CrossThread

Fairly new Porsche owner and rennlist member here, but Porsche's have been in the family for many years.

Purchased my first Porsche, a CPO Silver 911 GTS loaded with a original sticker just shy $130k. It was love on first drive! I had no idea how great the 997 cars had become. But now I am addicted, if I am not surfing rennlist or waxing and detailing the car I am out driving other Porsche's looking for my next purchase.

2 days ago I drove a 2011 997 Turbo S with all the bells and whistles and was blown away by acceleration and how nimble the 4 wheel drive makes the car. I almost feel like I made a mistake buying the GTS. The turbo has numerous options and 11,000 miles on it, price is $122K.

Questions:

Will the turbo retain its value better than the GTS. I don't think so but am trying to justify taking a small hit and trading the GTS in.

Will the turbo drop in value quickly? If so should I keep the GTS and buy the turbo next year? 2 997s in garage would be awesome.

Or should I just drive the GTS with a big smile and hope the 991 GT3 drops down to the $120K price range?

I am so addicted! Maybe some input would help.
Oh and I am scheduled to drive the 918 next week, but the wife said I was becoming bat **** crazy, so the drive will be just for selfies.

Dennis C

I think the turbo generally holds value better than the normally aspirated cars, the exception being the GT3. That being said, the GTS is a very compelling vehicle and it was built in limited numbers. I think it will hold value very well. I actually considered a GTS before I bought my turbo. They are very nice.

My vote would be keep driving the GTS and get a 991 GT3 when the time comes...

ksozay

I know the Turbo S you are talking about and had been mulling the car over. There is something not quite right about it. The dealer is a little skittish about the car, for some reason. They won't CPO the car, which is strange.

The TS is a hard car to beat but then again, so is the GTS.

hf1

How long have you had the gts? There is much more to Porsches than acceleration. Take it to the track.

9114Scab

Yep , you got bit. Try not to drive the Turbos anymore. That Torque is quite exhilarating. Also, be aware the ins premium is quite a bit higher with a Turbo.

I would keep your GTS, that's an amazing car. If you still feel that way a year from now, then go for it. But don't be impulsive.

OKB

First, No car is going to retain value. If you buy it , you are going to lose money.
Second, if you CPO a car, it has to meet almost new condition on all its parts and systems. If it has parts that need to be replaced the dealer has to fix everything and then have it qualify for CPO then sell it to you. The fix is obviously too expensive for the dealer to pay for. He cant put $10,000 in repairs and up the price another $10000 because you wont buy it.
So he hopes you wont ask questions, cons you into believing there arent any maintence costs when you buy a used car, then you buy it. First time you take it in for oil, Hey, you need thousands of dollars worth of service!

cairo94507

I would flat out ask them why they are not CPO'ing the car.

Chrono

My (independent) dealer was skittish about my car too. Come to find out, it was a consignment where he made little money, so the car was worth more to him as eye candy. The car had a few months of CPO left on it.
I know there are wonderful car salesmen out there, but in my experience, they are more apt to push a car with issues than be skittish about it.

Tcc1999

So you are scheduled to test drive the $850,000 918 and you're worried about, in your words, "taking a small hit and trading the GTS in". This is precisely why the 99 percent hate/resent/you pick the derogatory adjective the 1 percent!

Seriously, and honestly, the heart wants what it wants. If you can live with the hit you'd take on the GTS then dump it for the Turbo. Or to put it another way, say the hit you'd take was $36k and you planned to keep the turbo for three years - would the Turbo be worth, or give you $1,000 per month more enjoyment than the GTS (obviously, you fill in your own financial numbers). Like the 918 and your wife saying No (I get the same reaction when I bring up the R8), strictly financial and practicality decisions are easy. When emotion is part of the equation though it gets really tough. Best of luck!

Macster

The more a car costs the more depreciation there can be. Thus the Turbo will more likely suffer more deprecation than the lower costing GTS.

