Mike Murphy

3 years of 996 ownership, and I'm coming close to the purchase price of the car! (yikes). Granted, some of these are "upgrades," and the expensive bits are from the mechanic (not DIY), but still,

$1,053.78 Tires
$119.95 Alignment
$147.62 Suspension/Steering Assessment
$220.00 Gundo Hack (DIY)
$139.56 License Plate Brackets (DIY)
$86.62 Oil and Filter Change (DIY)
$99.75 Horns, oil filter, brake pads sensors (DIY)
$50.34 Oil change after track day (DIY)
$76.00 Oil filter change (DIY)
$205.00 Power Window Regulator (DIY)
$195.00 Frunk Latch, Wiper Blades, Fasteners (DIY)
$250.00 Motor Mounts and Fasteners (DIY)
$100.60 Transmission Fluid Replacement (Indy)
$14.25 Headlamp bulbs (DIY)
$567.44 Coolant flush and oil change with new hoses (Indy)
$125.96 Battery (DIY)
$170.02 Check Engine Light P1530 code diagnostics (Indy)
$344.84 Plugs and Coils Parts (Part Only)
$267.80 Plugs and Coils Labor (Indy)
$1,481.00 Check Engine Light P1530 code final, plus oil leak fix (Indy)
$1,510.22 Solenoid Replacement from P1530 (Indy)
$114.00 ECU Repair ECU Doctors - diagnostics
$59.00 Lyft
$766.50 ECU Repair ECU Doctors 2
$4,422.93 Solenoid Replacement from P1539 (bank 2) and both sides tensioner pads, borescope (Indy)
$490.00 TopHydraulics Rebuild service (3 yr warranty) with shipping (DIY)
$2,300.00 Convertible top replacement (not yet completed, Indy)

Car cost: $17,400. Maintenance/Repairs: $15,378

Still haven't done IMS, RMS, AOS, Clutch, water pump!

DBJoe996

Left out air filter and brake pads....ohhhh....and never add it up

mrdeezy

Pay to play! good on you for taking good care of your car!

So many on here want the cheapest 996 around. Cars that are well taken care of like this should demand a premium. But for 996's it seems you never recoup even close to any maintenance costs. I have my car setup and the maintenance is way over done and needs absolutely nothing. I probably won't sell it for a couple of years or else all the money spent I would be basically throwing away.

Mike Murphy

You're right, I did replace my air filter, but it’s not noted anywhere. Hmmm...

jllphan

I second the kudos for looking after your 911. It doesn’t matter what ya buy it for, it’s still a $70-90k car to maintain. I got a deal on my C4s, but have replaced $12k in parts alone in 2 years. I went into eyes wide open though and figured even if the motor goes and a rebuild is necessary, I’ll have spent less than 50% of the original purchase price... and will have spent that over the life of ownership, not up front. Worth it in opinion!

Mike Murphy

Interestingly, my wife’s 2014 Q5 has only ever needed a $500 repair, but we are equal so far on TCO (between the Q5 and the 996) since her car has depreciated about $15k since we bought it (for $32k, almost double the 996) a few years ago.

Paul Waterloo

I know you bought some track pads from me for something like $75!

Mike's car is a nice one, it was a low mileage, clean example. I don't think there is any way I would put that kind of money into my 07 S8. I fix it myself, but I'm one $1000 repair away from letting her go.

NE1N-11

I started to do this recently after my first full year of ownership but I quickly realized it wasn't a healthy exorcise... so I stopped. I'd rather not know at this point in time.

dporto

Much of that stuff is "consumables" i.e. basic maintenance. The $4.5k for the vario-cam solenoid and the $800 for ECU repair are a little painful, but there are plenty of "upgrades" too. I'll pile on and give you kudos for maintaining it $5k/yr for all you've done and all the enjoyment you've gotten out of it seems like a pretty good deal...or would you rather be driving your wife's Q5 ?

Mike Murphy

Yeah, and I think I left out an oil change related to two track events. It’s not fair to count 3 oil changes in 6 months when those changes were just fresh oil for tracking .

Mike Murphy

Agree - those two solenoid failures in 6 months with a DME repair were pretty unlucky as far as that goes.

But I learned my lesson not taking the car to a real Porsche mechanic the first time. I could have saved $2000 because we had to go and do 7-9 hours of labor over again.

That’s what I get for not picking a real Porsche expert mechanic.

996.2

6 months in we're at $28k, and still lots to go to get where we want. It's a special car and fantastic daily driver, worth it especially considering we'd pay the same or more in depreciation of something less fun. And imagine if we got special car like Ferrari or Lamborghini for daily driver we would cry maintenance costs.

Mike Murphy

I have a buddy who dropped near $30k into his Cayman. Looks and feels like a totally different car, though. My car looks and feels exactly the same, lol.

Woodman71

Damn. This is crazy to me, sorry. Why are you in for $28k? You could buy two 996s for that, and they might run for many miles without any problems.

I bought mine for $16k 4 years ago and have put about $5k into it, mostly up front for IMS, clutch, RMS.

996.2

Clean cabriolet high option leather and wood interior, Orient Red with Sport Classic II wheels $17.8k before government tax. We wanted it checked by Father Porsche so biggest expense was major service with coil packs and new key $3.2k. Then new tires and brakes, Koni FSDs, motor mounts, turn signal, service top reservoir (we did all this), Durametric, crank position sensor (indy), and a few other items it adds up.

I haven't seen this discussed but average 996 engine that doesn't experience the major failure modes will probably run 200k miles. So if our engine and transmission is average then for say $35k total we will have a better than when produced 911 including new paint; contrast with two ratty but still cool $14k 996s.