Buying and owning a 996 advice

Hi All, So I have dreamed of owning a porsche from a young boy but the reality is that it has always been out of my reach. Since moving to the UK (I am originally from Aus) it was pointed out to me by a friend how inexpensive porsche's can be in the UK market (in comparison to buy and owning one in Australia). 996's in Aus start at around $45000 (well out of my reach). However in the UK I have seen them as low as £8000 ($12000 Aussie dollars). Realistically I would be prepared to pay more like around £13000 (within my reach) for a decent car with good history lower mileage etc. The plan would be to eventually in a few years ship it back to Aus (when I move back), once I owned it privately enough here to avoid import duties etc. Advice on the following would be appreciated. 1) I have see allot of 996's around for about 10k and under are these cars worth looking at? Or best avoided? 2) What sort of insurance am I looking at roughly for someone who has no insurance history in the UK. (I have a UK licence and have been driving here for 2 years and I am 35 and have been driving since I was 17.) 3) Average running cost of a 996 per year? 4) Who parks there 996 on the street? Have you had any trouble with break-ins or damage? Seeing I live in London there are not allot of options appart from paying about £130 a month to park in someones car space in a secure building. (not that that its 100% secure for the car just saying). 5) Ims and Rms ok to just have them checked or best have them replaced? Thanks for any assistance in making my dream a reality

Hey i was pretty blind to porsche history and bought one 2 years ago because I am a speed freak having ridden race motorbikes for years. When i sold my fire blade (kids) i wanted a care i could take the kids in as well and the prices of porsche were falling. I bought a 996 on impulse spent thousands uprating it M030, etc ad chaninging rms ims. Your best move is this forum. The risk of IMS is relatively low ?5% but i would go for the later models or turbo to sleep in peace. Get Peter? to check out your car. However you can find a cheap 996 and really enjoy.

sorry i have a C4 cab whcih i park on the street in London - no probe

Thanks drmeng. I have owned a few bikes myself including a 2003 r6 and a 2001 ducati 748. Loved them both for different reason, but sadly had to sell them on before moving to europe. How about insurance, running cost on the 996? Can I put my kitesurfing gear in the back seat (ha ha I know I can have seen a guy do it a my local spot many a time).

996s are a bargain - i love mine and cant see the point of buying a new car if you need to carry kit then the targa is a great choice - it can even attach roof bars targas are rarer and more expensive tho you ned to factor in servicing and repairs to your budget for a 10 year old car this can be a major part of the cost you shouldnt have a problem on the street in most of london - you will get bumpers bumped and scratched and make sure you never leave anything in sight inside the car

Damien! There are a couple of documents on this thread which might be of interest when deciding which model you are going for: http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=269468 There are plenty of insurance recommendations in the 'Ultimate' thread at the top of the main 996 forum page. You may be able to get an insurance company to take into account your previous insurance history in Aus, but the 996 isn't a very expensive car to insure (relatively speaking). I think that is because most of them are second cars, and the claims history is relatively low. If you can work with a restricted mileage, this can often reduce premiums, and add your wife/partner to the policy, whether they drive it or not, as this often helps. As for running costs, it all depends on how well cared for the car has been. The low priced 996s attract quite a few buyers, and some neglect maintenence. The cars will run fine with rusty brakes, non-working aircon, etc, etc, and after a year or two these buyers are faced with some large bills and put them on the market. They may look lovely and glossy on the outside, but need a good amount of cash spending on them. Buy very carefully, and get a good PPI done by a specialist. It will save you far more than the cost in the long run. A well maintained car will cost in the region of £1500-2000 a year (servicing, tyres, maintenance) to keep it in fine fettle. If you are interested in a 3.4 Cabriolet, there is a fine example in the For Sale section, and a couple of Coupes that are well worth a look, from forum members.

