RE: Driven: Porsche 911 Carrera 4S

[Merle]

I have a yellow 996 2 wheel drive and find it not much fun because 4 or 5 seconds of full throttle puts you into extra-legal territory. It is so frustrating to drive in a civilized manner until the current speeding tickets fall off my record. I would rather have an older Porsche with much lower limits and will probably make that happen. No, there is no racetrack within 5 hours of me.

[GT3 APE]

My previous 911 was an early 996 Carrera and I loved the purity of the car. Lot quicker to wash aswell without all that extra body kit

[v4nnm]

adycav said:

Matt, that's a great write up in your profile.

Well worth a read for anyone considering one of these cars.

cheers; always wanted one

[blearyeyedboy]

You know, I'm grateful for some articles like this. I think simplicity is something worth aiming for in expensive toys.

I'm 32. I have a decent job, get paid a little over the average salary... but I know I'm never going to have pockets deep enough to buy a new 911. (Since all the taxpayers reading this pay my salary, you can pretty glad of that!)

Articles about Bugattis and so on just don't excite me any more. I know I'm never going to be a rock star or an astronaut, and I know I'll never own a Veyron. (For those of you who can though, good for you! )

But I'd like to think that if I work hard, watch my pennies (and spend a bit of attention on improving my driving enough), live somewhere with a nice garage... I might be able to afford a 911 after a couple of decades. Even if only for a year or two with the running costs/insurance/petrol. On a lesser scale, I like unadorned basic Caymans... I'd settle for that or a similar vehicle.

Maybe petrol will just be too expensive by then; maybe paying for a wedding/house/kids will push that sort of dream aside. Maybe my vRS will end up being the fastest thing I'll ever drive on a road and life will get in the way- last year I was self employed and ill, and had to live off my savings while I got better. But articles like this make me keep dreaming.

So, cheers Garlick.

Edited by blearyeyedboy on Sunday 15th May 10:24

[F1GTRUeno]

I do love the SportDesign wheels.

Would look better if they weren't black though.

[adycav]

blearyeyedboy said:

I'm 32. I have a decent job, get paid a little over the average salary... but I know I'm never going to have pockets deep enough to buy a new 911. (Since all the taxpayers reading this pay my salary, you can pretty glad of that!)

But I'd like to think that if I work hard, watch my pennies (and spend a bit of attention on improving my driving enough), live somewhere with a nice garage... I might be able to afford a 911 after a couple of decades. Even if only for a year or two with the running costs/insurance/petrol. On a lesser scale, I like unadorned basic Caymans... I'd settle for that or a similar vehicle.

My personal situation is perhaps not dissimilar to yours - I saved as much as I could, bought and sold preceding cars sensibly to build up some 'equity', and finally bought my first 911 seven months ago (at the age of 36). It can be done!

A decent early 996, for example represents fantastic value for money nowadays.

[franki68]

Garlick said:

I agree, and (after having driven a few as well) the V8 R8 feels (oddly enough) a little slow and not quite as enjoyable to drive as a 911.

Of course the R8 isn't slow as a Fiesta 1.1 would be, but it really doesn't feel as fast as it should.

Having owned both I disagree,certainly the 997 is faster in a straight line,but the r8 is like a cayman with a 997 engine,the chassis is just magnificent,
Obviously it's a personal taste thing,but i was a hardcore Porsche fanatic...I've had 6 of them,but after the r8 the only 997 I would buy now is the gt3.

[andyeds1234]

I swapped into a standard Carrera Black edition, from a 2007 C2S.
Performance wise, the Gen1 C2S and the Gen2 C2 are pretty equal.
The surprising thing I found between the 2 cars is the difference in suspension set up.
I was convinced that I would go for the PASM as in the c2S, but after driving the C2 with the standard set up on 19s, I can honestly say I prefer it over the PASM.
Ride comfort and stiffness sits somewhere between the standard PASM setting and the sport setting, which is just perfect.
The only down side is the ride height of the C2 without PASM. Truth is it just looks better sitting that 10mm lower....

[blearyeyedboy]

adycav said:

A decent early 996, for example represents fantastic value for money nowadays.

I thought the last of the air-cooled 993's were trading for more than early 996's because of concerns over reliability (which were fixed in later 996's)?

Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong. I quite like the idea of an early 996.

[danp]

blearyeyedboy said:

I thought the last of the air-cooled 993's were trading for more than early 996's because of concerns over reliability (which were fixed in later 996's)?

Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong. I quite like the idea of an early 996.

Think the sheer number of 996's produced c/w 993 would be a big factor, having said that can't see a late 996 fetching more than an early 997. (and they have churned out *loads* of 997's).

Looks like quite a good article for those tempted:

http://www.total911.com/news/996-engine-failure-sh...

