911 Daily Driver
Discussion
Has anyone had any experience of running a 997.2 as a highish mileage daily driver?
My normal mileage is 18,000.
I’m not a millionaire.
My commute is 70/30 motorway/non motorway.
Am I mad, is a car like this just not going to survive without major costs?
If I buy one as a second car then it just won’t get driven hence the daily.
My normal mileage is 18,000.
I’m not a millionaire.
My commute is 70/30 motorway/non motorway.
Am I mad, is a car like this just not going to survive without major costs?
If I buy one as a second car then it just won’t get driven hence the daily.
I did it for 9 months last year. About 9000 miles in that time, up and down the m1 in a 991.1
Car was fine. Felt a bit of a waste plodding along at 80mph ish.
Thing I found most annoying was the trips to the petrol station 2 or 3 times a week. Fuel tank was small, got around 300 miles to a tank. Wasn’t the cost of fuel that was the problem it was jumping in the car at 7.30 and then realizing that there wasn’t enough fuel to get to work and back (100 miles round trip) so off to the petrol station I went, bit of a detour and additional time spent on the commute
Car was fine. Felt a bit of a waste plodding along at 80mph ish.
Thing I found most annoying was the trips to the petrol station 2 or 3 times a week. Fuel tank was small, got around 300 miles to a tank. Wasn’t the cost of fuel that was the problem it was jumping in the car at 7.30 and then realizing that there wasn’t enough fuel to get to work and back (100 miles round trip) so off to the petrol station I went, bit of a detour and additional time spent on the commute
johno333 said:
Has anyone had any experience of running a 997.2 as a highish mileage daily driver?
My normal mileage is 18,000.
I’m not a millionaire.
My commute is 70/30 motorway/non motorway.
Am I mad, is a car like this just not going to survive without major costs?
If I buy one as a second car then it just won’t get driven hence the daily.
That is going to cost you a fortune. Got to make more sense as a weekend car?My normal mileage is 18,000.
I’m not a millionaire.
My commute is 70/30 motorway/non motorway.
Am I mad, is a car like this just not going to survive without major costs?
If I buy one as a second car then it just won’t get driven hence the daily.
Porsche make cars to be driven. The current obsession with “values” makes me cringe. Especially on here. They are great dailies, well screwed together, well designed generally, long service intervals, small enough to thread through traffic and park, great to drive. Just do it.
As mentioned tank is a bit small especially when pressing on, and consumables are a touch more expensive than a 5 series but not much more. Grab a 40K miles 997.2 Carrera 2, run it up to 90K miles over the next 3 years. Probably depreciate less than a new 5 series and you will love life a lot more.
Ps don’t forget to write it up on here
As mentioned tank is a bit small especially when pressing on, and consumables are a touch more expensive than a 5 series but not much more. Grab a 40K miles 997.2 Carrera 2, run it up to 90K miles over the next 3 years. Probably depreciate less than a new 5 series and you will love life a lot more.
Ps don’t forget to write it up on here
bigmowley said:
Porsche make cars to be driven. The current obsession with “values” makes me cringe. Especially on here. They are great dailies, well screwed together, well designed generally, long service intervals, small enough to thread through traffic and park, great to drive. Just do it.
As mentioned tank is a bit small especially when pressing on, and consumables are a touch more expensive than a 5 series but not much more. Grab a 40K miles 997.2 Carrera 2, run it up to 90K miles over the next 3 years. Probably depreciate less than a new 5 series and you will love life a lot more.
Ps don’t forget to write it up on here
Sorry to make you cringe old chap, but buying a car as an investment and being obsessed with values is quite different to buying an expensive sports car to commute up and down the motorway in. OP would be doing £300 a month in fuel alone commuting. Add in services, depreciation, and maintenance and that’s an expensive way of commuting. Comparison to a new 5 is not really relevant. As mentioned tank is a bit small especially when pressing on, and consumables are a touch more expensive than a 5 series but not much more. Grab a 40K miles 997.2 Carrera 2, run it up to 90K miles over the next 3 years. Probably depreciate less than a new 5 series and you will love life a lot more.
Ps don’t forget to write it up on here
bigmowley said:
Porsche make cars to be driven. The current obsession with “values” makes me cringe. Especially on here. They are great dailies, well screwed together, well designed generally, long service intervals, small enough to thread through traffic and park, great to drive. Just do it.
