911Dreamer

I have interest in the 997 as the next one to own as well....You realize they stuffed so much electornics in our cars that the false damn engine failure light comes to gives us heart attacks

911Dreamer

Targas are better at the food store, I can use my rear hatch

GC996

Yep.

Here are the approximate costs for three main refresh/service areas if you use an indy. For sure the costs can be more or less depending on how far you go with replacing parts and quality of parts.

1. Engine Parts Refresh - $10-15k
2. Suspension Refresh - $10k
3. Exhaust, Intake, Software Refresh - $10k

Don't forget the pretty stuff either.

1. Interior Refresh and Upgrades - seats, console, dash, doors, carpet, radio. ~$0 to $10k
2. Exterior Refresh and Upgrades - aero, paint, wheels, tires. ~$0-20k

Someday you may decide to have your indy replace the engine with a factory short block or have your engine rebuilt for an upgraded power source.

1. Factory Short Block w/ Headwork ~$20k
2. Engine Rebuild w/ Headwork ~$25-40k

You get the idea. Old classic sports cars cost money to keep on the road. If you own the car long enough, pretty good chance you will spend way more than what you bought it for to keep it running. But that's the price of classic Porsche ownership.

911Dreamer

Its time to work on the car and step away from the Indy.....That way I get more insight

Formerly996fried

Yeah, I've been dealing with this issue for some time: to keep the existing or move to an older, less computer-controlled version or a newer model. I came from the 356 and early 70s when one could purchase a used, somewhat tin-wormed running 356 or early 911/912 for a few thousand. Some were cheaper, and some held together with undercoating, fiberglass, pop-riveted aluminum flashing, and Bondo, where they became a money pit since reproduction parts varied in quality, and body shops had yet to implement newer technologies or their construction knowledge and a host of air-cooled engine issues. The early Porsches were less complicated but just as expensive to repair; it is just how comfortable you are to spend endless amounts of money and the level of mechanical ability that I am currently weighing.

However, deep inside, there is a part of me that wants to sell my current steed and look for a ratty old cabriolet, strip it down, not a lot of insulation nor listening electronics, a simple manual canvas top, manual roll-up windows, the fewest of nannies, and an elegant looking roll bar into a 996 speedster.......with a 3.6-liter Mezger-engine-power....that is what I would build if I had the resources

ltusler

The first rule of Porsche club is don't add up the reciepts.

BaconManDan

My 1st thought reading this was your car isn’t an extension of you, it’s just a car to you. To me I’ve spent 30k+ into my 38500 car but it’s a 1 of 1 to me. I’ve also spent a year + on shopping both 997’s and 996’s and to me there was nothing better than my 4s for the valued price. Our cars are still a little more analog than the 997’s too. To each respectively their own.

connect_yvr

For me personally, the only point at which I would consider swapping from 996 to 997 would be if the anticipated repair bill took me to manual 997.2 coupe territory, which is a whole lot of dough, honestly in a different league from what little info I have on that market.

Obviously everything with these cars is subjective, but I actually prefer the interior on my 996 more than the 997 and I don't think there are significant performance/reliability gains to be had unless you step up to a 997.2 because of the DFI engine. I will admit I still like the more traditional headlights of a 997, but I'm not the one looking at those headlights most of the time anyways!

hatchetf15

OP - We all experience the same causal duality you do. Schrödinger explained it for quantum physics with a cat in a box. For us, as M96/996 owners, we substitute a few things. Instead of a poison bottle, we place an IMS bearing and a cylinder wall in the hypothetical container. Let’s call this setup Lagaay’s Box, since he was in charge of the design team..

If you turn the key, the engine is both breaking and not breaking at the same instant. You don’t know until you open the box. No matter what P-car you choose, you’ll always have the same box. You just choose a different ‘poison’.

hatchetf15

Huzaah! No joke. What my wife doesn’t know…

e30rapidic

Let’s see….
in my 3 years of ownership I’ve done:
4.0 engine
tiptronic to manual swap
steering wheel swap
4 new tyres
new brakes
new struts/shocks
new suspension components
new stereo system (amp, speakers, head unit, wiring)
new paint, new clear (and final flowcoat)
all new light bulbs in/out
rear wiper add
new front lip
rear view camera

i’m probably in 991 territory? 😳😆

cqhall

Yeah. As the saying goes, "Don't ask questions that you really don't want to know the answer to."

Porschetech3

Everyone views their financial expenditures differently , but my 996's are "forever cars" . That decision I made 15 years ago and any $$ spent on them is not viewed as "997 money" .....

996 ownership can be as frugal or as expensive as you want it to be depending on your abilities and talents and level of "newness" you want to maintain.. but in general the parts of the 996 will outlast the parts of the older cars by a lot ...I remember a time when spark plugs had a service life of 12k miles, shocks/struts 30k miles , steering and suspension 70K miles , timing components 90k miles , valves valve guides and rings would be lucky to exceed 100k miles .....newer engineering/metallurgy/lubricants means longer lasting parts, but also add to complexity and sophistication ( $$) and even more so on the newer cars, but imho the 996 is the "sweet spot" on these advancements vs costs..on a sports car...

SoCal911t

Good advice. They say the same thing about boat ownership.

philbert996

Plausible deniability