Tom in San Diego

I drove my client's 996tt and, well, fell in love. So I started to look around for a 01 with about 10k miles . I will use this as an everyday driver and was concerned about the reliability of the turbos. This car will be a keeper and expect to drive about 20k/yr. I can't find anybody that owns a 996tt that has 50, 75 or 100k miles. Anybody out there with high miles with some input.

Dock

Daily driver will not be a problem. Just be sure to warm the car up before any hard driving, and be sure to allow the turbos to cool and slow down prior to turning the car off.

Pierre

My Turbo now has over 192'500 km. Yep, that's about 120'000 miles. This is what I wrote one year ago: http://www.911turbo.com/feature/2003-12/index.php

Since then, a few minor issues occurred (airflow-meter, etc), but nothing really serious. My car still can sustain 319 km/h for several minutes, and long drives between 260 and 300 km/h are no problem either. Engine still stock, original clutch.

Enjoy it!
--Pierre

Garey Cooper

A physician friend of ours just traded in her '01 TT for an '04 TT Cab. She drove it every day and had more than 85K miles on it as I recall. She stated it had been very reliable, and she drove it pretty hard including some track events. She did have to replace the Turbo's towards the end but it was pretty solid for as much and as hard as she drove it.

PTEC

Got to love it when 10k miles is referred to as "Higher Milage." I believe the reilability of the 996 turbo will prove to be slightly better than the 996 Carrera, with the key factor being the engine NOT being an M96.

bschen

The turbos are definely more reliable than 996 carreras. Highly recommend reading Pierre's comments. He has done everything with his car (including Winter driving) and appears to be running fine. These cars are built pretty solid and I would not hesistate getting one. I would recommend purchasing an extended warranty. I used Ultimate Warranty and have been very happy with them.

dpj

Well...mine hasn't been so reliable.
The car was a May 01 delivery. Since then its been off the road for 200 (40-50 days were waiting for unavailable parts) plus days and counting. Everything from sensors, to hoses, to master and slave cylinders to gearboxes have failed. I like to think of it as the only US assembled 996 Turbo.

Currently it has 34,500 miles. It is a daily driver when I have it. I have driven every car Enterprise has to rent....the only interesting one was the Chrysler 300C, which was a remarkably nice driver's car.

My last car a 99 ACURA NSX T never saw the dealer except for scheduled services.
I am considering suing Porsche if we can't work out equitable compensation.

Its a great car, when it works. I would definitely buy a certified car or purchase an extended warrantly. I reckon Porsche has put at least $40k-$50k in parts and labor into my car.

Consider a 02 TT, you can get the x50 option, plus it has a glove compartment, upgraded stereo and I believe they stiffened the chassis as well.

Pierre

Peter, sorry to hear you had that much trouble with yours. FYI, I also had an issue with the slave cylinder (and its hose), but only after 155'000 km, which is ok. And the fix wasn't a big thing.

About the stiffer chassis: recent 996 Turbo are not stiffer than older ones. Same thing all the way. This has been discussed in a quite hot thread a while ago on this board...

Oh, Benjamin is right: I've done a lot of driving in the snow. And you know what? I put a set of winter tyres on last week, and I'm now... waiting for snow!

Greetings,
--Pierre

msw

Can't speak for 996 turbo reliability but have had a 97 turbo now with 140K miles and has been pretty much problem free. I would (hope/guess) reliability for 996 turbo would be as good/if not better.

dpj

993's weren't built down to a price. My friend has a 993 C4 cab....it's built better and its been bullet proof. You can feel the quality.

However 996's feel like they were built by Mitsubishi. Honda and Toyota would have done a better job! Maybe mine was built on a friday afternoon!

KSA Turbo

TRUE THAT