BruceP

I guess I'm just not sure a message board for current owners is the place to do that. Nobody is going to sell their cars because the OP had a bad experience, whereas people who are committed to keeping theirs are only going to be irritated. I'm all for learning about a car, but a lot of this kind of thing just upsets people and populates the internet with unfair, value-destroying anecdote. I think it's reasonable to expect a rough ride when you do that, and I'm marveling at how much more civilized this board is than it was a few years ago...

BruceP

Just so the record is straight, when all that was going on Porsche was near bankruptcy. The 996 helped save the company (the Cayenne finished the job).

Porsche's vaunted profitability is a more recent thing, and it's a bit of a bogus statistic because it's only true on a per-unit basis. People blather on about Porsches being mass produced, but the reality is that even today Porsche produces less than a tenth the volume of BMW, and a hundredth that of Toyota. It's a tiny company. It's margins have to be huge, or it dies.

Shark Attack

exactly and if you cant afford to think this way over such pocket change, you have no biz owning a Porsche

silotwo

Along the lines with BruceP. The notion of "warning" people as a post here seems a bit bizzare. We already own these cars, why warn us?

And bottom line, most of us probably purchased used cars and as such there is inherent risk, especially if "price" is what was purchased. My C2 was a CPO car and I certainly "paid" for that, I was looking for a good example, not a great deal. Paying for a CPO removed a great deal of risk and I definitely received value for what I paid. My C4S was a private party purchase, but I searched for over a year and half, willingly paid more than I believe most think it would be worth, did as much due diligence as I could, bought out the balance of a 3rd party warranty, and considered things such as did it have proper N spec tires? Remaining life on brakes - including rotors, oil changes that were performed based on time rather than miles, basically looking for signs that the car was perhaps over maintained, there are those of us who do that.

I walked away from so called "great" cars if there was any indication that the P.O. cut any corners. If one decides to not install the proper tires do I believe that one really followed the service schedule or perhaps cut some corners there because scheduled service costs some bucks? If one told me it had PSE but the photos of the dash had no PSE switch and the answer was "well it sounds really good" - sorry, I walk away.

Also, bought my son a used Honda, I was skeptical, but his friends dad swore he knew the car and it was in good shape, no problems. Paid cash, kid picked it up, drove it about 20 miles and came home to tell me it wasn't running right. Turned out the motor was used up. Should I bash Honda? Would Honda have provided me with a factory rebuild on a used, private purchase, out of warranty automobile? And if they did should I continue to bash Honda?

I will say that I do appreciate the liveliness and general civility of this thread.

SacTownGuy

Thx E! I got them a couple weeks ago. I had someone come up me to last week, in a parking lot, and ask if I hated Don Imus.


I believe a high percentage of readers here are people looking to buy these cars. I know I was reading for 4 years before pulling the trigger. I think this is the best place to post a warning/reminder to potential buyers. Hopefully the current owners aren't so thin skinned that they take it as a personal attack.

silotwo

Hi John - then I would assume that you were also reading here at some point during those four years. The topic of "catastrophic failures" especially the IMSB issue, has been pretty visible here during that time.

I for one don't take it as a personal attack at all. Just think it gets blown way out of proportion. I know you had a horrific experience and you received a lot of support from this community. I am still impressed with what Porsche provided to you.

I don't know the full story on your car, don't know what you paid, but think I read that the PO had major engine work done on your car shortly before he sold it to you, if that's true I think that would have also been a warning.

I'll go back to the kid's Honda. My wife was angry with the father of my kid's friend, my kid was angry at the people who sold him "their daughters car because she moved and didn't need it", I was angry with myself for not following my own "trust but verify" rule. We rushed into a purchase, made a bad decision, and thought it was a fair deal.

To my son's credit, he decided to list it on craiglist and described it as having a blown motor. At first I said wait, the car starts, runs, and shifts fine, maybe it just needs some work. The kid's answer was, "no, it feels so ****ty to get burned that I wouldn't take the chance of burning someone else". So we sold it, took the loss, and chalked it up to the cost of education. Was easier for him, it was my bucks.

I sincerely hope you are driving the C4S, I mentioned to Eric that if it was me I'd be driving the **** out of it given you have a 2 year warranty from Porsche.

Best Regards

Sue Esponte

Any body ever see the movie, "The Hand?"

groovzilla

not sure why i'm even wasting my time replying to your ramble but what the hell - anyone who doesn't have a proper PPI performed on any car whether it has no history OR service records up the YING YANG has no right bitching and complaining about the piece of sh_t they wind up driving home .
this is a tight community of seasoned porsche buyers and owners - some newbies too - many of us have experience buying a porsche the right way - some not - those that don't look like schmucks when they complain and try to fault the vehicle or it's design when they've made the mistake of not having a PPI performed - yes there are problems with the 996 as well as every other porsche model - with a proper PPI by a skilled tech, thoroughly checking for intermix in oil and in coolant, compression and leak down test, cutting oil filter to check for metal debris and a host of other important tests, the outcome is much different than your experience. 996 is a hell of a car and i miss mine that i sold earlier in the year.

you sound lame especially admitting in your post that you just turned the car in to the dealer for some other sucker to get burned. i mean thats basically what you did - no weaseling out of it like you did when you sold your intermix-ridden(pardon the pun) 996 to the dealer.

Frank996

For some people 15K (even though its in USD ) is quite a bit of money to throw out the window by scrapping the car and wiping their tears.

What I think the OP is more irritated over is the fact that the car (and name) didn't live up to his expectations, no matter the cost of the car.

I would feel exactly the same way whether 15K is a lot or not for my sake...

Anyway, JRW-910 is somewhat right in his critisism of the 996, as he was unfortunately enough to ending up with one of the few with the problems most people know about. The root of the problem is that the OP didn't do his homework well enough, and this problem could have been averted.

Also having 50% of the cars value set aside for repairs etc is correct if you buy a specimen from the lower cost scale, but you can also end up having a car that will run forever costing you more or less the same as any other Japanese or even German car.

So, I have spent, God knows how many months reading up on the 996. Started in June of last year doing my homework, and have a very good back-ground bases for choosing the right car. I will also wait until the right car pops up no matter how long it will take. My heart is in the right place and my head is also getting there. I will choose with my head as my heart will be there no matter what... After all its a Porsche at the end of the day

Charlie C

There's the problem.

BruceP

It's not so much about it being personal as it is a concern that an innacurate picture gets painted of these cars, which both diminishes the fun of owning one (the whole point) and, potentially, depresses values. You have to expect some pushback on that stuff.

Regardless of what the 'legend' may say, it has always been just as easy to buy a bad Porsche as a good one. The lesson for "potential buyers" here is, walk away from a car with no history. It's not "996s are bad cars."

dennis hiip

Who among us doesn't have some degree of anxiety regarding engine failure?

BruceP

True. Mind you, I have some degree of anxiety about pretty much everything.

Dennis C

I really don't think I have any more anexiety over my 996 engine failing than any other car I've owned with 115K+ miles on it. Our Cayenne has 110K, and it could fail too. If it happens, it happens. I don't lose any sleep over it.

halik

This; I would say that if an unforseen expense of $5-$10K (or equivalent loss in value if the economics of fixing it don't add up) makes you borderline insolvent, you probably shouldn't be looking at high end sports cars to begin with.