OHall

Thank you everyone for the responses!

@Jack F With regards to 991.1 vs 991.2, while I absolutely like the NA engines, by the time I purchase a 991 in the next year or so, the 2014/2015 models that I was interested in would be 7-8 years old. I have never purchased a used car that is older than 3 years so, buying a car older than that is new to me. In addition to the drive, I also don't want to miss out on newer tech/features and hence, 991.2 came into consideration as an option. At the end of the day, I will still go for a well equipped 991.1 rather than 991.2.

@Levy @WJGreer Yes, my risk tolerance dictates that I will feel better with a CPO/warranty but the idea of having money set aside for repairs seems appealing too.

@desmotesta I wasn't aware of the Stop Sale order. That definitely explains a lot.

@B Russ @colnagoG60 That's what I loved about having a CPO!

Tier1Terrier

CPO is not a must but you can always buy a little peace of mind with a Fidelity warranty.

tmarino

I was in the same quandary last year purchasing my first 911. I bought a 2014 991.1 C2S from a reputable dealer in Rocklin CA who had service records for the car but did not list it as a CPO. They ended up doing the complete inspection on the car and the PO had them do additional work at time of trade, tires, 60K service, brake flush etc. The dealer sold me a three year aftermarket warranty from a reputable company they use without issues, a plan similar to a high end Fidelity plan. I was confident that I had all bases covered and have since put over 15K miles on the car including a coast to coast, 4200 mile trip this past June.
Car has been perfect and I only changed oil twice in the last year.

Do I regret not having the title of a 'CPO" car, not in the least! I am a firm believer of verifying the service history, previous ownership etc as that to me is the most important.

Good Luck with your purchase and by all means........drive it!

moswissa

I personally dont think its a must. Porsche is overall is reliable. I think its usually tied with lexus according to JD. Although when repairs are needed, its costly. The only thing that worries me on any 991 is the PDK going out because its a huge bill. Luckily its really rare and most problems seem to manifest in the early life of the car. There are plenty of places that can rebuild the PDK now days, but its still pricey. Otherwise I cant really imagine anything else going wrong.

I got quoted more than $3300 for the fidelity platinum warranty but decided to not get it.

Elmiko

My CPO expired in March. I immediately went to Michael Jourdan of Mossy Motors and bought a 2 year, 25,000 mile Fidelity Platinum warranty
for $3500. Shortly afterwards the dynamic motor mounts failed and were covered by the warranty, less the $500 deductible. I think it easily paid for itself just for that one major repair. Dealer said Fidelity was easy to work with.

Rich_Jenkins

Good question, is CPO a must. Is it "absolutely"? No, not really...but you are rolling the dice, and the amount of tolerable risk is always up to the user.

In a past life, I managed Risk in business (Aerospace/Engineering) by assessing each risk, multiplying probability by cost, and then adding them up. This would establish a "risk budget", which could be used if a particular risk was realized. I've never really thought about applying it to used cars, or specifically, used 991s, but one could I suppose. You'd need a list of common problems with repair costs, then apply your judgement on probability. As a thought exercise, I might do that at some point.

In going through my research the summer of 2019 before buying a CPO 991.2, I had the previous (good) experience with a used, high-mileage 981S. I found a few common problems on the early '17 and '18 911s (my price range) such as water pump and door panel delamination, but nothing hugely major, so CPO while welcome was not a requirement. I looked for several months and because of my spec (MT) the number of cars available were small and all over the country. I ended up buying in Long Island and driving back to Tampa.

In retrospect, none of the common problems have happened to me (knock on wood) but I am happy to have the peace of mind of a warranty. I just transitioned out of the 4 year OEM period and into the two years of CPO. So I've got a couple more to go then on my own. The car continuing to be reliable, I probably would opt not to get a Fidelity warranty in 2023, and accept some out of pocket costs. A $3,000 bill is still less than the annual depreciation on a new 992 in normal times; and I'm just not in a position to afford a new car.

Buying a 991.1 might change this calculus a bit, however. These 2011-2016 range cars are now getting on five to ten years old now; pretty long in the tooth. Again, depending on your personal comfort level (as in, can you write a check for most of the common repairs?) a CPO or Fidelity warranty will give you peace of mind. Having said that, the .1's seem to be absent major flaws, and of course if you prefer the NA engine there's nothing wrong with that (My 981S had the NA 3.4 motor, so I totally get it.)

I'll admit I've never once paid for an aftermarket warranty, my belief is the odds are stacked towards the companies that sell them. Of course, many folks get the cost out of them with one repair. Maybe I've been lucky, I don't know. I'm a big believer in choosing generally reliable cars (Lexus, Honda, Porsche, etc.) and actively performing regular maintenance myself.

Bottom line, the 991.1 seems to be a good bet. If you want to avoid large random expenses down the line, you'll need to get a CPO or pay for a Fidelity warranty, but it's really up to you.

james280

Almost weekly, I get unsolicited sales calls and junk mail trying to sell me aftermarket warranties on my cars, often for cars I no longer own. This tells me there's a lot of profit in warranties… everyone's doing it. It’s like the car dealer finance guy who puts the hard sell on the 'extras' when you’re signing the paperwork, the wheel protection plan, etc. They know it's very profitable or they wouldn't push so hard… like the warranty companies. It's good for profits.

That said, you can't beat the peace of mind that comes with the warranty, I’m sure it's worth it for most that buy them, and as we know, one bum PDK replaced by the warranty pays multiple times over.

vanlieremead

Rich,
Sounds like Honeywell.
Chris

vanlieremead

OP

here’s the mega thread if you can stand it.

https://rennlist.com/forums/991/1236271-the-fidelity-platinum-megathread.html

Rich_Jenkins

Makes sense; I believe most of the major players use that same form of Risk Assessment / Mitigation / Acceptance; used to be there was a tool we used to enter risks and establish plans. But yeah; I worked for IBM and Lockmart most of my career, I'm sure Honeywell is similar.

SSFox

I bought 2013 C2 in May. 3rd owner; 23442 miles. 5 year 60k warranty that covers more than OEM was under $5k. Value of peace of mind $500k.

vanlieremead

Right. With us, up until recently, the tool was called Excel.

CayenneBlack

Lol, that’s hilarious! Was the Monte Carlo done in Excel too? 😂

ruuustin

For me the math just didn't make sense.

I have a 991.1 4s. ~60k miles when purchased. At the time CPO or an aftermarket warranty was going to add nearly 10k to the price of the car. The car had always been dealer maintained and the likelihood of spending that much on actual problems with the car over the next 3-4 years that I'll probably own it seemed really unlikely.

moswissa

I just got a quote for fidelity platinum on my 991.1CS2 for $5600 for 4 years 48k miles. All I really care about is my PDK going out. tough decision.. Car has 34k miles.