dporto

"it was cool at the time! amazing amount of oversteer! when i bought it new they sent you to road atlanta for a 2 day driving school,that was great!
"


Well, ^that one's^ a coupe, and it's red! Much better looking than the photo I was reffering to... It still doesn't look like a Porsche though...

Luciendar21

There are some definite similarities. Both are fastbacks with slim hood profiles, low to the ground, relatively small cars, and have smooth profiles for good aero. I definitely see the visual similarities.

Internally of course they're massively different. Front Engine, FWD vs Rear Engine RWD...

dporto

You forgot to mention they both have 4 wheels and are European...

TonyTwoBags

both the old Saabs & 911s have extremely good drive feel & road feedback. There aren't many cars I've driven that remind me of the 996 but a 900 turbo is one of them.

m3driver

I had a chevy celebrity back in the day. There hasn't been another car on the road that reminded me of the incredible feedback and driving experience as that until I bought a sabb900

dkraige

I like your optimism! That is a very long reach...

Luciendar21

It's the same logic used when people say the Saab 900 or 9-3 looks like the 00-06 Hyundai Elantra GT, fastback profile and aerodynamic form is unusual enough that it creates it's own little sub-group of cars.

I'm not saying the cars are comparable in terms of driving experiences. They are both fast and fun to drive, yes, but the Porsche is a more pure driving experience in many, many ways. The Viggen is still a great car, roomy, comfortable, fast (especially on the highway), fuel efficient... and so on. But it's great in the context of a daily driver, and even then it's viability is waning now that Saab is gone. A 911 is an entirely different beast, a pure sports car where every aspect of the driving experience is taken to another level and is prioritized over, say, rear seat leg room.

All I was trying to do by starting this thread is see where the maintenance costs will fall on my, perhaps unusual, spectrum of expectations. The Viggen, for example, I've owned for 6 years and I've put in about $4k per year (including basic maintenance like oil changes and tires)... yes, that's $24k into the Viggen which I bought for $5k. My truck, I probably put $3k a year into on average, though this past year has been high enough to skew that towards $5k. The 4runner, I probably put $2k into a year. Our WRX before we sold it was $2k/year.

From what I gather from this thread and from my own research, $3k a year seems to be a reasonable expectation, with $5k in the first year to fix issues from the previous owner and knowledge that on any given year it could easily be $5k due to something unexpected. Which to me is reasonable.

tl;dr: I'm not trying to say a Viggen = 911... that'd be ridiculous. And the costs of maintenance appear to be fairly comparable between the two, at least with my approach to maintenance.

dporto

Dan Bates

If you love the car, nothing we say will change your mind. I certainly didn't listen to anybody and I'm completely happy with my purchase. Yes, it does cost more to maintain a Porsche, period. But your best option, in my opinion, buy the 911 but also go find a rock solid 2001 Honda Civic automatic. That's my back up car and since 2001 we've maybe spent $6k in repairs and you can find them for less than $2k. With that on hand you can drive your Porsche to your heart's content and never worry that you won't make it to work the day after something breaks.

Also, your that car has made it to 185,000 miles then I doubt everything is stock. I'm replacing the struts in my car right now at 83,000 and they're squeeky as all hell, so failing parts tend to stand out when you're looking at car. So more to your point, front and rear struts with mounts are about $1200 from Pelican with very clear instructions.

If if you're considering having the clutch/flywheel/IMS/RMS done then you can definitely haggle the price down for that alone. Dealers will do a lot of work to sell the car as well, good ones anyway. Take advantage where you can and you can always come here for advice and help with repairs. We all like saving money or else we'd all be on the 991 GT3RS forum.

Make good choices!
-Dan

5CHN3LL

Once a car starts getting into the 20-year-old bracket, I don't think it's realistic to try to bracket your repair exposure the same way you would on a 3-year-old late-model used car.

At this point, there is a dearth of affordable M96 replacement motors - at least on my continent. There are many, many cheap things to fix on a 996. The motor is not one of them. What's your tolerance to a possible - though admittedly improbable - $15,000 to $20,000 repair bill (or, if you decide to dump it, your tolerance to your 996 suddenly being worth about $5K)?

Knowing what I know now, I would absolutely do the same thing - but my 996 has been really solid. There are others here who do not feel the same way.

Also, what's your tolerance for having your car down for a day, or a week, or three weeks while you try to source some obscure/ridiculously expensive part? If I needed a reliable, primary vehicle, it wouldn't be a 20-year-old anything...

Basic maintenance is not brutal for the 996; if you DIY, it's no worse than any sports car. It's the unexpected things that get expensive fast. Your sensitivity to time is also going to affect how much repairs cost. If you can park it until you get around to fixing it, your budget probably won't be affected; if you need it fixed by tomorrow because you can't get to work without it, you're going to pay more. A lot more.

Luciendar21

This, this is the answer I was looking for and more-or-less what I had gathered from the other posts. Maintenance not being that much more than other high-end European cars, but catastrophic failures are exceedingly costly. The time component is a great thing to add. It's an important consideration (although not an issue for me).

Thank you all for the feedback. I think I have a clear understanding of where my expectations should be if I move forward.

5CHN3LL

Glad we could help. The other side of the coin: Many cars are just cars. The 996 is a great car AND a great toy; if you have the means, acquire one by any means necessary.

curtsr

They are super cars, but they are not Supercars. I share your enthusiasm for the 996 but, respectfully, to say that the 996 (even a TT) is a Supercar is just too much of a stretch.

My C4S's performance (fuel mileage aside ) pales compared to my CTT-S and no self-respecting Supercar should get spanked by an SUV of the same vintage.

YMMV lol...

5CHN3LL

Well, for the sake of being accurate: the 996 was considered an everyday supercar in 1999. Of course, 300HP in a 3,000 pound package in 2017 is no longer supercar territory.

None of the SUVs I drove in 1999 did 0-60 in 5 seconds...

charlieaf92

It seems like a bit of a stretch... but, 1 minute 42 seconds... just sayin'