Luciendar21

One of my biggest concerns with picking up a 996 is the cost of maintenance. Now I'm no stranger to high maintenance costs, as an owner of a Saab 9-3 Viggen... but I'm still afraid that the Porsche is going to surprise me with costs that I'm not prepared for.

The car I'm looking at has 185k, which is a lot. I'm probably going to do a clutch, flywheel, IMSB, and RMS all at once when I pick it up, to the tune of about $3700. The goal being to drive it for 2-5 years with basic maintenance.

My question is, will the basic maintenance kill me? How do 996 maintenance costs stack up against say, Saab, BMW, or Subaru for those of you who have owned both, or any other makes.

dan_189

Welcome!

​​​​Parts are expensive and the is a Porsche tax applied to everything.

I'm saying that you can shop around and if you're handy you can DIY a lot of jobs. Pleanty of info and people on here with a lot of knowledge about these cars.

Unfortunately I can't specifically speak to maintenance costs of one car vs another but im sure others can. Then again every car is unique with its maintenance to some degree.

Kalashnikov

Basic maintenance cost when you do the work yourself is comparable to any high performance European car (comparable cars I owned E39 540i, Jaguar XJR, e92 330i); compared to Honda/Toyota product it is about 2x-3x the price.

Now, when it comes to big things going bad is where things start deviating massively for Porsche from average cars. Your Saab's 2.0 motor blows, you can get one for under $2k, there are plenty of sub $1k turbo saab motors for sale on Ebay. When your Porsche motor goes, it is $10k minimum. Same math applies to almost all of the other major parts; look up the prices for 996 headlights.

Do not let the low price of 996 fool you. It is still an almost $100k German supercar, AGING supercar with prices of parts corresponding to $100k supercar

My litmus test for should you/should you not buy a 996 is this: Can you comfortably drop $15k on the critical repair without compromising your finances or borrowing money? Yes- proceed to buy the car. No- do not buy the car. Critical failures happen and it CAN happen to you; condom rule applies- better have one and not need it, then not have one and need it.

fpb111

Many of the parts are available from Original Equipment Manufactures (OEM) for significantly less $$.
IE a secondary air injection pump (SAI) is ~$900 from Porsche. When you pull it out of the Porsche labeled box it is a Bosch unit. The same unit without the Porsche labeled box is ~$200.

Schnell Gelb

This is sound advice in my experience. If you are concerned about costs ,there are better choices. If you are doing the work yourself ,access is a frustrating problem because simple replacements become lengthy and complicated affairs. If your Indie is doing it, it takes him a long time also ,so $$$$. The XJR you mentioned is very familiar to me. The Porsche is much less robust,more difficult and expensive to work on in my experience.

ejdoherty911

There are no cheap 911s. You either pay up front or you pay later. I would say basic maintenance, if you perform the work yourself, is quite manageable. But still, everything does cost more. Oil change DIY is going to cost rock bottom $80. I use DT40 so my minimum cost is 110ish. Once you need a few things beyond the basics that you either can't do or prefer not to do (water pump, AOS, suspension, radiator flush) that's when you quickly see bills from the dealer in the thousands of dollars. No matter what 996 you decide to purchase do you have $5,000 in cash ready to burn without any regrets whatsoever? If the answer is no, do not purchase a 996 or any 911 really.

dan_189

+996 on a 5k buffer, if you buy a cheap 996 be prepared to potentially spend a few k per year on either repairs or preventative maintenance.

First 2.5 years of ownership I had the dealership do a fair chunck of work required.
Few years on I think twice about sending my car to the dealership for work apart from annual services because I want the book stamped.

Southern Man

Good advice here. A car with that many miles is bound to have all kinds of things on the verge of wearing out, even on a well maintained car. These are wonderful cars, but tread carefully.

mdsarch

I had a Viggen and I spent a lot to keep in in perfect shape. My other car at the time was a 964. The built quality of a 996 is better than the SAAB but as others have stated, repairs and maintenance costs can be high. To me it's about the driving experience and I wanted to daily my 911. I sold the Viggen and the 964 and purchased a C4S that was lovingly cared for and have not looked back. My advise: find a car that has been well looked after - they are out there. It will be frustrating to have major repair bills right up front. A car with that high mileage can leave you stranded unless all mechanicals have been gone through by someone knowledgeable. Has the engine been rebuilt because if it hasn't, it's probably due?

dporto

"The XJR you mentioned is very familiar to me. The Porsche is much less robust,more difficult and expensive to work on in my experience."

A little OT, but I find this hard to believe - or at the very least, contrary to everything I've ever heard about them??? I've never owned a Jaguar but my understanding is that they break a lot...

Quadcammer

Your math (or knowledge) is terribly wrong.

A carrera had a base MSRP of $65,600. Pretty far off from $100k since even a 2017 base carrera doesn't start at $100k.

As for supercar, lolololol, yeah right

charlieaf92

Mine was 89k in 03. Last time I looked (2 weeks ago) at 911s at the dealer I didn't see any below 100k on the showroom floor. That base price may be used in advertisements but I suspect it's very, very lacking in features (maybe it doesn't include wheels and tires)? Seriously though - can anyone point me to a brand new 911 for sale for 65? I'd imagine that would canabalize the Boxster sales - which seemed to run in the 70-90k range when I was looking at window stickers.

On the topic of super car - several industry publications referred to the 996 as a super car (including I believe the original top gear review). Super car isn't really strictly defined anywhere and maybe by late 90s standards it made sense. In today's numbers it's not quite accurate (IMHO). At the very least the 996 turbo was a super car of the day.

charlieaf92

With regard to your question about costs. There are cheaper ways to do anything, some aren't always right. I came from a BMW, a car make with the perception of high maintenance. The BMW really wasn't that expensive to own and maintain. Some parts cost slightly more but not crazy amounts. The Porsche is more expensive. Quite a lot.

A few examples:
10qt of synthetic oil per change (every 5k miles if you follow best practices recommended on the forums)
I ran over a nail - ruined rear tire. Had to replace both - $800
Front brake job parts only DIY (didn't replace rotors) $400 ... had issues with dampers frozen into pistons + $400 for new pistons and fluid to bleed system
New idler pulley? $110
Engine mounts (notorious for failing) $170 each

So the moral of the story - expect to pay to play. I've owned the car less than a year, doing all the work myself and have already spent just about as much on maintenance as I did in 5 years of owning my BMW. That doesn't include the 5-7k I've spent on preventative stuff (IMS solution, clutch, flywheel, etc).

Cheers
Charlie

AWDGuy

costs are ridiculous and things are always breaking. and I restored a E30 BMW! lol

it's easily the most expensive vehicle to maintain in my fleet. doesn't help it is the least reliable also.

Certainly glad I can do the labor myself.

AWDGuy

This is also true.

Injectors were over $300 each from the dealer. i got all 6 for $300, Bosch units.

Sachs Clutch kit with porsche on the box, $2600 from the dealer. Same kit with Sachs written on the box instead - $1000