Chris S

There's a reason you don't see Porsches everywhere. If cost per mile is a big factor in your sports car ownership experience, there are better choices...but still, Porsches aren't as bad as made out to be. The biggest incremental expense (by far) if buying new is depreciation.

PedalFaster

rnye, no need to be so condescending. I acknowledge that I just skimmed your previous post since it didn't really address what I was saying anyway.

An extra $3k a year either bothers you or it doesn't. If it doesn't, then a used Porsche is a viable option. If it does, then it isn't. $3k a year evidently concerns you, so for you it's not a viable option. There's no editorial judgment here on whether one view is better than the other -- I've been on both sides of the fence. When I was single, I had no problem burning extra cash on cars, which is why I went through five Porsches in quick succession. Now I have a mortgage and am trying to support a racing habit, so I'm cheaping out -- I sold my Boxster S and replaced it with a cheaper S2000 instead.

Look, we're agreeing, and I'm not being a jerk about it! Shocking! You should try it sometime.

V TACH

The 996 C4S is a great car, and I think you should go for it. These cars are some of the best deals on the used car market. I feel aesthetically, it's one of the best looking modern Porsche's. I really like the interior. If you have the RMS issue, you can get it fixed at a dealership for $700 so it's not like it's a life changing amount of money--and that's if it happens. The post '02 996s have a significant improvement in build quality (less rattles, etc). My favorite options on the 996s are the large carbon fiber interior package and the Porsche Sport Exhaust--sounds fricken' amazing! Good luck!
Vivek

reedkr2

Well said Ventricular TACHycardia

Dr. WOT

I was off daydreaming on 6speedonline's classified just the other day... there were what seemed to be dozens of early 996 Turbos, many of which were very close to that $40k budget. From what I've read, these cars are much better built than the non-turbos, damn near bullet-proof. My suggestion is to save up a couple more bucks and go for the Turbo.

reedkr2

[QUOTE=Dr. WOT,Oct 5 2009, 03:44 PM] I was off daydreaming on 6speedonline's classified just the other day... there were what seemed to be dozens of early 996 Turbos, many of which were very close to that $40k budget.

Bugsy

Turbo.
Thrust you can trust.

steviec

You know, I've personally never had a problem, but my first turbo, an 02 was sold to a nice guy out east who subsequently sold it to a guy in Utah who I heard sometime later managed to get it back to Utah and shortly thereafter (and just as the warranty had expired) was forced to dump 12k into the motor after some manner of catastrophic failure. Doh!

Could not agree more.

Bugsy

Engine problems are not the rule with the GT1 based Turbo, but metal is metal and bad things can happen to anything given the wrong revs or the wrong hands (er, right foot).
We've all heard problems on this board about certain S2k engines, but that engine, is not a weakling for durability either.
Any engine that makes so much power per liter, and is used to it's potential can certainly fail, but the example of s2k and P-turbo are pretty dam reliable for the output for sure.