As mentioned tank is a bit small especially when pressing on, and consumables are a touch more expensive than a 5 series but not much more. Grab a 40K miles 997.2 Carrera 2, run it up to 90K miles over the next 3 years. Probably depreciate less than a new 5 series and you will love life a lot more.
Ps don’t forget to write it up on here
Good luck selling a 911 with 90k on it. As mentioned tank is a bit small especially when pressing on, and consumables are a touch more expensive than a 5 series but not much more. Grab a 40K miles 997.2 Carrera 2, run it up to 90K miles over the next 3 years. Probably depreciate less than a new 5 series and you will love life a lot more.
Ps don’t forget to write it up on here
Thats when you realise it is the same value as a bin lid.
I don't agree with 'why' the market suddenly looks a the car like the s
t on your shoe, but it does. Brace yourself. A lot of naysayers in this thread.
You want a 911 then a 996 or 997 is the ideal choice IMHO.
It will (most likely) cost more to run than a Golf and with relatively high miles it will cost a fair few quid more in depreciation than an average miles model. Only you can work out if those costs are worth it to you. They would be to me... but I've done:
20-25k/year in various TVR's
40-50k/year in an Audi S3
My 'daily' alongside my Tuscan was a 996TT (bought at 48k miles, now 120k)
I've tried the snotter + weekend car and it just didn't work for me, hence went from snotter to S3 and then 996 alongside the TVR's. I realised life was too short to worry about a few quid when it meant you were always in the wrong car when it mattered.
You want a 911 then a 996 or 997 is the ideal choice IMHO.
It will (most likely) cost more to run than a Golf and with relatively high miles it will cost a fair few quid more in depreciation than an average miles model. Only you can work out if those costs are worth it to you. They would be to me... but I've done:
20-25k/year in various TVR's
40-50k/year in an Audi S3
My 'daily' alongside my Tuscan was a 996TT (bought at 48k miles, now 120k)
I've tried the snotter + weekend car and it just didn't work for me, hence went from snotter to S3 and then 996 alongside the TVR's. I realised life was too short to worry about a few quid when it meant you were always in the wrong car when it mattered.
Tried this for a while both with the 993 and a 997....realised it’s a complete waste of time, especially if you’re on a motorway. The fuel costs were just not worth it, literally throwing money away...
Ended up buying a MINI Cooper D for the 130 mile daily round trip, with NAV and DAB, sit back, enjoy the radio and 55mpg
Did the odd blast to work for fun, has to be done now and then.
Used the 911’s more at the weekend and evenings consequently.
Ended up buying a MINI Cooper D for the 130 mile daily round trip, with NAV and DAB, sit back, enjoy the radio and 55mpg
Did the odd blast to work for fun, has to be done now and then.
Used the 911’s more at the weekend and evenings consequently.
These cars like to be used. My 1998 996 feels great if I use it every day. Different people here with different priorities financially. All with give you different answers based on their thoughts in their current situations. These cars are a bit special but they can also do the daily grind fine.
What's not been mentioned is you do lose some of the specialness when you use them every day. That's why I try to have more than one car and rotate them. You get used to a car the more you drive it. That doesn't make it rubbish but it does become the norm. When I was driving my 997 constantly as my only car I occasionally drove a friend's or family member's and then when I jumped back into my 997 it felt so much better. But it's not a major deal just didn't see any other comments along these lines.
I find it hard getting my head around driving a turd when I have a nice car at home. If I had a very special car then maybe it would make sense but I've never considered my cars very special. They're just cars. I buy cars to be used and abused. I don't buy them to hide away or use sparingly.
You could get the Porsche feeling doing the daily grind in the cheapest model Boxster or Cayman. Chris Harris did a brilliant article where he ran a 2.7 Cayman as his daily run about. These can be bought for 10 or 15 grand now and that seriously changes the maths.
http://www.arthurlea.com/Porsche/Harris/harris3.jp...
Or you could get an early 996 for similar money too.
I think if we're sticking to the question you asked about reliability and major items breaking then that's tricky. These cars are reliable and reasonably solid. We do see problems with all the nuts, bolts and fastenings on these cars from around 2000 to 2005 being rubbish and just rusting away. That can make most jobs more expensive as they become consumable items. Exhaust manifold removal can become a specialist job using drills on special jigs.
