DWPC

I'm a long time Cayenne Turbo owner shopping for a 997. I've searched for a guide to problems etc to look for but nothing turned up. And I want to confirm that the '09 model year was the first for the 997.2.

Wayne Smith

2009 was the first .2 car.

Pick up a copy of Grant Neal's Porsche 911 (997) All models 2004 to 2012 book.

Thedips

Full leather and a stick

alexb76

Skip 2005, skip cars with too much over-revs (a lot info on that), skip super LOW milage cars (these cars need to be driven), skip Tiptonic (pre-2009), and that's about it. These cars have proven to be very reliable and apart from early 2005 cars with IMS issues, there's no red flag.

In terms of options, I really don't think there's anything that's must-have, but buyer preference. Some must have full leather, some must have sport exhaust, etc... Find the lowest milage (not too low) car you can afford, that also has the 80% of the options you want and go for it!

JT77

What would be considered super LOW mileage cars to stay away from? I'm looking at a 08 C2 MT with 8K miles. Would that be too low?

alexb76

Yes, in my opinion at least. That is less than 1K a year, and possibly it sat for months at a time without ever starting up, and that's BAD, unless someone properly prepared the car for a long-term storage which requires changing out fluids and other procedures. A lot of the seals need lubrication or they dry out... so if a car sat down for months, or years without cranking up, no lubrication is applied and that could potentially lead to a lot of issues.

Now, there could be a case of someone using the car sparingly, a few miles at time here or there (myself), but it never sat without use for too long, then those cars should be fine. However you don't really know how a car was used in the past. I'd say anything below 2-3K/year is too low. I've had my car since 2009 and I bike to work, and mostly use the car on weekends or weeknights in a small city and I have 30K miles on the car... that's 3K/year.

sschultze09

alexb76 when you say early 2005's have the IMS issue does that include all 2005's? If not how can you tell the difference.

surfinglbi23

Its based on the build date, you can tell by the VIN. Honestly, I would go for the early build date if you can find it and just replace the IMS and add the oil feed kit. Its not an expensive fix and you can do the clutch while in there. Boggles my mind why people say to avoid the early cars. I actually searched for an early car.

zaccers

I have an 05 C2 with the IMS retrofit and service records - I couldn't be happier. Combined with headers/exhaust, intake, tune, I don't worry about not having an S.