I am with you Cam!! I was driving today in the snow and some one walked by and said, beautiful car but do you feel bad about driving it in the snow? I said I would feel much worse keeping it in the garage for 4 months!!



Drive on Canada.

 

I have yet to hear about anyone requiring AWD repairs on a 997. Possible? Sure, but it's analogous to someone steering clear of PDK in favour of a MT because the repairs would be more costly in comparison should something break.

 

+1. i dont own a 4s but i actually believe the p-car awd systems are very reliable components.

 

Great pic, Cams. Convincing my buddy on a C4. Great visual propaganda!

 

+10000000

 

I had over 100k miles on my 996 C4S a while back, no issues whatsoever with the AWD system. I would have no problem driving a 997 C2 RWD in the snow if you had the proper set of tires for it.

As far as affording the car - that is up to you to decide. If you feel like you are stretching your budget with a 997, why not go for a nice 996.2 C2, those can be had in the $20's and as long as the IMS bearing update is done - they are reliable cars and can take daily driving use.

 

It will be tight, but I think you can pull it off. Enjoy.

 

Of course having a Porsche 911 is in NO way a compromise, sorry if it came off like that. The thing is I don't want to go back to having 2 cars, a daily driver and a track car. I had that with my Corvette Z06 and My Honda, I got tired of the garage space issue.

Cams that's an awesome picture and good to know that you drive it in the snow. Now I'm in Ottawa so we get a bit more snow then you do in Toronto, but good to know that you use it.

Yes there are automatic withdrawals for my pension plan, which my employer matches.

Thanks myw, some very good points. Let me clear up some things.
You mention the gas, but I currently spend 300-350/month, I can't see the 997 spending that much more gas on a daily commute.

Insurance, I currently pay 100/month so it would only be, maybe, an extra $40 for the 997

I've seen some 2006/2007 997s around $39,000 (non-CPO) with roughly 46,000 miles on them. So if I use my C300 (which is paid-off) as trade or sell it and put the cash down, based on rough numbers, I'm looking at payments of $500/month for financing.

I've always heard/been told that 911s are great daily drivers? am I mistaken?

 

Based on the additional info above, there are certainly 997s that you could "afford." But, it sort of depends on what you mean by "disposable income." Do you mean only after the very basic necessities have been covered? If so, you may need to be pretty low key with respect to other entertainment, etc. (such at limiting number of fine restaurant meals, trips, etc.). And, unless the car has a warranty, you should have a healthy savings account that won't decimate you if repairs are needed.

These cars are fantastic daily drivers!

The ultimate answer to this question, however, can only be known by you, since everyone's life circumstances are different.

But, unless something catastrophic happens to the motor (killing the value of the car), you can always sell it if you find that you are in over your head.


That's my 0.02.

 

TIRES are everything. Snow tires on a F1 car would fare better than slicks on an 4WD Jeep Cherokee.

Drive my C4S 6 speed coupe 365/yr. Live in NJ. Snows plenty. A winter set of mounted tires/rims is a must for a DD.

As for the $$ issue...that's a loaded question. Porsches have high operating costs. Summer tires, for example, wear out faster than most even with a modest driving style. Oil changes every 5-7k adds up quick. It's reliable, sure. But it's not a Honda Civic.

But as a physician I will say this. Life is precious. Enjoy it. An enormous savings account is worthless if your health gets in the way, god forbid. Don't need to go buy a GT2 RS...but a reasonable generation 1 997 will do a body good

 

Only you can decide how much left-over disposable income you are comfortable with. Find some averages, do some simple addition and subtraction, and then make your decision. If you answer 'yes', then enjoy the car and don't look back :-)

 

ah yes, if we factor in
-your already paying 500 for gas+insurance
-trading in existing car
- final cost to you is roughly 500$ a month then thats not too bad. ultimately you still have a grand left over based on your calculation....

this.

i've seen people getting broken financially re bad-luck car issues, and while it depends on which car(s), the 997.1 is definitely one of those cars that can do it if things go wrong.

 

Im not sure if this was mentioned but fuel cost will go up, as the octane has to be 93, and not the cheap gas. You may want to look at your gas prices and estimate your current usage and with the difference in octane cost.

Also, I love driving my 997 as much as possible. It is a 6 speed manual shift, and if I had to drive in heavy stop and go traffic everyday I would not want to deal with that shifting and braking. You will probably need to budget for a new clutch more often than if you had an automatic.

They are good for driving each day, but In my opinion making them a daily driver will take the passion of the car away making it just another car. If this will be your daily driver, and you plan track days then you may want to have another daily driver, and get the Porsche as a third car, fun car.

If you are trying to make the budget work, buy a good 996 for less than $25000, and spend about $2500 to get IMS bearing, RMS, replaced, and clutch checked. So even if you have to finance the car, you will need money for the repairs, and tires are about $1200 a set.

 

If you have to ask............


If you do it, go for the manual 4S with Sport Chrono.
They are solid Cars and don't worry about the 4wheel drive system. Something to look out for, run the car for 30min with high rpm the last 5min to get it hot. Turn off the car and restart immediately. If slow to crank, may need new cable to starter, that will cost $1-1200. It's a problem with all 997's

 

I would not pick an automatic, as automatic means low rpm and low oil pressure. Is this the culprit for the IMS failures, don't know. The autos in the 05-08 are boring anyway until the PDK arrived. 3.8 engines may be better built than the 3.6. No data to support this either. Do avoid early 05-06 with the 3.6 as these were carry over engines.