Originally Posted by lumpy

Sure No HTwo O. I bought the car from RPM around Jan 2006 with 9,xxx miles for $93k. I didn't negotiate much because I promised myself to get one after reading an Automobile article (I think by David E. Davis) around 1996/97 about how great these last of the air cooled cars are. At the time (1996), I had my first real job and the turbo was my motivation! It was a smooth transaction with Ray at RPM and I really considered a new 996 turbo at the time. Most thought I was crazy for paying so much for an old car but I wanted to experience one as close to new. I still love this series and will get another hopefully from a rennlister when the time is right.

I drove the car about 21k miles but I spent approximately $22k in service expense and $8k in upgrades. I'm excluding monthly parking in manhattan and the increased insurance and gas expense. The biggest one timer maintenance expense was around $6k (mostly labor at an independent in NYC) bucks to add check valves, replace inner cooler hoses and rebuild the turbos around 18k miles. I'm not sure what happened but I went through the smoking problem after an oil change and the normal corrective actions (ie new porsche filters and drained some oil) but there was oil everywhere. After rebuilding the turbos, the check valves and insisting on Porsche filters I never had any problems and I have to thank all the guys on rennlist for that!

The Pss9, trg sway bars and corner balance/alignment transformed the handling and was a large chunk of the upgrade expense. The other part was the hardwired v-1 with the indicators etched in the original rear view mirror.

I won't get another one with super low miles because I experienced it but more importantly they seem really well built and hold up if someone maintains the car as it should. My driving experience only got better with miles and when I had not so good days, it made me feel better to go for long drives to Bear mtn and back. Leaving the car in nashville when I moved back to NYC full time was difficult but I couldn't deal the guys in the parking garages and always worrying about every door ding. I driveled too much. Sorry. Hope that helps.

Originally Posted by No HTwo O

Great info! Thanks. This will prove very helpful for future and potential buyers.

As for the mods and maintenance, that's just the "price of addmission" for toys like this.

So, you purchased for $93 and sold for $70 (net, after commission). That's $23 over the course of 21,000 miles. That's a little over $1.09 per mile use. Totally in-line with expectations here.

Originally Posted by Onami

Excellent info! Add another $1.05/mile for maintenance and we're looking at $2.14/mile or about $7,500/year. Add in taxes, insurance and gas and you can quickly see this being a $9K - $10K/year toy...

Originally Posted by Onami

I'm going to need to find a second job