I think we've seen the bottom however... This is one of the few 911's a person can buy cheap and not really "worry" about it becoming valuable. Which means that this is the one you buy (or 997 for that matter) if you want a daily driver that can eat up the miles and not make you feel guilty.

What I think is going to happen is that people are going to buy these, put another 3-5 years of daily use on them, and in that many years we're going to have even higher mile ones out on the market. Due to that I think the prices are going to stay around where they are now, of course with lower mile ones going higher.

Well and also I think a lot of collectors are going to start buying into these as a daily as well, since the old ones may turn into more of an investment than what they are worth to use on the roads.

 

It is all about supply. The reason why the 993s are worth so much is because Porsche didn't sell many of them. They sold a ton of 996s of course.

The ironic thing is that it is the 996s dedicated and almost cult following that is going to keep the prices from rebounding. The 914s have rebounded because for a long time it didn't have a following. So when the cars rusted or blew an engine or wore out, they were junked. That will not happen to very many 996s. You can put a rebuilt engine into a 996 for $20K. That sounds like a lot but it is still cheaper than buying a low mileage 996 or 997. $20K for effectively a brand new 996 is a very good deal and will continue to be so.

So what is going to happen is people are just going to keep maintaining and rebuilding these cars and the overall supply will stay high. Sure, they wont' make any more of them and every year some of them are totaled or junked, but not that many. My guess is the 996 will remain the best buy in sports cars for a while.

I think the reputation of the 996 is going to rebound quite a lot and already has. It is in many ways the last real analog 911. The 997 comes with a lot more electronics. As time goes on and the emotion of the switch to water cooling wears off and more and more people have only known water cooled 911s, the switch to water cooling will seem less significant. People will see the 911 as the evolution it is and every older generation more analog, more different from the new cars and more fun to drive. And the reputation of the 996 will rise accordingly, even though the supply of them ensure the prices remain reasonable.

 

I think the value of 996 Turbos is only going to go up. They can legitimately claim to be the last true track to street engine Porsche ever made. They just took the LM GT cars and detuned the engine to 400 HP from 700 HP. And it is of course the last Metzger designed engine for whatever that is worth, which is a lot to some people. They didn't make a huge number of them and they are amazing cars.

Think about it, what is the objection to the 996 Turbo? The headlights? That is so stupid of an objection as to be beneath response. If you are buying your cars based on their headlights, you don't deserve a car like that. That they are water cooled? Okay, so what? A 993 Turbo goes for well into six figures. What exactly do you get with one that you don't with a 996 other than the poser factor of owning an air cooled 911? Nothing that I can see. The 996 is a better car in nearly every respect. And looks better too in my opinion. And even if it doesn't, how much can poser factor and a slight difference and looks be worth? Not a $100,000.

Of the NA 996s, maybe I am biased since I own one, I think the 4S has a chance to retain some of its value and perhaps gain some. Even the most irrational 996 haters admit the 4S with its curves and wide body is a beautiful car and one of the better looking 911s ever made. Like the Turbo, they didn't make just a huge number of them. I could see their values rebounding a little.

I am glad the prices are not rebounding. I didn't buy my car for an investment. And the lower prices makes 996 owners as a group by far the most pleasant Porsche owners in existence. No one buys a 996 to pose. You buy one because you wanted a really amazing car to drive and track. This fact makes 996 owners more often in touch with what the cars are about. Too many 911 owners remind me of Harley owners. So many Harley owners bought their bikes to look at and talk about rather than to ride. 911 owners often have a bad habit of being the same. Not 996 owners. You buy one of those to drive and have fun.

 

That and their are air cooled, and no one really wants to collect run of the mill water cooled cars quite yet. Turbos and others, yes, regular ones no.

 

Well put, TT prices have risen a little in the last few months and the number of cars for sale seems to have dropped by half since nov-feb.

 

I think those values in Excellence are on the high side. I see my car listed at the mid 20s for a car in fair condition. That's what I bought mine for six years ago!

If that is the case then great but I think they're being a bit aggressive with the pricing.

 

In case y'all aren't paying attention, we will all be driving cars with electric motors soon enough, and whether a combustion engine is air or water cooled isn't gonna matter.

 

Had a huge discussion regarding this issue with electric engines a couple of days ago with some friends. Many people believe that in some years our cars will actually be a stupidness to own comparing with the cost of owing and driving an electric car. I had a ride in a Tesla some weeks ago and realized it was really fast while couldn't hear anything! However nothing can be compared with the sound of my car!!!
Maybe our cars will end up in a museum for exhibition!

 

KBB, who've been doing this for a while disagrees with the 'getting better' argument.

01 996 with 98k miles in VG cond selling by private party worth $16.5k. Read it and weep. If you are relying on Excellence, get your money back.

http://www.kbb.com/porsche/911/2001-...=private-party

 

Electric cars are nothing but glorified golf carts. The laws of physics are going to prevent them from ever being a viable substitute for the internal combustion engine. Teslas are nothing but overpriced toys. Without government subsidizes in the tens of millions approaching the billions, Tesla would have long since gone bankrupt.

We haven't reached anything close to peak oil. In fact we are swimming in the stuff. And populations are not going to consign themselves to poverty and public transport for the AGW religion. So, I would not worry about electric cars being anything but a novelty item for a very long time.

 

We may be combusting different materials _someday_ - like hydrogen or oxygen - or, better yet, powering a big-*** fuel cell and sending juice to in-hub electric motors - but we'll still be burning or catalyzing something in real-time. Burning hydrocarbons to send electricity to battery chargers in your garage is a nifty interim step, but it's stupid on a countrywide scale. Building out the electrical infrastructure and installing chargers in every garage so everyone in the country can charge their cars at the same time, creating a massive usage spike during what has traditionally been a non-peak usage period, is the wrong way to go about revolutionizing the automobile.

In addition to being a massive current draw, between generation loss, heat loss in the charger, and charge/discharge efficiency rates, charging your car at home overnight wastes about 50% of the energy used. Once you factor in the thermal efficiency of the process from generation (close to 50% efficiency for newest power generation stations, far less for older stations used during peak consumption, sending it to you over high-tension wires (after stepping the voltage up and back down, both of which are lossy processes), running it through your garage-mounted inverter/charger into a bank of batteries, and turning the stored energy back into mechanical energy after accounting for thermal loss from the batteries, controllers, and motors, you're looking at what, 5-20% thermal efficiency? The 20-30% thermal efficiency of modern gasoline engines doesn't sound quite so criminal when you consider that the electricity coming out of the wall doesn't get there magically...

 

KBB is not perfect either. It gives you the "sell it now" price, which is of course a bit low. The price of any car is within a range depending on how long the seller is willing to wait for his price.

 

The magazine is not being realistic. That price range is way off. The good news is that falling prices are great for the buyer looking for a 996 NA!

 

The problem with fuel cells is that there is no easy way to separate hydrogen. You end up spending a lot of money pulling hydrogen off of coal or something that you could more easily just burn for energy. A hydrogen powered fuel cell car is a thousand times better than a battery operated one. But you will never be able to get a cheap supply of hydrogen without some real advances in technology.

 

Yeah, that's the rub - all of the "magic" solutions do not include the massive amount of non-magic generation/refining/whatever that has to go on in the background to make it happen.

But, maybe some really smart guy will discover the magic catalyst to break water cheaply, and then we'll all live happily ever after. Except here in CA - we got no damn water anyway.

Until then, my primary quest will be to find >91 octane gas in the socialist paradise known as Southern CA...