. Coupled with reading about the hike in warranty prices it has got me thinking - it would be cheaper for me to hire a Porsche if I wanted to use it for several weekends a year than to own one, and a new Porsche at that? I calculated it costs me about £2K a year in tax, insurance and warranty already without the extra £500 to shell out next year, and thats excluding fuel and depreciation - I paid £32K for mine in Sept 06 and recon I could get £21K ish max if I was patient enough. Thus my 4000 miles of Porsche ownership have cost me £15K [&:] [&:] Or do I just keep it?

Depending on your circumstances in life, can you not just use it more? Mine just racked up 50k miles tonight which means I've put 22k on it in just over 2 years. That's more than I intended but its competence on my quiet 70 mile run home tonight still staggered me. With values in freefall, I'm really not sure there's a lot of point in having a 996 tucked up in a gargage for sunny days - see how enthusiastic Peter Bull's running report is! I'm sure you could hire something interesting for a similar outlay but none of them would be your car and, for me at least, that's part of the fun. Imagine your costs plus £10k for new engine! Certainly tested my love affair (which given the market involves a degree of personal financial suicide) but... hell it was worth it tonight!

I think at the moment it is a bad time to sell unless you really need the money, or you are going to upgrade to a newer car as of cause it is all realtive and if it is an upgrade to say a newer more expensive 911 then percentage wise your going to get a good deal. Just to get out of it now you will loose a lot, keep it for a few more years and use it a bit more you can then spread the cost over this period. I also agree with Rob that to higher one even if it is brand new would not feel the same, not to me anyway. Had mine for 4 years now, and have lost less than my friends new BMW touring which is not half the car. Phil

I sold up last year with the intention of hiring brand new 911s for several weekends each year. It was around 3 months before I was back in my own 911. Hiring new ones for the weekend sounds like the best of both worlds but it isn't. The feeling that it isn't your car, the worry about damaging it (3k excess) and the limited mileage/time all make hiring a pretty unsatisfying experience IMO. There's nothing like picking up the keys to your own Porsche, cleaning your own Porsche and most importanly driving it. As was suggested above, just drive it more, make it your everyday car, take it to events/tracks, take it into Europe, don't worry about putting mileage on it, just enjoy it. If you're as addicted to these cars as I am I promise you'll regret selling it.

Keep it - look at the costs over the next 3 years, depreciation is going to be about £4k (or what you'd lose on a new Astra driving it out of the showroom), servicing via an independent are going to be about £1300, repairs (air con, tyres, brakes) maybe £2k. If you cover 7k miles a year in it, thats 33p per mile without warranty, fuel or insurance, Even if you call it £1/mile there's nothing else thats going to give you the same driving experience or owner satisfaction.

Ditto to all the above. What difference would it have made to the value of the car if you had done another 5000 miles per year? Probably nothing at all. Use it and enjoy it.

I'm in a similar situation,I've had my 996 since new in 01, its done 25k and only comes out if theres no rain forecast for 3 days. But thee are times when I (or to be precise, the wife) says 'we' (thats a royal 'we') says we dont use it, the family don't fit etc etc ..we could have just put the cash in the bank, and I start to think... but as my old man always says....you're a long time dead, life is for living, and so I get in it, I drive and I smile and I remember exactly why I bought it, why I enjoy driving it, and how very little else gives so much pleasure, so no, I cant sell it, so I clean it and put it back and so we go on. So my response would be, if it still makes you smile, keep it. The big q I'm deliberating over is, is it time to switch to an Indy for servicing ? And the bigger q is when can I get my hands on a gen2.....

youve lost most of the money you will so just keep it.end of story[ ]

i recon ive done 16k on my 997s in a year as i bought from an OPC so now there is just no point in flogging it. I have thought about selling, especially last week with the lehman episode but life is far too short and whilst im gamefully employed i want a toy. My car is brilliant so untill needs must it stays. Mine will do circa 5k a year but thats the fun

I'm sorry but i for me ownership of a Porsche is everything. I do not need to justify how many miles i drive a year. It makes me smile when i hear about how the market value of our cars have dropped. I do not care if it is worthless. I bought a Porsche because to me it is a built with passion and driving it makes me smile every time i drive it.

I will hang onto it a bit longer then or maybe do a Richard and trade up to a Turbo! [8D] I did consider trading "down" in value to a 928 GTS as I have always liked the look of them. In reality the hassle of planning an arranging a hire Porsche for a weekend would mean I would never do it plus the £3K excess [ ].

