mickey6

Hiya All,

This site was referred to me by a few of my fellow BMW E53 friends from x5world.com which I frequent.

I am currently a 2001 X5 owner and always marvel at the 996s whenever I see one on the road. To cut the story short, I have narrowed down my search to a particular 2001 911 Cabriolet (Blue with gray interior) with 8100 miles. And yes it does look like a garage queen and smell, looks and drive like new.

My question is since it is out of warranty, what are my choices? Are there any third party warranties available for a 6 year old car? The only maintenance carried out on the 996 is an oil change. Any gotchas and things to look out for?

The "blue-bullet" is spotless and comes with GPS, heated seats etc etc.

Any help will be appreciated and hopefully I will part of this community as well.

Thanks.

Mickey

Barn996

Sometimes low mileage garage queens are the ones that can suffer the dreaded RMS due to lack of use. Regardless, most here will suggest that you do a PPI(pre-purchase inspection), either with a Porsche dealer or an indy shop. Try a search for 3rd party warranties. I have a 99 996 and couldn't be happier.

spiderv6

the only maintenance is an oil change in 6 years? What about any TSBs (and I have no idea how many there were, check rennlist.com). Personally I would be a little afraid of a car sitting in cotton wool for that long and only one oil change, be it Porsche, BMW, Ford or anything else.

It could of course be absolutely fine. It's a roll of the dice.......

Honestly, there is no shortage of cars out there and I'd rather see one that was driven a bit more than that and has some kind of service history. Just my opinion....your appetite for risk may be greater.

hwk72

If the oil change is truly the only mainenance that the owner did in 6 years, despite ultra low miles, I would not buy the car.

It's recommended to service the car every 15k miles OR once a year. All fluids, plugs ... got old on the car. He has probably still the original tires on the car; they must be dry like a rock. If you badly want this car, then get a PPI and force the owner to make a service at Porsche. You might need to get a discount for the car due to low miles and missed maintenance.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't trust these 1k miles / year cars.

bella1

The one oil change is unusual. I have a 2001 996 I bought two years ago with 40,000 miles. I now have 55,000 miles with 3,000 of DE track use. It has been a great car with very little problems. I do have an issue with oil in the coolant. It was originally thought that I would need an engine replacement, but after further investigation, the fix is replacing the oil to water heat exchanger. That is being done now and I will be at VIR this weekend with Synergy in the hope that this repair is the cure. Good luck.

mickey6

So the consensus is to not buy it. Seems like I will keep on looking. I really really liked the condition it is in and it's woman driven (not a yard stick to measure but still)

PS: I did search for 3rd party warranties, but nothing that will cover 6 year old car. Any pointers?

gota911

Yes, my 2004 996 C2 Coupe is for sale. Killer deal at $46,000. Here is a link to the classified ad.

2004 996 C2 Coupe

Irksome

For what it's worth...

I bought a 2003 C2 in March of this year. At the time it had 7800 miles on it. The two previous owners had done literally zero maintenance, though the guy I bought it from had had the battery replaced (funny thing, you let a car sit without a charger for 6+ months, sometimes the battery is dead!).

The car was 2 months out of warranty when I bought it.

13 days later, after close to 1000 miles (yeah, I drove it a lot that first week!), it blew the Rear Main Seal (RMS). Unlike most RMS failures, where there is seepage, then a drop, then finally a leak, mine went from no leak at all to dropping over 2 quarts in about 12 hours.

However, that is the only problem I've had. RMS failure is relatively inexpensive, I paid about $900.

You don't indicate where you are, so the warranty story is hard to answer. If you happen to live in California, you can only buy 3rd party warranties from dealers. The low miles will help you get it cheaply, but the year of the car will still count against you. I got mine (5 years, 60k miles, exclusion) for $3800 or so, from one of the local Porsche dealers, and it is a policy from Zurich (from a company they purchased, Universal).

I was scared after the first repair, but I've now got it up to 18000 miles and 7 months of daily driving, plus 8 autocrosses, and it's been perfect.

Personally, I agree with the rest here, stay away from a 2001 with that history, unless they can demonstrate somehow that they drove it at least once a month. But if you find a similar car in the 2004+ range, I'd pounce on it if it were a good deal.

Or you could buy Tim's, which you will KNOW the history of (just review his 6,431 posts and you'll get most of it).

michael.s.under

With Porsches the idea is opposite. You are safer with something that has been driven than something with lower miles. Good Luck!

Chuck Jones

Tim's' got a lot of kudos and recommendations behind him. I would seriously consider that car. I have no affiliation with him....I dont' even like him....but the car is in great shape. Sorry Tim...had to be truthful.

Chuck

DCP

I would consider this car. Sure, you might need to replace tires and seals might fail prematurely due to lack of use, but is that that big a deal? These cars have lots of rear main seal issues and that seal is moderately expensive to replace. Even if you are more likely to need to replace the seal sooner due to low use, you were likely going to need to replace it sometime anyway. The newest version of that seal is likely to work (unlike all the prior versions), which hopefully means you only have to do it once.

And, yes the oil should have been changed annually, but does anyone really know that Mobil 1 goes bad with age? Regular oil does not, and I see no no one warning not to use old bottled Mobil 1.

As for warranties, if you look around at posts, you will see some folks worrying about the rare engine failure. Unfortunately, Porsche won't share any numbers, so it is really hard to tell how rare it is. While I wouldn't buy an extended warranty on virtually anything else, I think I will buy one when my OEM warranty is near expiration.

I am planning to buy a warranty from Warranty Direct when my OEM warranty is near expiration. You might give them a call or go to their website. I have never used them, but from the looking at posts over the past year or so, reviews of that company appear generally, but not completely, positive. As noted, coverage is not available in all states.

Most importantly, have fun with your search. These are really great cars.

Phil G.

8100 miles - why in the world would you buy such a high mileage car?!?

JBRipps

+ 1 gazillion on Tim's car....and if you actually got it, you'd automatically be "royalty" here on Rennlist by default..what a plus!!!

J

mickey6

Love the color combo Tim except I am looking for a Cab

QUOTE=gota911;4657590]Yes, my 2004 996 C2 Coupe is for sale. Killer deal at $46,000. Here is a link to the classified ad.

2004 996 C2 Coupe[/QUOTE]

gota911

Phil - it's time to go sit in your chair in front of the TV and go back to sleep. This time turn your head to the right so you even out the drool marks on your shirt!

That ^ is probably worth 2 to 3 more visits to the therapist!