Which Model upto £15k.

[tjdixon911]

I have been away from Porsche ownership for a couple of years having previously owned a 2.5 Boxster (03-05) and a 968 Sport (05-13), both were great cars for different reasons, the 968 was a car I found very hard to part with, and looking at the prices now, maybe I shouldn't have!!

So now, I find myself trawling the classifieds for something new, it will be a weekend car, I don't want to see it as an investment as such but also don't want something that is still depreciating at a fast rate, which I think this price bracket will probably avoid.

Just to put it out there, I'm also happy to spend less, and maybe slightly more depending on the car, I appreciate the budget does open up a lot of options but my thoughts are along the lines of;

Boxster 986 'S' - Good Examples seem to be sitting around the £8k mark with the Facelift and Glass Rear Screen, seem like a good buy for the money.

Cayman - The lower end of the market seems to be coming within the £15k budget, not sure this is something I should avoid?

996 Coupe, there are plenty of examples out there at the £10-15k price brakets, I love the look of the early Aero kitted examples, providing they have the correct wheels, also the 996 C4S which pushes the budget slightly could be a contender - these have to be at rock bottom prices now surely? they've been sat at this level for sometime and with the rising prices of the 993, 964 etc, is it a sign that these will follow suit or will the 997 go up before the 996 does?

944 S2 / 968 - go back to what I've had? the number of adverts for these cars has shrunk and the prices have increased but still in budget.

Other?

My heart says 911, having never owned one, it has always been my dream car but my head says can they really be a good proposition for this kind of money?

[EGTE]

Could do a lot worse than something like this:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I bought something similar recently with Sports Exhaust too and it never fails to make me smile. The noise is fantastic.

[Richie200]

996 C2 is an absolute bargain for the prices they have been selling for the last 5 years. To put it in perspective I wouldn't sell mine for £25K. Great cars, find one with a full Hartech rebuild and you have nothing to fear. Steering feel is fantastic, brakes are really strong, power is just the perfect match for the chassis. Really couldn't recommend them highly enough (so long as you can overcome the fried eggs)

[DH01]

Cayenne . Stunning value at this price range and ultimate all rounder.

[Mario149]

tjdixon911 said:

a question

For your budget I'd be going for a high spec 996 C2 or if you can stretch a C4S if you don't mind a little performance loss, and be trying to find a Harteched one, or keeping a good slush fund. C2 will drive more as a Porsche, but the C4S looks better IMO. You can't really go wrong with either.

Boxsters and Caymans are great but if there's a 996 option in the mix (egg headlights and all) they wouldn't get a look in as I personally can't get over the looks of the pre-981 models, the backs of them just look badly drawn to my eye. They'd also feel very under powered to me (I'd set my modern Porsche minimum as 300bhp) but I guess that depends what you're coming from

[GreatGranny]

I'm a big fan of the 944 especially the Turbo so this would be my choice.



http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/p...

[tjdixon911]

Thanks for the Responses, Looks like the 996 is a favorite VFM wise, I have been looking at these daily so will continue with the search.

That 944 Turbo looks lovely, I wonder if I could justify to myself spending £16k on that when a 996 sits at similar money.

Out of Interest, what is the cost of a Hartech engine rebuild, and if I was to look at a car without one, what signs would I be looking at to know if it needs one? I guess a proper inspection would be worth the money in this case?

[rossfitz]

Hartech rebuild. Allow up to £10K. Seriously.

Signs: none

Boroscope for bore scoring. IMS failure, not sure what you can do to predict this.

If you find a car on their maintenance plan or one that has had a rebuild, there's your piece of mind.

[rossfitz]

Hartech rebuild. Allow up to £10K. Seriously.

Signs: none

Boroscope for bore scoring. IMS failure, not sure what you can do to predict this.

If you find a car on their maintenance plan or one that has had a rebuild, there's your piece of mind.

[DRH986]

Over the last 20 years or so we've owned 3 x 944, 2 x 968, 3 x 986, and currently have 2 x gen 1 987 Cayman S. I've considered and tried various air and water cooled 911s over the years but they don't really do it for me. However I do regret not buying a certain 964RS priced around £21K that I test drove in the early 2000's from a value increase point of view!

I really rate the Cayman. I owned my last 968, a high spec M030 coupe, for around 7 years and still have a fondness for them (and the 944) but given a choice of a good 968 or Cayman S at around the same value, I'd take the Cayman any day. Our Caymans - as with our previous cars - are daily drivers and as such are significantly better in pretty much all departments except I can't get 2 mountain bikes in the back! I did a few track days in my 968 without any issues and would be more concerned about doing track days in a gen 1 Cayman S without some significant mods. For this reason, I've started to look out for a gen 2 but that is outside your target price range.

