997 Advice

[mustdash]

I'm thinking of buying myself a 2005 997 with 66k on the clock, costing £25k.

My main question - are these likely to go up in value over time (lets say the next 5 - 10 years) like a lot of other models, or due to the numbers produced am I likely to see minimal return on this? It would be a third car so not used a massive amount etc. Basically with interest rates so low I want to enjoy my savings instead of having them sit there not really doing much for me!

[marky999]

While unable to advise, (I know almost nothing about most things) I totally love your logic - enjoying your savings while interest rates are doing nothing.

[Trev450]

Personally, I don't see the 'regular' 997 being an investment for quite a few years to come. The market for 996's is a good indicator of that.

[FrankCayman]

I think a 3.6 standard is a good place to go. A basic 997 will do better than a basic 996 ....think that will be the sweet point in years to come

[Porsche911R]

A £15k engine rebuild could put pain to the savings idea.
Also the running costs and part ex value might see your savings shrink faster than you ever thought.

So if you are looking for an investment it's one st idea sorry to say.

[Wilmslowboy]

Over 5 years it going to cost you circa £7,500 in insurance, VED, tyres, and general maintenance (assuming the odd medium repair job/ or warranty and no failed engine/gearbox etc)

Add in most likely scenario of it losing same again in deprecation…
And in 5 years’ time your £25k will be about £11k

However you will have had 5 years of owning a truly great car (had two myself)

[FrankCayman]

Porsche911R said:

A £15k engine rebuild could put pain to the savings idea.
Also the running costs and part ex value might see your savings shrink faster than you ever thought.

So if you are looking for an investment it's one st idea sorry to say.

I thought the 3.8 S was the scary one?

[PGNSagaris]

Wilmslowboy said:

Over 5 years it going to cost you circa £7,500 in insurance, VED, tyres, and general maintenance (assuming the odd medium repair job/ or warranty and no failed engine/gearbox etc)

Add in most likely scenario of it losing same again in deprecation…
And in 5 years’ time your £25k will be about £11k

However you will have had 5 years of owning a truly great car (had two myself)

This. a boggo 997 is miles away from an 'investment'. I have one. You will lose money.

[DavidJG]

FrankCayman said:

Porsche911R said:

A £15k engine rebuild could put pain to the savings idea.
Also the running costs and part ex value might see your savings shrink faster than you ever thought.

So if you are looking for an investment it's one st idea sorry to say.

I thought the 3.8 S was the scary one?

The 3.8S is slightly more likely to suffer with bore score, based on rumour and limited statistics. 3.6 also suffers from bore score, but rumour and statistics say it's slightly less likely with this engine. Both great cars, both very enjoyable to drive, and I wouldn't be put off buying either of them - but I'd keep about £12k put aside for the potential engine rebuild.

[Legacywr]

If you need to put money aside for a possible engine rebuild, buy something else!

[mustdash]

Well that answers that!

The only reason I've not gone ahead and bought one already is the engine-going-bang-despite-being-well-maintained horror stories! But if it's not looking like prices will do anything positive then I might look elsewhere.....

[mollytherocker]

Best case scenario is that prices will hold. I think they probably will.

Just my view.

[YoungMD]

I bought a 997 2005 two years ago for £20,500 I have spent £200 on the standard annual service and £100 for plugs and coils that I fitted myself.

Somebody offered me £25,000 for it last week, so that's not a bad return.

The only probably of course is that you won't wanr to sell it, I wouldn't take £30k for mine, they really are great cars to drive

[MrJuice]

Just back from a mini blast in my 2007 997 C2. The engine going bang and scored bores worries me slightly. But I have no lost sleep over it. If it happens, 10k or whatever it is to rebuild the engine will have to be spent. Painful, yes, but not the end of the world.

I absolutely love mine. The curves, the noise, the colour and interior (black on black) and the speed are just wonderful.

25k does seem a tad steep though. I paid 27k about a month ago for mine which I understand is less likely to fail than earlier examples.

[JasonRIx]

Legacywr said:

If you need to put money aside for a possible engine rebuild, buy something else!

Buying any performance car in this league means having around £10k in the bank (at least) in case something happens. Obviously running costs are high - a lot of people simply look at the price on the windscreen and act as if they are buying a Golf Gti. They are in for a shock come service time.

Regarding 997s, good specimens have been holding their value for the last three years but then that's true of other Porsche too. An interesting development has been the discovery of the issue of bore scoring at this price point in the market. Some people will pay the £10k or so that it needs to put it right, others won't given the value of the vehicles. One thing for sure is that there are a lot of old dogs out there generally, and many of these will fall by the wayside. This is true for 996s too.

Provided you go in prepared, buy a good car and have money in the bank, then you can't really go wrong. It may not go up in value any time soon but I can't see it going down to 996 levels.

Edited by JasonRIx on Sunday 14th August 12:58

[TheBMWDriver]

Find some extra cash and get a Gen 2 997, you will save a lot in running costs over 5 years and get a little back on resale.

The DFI engines are not known to go pop also.

[JasonRIx]

TheBMWDriver said:

Find some extra cash and get a Gen 2 997, you will save a lot in running costs over 5 years and get a little back on resale.

The DFI engines are not known to go pop also.

A gen1 engine in good shape (Nikasil lined, post-2006 IMS etc.) preferable to me to gen2 engine. On sound alone.

[TheBMWDriver]

JasonRIx said:

A gen1 engine in good shape (Nikasil lined, post-2006 IMS etc.) preferable to me to gen2 engine. On sound alone.

Having owned a 997.1 a few 997.s's and a couple of 991.1's I would get a 997.2 all day long.

Yes the exhaust note is not quite as good but they car it self is so much better put together and generally a nicer place to be.

[mustdash]

Thanks for all the replies - some interesting views!

As for the 'it's a performance car - you need a pot of money' view - already owning a B7 RS4, I'm aware of the need to have a slush fund for repairs, but I don't think keeping a pot of £10k for a possible engine rebuild is really what I want to do! As for a gen2 car - unless I can get one within budget I won't be looking at those - I don't want to finance any part of this purchase as by the time I've paid the extra off with the interest it kind of defeats the object of making money on it!

[Helicopter123]

TheBMWDriver said:

JasonRIx said:

A gen1 engine in good shape (Nikasil lined, post-2006 IMS etc.) preferable to me to gen2 engine. On sound alone.

Having owned a 997.1 a few 997.s's and a couple of 991.1's I would get a 997.2 all day long.

Yes the exhaust note is not quite as good but they car it self is so much better put together and generally a nicer place to be.

This, the 997.2 is quite a bit ahead of the 997.1 and will be the one sought after in 5 years time IMO.

Better engine, and PCM you can actually live with. PDK about 10x better than the Tip boxes as well, although id resale is an isssue then of course get the rarer manual.