Thanks people some very useful information. With insurance I dont think they will take into account my driving history from Aus/New Zealand as I have not had fully comp on the last car I own which was about 3 years ago now (in NZ). I have had excess insurance here in UK (no claims) for hire cars/street car but doubt thats going to mean anything. Weekend drivign etc insurance could be the go for me maybe. Just got to see how much tax I have to pay in January and if my accountant has done a good job and i am not stung too hard then I am free to purchase in the following months I think I pretty much know I want a basalt black 996. This one in the forum classify looks quite reasonable http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=722970. Also been watching this one on ebay for some time http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110978101197?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

There is a lot of 996s about for not a lot of money, my advice would be take your time, get a car that has been well looked after and has a full history it doesn't have to be Porsche but a good well known specialist. I have friends that say you can pick up a good 996 for 10k the point is they are only looking on the classified adds they haven't been to look at one. When I was looking for my car I would ask all the questions and then when I got to view the car people had lied about full service history and no of owners so I ended up getting this info emailed to me before going to view a car, also people's description of excellent condition wasn't the same as mine. I would go and see a car once you have had a good look over it then get an inspection done with Porsche, all dealers do a report for around £150 or get a well known inspector to look at, this is what I would do. Once you find a good one you will have a lot of fun and many years of enjoyment. Good luck. Phil

I agree with Richard and Phillipe, if you want a car to keep and ship back to Oz then you will probably need to pay £16 - £19k for a very good car, I'll probably never sell my car (although a 996 GT3 RS is tempting!), but I certainly would not part with it for less than £19k, there are comments about why bother with a full service history, but it can add 207 value to any car and as I was advised when I started looking for a Porsche - "Never Buy One Without a Full Service History" from an OPC or recognized specialist - Good Hunting. [ ]

Loving the feedback. Thanks for the insight people! I am thinking of keeping my budget around the £13000 -£16000 (max) as I also have to factor in shipping down the line to Australia. I am in no major rush so happy to hunt around for some time to find the right car but would like to have found it by about mid next year. For this sort of price range what sort of mileage would be good do you think? Also I am more keen perhaps on a slightly later model ie. 2001 onwards. As far as performance is there much difference between the 3.4 and 3.6?

Re insurance, if you have had insurance with no claims in the past ask the insurer overseas for a letter confirming it. If you try some of the smaller insurers based with car clubs such as AON they will take that into account as well as job, and location and if the car if garaged. Certain parts in central london you can hire a garage or an under cover car spot - it is expensive as can cost about 100 quid a month but puts less wear and tear on the car. Besides buying the indie mags have a look at some of the dealers who are selling 911s - you will see a cleaned up car - yes you pay more but it is also more easier driving a car on their insurance cover. Oh, and by the way after a year of living in UK you need to transfer your licence to a UK one.

Cheers Russel the idea with the letter might work, I will ask my previous insurer for one. As for the licence yep thats already been done year and a half ago.

For me it took 6 months to get my car. I looked at a 993s turned down the offer of a C4s which was about 5 hours from me, ok so now I would have made money on that car 8+ years on but i went for the 996 3.4 for many many reasons, and it has given me so much fun and pleasure. This year I fitted upgraded suspension (mo30) its a mint car and is so good to drive. One big down side is the Internet, miss information, in the past this has caused me great concern, not this forum but other poor information posted on lots of sites and publications. Just spend time and with your Budget you will get a nice car that one day will hopefully spend a happy time in sunny OZ. Cheers Phil

An independent specialist told me that they have never seen an IMS problem with the earliest 996s (1998) as apparently they had a different design bearing, which was then changed in around 99/2000. Personally, I ran a 1998 996 C2 for 6 years and 50,000 miles. The only things that went wrong were a stuck variocam solenoid (cheap to fix but it left me stranded one night as it kept blowing the main fuse); and a battery which suddenly died one day. Owning it and driving it was a great experience. I now have a 2001 996 Turbo, which, at £25k-ish for a good one, are currently bargain of the century, in my view. But if you find a good, low-owner, cared-for early 996 (and just ignore the inevitable RMS oil weep), you'll be very happy.

