How many miles is too many?

[V8KSN]

Afternoon all

I am currently looking for a 997 C2 S and there are so many around I am spoiled for choice! A nice problem to have I know but the question I keep asking myself is how many miles is too many?

Looking at private sale cars, they mostly fall into the bracket of £25k - £32k with a mileage of 30 to 45k but there are a few anomalies to this like all cars.

I know a 'city' car that has low/average mileage would probably be a worse option than a 'country' car with average/high mileage but the question I am asking though is how many miles would have you 'worried' if you were looking to buy a 2005/6 997?

Are they like TVR's where the more used examples are usually better than the garage queens or is a low mileage/lightly used one a better option?

[IMI A]

I wouldn't worry about buying a car between 50,000 and 100,000 miles. With 996/997 means it will probably be less prone to any issues as these cars tend to stay in good condition mechanically if they're used.

[MrBurns]

Personally I prefer lower milleage, so would be looking at 50-60K for a 2005/2006 C2S, but one with 70-90K aint necessarily a bad buy. Of equal, if not higher consideration should be condition, for a private sale (esp w/out warranty) an indpendent or OPC inspection is a must, whatever the milleage. Then if it hasnt got a warranty get one.

[jonny996]

think how many miles you are going to put on it, if you plan to keep for 3 year & put 30K miles on it, I would stay below 65K miles

For some very strange reason people think a 99K mile car is much better then a 101K mile car.

[V8KSN]

jonny996 said:

think how many miles you are going to put on it, if you plan to keep for 3 year & put 30K miles on it, I would stay below 65K miles

For some very strange reason people think a 99K mile car is much better then a 101K mile car.

Keep for 3 years and put on 30k sounds about right but buying a car with 65k on it now for the budget I have (£25-£30k) seems a little high.

Example one: £27k
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2436134.htm

Example two: £31k
http://www.rsjsportscars.co.uk/used-porsche/porsch...

Both of the cars above come in under or around my budget and have less than 40k on the clock.

[Gibbo205]

Hi there

I'd say 40k - 80k miles is the sweet spot.

Cars with issues seem low mileage ones which have not had much use, don't let the internet scare you or the classifieds with many saying new engines because as a whole Porsche are a reliable car.

[V8KSN]

Gibbo205 said:

Cars with issues seem low mileage ones which have not had much use, don't let the internet scare you or the classifieds with many saying new engines because as a whole Porsche are a reliable car.

It's not the internet as a whole that scares me, it's just the posts on this site

All this talk of d-chunk failures and cylinder bores being scored etc worries me!

I think i'll just get one from RSJ or JZM and get one of their full warranties for peace of mind.

The reason I am looking for one now is I am going on the Petrolhead Nirvana Alpine tour in June and i'll be doing 2500 miles and my number one priority for this is (after fun) reliability.

[Gibbo205]

V8KSN said:

It's not the internet as a whole that scares me, it's just the posts on this site

All this talk of d-chunk failures and cylinder bores being scored etc worries me!

I think i'll just get one from RSJ or JZM and get one of their full warranties for peace of mind.

The reason I am looking for one now is I am going on the Petrolhead Nirvana Alpine tour in June and i'll be doing 2500 miles and my number one priority for this is (after fun) reliability.

Yeah I'd still look at 20-40k mile cars but 20-40k miles seems to be the prone range where they self destruct, so as such an OPC warranty is a must on a low mileage car.

I'd buy from one of the following:-
OPC
Specialist with decent comprehensive warranty
Private with remainder of OPC warranty
Private pristine example with higher miles, no warranty but good price.