Used 997s - How low do they go and what's selling?

[V6Alfisti]

Mariosbt said:

I own a 2007 997.1 3.6 TiptronicS. I absolutely love driving the car and do not see what all the negative comments about tiptronic are about. I understand PDK is much better but don’t be put off by Tip.

Totally agree, I have had driven lots of dual twin autos (DSG variants in fast Golfs e.t.c), manuals (Alfa's, Maserati 4200, MX5 e.t.c and automatic manuals (Maserati 4200), and I like the tiptronic (hence I bought one !).

The change is quick, and although it does have a few quirks that is part of the fun in working out where it operates completely seamlessly vs when a little driver assistance can pre-emptively make it perfect. Nothing to worry about, and in cities a god send. The only thing that I do miss over the 4200 is the lack of paddles, but that is now a mod that a few people are doing.

I think the old tips were slower, but the system in the 997 is often reputed to be the cream of the tip crop. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one, whilst with my old Maserati 4200 I would generally say "try before you buy" as they were a bit jerky/dim witted (in comparison) unless you knew what to do with the accelerator (i.e let off slightly-if I remember rightly) then it went in perfectly. The TipS system doesnt seem so easily confused in a variety of situations and I know if I am going to be 'enthusiastic' I will drop it a couple of cogs before letting the pedal tell the TipS what to do.

You will always get a mix of opinions on this subject, I get the desire for a manual but for my mix of city/rural driving, the Auto is the better balance with the added benefit of no clutch change.

Edited by V6Alfisti on Sunday 29th December 18:31

[V6Alfisti]

ballans said:

Excellent work!!
Please Keep us posted on how you get on. After many months of procrastinating on what I should spend my money on (hot hatches, E46 M3, 996, etc) I’ve decided to dig a bit deeper and go down the 997 route. The horror stories around the bore scoring still scare me (IMS less so) but a risk worth taking.
Looked at a 2007 3.8s manual 70k miles couple of weeks ago at a dealer. Was at the top of the price range but a great spec.
Will probably miss out on that one so hoping to buy towards end of Jan.............when prices start to go up again!

I am not sure about the 3.8S but certainly with the 3.6, from around early 2007 they had the revised parts fits which greatly reduced the risk.

I suspect in the future the 2007/2008 cars / Hartech engine rebuild cars will be the preferred option for that reason, and personally why I avoided any pre 2007 car without the Hartech touch. I just don't need the risk of a £10k bill hanging over me for what is a relatively small difference in ££ between earlier and later cars.

[ballans]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yes, I believe you are correct.
I agree with V6Alfisti that a Hartech rebuild will be the way to go.

[POORCARDEALER]

The risk of bore scoring is much less with the 3.6 car....I have owned both engine sizes, I never felt short changed in the 3.6 car.

[LordHaveMurci]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Despite reading loads of stuff on here over the years, I genuinely thought it was mainly the 3.8 that scored, every days a school day!

[skinny]

Is there not evidence that one of the causes for bore score is the thin cylinder walls of the larger capacity engines as they are more prone to going oval? Or did i imagine reading that.

[nlm13]

golfer19 said:

I took the plunge and bought a 997 Gen 1 last week.
My first 911 and loving it so far including the 600 mile drive to bring it home.
67k with a Harlech rebuild at 54k.
Great service history with all invoices for all work done.

I also bought a gen 1 997 that week, and I had a 600 mile drive home too! Done about 1400 miles already and loving every one of them so far, long may it continue.

[Tydeides]

So perhaps having eaten too many mince pies I had a wobble over Christmas I considered selling my car, and had quite an interesting conversation in the Porsche Facebook group.

Long and short I looked at similar 911s to mine; the lowest priced C4S I could find was just under £25k, and the most expensive £42k, which but for my high mileage (123k) and transmission is the same as mine (classic manual vs tiptronic inflation!). So realistically as mine has full OPC history and I’ve had it 10 years I thought I’d be looking for about £20k.

Well I got messaged a lot with offers for £11k-£12k. The most realistic discussion I had was £17k-£18k (tops I think).

The interesting thing is that my car is mechanically in good shape (I’ve spent £4K on it this year) and had a full glass out respray and wheel refurb in the summer of 2017. It drives really well.

When I bought my car in 2010 it was between mine and a 996 GT3 RS for the same money (my wife would get car sick in my Lotus so the RS was deemed too hard!) it turned out well to be a good choice as I’ve driven a lot of motorway miles in mine; it’s been a great GT car. At that time I could have had 4 964s, 2 or 3 993s. Now it’s probably 0.5 of a 964 or 0.3 of a 993. The cars are still the same cars.

Suffice to say I’ve decided to keep my 997; it’s such a great car. I honestly can’t see what you could get as a real sports car for less than £20k. I wouldn’t say that 997s are underpriced, but do think they offer so much; good looking, sound great with PSE, great to drive, and even practical!