I'm sure you've already been pointed to the buying guide on here which is a great starting point and something I digested and took with me when looking at my 996. I think RMS isn't an issue so much, on the history of my car a couple of years before buying one tech report stated a possible weap from RMS. It actually turned out to be the drive shaft oil seals sweating and making the casing of the box slightly damp over time underneath. Anyway they were replaced and I cleaned the box housing and no more stains. To be honest from what I hear, a weeping RMS is just that, you might get a damp spot on the gear box casing or at worst a drip but nothing that will kill the engine although it would be annoying having an oil leak. I also heard sometime ago about an 'official' TSB putting sealant in that area! So I think some places left a weeping RMS until perhaps a clutch change and taking the box out. A nice feature of the 996 is that it tells you every time you start the engine oil level, and with a capacity of the best part of 10 litres you would never even get close to use an egg cup of oil on a small leak in perhaps 8 months. On the IMS front it's mostly internet sensationalism and scaremongering from what I have seen, I think I have heard of two failures in the past few years. An upgrade can be retrofitted for a few hundred pounds if you are that worried, again best done at clutch change time. Running costs as Richard mentioned should be somewhere between 1-2k. DIYing some of the maintenance can significantly reduce costs. and most OPC discount both parts and servicing for 996 owners to help keep costs reasonable. There are also many indi's that can offer servicing and repairs at a reasonable cost. As a guide, my OPC offer basic service for around 300 and a major for around 450. Northway as an indi IIRC offer servicing at around 250 a basic and perhaps 350 for a major. Tyres are probably more of an expense than actual servicing. If you are running 18"'s then expect little change from £1000 for a set of four N rated. That said depending on your mileage a set could last years. Expect to budget a little for extras, you tend to find that even a well looked after and serviced car can have a few niggles that have either gone un-noticed or have become 'the norm' to the current owner. I'm not sure I can help on insurance as when I first insured mine I think I decided to allocate around 6 years of my NCB to it, that came to around £400 fully comp. I do however recall having a quote for it as a second car with some specialist company which came out at about £550 if I didn't use any NCB, I was 30 at the time and a UK resident all of my life so not sure if that has any bearing. I keep mine in the garage, I can't say I'd like to leave it on the road but that's just me. 10k can buy you a 996, and you may grab a bargain, but beware of shiny examples that could be very tired underneath or hiding some big bills. Either way, within your budget you should be able to find a nice 996 and have a couple of K spare for any surprises. Good luck.

I'm with Steve on this one. The 996 has been massively undermined by alarmist drivel both on the net and in magazines such as Porsche & 911 World. They hark on about how the 993 was a hand-built car and the 996 is effectively a mass-produced, under-engineered mistake. Reading these sources would have you believe that an IMS failure is simply a matter of time and the RMS weep is blown out of all proportion; after all it not like the air-cooled 911's didn't have more than there fair share of oil-leak and weep issues! I am on my 2nd 996 and they are absolutely the best bang-for-your-buck 911 you can get.

Sorry my car had "SEVERAL" RMS seals fitted by OPC. [ ] Theres always one!.

How did you manage to fit 7 ?sorry to hear but must me a mechanical problem causing all to fail did you get to the bottom can't be poor la labour that often

The original seals weren't PTFE and I reckon there was a load of dodgy ones. Mechanical failure "Of a Gasket "???

That was eight years ago. All done FOC and the last one fitted was the newer PTFE.

There have been at least 5 derivatives of the Rear main Oil Seal over the years, and although each one was an improvement, they still aren't perfect. My Cayman has had two. Seems to be oil tight at the moment though.....

Any of the BMW's I have owned have dribbled at the Rear main seal if laid up long enough too. Anyway I thought Porsches are supposed to be Oiley, Id say the 996 spils out less than some others. [ ][ ][ ]

And I'm afraid I'm one the unlucky one's who's had an IMS failure resulting in a complete engine rebuild by Hartech. I'm afraid I don't believe they are rare as people think. My friend (the only one I know who also owns a Hersche) has a 05 Cayman and his IMS went too. Personally, I wouldn't have a 966 without either having the IMS changed or a Porsche warranty. It's the major reason why I bought a turbo.

[ ] Good luck with the Turbo, from what I've been told they have different, but more expensive issues than the non-turbo models. If you're really worried about the IMS then you could get a GT3 with its different engine. One thing that has puzzled me is why the 993 and earlier cars are termed air cooled, when it's probably more accurate to call them oil cooled, seeing as they have about 50% more oil in them [&:]

I have also suffered IMS failure albeit with a 986 Boxster so I don't believe they are that rare either. I swore I would never buy another Porsche but 12 months on I'm thinking about a 996! How much does it cost to have the IMS changed (or is it just the bearing and/or seal?) and would the new part be better than the old part? Really want a 911 but 996 is probably only one I can afford.