mo-town

I have been looking at classifieds for the past 6-8 months. I wasn't serious about purchasing until a few weeks ago. My biggest problem is that I'm not sure what I want. Maybe some of you can help me in making a decision. On one hand, I love the idea of buying a 993. The body style is timeless and I like the fact that it is air cooled. On the other hand, for the same price I can get a pretty low mileage 05 997 which is a beautiful machine. I am looking at a 97 C4S with 65k miles and normal interior wear and tear for a car of its age selling for $40k. I have also been looking at a few 05's that cost 2-5k more, but are perfect and have very low mileage. What should I do?

stedge

drive both and buy what you like.

if the wear bothers you, shell out more for a pristine older car. I suspect the depreciation curve on the 05 is steeper than a 993 (unless you buy a no-miler for 75k) so no worries there. Maintenance will cost more initially in the older car, but once the new one is out of warranty, who knows?

either way they are great cars, you are lucky to have the option.

what's your gut telling you?

BSL

Gotta agree with Stedge. Drive both and see what feels more right. My wife feels that our 993 is a little too raw for her for daily driving, but that the 997 we had was fine. For me, I have a preference to the feel of the 993. Either way, you can't go wrong if they both check out.

JasonF

My '05 was the biggest POS I've ever owned, from minor nuisances like squeaks, rattles and interior trim pieces that wouldn't stay in place to major mechanical issues that took a regional service rep to figure out. The car was great initially, but after 6 months things started going downhill. It was simply not a car engineered to last.

The only silver lining from that experience is that I bought another 993 that has 103,000 trouble-free miles on the odometer.

177mph

theres a story!! nice! long live the 993!

Fahrer

This something I have been struggling with also. I have seen some nice looking 993s with 20,000 to 40,000 miles in like new condition for $40K to $60K. But I have also seen 2008 MY 997s ( S) with 800 miles for $70K with 3.5 years left on the warranty. I know they are different cars but this is not an easy decision. I am not looking for something I would be driving daily.....just for the nice weekend days. I also do not want to have something that needs a lot of expensive repairs. Let's see, a newer, higher performing car with a warranty or an excellent example of a classic?

One final note, where can I get the 993 repaired or properly serviced in central NJ? Can a regular Porsche dealer do this?

InTheAir

I am a huge 993 fan and loved my 993 C4 Cab. However, after owning my '07 997TT for the last year and it being my daily driver, I am glad I made the change. Although the 997 is not as visceral as the 993 (and the 993 isn't as visceral as the 964, etc.), I love the gobs of power and handling.

I personally haven't heard of a lot of problems with the '05 997, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were some hiccups in the first year of a new model makeover. Suffice it to say that they worked out any rattles and/or trim piece problems, if they existed modelwide, by '07.

Reddy Kilowatt

wHICH oNE gIVES yOU a wOODY?

goofballdeluxe

Here's one piece of advice that everyone on the board will agree with: Never, NEVER take your 993 to the Porsche dealership for maintenance/repairs. They aren't trained to work on these cars anymore, they are waaay overpriced, and usually the dealership comes with a snooty attitude to boot.

Find a capable independent mechanic you can trust and use him. You can probably find a qualified air-cooled specialist in your area from a recommendation here on Rennlist.

Smiles

Very well said, and unfortunately very, very true.

I'm surprised that Porsche NA doesn't care to support the cars that built their heritage.

Reddy Kilowatt

No offense, but what would it gain them? The equilibrium has been established... the dealer sells new cars and CPO cars, and anything older than about 5 years is sold and maintained by specialists. It works for Porsche, and it works for the niche players.

JasonF

Do a search for "Possum Hollow Motorsports" it's an hour from Princeton, but it is a great, great shop.

Smiles

None taken, and I apologize if I'm mis-directing the thread, but Porsche is missing the opportunity to get a guy like me to be a new car customer. Because I know how bad their air-cooled customer service is, I'm not going to buy a new Cayenne or Panamera; I'm shopping elsewhere.

race911

It's not that air-cooled service would necessarily be bad, it's more that they can't be all things to all people. Go back to when they phased out 356's for that new, untried model that was going to drive the company off a cliff. When 993s where new (and 964s were still under warranty), who would have taken an SC let alone an MFI 2.4L car to a dealer?

Reddy Kilowatt

I suppose some people would maybe draw that conclusion, but probably not most. I'm not sure why their lack of interest in maintaining my older car would translate to the newer vehicles. I think most of us understand the game. If I wanted a new Porsche, I would buy it and probably have it serviced by the dealer at least through the warranty period and maybe another year or three. But as it ages, it definitely becomes something for a specialized shop. And if I buy anything older than a 996, the dealer's never going to see it unless I go to the PCA coffee meetings.

As Ken notes, the dealers can't be all things to all people. And what they have chosen to be is a new/CPO dealer and a new-10 year old car maintainer. Seems OK to me. I don't take my 9 year old BMW to the dealer, and if I drove American cars I wouldn't have the dealer service a similar aged car either.