Fined

More important is the actual car. My GTS came from a Toyota dealer in Memphis.. when I live in Raleigh. I had a thorough PPI done (at a very highly recommended Porsche race shop) and drove the car 800 miles home. That was 2 years ago (and 25k miles) and so far the only thing I have repaired was a window regulator.

DesmoSD

OT but j beede, Carrara White 997.1 here checking in. No doubt, I know that feeling. I drive her like how she was intended for and I hate having to pull into the garage after a canyon sprint.

Is that your car in your avatar? If so, that's a clean and happy looking front end.

stronbl

OP - I think you are getting a good array of practical advice thus far. You've read about some serious issues with the 997.1 which a small percentage of [vocal] owners have experienced, and even smaller percentages with a late model 997.1. The 997.1's are at a good price point but will require you to spend some time looking for the right one - sounds like you may have already found a likely candidate - good for you. If the high expense but low probability event (I have no idea what the actual probability is but if I was in the market now, I'd figure less than 5% chance) has you concerned, then budget for it if possible. Continue to read on throughout this 997 forum and you'll find most of the money being spent on 997.1 / 997.2 is on mods and/or track consumables - that's where you have to watch your wallet. Good luck with the search and drive in good health!

GPGolden

Very True!!!

HenryPcar

[QUOTE=For most, if not all used car purchases, overall condition trumps mileage[/QUOTE]

Fully agree with you. I would be leery of low mileage garage queens that never saw the daylight. High mileage Porsches that are well maintained gets thumbs up for me.

GPGolden

these are the things that scare me. I have seen folks say that numerous times. What kind of car craps out because it has low mileage?

larrysb

I backed away from a 997.1 that was a sweet price and a super, super clean, low mileage car. The deal just wasn't timing out right, though not anyone's fault. I had not fully researched the IMS bearing issue because I had not at that point, considered a car of that age. In the end, I would have been fine with the car, and I would have simply arranged to have the IMS Solution installed as soon as I bought it. Had already budgeted it out and it made sense to do it that way. Only caveat being that it needed to pass the inspection that LN requires for warranting the IMS Solution, though it almost certainly would have. If it had been a higher miles car, I'd have just installed one of the less-expensive IMS bearing upgrades and a new clutch just because it was there.

Or get one that already has the fix installed. They're out there too.

It just happened to work out that I bought a newer vehicle, a 997.2 2S Cabrio more because of how things were timing out and it had PDK and some other stuff that made it a little more ideal as a daily driver.

The pricing of 996 and 997.1 vehicles reflects the issues. You can buy a super, super clean and low mileage car for a low price. Then the choice is yours, drive the snot out of it and hope it does fine, or do the fix and drive the snot out of it and sleep a little easier at night. I mean, it's a LOT of car for the money either way. Buy and drive it or buy, fix and drive it. It only amounts to a small amount of differential dollars.

GPGolden

When I was researching my Audis, I never cam across someone telling others to beware of low mileage Audis...

HenryPcar

Never gets driven much and all the mechanics are in long-term dormant state. Out of good intention, the owner starts it once a week believing it does the engine good. The irony is the constant rich fuel that gets dumped into the cylinder never gets a chance to warm up. Hence, whatever lubricants stay put in the engine gets diluted and then during startups, cylinder scoring potentially happens. Not to mention, water pump, coolants, power steering, transmission fluid never gets a chance to work efficiently. The bottom line is that your car is not designed to operate in such environment.

GPGolden

Henryting - would you consider an '08 with 30,000 miles too low?

voodoo

997.1 and grin ear to ear every time I drive it. If something breaks I will fix it. Life's too short to drive boring cars....

DesmoSD

Henry, you have to look at the other supporting factors as well. I did mention that condition trumps mileage. The 997.1 that I picked up only had 14,372 miles, is an 06 and was from the original owner. The car spent it's entire life in Southern California (annual temps avg 60-80), which means he drove approx 1197 miles a year. The service records show that it only had 4 oil changes; 400 miles, 4400, 7K and 12K miles. I bet the car only went to PCA events and drives around town.

Was it a garage queen, yes to a certain extent. Is it doomed b/c it sat instead of being driven, unlikely. My 25 yr old 93.5 Supra TT has 66K miles and still has most of the original parts when it left the factory.

I'm going through the car to bring the maintenance up to date. I'm finding some OEM parts (cabin filter, front tires, air filter, rad cap) that have been back dated to 2006 and have never been replaced.

HenryPcar

I think we are all conditioned to think all high mileage cars will have some inherent problems. This is just not the case. To put things into perspective, I had a daily driver. Its a BMW E30 and I use it driving from LA to SF once a week back in the 1990s. The day I sold it, it has accumulated 1/2 million miles on the origin engine. As far as maintenance it was all commonsense and I never ever got stuck in the middle of I-5. I put in about 1000 miles every week and oil gets changed every 2 months. Yes I do need to replace tires on a yearly basis.
I'm not to saying high-mileage cars are more reliable. What I am saying is I would rather get a high-mileage car that has been well maintained than a barely driven car by some clueless owner.

SoCal C2S

j beede

Careful. Not every 997 IMS bearing is a candidate for the "fix", assuming you are referring to LN Eng products (which you almost certainly are). In most cases you will not know if your candidate 997 has a LNE serviceable IMS bearing without dropping the transmission and visually inspecting it.

If you can put up with the styling of the 996... a Raby 3.8 in a cheap 996 roller with some techart goodies would make for a fun car.

OP: If it says so on the interwebs, it has to be true. Not.