farmerpitre

I'm going to buy my wife a Porsche for her 50th.
With 50-55K as a budget, what would you suggest and why?
I've been leaning towards a Cayman with about 10k-20k miles, perhaps an S.
I certainly like the 911s better, but am worried about getting one with higher mileage, and don't like the early 2000s styles as much.
How were the 911s from this era? Compared to more up to date 918s?

vtgt

tcsracing1

get her a 2009-2012 cayman or boxster. 3.4 DFI motor.

If you want her to really like you, get the 2011 boxster spyder or the 2012 cayman R.

Of course you could throw for a 2009-2013 911 or a 2013-2016 boxster or cayman as well.

Catorce

I would be all over a 918 for $50K. Where do I send my money?

theiceman

The boxster or water cooled area would be a good place to ask. This forum is for old air cooked cars.

Catorce

^ Thanks. Should I be concerned about the level of reading comprehension in this sub forum?

r911

answer depends on your wife

how old is she in terms of yoga positions and bench presses?

does she enjoy lying under the car, bathing in oil drips?

does she prefer eau de brad penn to some flowery French stuff?

smbryan

Easy - buy her a 50th anniversary edition

farmerpitre

I meant a 718 (Cayman) of course, not a 918.
So I am taking from this avoid looking at a 911 pre 2009?
No. My wife is not a grease monkey, but she does like to go fast.

r911

either one - let her drive them

LIRS6

Buy one of each, let her pick, you drive the other

uptheorg

Pre-2009 water-pumping 911's are fine. Do a PPI no matter what. Lot of talk about IMS Bearing and some of it is valid, so probably make sure that is done, although if it has more than 40-50k miles on it, it will most likely not fail. Also, she will have a four-seater instead of a two-seater Cayman.

uptheorg

Regarding IMS bearing -- I always like to share all my research on this because I did everything, including reading the court papers against Porsche at the time. Basically, only 1 in 5 cars had the bearing fail and it was always catastrophic in that massive parts of the engine were destroyed by it and the fix, if you didn't put in a new engine, was very expensive. Nevertheless, it was only 1 in 5. But . . . it was 1 in 5 which is very high from the manufacturer's perspective, so it gets a lot of attention. Out of those that actually failed, more than 80% were cars that were rarely driven, low mileage cars. Cars that were used as daily drivers in their early years, or just simply had higher mileage, (for example a five-year-old car with over 40,000 miles on it) were much less likely to have a problem. Only certain years were actually affected like this -- I don't remember exactly the years (I know there was a transition period), but the VIN numbers that were affected are easily researched via Google. There are several "fixes" available and you can research that as well to determine the one that is best for you and fits your budget. The fixes all cost $1,000 to $3,000 as I recall.

When I had my 2005 Carrera, it was a 40,000 mile car and I decided I would "take the chance" and not repair the bearing. Never had a problem. I know that the turbo cars from that period and the GT3's were all built with the Mezger engine which didn't have the same design for the bearing so never had the oil starvation that caused it.

Good luck with your hunt. Again, do a PPI!!

Charles Navarro

The IMS bearing is a wear item. Just because it is past a certain mileage, doesn't mean it won't fail.

The single row bearing used from 2000-2005 is the one with the highest failure rate of 8% reported by the Eisen class action lawsuit, however many believe it's much higher and will increase as time goes on.

The larger, non-serviceable bearing from the 2006-2008 cars are the best and have the lowest incidence of failure, less than 1%. The early dual row bearings are also a very low failure rate, but they are at the point by now of needing replacement because they will be worn out and fail given the opportunity.

grgallo

no disrespect but the IMS bearing does not need discussion on the 911 air-cooled forum