First 911 (996)
Discussion
For anyone who has been in the same situation I've been in for some time, I thought I'd post this... and because I need to offload and my wife and 2 year old daughter really don't care!
A 911 - I've always wanted one. But I've spent most of the past year or two dithering about which one to get/justifying getting one/working our how I explain it. I thought I'd settled on saving up for a 2nd gen 997: Pretty, engine won't blow up.. But niggling at the back of my mind was the 996; funny lights, definitely not as pretty, engine reputed to blow up.. but only 1/3rd of the price. One of the latters popped up on ebay in rainforest green recently..
My first car was a racing green MK1 MX5, and I've always wanted a 2+2 version of that with maybe a little more welly and a little less rust.
Which I now have, and I'm delighted. It's the base model 3.4. I spent a lot of time window shopping for 'S' versions or seeing if I could get a 3.8 instead of a 3.6 997 for x budget, but when this first gen 996 came up at under £10k I thought I'd get it checked at the local Porsche specialist. I was largely swayed by the colour if I'm honest, it reminded me of the MX5. And, googling rain forest green, it's mainly brought up when porsche fans discussed their least favourite colour, which I liked, because let's face it, one of the main hurdles to buying your first porsche is the perception of porsche drivers .
The garage said the 996 was a great car and had customers with 180k+ on the clock (this one has 100k), so I bought it.
Even the bog standard 3.4 of the least popular 911 is a much better car than I am a driver, and it's fantastic. It's cheap enough that I won't lose sleep parking it on-street but everything I could ask for on the road.
I've only ever driven a 991 before this, but I'd say I'm glad I didn't drop an extra £22K+ on a 997.
A 911 - I've always wanted one. But I've spent most of the past year or two dithering about which one to get/justifying getting one/working our how I explain it. I thought I'd settled on saving up for a 2nd gen 997: Pretty, engine won't blow up.. But niggling at the back of my mind was the 996; funny lights, definitely not as pretty, engine reputed to blow up.. but only 1/3rd of the price. One of the latters popped up on ebay in rainforest green recently..
My first car was a racing green MK1 MX5, and I've always wanted a 2+2 version of that with maybe a little more welly and a little less rust.
Which I now have, and I'm delighted. It's the base model 3.4. I spent a lot of time window shopping for 'S' versions or seeing if I could get a 3.8 instead of a 3.6 997 for x budget, but when this first gen 996 came up at under £10k I thought I'd get it checked at the local Porsche specialist. I was largely swayed by the colour if I'm honest, it reminded me of the MX5. And, googling rain forest green, it's mainly brought up when porsche fans discussed their least favourite colour, which I liked, because let's face it, one of the main hurdles to buying your first porsche is the perception of porsche drivers .
The garage said the 996 was a great car and had customers with 180k+ on the clock (this one has 100k), so I bought it.
Even the bog standard 3.4 of the least popular 911 is a much better car than I am a driver, and it's fantastic. It's cheap enough that I won't lose sleep parking it on-street but everything I could ask for on the road.
I've only ever driven a 991 before this, but I'd say I'm glad I didn't drop an extra £22K+ on a 997.
Congratulations, I went through the same process of should I shouldn't I for about 12months, worried about all the engine comments, running costs etc, in the end a mate just called me boring an said just do it!!! I did in May last year and absolutely love it, still very analog in feel which I like, normal costs that I had already expected, to be honest it's a 3rd car so only a toy and doesn't get used as often as I may of hoped, although far more than my two wheeled toys I had before, to be honest I couldn't of afforded/justified a 997 but I'm so happy with my 996, I held out for coupe, manual, lowish miles, good history buy couldn't find a suitable c2 so settled on a c4 an really love how it drives.
I hope you enjoy yours as much as I love mine!!
Nally1704
I hope you enjoy yours as much as I love mine!!
Nally1704
I did this too. Must have been looking for 2 years and when one evening I was wondering about insurance and when I saw the quotes it pushed me over the edge to actually finally buy one. Got a nice grey 996.2 C2 3.6 (was there ever a 3.4 996.2?) from a PHer a while back now. Best drive home ever! Yeah, there's always the engine worry in the back of my mind but but if it breaks it breaks. I hated seeing it sitting outside in the winter - since I was vaguely thinking about a move ended up in a new house with a double garage much sooner than I expected. Unintended consequences huh?
They're great cars no matter what the price.
Personally I prefer the 996 over every other generation, because they're not based on an ancient shell and nor are they full of electricky, so you can work on them yourself.
The fact they're cheap makes them even better; well done for seeing that.
I also love (dark) green cars (Ragusse RS2, Goodwood RS4, Oxford M5....)
Personally I prefer the 996 over every other generation, because they're not based on an ancient shell and nor are they full of electricky, so you can work on them yourself.
The fact they're cheap makes them even better; well done for seeing that.
I also love (dark) green cars (Ragusse RS2, Goodwood RS4, Oxford M5....)
Good to see so many like-minded folk on here!
Regarding the sub-£10k price, my search had been between the classifieds here and auto trader, and this was the first time I'd checked ebay. I think the combination of unpopular colour and location (Glasgow) meant there were only two bidders. I hadn't seen any manual coupes with 100k or less and a full history on the other sites. The specialist garage went over it for 2 1/2 hours and came up with a list of £700 worth of bits to be fixed to make it perfect, all minor things but the seller took £500 off and paid for the MOT, so once it's got the work done it'll have cost an even 10k.
As mentioned above, insurance is surprisingly good - under £300 for on-street parking (mid-30s, few years ncb), and tax is £290 as it's pre-2001.
Photos to follow, I'm waiting to pick up the roof box first! There's something about a 911 with box/bikes/canoes etc on the roof that I find very appealing and it's the only addition I'm making to this otherwise unmolested example - it also justifies it as a replacement for the 5 series touring which is going back in a few months...
Regarding the sub-£10k price, my search had been between the classifieds here and auto trader, and this was the first time I'd checked ebay. I think the combination of unpopular colour and location (Glasgow) meant there were only two bidders. I hadn't seen any manual coupes with 100k or less and a full history on the other sites. The specialist garage went over it for 2 1/2 hours and came up with a list of £700 worth of bits to be fixed to make it perfect, all minor things but the seller took £500 off and paid for the MOT, so once it's got the work done it'll have cost an even 10k.
As mentioned above, insurance is surprisingly good - under £300 for on-street parking (mid-30s, few years ncb), and tax is £290 as it's pre-2001.
Photos to follow, I'm waiting to pick up the roof box first! There's something about a 911 with box/bikes/canoes etc on the roof that I find very appealing and it's the only addition I'm making to this otherwise unmolested example - it also justifies it as a replacement for the 5 series touring which is going back in a few months...
Similar situation here.
Always wanted one,been doing the eBay,autootrader and pistonheads classifieds shuffle for a couple of years.
Enquired about my mates 996 Targa,just to get some feedback from him really,when he says he would sell it.
Long story short,I'm buying it.
She's a beauty,Seal grey,extended leather,recently detailed paint and refurbished alloys,new AC radiators only 56k miles and probably best of all,a full Hartech engine rebuild......couldn't be happier.
Always wanted one,been doing the eBay,autootrader and pistonheads classifieds shuffle for a couple of years.
Enquired about my mates 996 Targa,just to get some feedback from him really,when he says he would sell it.
Long story short,I'm buying it.
She's a beauty,Seal grey,extended leather,recently detailed paint and refurbished alloys,new AC radiators only 56k miles and probably best of all,a full Hartech engine rebuild......couldn't be happier.
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