[Mja300]

rossfitz said:

Hartech rebuild. Allow up to £10K. Seriously.

Signs: none

Boroscope for bore scoring. IMS failure, not sure what you can do to predict this.

If you find a car on their maintenance plan or one that has had a rebuild, there's your piece of mind.

I have a cayman s available at the end of this month which fits the above criteria.
New cayman arriving at dealership so it either goes into them, back to hartech (if they want it) or its up for grabs. Which ever is least hassle to me.
PM if interested.

[hungry_hog]

How about a 928 GT?

Plenty of power, good mechanicals. Not going to drop much in value.

I would suggest the GTS, but I think those are over 15k

[freshy]

I was in the same predicament as the OP and picked up a lovely gen 1 Cayman S with Porsche Warranty for £15k.

[tjdixon911]

Thanks all again for the replies.

Its a little worrying to think that if I was to get a 996 without a Hartech rebuild I'd have the dark cloud over me all the time with a potential £10k bill, this is really off putting, does it affect pretty much all models and all years or are some better than others? Is there any warranty that will cover it?

On other models of the same era, 986/7 Boxsters and caymans, does this affect them? I know from owning an early boxster (10+ years ago) the RMS was an issue. Does it effect the 997 engines if i was to up the budget?

Looking through the classifieds its not easy to find a car with a rebuild - there are plenty about without which may have done 80k+ with no issues...

[IknowJoseph]

tjdixon911 said:

Its a little worrying to think that if I was to get a 996 without a Hartech rebuild I'd have the dark cloud over me all the time with a potential £10k bill, this is really off putting, does it affect pretty much all models and all years or are some better than others? Is there any warranty that will cover it?

These engine issues really are not as bad as most people say. Bear in mind that much of the reporting on this comes from a company that make their money charging people for preventative work.

Even amongst the nay-sayers, the pre-facelift 996 3.4 is generally regarded as a reliable car.

Of course, it's a 16 year old sports car capable of 170+ mph - there's still the potential for big bills if you buy a duffer, but it's not fair to say you need to worry about the engine exploding on you.

[EGTE]

There was a lot about the 996/986 engine issues in a recent GT Porsche (I think); it reckons no more than 5% chance of serious engine problems.

Put in a really good oil (Millers CFS or something) every year and fit a low-temp thermostat as Hartech recommend and I doubt there will be a problem.

Hartech do sort-of warranties if you use their service plans.

[Mario149]

It's a risk/reward trade off at the end of the day. The 996 is a massively capable sports car available in good condition for £12K. There's a statistically significant chance that you may have severe engine problems, but the vast majority appear to be okay, so personally it wouldn't put me off. You could probably break the car for £5K-£6K should the worst happen, so at worst you could only be £6K out of pocket. Say a 1/20 chance of the engine lunching itself? There's probably a higher chance you write off the car in your ownership and get bid in the nuts on their trade price for the car losing the same amount.

I'm not playing down the risks, but when you consider that early 996s are of almost the same generation as an F355 and have almost identical performance (in fact probably more, as much as I love 355s I've never heard of any that have been dynoed reliably anywhere near the quoted power), they really are a bargain.

[Billy_Whizzzz]

I've just bought a 996.1 3.4 C4 that has had the IMS/RMS done. I'd been looking at 997s but early 997s were too much of a risk if (when?) engine went bang. The 996 is well sorted and has FSH with loads of money spent on it. It's unlikely to suffer from bore scoring now, and as it has had the necessary preventative maintenance to prevent bearing failure, what's the worst that can happen? As another roost says, if the engine dies it will still be worth £6-7k, and if I rebuild it, I'll still be in for less than the cheapest 997...

Why don't you get a 996 and just get the IMS bearing done immediately...?

[Sandy59]

tjdixon911 said:

Thanks for the Responses, Looks like the 996 is a favorite VFM wise, I have been looking at these daily so will continue with the search.

That 944 Turbo looks lovely, I wonder if I could justify to myself spending £16k on that when a 996 sits at similar money.

Out of Interest, what is the cost of a Hartech engine rebuild, and if I was to look at a car without one, what signs would I be looking at to know if it needs one? I guess a proper inspection would be worth the money in this case?

If you go 996, I'd recommend trying to find one with the factory fitted sports pack, this included lowered suspension, 18" wheels, traction control, LSD, and sports seats.
I had one with this package many years ago and it was a great drive, and quite a popular option taken at the time I believe so there should be quite a few out there.

[Billy_Whizzzz]

Here's mine... You know you want to!