[blearyeyedboy]

danp said:

Think the sheer number of 996's produced c/w 993 would be a big factor, having said that can't see a late 996 fetching more than an early 997. (and they have churned out *loads* of 997's).

Looks like quite a good article for those tempted:

http://www.total911.com/news/996-engine-failure-sh...

Crikey O'Reily... 5-10% of engines go?

[MrOrange]

ismegamanthere said:

I LOVE the "normal" interior that they give it. These days, there's so many buttons and clutter on cars that it's just so overwhelming and pretty much unnecessary.

I have the same issue

[The Wookie]

Garlick said:

Something quite 'pure' about a standard Carrera though, no? Same with the Cayman and Boxster too.

It just feels a bit too compromised towards ride comfort to me, I haven't driven an S so I don't know if that's too stiff, but my car rides and moves around more like a GT on the limit, ETA the responses just seem a bit lazy to me

Edited by The Wookie on Monday 16th May 09:56

[The Wookie]

nickfrog said:

You mean PASM I guess ?

That's the one, apologies for not knowing the exact acronym, I didn't spec it myself all I know is that it's got a button with a damper on it that, when lit, makes the ride harsher!

[Porscheplayer]

adycav said:

blearyeyedboy said:

I'm 32. I have a decent job, get paid a little over the average salary... but I know I'm never going to have pockets deep enough to buy a new 911. (Since all the taxpayers reading this pay my salary, you can pretty glad of that!)

But I'd like to think that if I work hard, watch my pennies (and spend a bit of attention on improving my driving enough), live somewhere with a nice garage... I might be able to afford a 911 after a couple of decades. Even if only for a year or two with the running costs/insurance/petrol. On a lesser scale, I like unadorned basic Caymans... I'd settle for that or a similar vehicle.

My personal situation is perhaps not dissimilar to yours - I saved as much as I could, bought and sold preceding cars sensibly to build up some 'equity', and finally bought my first 911 seven months ago (at the age of 36). It can be done!

A decent early 996, for example represents fantastic value for money nowadays.

Me too, did the same as adycav and bought a 911 in my early 30's.
Also most people don't buy them outright btw.

[gibbon]

I recently bought a facelift 996 c2 in seal grey, with 18inch carrera wheels, sports hardback seats, sports exhaust and the 10mm lower factory sports suspension. With 55k miles I payed 18.5k, in my opinion that is a hell of a lot of car for the money, with not much to touch it in reality. Yes i looked at a c4s amongst others but for me the pure, simple and unfussy nature of the 'basic' two wheel drive car really appealed.

[collateral]

Was lucky enough to have a go in a manual 3.6 996 c2 cab a few weeks ago

First time I pedalled something from Stuttgart, and aside from the rorty pokeyness, what surprised me most was how chuckable it was, while still being able to go over speed bumps without anyone's spine getting broken. Glorious.

[ocsine]

Matt - that's one of the best long-term owners report I've ever read, thanks for making the effort to write it.
Having owned a series of 993 variants from C2, C4S & tt, I regret ever selling the C2, it just did everything well and was a sweet enjoyable and cheap to run little car. The turbo was awesome but simply a money pit. I suspect the sweet spots in the 997 range have got to be the 997.1 GT3 and C2/C2S.

Edited by ocsine on Monday 16th May 23:00

[adycav]

ocsine said:

Having owned a series of 993 variants from C2, C4S & tt, I regret ever selling the C2, it just did everything well and was a sweet enjoyable and cheap to run little car.

I was browsing through PH and Autotrader the other night, as you do, and it struck me just how few manual C2 993s there are for sale at the moment.

(rubs hands with glee)

[PhilboSE]

Interesting viewpoints and indeed the standard "boggo" C2 is a good car but the vast majority go for the C2S over the C2 simply because it offers much better value: a small increment gets you significant extra power, PASM standard, xenon headlights, uprated PDM etc.

If you're a keen driver, there's really only 3 variants in the entire range you should look at: C2S, GT3/RS, Turbo/S. You could probably also throw in the 2WD GTS into that as well as it's supposed to be cracking by all accounts. The 4WD, cabriolet & Targa versions simply don't drive as well as the above. Not to diss them, they're great for what they do, but they all lose something in the drive compared with the C2/C2S.

My 997.2 C2S is a simply brilliant everyday car. I take 3 kids to school in, with all their gubbins, then crack on through B-roads to my place of work. It will cruise on motorways at near 30mpg and yet it has the go and handling to become an entirely different beast.

The only options I added were sports seats and a rear wash wipe. Oh, and the stupid rip-off Sport Chrono so that I could control PASM/Sport mode. That's pretty much all you need.

One final thing: don't believe the list price of a 911! They're impossible to buy in the UK without the leather seat "option", tracker and a Porsche Experience, all of which bump up the price by a few grand.