I'm in the same position as you. I bought a used C4S about 16 months ago and it's probably cost me £20k in depreciation, maintenance, insurance etc during this time and I've only done about 5000 miles in it. It's a weekend toy car for me and I don't have the possibility to put more mileage on it during the week as it's not a suitable business vehicle for my work. In my view, 996 values are going to continue to slide especially in view of the impending recession and Gnu Labour's continuing persecution of motorists. So I think it's a fallacy that older 996's will find a level at which they'll stop depreciating and I believe that my 996 is going to continue to cost me a lot of money for not many miles. Whilst I can afford to keep it, I probably will but it wouldn't take much for me to sell it even though I love driving the car

Mike I agree with you that prices will continue to slide, but I think they are reaching a level where the cars now appeal to a much wider audience. Now that decent examples of early cars are hitting the £15000 level, there are quite a few more potential buyers coming from the Euro hot hatch/Scooby/Evo market. Most of these are cash buyers too. And as for recession - IMO we've been in one for 9 months, it's just that the media have really latched on to it at the moment, and are making it worse by talking it up. Recession is the new Global Warming. Just my 2p's worth.

Complete agree Richard

Richard, as far as being in a recession goes, I believe that we ain't see nothing yet and it's going to get a whole lot worse and that's bad news for highly discretionary purchases like sports cars. Aston Martin sales down 67% this year, Jaguar 41%, L-R 57%. It's a bloodbath out there. Anyway the average Scooby/Evo buyer is going to be out of work soon so a £15k 996 is going to be just a wet dream for them

couldnt agree more mike[ ] all the banks are going to be nationalised and lose most of their staff and the city will be mothballed for 50yrs. mortgage rates will rise to 20%-like in the 70's and everyone will be riding around on raleigh choppers rather than driving sports cars better make the most of today[ ]

My glass is half full.....

as you guessed richard i was being tongue in cheek[ ] my glass is brimming over

My glass really is half full... but the bottle is next to it! I was going to post a "should I buy" question but I don't want to waste everyone's time (actually I do!). I've been looking for a 20k cab for a few months but had my head turned after a 'driving weekend' at my OPC when I drove a 3.6 996. It sounded fantastic and I can't remember the 3.4 now. There seems to be a few 3.4s available around my budget but there's an 03 996 with 95k miles which is within reach and I wondered whether it's worth a look at that price or likely to be unsellable when I'm done with it (not planning to visit the moon as I get the train to work most of the time). What is the consensus on a purchase at this mileage (it's full OPC service but nothing in ad about replacement parts etc.). I feel a bit like Groucho Marxx when it comes to cars, I don't want a car that I can afford and I'm scarily close to finding the right one. Please help - 50 - 60k 3.4 around 1999 or 2001 or a higher mileage facelift?

i`ve always been told buy on condition not mileage so regardless of model go for condition and dont be put off by mileage if well looked after-if the facelift is in the latter category go for it!!

Thanks - right answer! I've been set on a cab but recently noticed a couple of the later "S" wide body coupes. I'm determined to sabotage my dream aren't I? Another spanner is that my wife's Cayenne which is the main car packed in today with a prop shaft failure so we're in mine for a week or so until it's fixed; if "mine" is going to become a 996 we might struggle with the 4 year old and 15 month old boys for anything more than a few days. The dog would just have to stay home!

i dont know-i shoehorned my wife and an 18yr old and 16 yr old for a day trip to Wales.they wre glad when it ended

Nice picture. One "reason" for the cab was the ease of access into the back seats to fit the baby chairs (as long as it's not raining - we live near Manchester!) and then the boys can climb in, or be shoehorned in - I've a feeling it'll be nipper in the front, me and number one in the back and wife driving in comfort. I've got to find one this week as I'm running out of "free" time to shop. Just seen a 997 on the forum for <30...

[8D] I think I'll change my career so that I can use the Porsche more often, like others I am guilty of washing it and then putting it back into the garage, but I have driven round the Nordschliefe for 5 laps and that alone justifies buying it and since then I attend two trackdays each year, My wife has recently found out what it costs, she said "we" should not be spending that amount of money on a car, I had to remind her that she does not work and has spent £1000 on a cat ( yes- that is three 0's - enuff said!), but she has admitted that she was like a dog with 2 ***** when I took her to lunch in it on Friday as it still attracts a lot of admiring looks, she even said that she regrets not being in the car when I went round the Nordschliefe!! - I just need to get back there asap! Enjoy