Ideas on what 911?

[Gio G]

Hi all,

Appreciate some advice..

So this potential purchase will be the third car in the household, as my son will soon be taking the second car. Always wanted a 911, having driven many cars from the range and feel the time is right. The brief:

- Will probably do around 15 miles a day max and potentially some motorway work, a few times a month.
- Mrs drives it to work during the week and I enjoy it at the weekends/ possible trips abroad.

- Max budget is around £35k,
- Can be tip/PDK or manual at this stage.
- Ideally performance equal to or better than her old 981 Cayman S, if we are going up to the full budget
- Would consider something older, under the budget that has some character and be used as a daily.

I keep getting drawn to nice clean examples of the 996 CS and C4S, as you seem to get good bang for your buck, however the dated interior does put me off a little. I suspect 997 C4S on that budget is probably not going to work, unless with some big miles on it. When it comes to much older stuff, I have no clue.

If it were your cash, given the brief above, which 911 would you go for?

Thanks
G

[Thorny]

Personally I buy as new as I could. Hunt around ad you may get a non-S Carrera 997 Gen 2 for that money. http://www.rsjsportscars.co.uk/showroom.php had a nice one for 37k recently but now sold.

Otherwise I would buy a gen 1 997 from somewhere reputable and get it inspected.

I suppose it has to be a 911? You wouldn't go for Boxster or Cayman?

[DJMC]

997 C2 or C2S for definite but I'd want a Gen2 so budget may need to stretch a little bit.

4WD a real no no for me.

[Gio G]

Thorny said:

Personally I buy as new as I could. Hunt around ad you may get a non-S Carrera 997 Gen 2 for that money. http://www.rsjsportscars.co.uk/showroom.php had a nice one for 37k recently but now sold.

Otherwise I would buy a gen 1 997 from somewhere reputable and get it inspected.

I suppose it has to be a 911? You wouldn't go for Boxster or Cayman?

Thanks - Yes, we have done the Boxster and Cayman thing. Time for a 911.

[LFB531]

I've recently been through the 911 itch but I'd set myself a mean £20k limit knowing that would land me in 996 country. I wanted something I could use daily if I fancied it but didn't need a racer.

So for way under my original budget, I've ended up with a 55,000 mile 3.6 tip Targa in spotless condition with excellent provenance. The sun came out as I collected it so I'm enjoying the glass roof (not a fan of full cabs) and the hatchback has proved to be unexpectedly useful. I've no problems with the tip box, it's quite fun to play with but makes the work commute dead easy.

2000 miles in now and it's been the daily weapon of choice so far. I really liked the look of the C4S but asking prices had hotted up alarmingly.

Perhaps these Targa things are not for the purists but good value they definitely are. Does the 997 suffer the same way? As for the interior, I agree it's a bit dated in the 996 but it all seems to work.

[The Red Devil]

My advice, and I have owned an awful lot of them, good and bad, is to buy the best 996 C4S you can,
manual, don't get hung up on miles, do get hung up on condition and first class history, really
no better a n/a Porsche to buy if that be the colour of the money. For 25K you should find a nailer,
it will hold its money too and IMO looks better than any 997

[shantybeater]

996 Turbo - High mileage tiptronic for your money but bulletproof engine (unlike 996 C4S, 997.1 etc.. as suggested above). Also a worthy investment if there ever was one, and far...far superior performance.

[Rocketsocks]

At that price point, I think you're just below 997.2 money. A 997.2 is the model you would need to massively minimise the chances of a huge engine bill.

I was in a similar situation to yourself and decided to buy the best Hartech engined 996 C2 I could find.

Almost 12 months and 20,000 miles later, here's a list of everything that's gone wrong with it:

1) Nothing !

Fantastic cars and (strangely) undervalued at the moment.