Post
by Mikie711 » Sat Jun 05, 2010 11:55 pm
I had a C4 for 3 years, by far the longest I ever kept a car. They are extremely competent cars, capable of phenomenal road speeds with anyone behind the wheel. By that I mean you don't have to be a driving god to get 95% out of them, the last 5% is a different matter but you would have to crazy to get to that limit on the road. Mechanically they are pretty bullet proof, but agree with Flip that you have to be picky about what you are buying. RMS isn't a major concern if that is all it is, the problem with RMS (rear main seal failure) is on low mileage engines it can be a symptom of something else entirely, this make the inspection even more critical. I would forget the base 996 models with the 3.4 engine, to old now and so many on the market (you can pick one up for 13k), but most will have lead a hard life unless you find a one owner car that's be looked after. Better off saving a few quid more and going for a 997, this of coarse depends on your budget but they improved quite a lot of things on the 997 model over the 996. 997 are starting to slide towards the sub 30k barrier so you should be able to get hold of one privately. If you go OPC you will be paying very top book price for a late 996 and chances are it's going to be around this price point anyway. There are some very good specialist resellers about but you will have to travel to see them.
The downside is after having had the car a while I found it a bit uninvolving at least until you get to crazy speeds for the road. At this point it's not so much what the car is going to do that becomes the problem but other road users who have no idea how quick your traveling, so it's not really exploitable performance on the road unless you join the 3am club, and from what I've seen yes there is one especially during light summer Sunday mornings. Book figures for these cars don't tell the whole story, standard cars pull 60mph in a little over 5secs, 100mph in 12+ but it just keeps pulling, it's like that way past 140, just linear acceleration. I found you would be trundling down the road thinking everybody is going really slow when in fact your comfortably killing miles at license loosing speeds, it was just so easy.
Also agree with Flip with the "wish I had saved more and bought one of them" feeling every time you see a model higher but I guess that's a Porsche hierarchy thing.
If I was getting another I would pick either 996 series 2 GT3 or 997S with the 3.8 engine but that's me. At the very least get a C4S with the 3.6 as they corrected a lot of the problems the 3.4 had with that engine (also up'ed the power) and as it was a more expensive car to buy it will have been through less owners than a stock 996. Turbo's have much higher service cost BTW than the standard cars but Jim is right they do have fixed price servicing which in theory makes then no more expensive to buy and run than a Mitsiscubby or indeed an M3.
I notice in your post you'd be using it for commuting, it'll handle that with ease and will do the car no harm at all being used regularly. Nothing kills a 911 quicker than sitting still, mine used to take 2-3 days to loosen up when I came back from offshore if the misses hadn't used it. The OPC warranty thing sounds expensive but it doesn't take much to break for you to sail past 1k. Labour at OPC was £115 an hour and parts are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. Older cars have a tendency to need suspension bushes but you can't buy the bush you have to buy the control arm which range from £150 -270 plus fitting and there is loads of the damned things on a 911. Flip is quite correct about the disc's, never needed to change a set of pads because they were worn but because the disc's need done. Usually about 18mths they would last, less if it lives outside. You can have them skimmed though if the pitting isn't to deep or buy carbon ceramic discs, but they are 5k.
One day I may well buy another one as they are very good cars, only problem in Aberdeen is they are as common as Sh!te, every second cars a bloody Porsche up here or at least seams that way when you have one but that's Aberdeen for you.
One other thing, spec. Porsche charge a fortune for optional extras on new cars so if you find on with a bunch of toys, OBC, PCM, SAT NAV, Phone, heated seats, upgraded leather interior, big wheels etc etc they make resale a lot easier as there are loads and loads with next to none.
Everybody should own one at least once, good value for money now as they have become the victims of there own success. Sold so many cars now that second hand price have tumbled compared to the 993 days.
My 2p.
Elise S2 260
BMW M2 Comp
RRS HST
BMW R1300GS
