Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Anyone ever owned a Porsche

[SlowLearner]

Good sense already spoken.

I've had 5 porsches over the years.

924 Turbo, !!! scary fun
911 SC 3.0 great classic 911
993, last of the aircooled cars and a classic
996, first of the watercooled cars bit of a letdown
997.2 the latest PDK gearbox version, awesome vehicle

For the 15K ish budget i think youhave two options.
993 if you want something that is more than just a car, will be expensive to service but its a classic
Boxster S, great all round fun car and quite modern too.

Good luck !

STeve

[Nev748]

I would avoid the Boxster as well. You would no doubt feel at some point that you should have gone the whole hog and got a 911!
I would doubt you could get a 993 for that budget unless it had very high miles. Most are auto as well which for me takes away the whole driving experiance.
A 964 with low miles would be good for the miles you need to do but my old Impreza turbo was a quicker car. Best go for a 996 which if it has reasonable miles on should be a very good car. The 3.4 engines had problems if low milage so I went for a 996 C2 manual 3.6 which in my view is a great car. I use it everyday and take the children to school as there is room in the back for booster seats ( not much room in the 964/993)
Have a word with Ray at Northway Porsche 0118 9714333 for an honest opinion and will tell you servicing costs etc which don't seem too bad
Happy hunting,
Nev

[Paul996]

Thanks for all the replies.

I love the look of the 911 but for the ones I like the look off are outside my price range

Will try a couple of dealers and see what's about. Might be worth driving one before I buy

Will keep you posted

[Chris Wood]

911virgins.co.uk or similar is a good read...IIRC

[khushy]

had a 996 for 8 months - did 22,000 miles - hated it - VERY fragile - infact the day AFTER we sold it - the bloody thing decided to blew its own engine up!

Boxter is a great car for everyday use - fun, reasonably fast - "Tiff" rates them highly and he actually knows a thing or two about cars - apparantly!

Simple advice - for your budget - steer clear of ANY 996 - try and get yourself into 993 if you can - join the POCGB for help/tips/advice (or even the actual purchase) make sure its got FULL history yada yada yada and you should be fine!

993 = a DIY mechanics wet dream and the very BEST car Porsche have ever made IMHO!

Enjoy!

khushy

[SlowLearner]

Just a little more info :

The 993 was the last of the 'hand made' cars, and as such is quite a bit more old fashioned than the 996/7 cars, where a lot of automation was deployed to cut manufacturing costs.

This is no bad thing as it means there is more scope for diy.

The 993 engines came in 2 generations 271 and 285 bhp, with the later having variocam timing. They are all prone to valve timing gear slippage which basically just saps performance, but is quite expensive to correct.

Servicing costs for the 993 were significantly higher than for the 996 cars, my average service for the 993 was in the region of £1k, with the 996 nearer £400.

The 993 is fully depreciated and a classic, gets my recommendation.

Oh, one last thing, dont buy tiptronic ! as it saps loads of performance and its basically an automatic, the New PDK gearbox is awesome but youll need 60K + for one of those !

[Ray]

Try www.pistonheads.com for some window shopping

They divvy up the 911 range quite nicely.

993, 996, 997, with a few sub groups as well.

Ray.

[John W]

Erm, not quite sure the 'variocam' thing is right.

the later engines have 'varioram' induction to alter inlet tract length, and so boost bottom end torque. Your right, it does take power up to 285bhp though.

they use hydraulic tappets, and its common on leggy engines for some of these to lose pressure overnight, meaning a slight tapping at initial startup. Its not too costly to get fixed if you go to a decent non franchised dealer.

My 993 costs have never exceeded 400 quid, but agree if you have a major service done which is all of the plugs (12 of them !) that takes a serious amount of labour. I chose to do them myself, it only takes an afternoon.
Asside from that the most expensive part of the service is the oil.
You can buy all the parts to do a diy service for under 100 quid (pollen filters, air filter, oil filters (yes there are two), and some other stuff I've forgotten).

Every time I drive the 993 it puts a smile on my face. I jjust don't get the same experience from driving the newer ones.

Another vote here for 911virgin.com too.