Hotrodaxel1976

There is a plethora of used parts online. There's a definitely sustainable hit to the production numbers built by cars that have fallen into wrong hands. How many is out there, how many 996 cars is there left in the US. Tens of thousands? A hundred thousand? To read people's thoughts, seems like a good quality example of any 996 is getting expensive on the Retail Side and Climbing. I read the written thoughts of the Article. To me it seems he is reading to much ReenList and is jealous of the all the people that now have there foot in the door of the Top shelf Porsche. Sure you no longer need to be a doctor or spoiled rich kid to enjoy what is no doubt the best Porsche 911 ever built at the time of release. It was faster , more refined, handled better and there was other critical changes made to the headlights that folks just couldn't hold there dinners down thinking about. The 996 scorned most diehard oldschool drivers. Air cooled, drive by wire was what Porsche is about, the slow changing over to full nanny of nowadays has left some wondering why. Why not, that's the question to ask. Why not build a capable computer, water cooled car that will suck the paint off our Last best (around a track) why not make those beautiful headlights, hey the boxer only borrow our headlights. The 3.4l flat six is an amazing piece of machinery and human being merged together for a finished product that is very reliable and an excellent performance piece.

FRUNKenstein

"There are only two truly desirable 996-generation Porsches in our market: The 2001-2004 Turbo and the 2004 GT3."

I dunno - the guy seems pretty spot on to me.

Seriously, what's with the fading paint comment? I don't remember anybody ever complaining about fading paint on a 996, "particularly true of the 1999-2001 models." WTF?

johnireland

Prices go up and prices go down. A few years ago 993s could be found for around $26k. Now the actually selling prices range from the mid-30s to the 50s. Logic and history says someday, sooner or later, they'll be back down to $26k. And 996s are doing better...their prices will go up...and down too. They are nice old cars. What people write about them really isn't important. Just drive them and enjoy them...and when you want something else, do that too.

relinuca

I sold my 993 in 2009 for $29K and bought my 996 cab in 2010 for $25K, and never looked back. The 993s and 996/997s are different versions of the same theme. One's not better or worse than the other...just different.

My PCA region has far more water cooled p-car members than air cooled. As far as I can tell, both groups are having a lot of fun with their cars.

relinuca

bulldawg

I have a 2002 996... and there is definitely some fading paint on the roof, especially around the sunroof. It didn't seem all that unusual for a 15 year old car to me though.

gnat

Don't know how common it is, but parked in the elements for 16 years and I can see primer through the paint on our's roof

I can't say I've seen or heard of any others with the paint issues ours has. How many are garageless though for their entire life?

Edit: OK now I have heard of one other with fading paint.

AWDGuy

I agree with almost everything he says. it is the truth. Sometimes the truth is hard to accept.

But who buys cars to flip them? lol

Mike Murphy

I think it's OK for an article like this to point the masses away from a 996. You don't want just anyone off the street who isn't knowledgeable buying these. There are risks with this car and it's not for everyone, especially not for flippers.

And values might not go up, let's face it.

The real story is the Boxster. Being able to buy one for four figures is kind of insane. Fewer people hate on these 987s, yet they are even cheaper.

There's a lot of interest in the 996 these days though. Why are so many people either bashing it or praising it. Why are so many people interested? There has to be a reason. The reason they will continue to be interesting has to do with the new school being old again.

As as far as ugly goes, I get just as many comments on this car as any other car I've had. People say things like "it's beautiful" to me all the time. Random strangers, etc.

A 911 is a 911, it's that simple. Show me any other 911 that's a crap car. It might not be the favorite 911 of all time, but the worst 911 is still pretty darn great. My interior looks like new. I'm not sure where the quality issues are.

JimmyChooToo

My 996 scratches all my 911 itch and that's good enough for me. I find it beautiful from almost every angle but the front. If I wanted another classic Porsche, it wouldn't be another 911. It would probably be a Porsche 928. Those lines have aged very well in my opinion. Or I would just pick up a new Boxster/Cayman with all the latest CarPlay, cameras and radar doodads.

The air cooled Porsches hold absolutely no interest for me. I'd much rather have any V8/V12 Ferrari built after 1995 or one of the hand-built Aston Martin V8s.

I think R&T is clearly wrong about two points. The dual-row 1999-2001 IMS clearly do not fail more than the later, single row. And the 2000 911 ME and the 996 4S will both be collectible one day too.

FRUNKenstein

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Mr. 996 Authority apparently doesn't think the 2005 996TTS is desirable. There are gonna be some seriously crushed TurBros when they learn this.

FRUNKenstein

And the GT2 guys. They're gonna worry themselves sick over this.

JimmyChooToo

I have a 2001 996. Pretty sure it's been garaged most of its life because the paint still looks new. For comparison, I just bought a 2018 Infiniti and the paint on the two cars is pretty close.

billh1963

The author accomplished what he wanted...he got clicks to his article and he got people talking about him (notoriety). Double win for him.

napoleon1981

If they do, please contact me, ill trade my x50 for their gt2.

Pzkw993

Are we sure that just getting the guy fired is enough?

I mean --- holy sh*t, he wrote something you don't like!

Where would we be as a society if we just FIRED people for doing something that some rando on the Internet didn't like? Shouldn't the consequences for upsetting somebody be more serious than just LOSING YOUR JOB? At the VERY LEAST he should have his arms broken so he can't hurt any more feelings. Plus, I hear this Baruth guy has a family. How about we find his kid and beat him up a bit? Oh, the hell with it --- let's just erase him to the third generation the way they'd have done it two thousand years ago!

Anyway... I wrote this article to counteract a rash of ridiculous, if not irresponsible, publications out there that are now advising people to buy a 996 based on the low cost of acquisition. We've done it ourselves at R&T, actually --- we gave a platform to some tubby moron who basically told the readers that a $15k 996 was a reasonable alternative to a $15k sport compact. If you've ever actually owned a Porsche as your daily driver, you know that the costs and problems don't align between ANY 911 and a Japanese hatchback.

If you read the whole article and can understand it but you still disagree, then thanks for reading and I'm sorry to have upset you.

If you want to read a differing perspective on watercooled cars, written by the same jerk that you want to have fired, here you go:

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cult...d-love-affair/