Porsche 996- the affordable 911?

[The Busman]

I have owned quite a few marques, Lotus, Mercedes and latterly TVR’s, although Porsche, and the 911 have evaded me so far. I have approx £13k to spend, and am looking at what seems to be the less popular) 996 For this money I am into high mileage options but wondered is this dangerous territory, given the complexities of these cars. It will do less than 3k miles per year

[LordHaveMurci]

Plenty of threads on here to look up, some great info on them.

£13k should get you a perfectly usable 996, they are fantastic cars.

[eltax91]

Sent you a PM bud. But yes, these cars really are currently the affordable (for most normal folk) 911

[85Carrera]

13k 996 is likely to be expensive in terms of ongoing costs, isn’t it?

If not, I may be tempted at that price.

[LordHaveMurci]

85Carrera said:

13k 996 is likely to be expensive in terms of ongoing costs, isn’t it?

If not, I may be tempted at that price.

Why is it?

[PH_77]

A lot of 996's have seemingly had IMS and / or bore scoring issues which can ultimately lead to catastrophic engine failure. Surely Google could have told you this?

One of my friends ended up with a ~£10K repair bill for fooked engine out of warranty about 15 years ago. 'Early' 3.4 cars seem to be somewhat less susceptible to things going wrong.

If I were going for a 996 it would be a Hartech rebuild car or I'd save up a bit more for a turbo. Both of which should apparently significantly lessen the likelihood of a five figure repair bill. Best of luck.

[MrC986]

OP, if you buy a well maintained/cared for car, life will be good for a year or two possibly although the rule of thumb is allow at least £1k a year in maintenance (but it could be up to £2k) though they were over £60k new & you shouldn’t expect to run one on a budget equivalent to a Fiesta! Read the buyers guides online as well.

A £13k car will be approaching 20 yrs old & hence could need for example replacement suspension & checking the MOT history online will give an idea as to how well a car has been maintained, it’s recent usage & what impending costs there are I.e. brake lines etc, - there are quite a few that have some quite big gaps in the service history although a good enthusiast owned car will have been serviced/inspected annually even if it’s only an oil change. If a car has a recent gap in the history/is overdue by a year or two a service, considered wisdom is to recommend it has a major service.

[eltax91]

85Carrera said:

13k 996 is likely to be expensive in terms of ongoing costs, isn’t it?

If not, I may be tempted at that price.

My high miler (157k) is worth about that in my opinion. I've had it a few years, i've spent around £1k a year average on maintenance. It's had an IMS bearing, low temp stat, air con rads, new exhaust headers, brakes all round and a partial suspension refresh.

It's the rest of the suspension + the engine amounts away from costing me nothing ever again.

[ArchiesDad]

These questions come up all the time, usually it’s should I buy a 997.1 And then everyone screams
“BUY A 996”

There’s always going to be an element of “Only but one with a Hartech rebuild”
The engines chocolate, IMS issues, RMS issues etc, You need £10K in the bank to help you sleep at night.

The way around this problem is buy one brand new at £110K, that way it comes with the kind of assurance some people need to make them feel loved. Comfortable and assured !

As you have had a variety of cars including TVR’s my guess is you will be familiar with looking at Used cars, The same applies to 911’s. But the best one you can afford, low owners, full history etc etc.
One thing that you are never going to know is how many times it’s been thraped from cold in the middle of winter or if it’s bad multitudes of short journeys ? Likewise it could have been cared for and tended to meticulously, buy cautiously with a open mind probably from an enthusiast who has carried preventative maintenance. This will give an indication of how it’s been cared for.

Personally, the £10K speculation from financial advisors on an Internet forum is absolute bks !!
I’ve lost more than that on Land Rovers, BMW’s and Audi’s through depreciation.
My own 911 seems to be capable of starting, moving and stopping perfectly well. It costs me Oil, filters and fuel ! Nothings broken, blown up, melted or fallen off.
If the engine drops it’s guts all over the road it’ll get fixed, it won’t be going Hartech and I couldn’t give a st if it cost £10, £15 or £20K.

Buy the car you want with sense and diligence, if it happens then sh happens ! At least it won’t be a surprise !

[nunpuncher]

There are plenty of high mileage ones still driving around. Its all about how they've been looked after and I'm firmly in the camp that believes you're better with one that's been used, enjoyed and cared for than one that's been sat idle in a garage. This is due to my own experience buying one that had been hardly used for a number of years.

The general rule of thumb now seems to be that a 996 will stand you £20k. You won't see any for sale at that price but most people accept any car for sale will need 1 or 2 things doing in the first year. So if you buy for £15k you'll probably end up putting another 4-5k in. I bought mine about 18 months ago with 80k miles on the clock for £14k. I had it PPI'd and it brought up just over £4k of work which I negotiated into the sale. Since then I've probably put another £3k in to suspension and various other bits doing the work myself. Much of that was "while I'm here I might as well..." type of jobs so not entirely necessary.

You could easily get a perfectly useable coupe for £13k (you could do a tiptronic or manual cab for less) but if you're fussy expect it to cost more.

Edited by nunpuncher on Monday 21st September 15:01

[some bloke]

Have a look at the poverty pork thread:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Be patient and I imagine you'll get something pretty good for 13K