I do not know about 997 Turbos and their depreciation but to give you an idea of 996 Turbo depreciation a new 2003 Turbo that stickered for $119K I bought from a dealer for $57.7K in 2009. The car only had 10K miles on it and was CPO'd. The owner probably got way less than what I paid for the car as trade in from the dealer.

That was some depreciation.

The general rule for new car depreciation is the car's value drops 10% from that of the dealer's cost the minute you drive it off the showroom floor.

Every year thereafter, as soon the next year's models come out, the car drops in value another 10%.

Some numbers: Say the 2011 997 Turbo stickered for $150K. (Just a number.) Probably out of date now but my research at some point back had the invoice at about 87% of sticker. Thus the dealer's cost of that Turbo was $130.5K. The moment the first owner drove the car off the lot the car's value dropped to $117450. Then when the 2012 models arrived it dropped another 10%. And the car suffered the same drop when the 2013's showed up and likewise when the 2014 models arrived.

So the car's depreciated value is approx. $95.2K. Now www.kbb.com gives a trade in value range of between $109K to $112K to $114.5K.

However, dealers always claim they go by "back of the book" when making a trade in offer and these "back of the book" numbers are always lower than those we have to go by so the above numbers would likely be adjusted downward. Thus that calculated $95.2K value is reasonably ballparkish.

Now if you buy the 2011 Turbo "right" (that is at something below that dealer's asking price of $122K) the car's depreciation curve flattens out (or maybe already has flattened out some) so you stand to lose less in depreciation as time goes by.

If you buy the car take proper care of the car and document this, leave it factory stock, and certainly enjoy the car. When (if) it comes time to sell/trade it in you will suffer as little loss to depreciation as you can.

My advice, though too late for you now, is once you buy a new (or new used car) do not test drive any other cars until or unless you are sure you are ready to change cars, or add another car to your fleet of cars.

Another bit of advice is do not continue to research prices either. You will always come across someone who "bought the same car" for way less than you did. This is probably not the case but you can drive yourself crazy thinking it might be.

The best way to beat depreciation is to drive the car as long as you can. Even if this means spending some money on the car over time. While a $1K, $2K, even $3K repair bill can seem like a lot, compared to what depreciation hit you would take disposing of a car that needed this level of work to keep or put back on the road, and the cost of a replacement car, even a $3K repair bill is cheap by comparison.

Domer911

if the dealer won't CPO the car, I wouldn't even consider buying it unless the dealer adequately explained why it would not CPO the car. Can't imagine a good explanation, btw.

sjfehr

GTS is a phenomenal car; it's already got more power than you can really use on the street, so you're not giving up much vs the Turbo S. Use the money you saved and spend that on track time, and I think you'll find out you're well ahead in the end

CrossThread

Thanks for all the responses and insight, keeping emotion out of a large purchase is great advice.

Truly wish I had not driven the Turbo, running it from 0 - 100 was exhilarating!
I have had owned the GTS for just under 2 months and would be taking $8k hit on just the trade value.
I will schedule to track it early next month for the required track training for lapping and then go from there.

Being able to purchase and actually making the purchase are two different things entirely and making wise choices over the past 48 years has made it possible to do both.
This new thing you call a P Car has caused some serious "blurring of the lines" when it comes to being prudent.

Para82

Forced induction will really screw up your right foot. Torque never feels right after you drive a 500hp+ car. It can take months even years for your brain to forget it. Your GTS will feel like a dog until your brain recovers.

dasams

[QUOTE=CrossThread;11663651]
Truly wish I had not driven the Turbo, running it from 0 - 100 was exhilarating! [QUOTE]
You won't be doing that vey often if you want to keep your license.
After a few track days, the urge for 0-100 sprints on public roads greatly diminished as it was a poor substitute for the real thing. I think you'll also find the GTS has more power than you can handle. Enjoy some track days in good health