I bought my 996 thinking I'd done well as it had a recent engine rebuild, KW coil over suspension and lots of poly bushes, recent rads, clutch and brakes. What could possibly go wrong. First service threw up problems with virtually every tube and pipe on the car. Power steering, coolant, the brake pipes which run the full length of the car and the gear linkage cables. Ok so now the car is all basically new I thought. No. The gearbox disintegrated. You don't hear much talk about the manual gearboxes in these cars being a known weak point until you experience it. I bought a used box for 2500 which gives you an idea of how much demand there is for them. Do a quick search on ebay and you'll see the prices of these. Its common to have these gearboxes rebuilt just because the bearings get noisy. But if any of the gears themselves need changing then the price escalates super fast.
https://youtu.be/GL7N0k0KMAE
What's not been mentioned is you do lose some of the specialness when you use them every day. That's why I try to have more than one car and rotate them. You get used to a car the more you drive it. That doesn't make it rubbish but it does become the norm. When I was driving my 997 constantly as my only car I occasionally drove a friend's or family member's and then when I jumped back into my 997 it felt so much better. But it's not a major deal just didn't see any other comments along these lines.
I find it hard getting my head around driving a turd when I have a nice car at home. If I had a very special car then maybe it would make sense but I've never considered my cars very special. They're just cars. I buy cars to be used and abused. I don't buy them to hide away or use sparingly.
You could get the Porsche feeling doing the daily grind in the cheapest model Boxster or Cayman. Chris Harris did a brilliant article where he ran a 2.7 Cayman as his daily run about. These can be bought for 10 or 15 grand now and that seriously changes the maths.
http://www.arthurlea.com/Porsche/Harris/harris3.jp...
Or you could get an early 996 for similar money too.
I think if we're sticking to the question you asked about reliability and major items breaking then that's tricky. These cars are reliable and reasonably solid. We do see problems with all the nuts, bolts and fastenings on these cars from around 2000 to 2005 being rubbish and just rusting away. That can make most jobs more expensive as they become consumable items. Exhaust manifold removal can become a specialist job using drills on special jigs.
I bought my 996 thinking I'd done well as it had a recent engine rebuild, KW coil over suspension and lots of poly bushes, recent rads, clutch and brakes. What could possibly go wrong. First service threw up problems with virtually every tube and pipe on the car. Power steering, coolant, the brake pipes which run the full length of the car and the gear linkage cables. Ok so now the car is all basically new I thought. No. The gearbox disintegrated. You don't hear much talk about the manual gearboxes in these cars being a known weak point until you experience it. I bought a used box for 2500 which gives you an idea of how much demand there is for them. Do a quick search on ebay and you'll see the prices of these. Its common to have these gearboxes rebuilt just because the bearings get noisy. But if any of the gears themselves need changing then the price escalates super fast.
https://youtu.be/GL7N0k0KMAE
I'd encourage you to buy and use as daily. 987/997.2 onwards the sweet spot with better reliability for a dd but I've dd 986/997 all perfectly fine over aggregate 400k miles from N London to Canary Wharf every day for many years. Just find a good indy for consumables. I'd find it tiring aged 50 in these cars as dd though in 20s/30s they were fine.
I should point out that i drive a BMW M135i xdrive (not pcp). So highish fuel bills anyway. My god it’s dull after the mk7 Golf Gti that I traded in for it. Crazy fast but dull.
Craved a 911 since the poster on my wall but some of your comments here point out that the sweet spot is may be the 987.
Not too bothered about depreciation. But as “ATM” said above I don’t want to paying out continually. Want to enjoy a little care free fun time.
Oh and I’m 52 so a Porsche goes with the territory!
Craved a 911 since the poster on my wall but some of your comments here point out that the sweet spot is may be the 987.
Not too bothered about depreciation. But as “ATM” said above I don’t want to paying out continually. Want to enjoy a little care free fun time.
Oh and I’m 52 so a Porsche goes with the territory!
Edited by johno333 on Sunday 22 November 09:35
Can definitely use a 997 as a daily driver, I have. It’ll be fine with it, and it’s pretty comfortable on both motorway and in traffic. However, it is very thirsty (20-25mpg) and as some have said, will depreciate like anything. As such, it’s an expensive and not very green choice.
If you really only want one car then a 997 will do it, but I found a better balance was to have something more practical for most days, and then treat myself to using the 997 on Fridays and for the weekend.
If you really only want one car then a 997 will do it, but I found a better balance was to have something more practical for most days, and then treat myself to using the 997 on Fridays and for the weekend.
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