wallyworld925

New to the forum - have already spent hours reading, lots of very good info and recommendations.

I'm coming up on my 20 year anniversary - wife said to to find my own gift - first Porsche 911 (have wanted one since college). I know cars (have done restoration, family members in high end collector car and restoration business, etc.), but not much about late model Porsches. I'm looking for recommendations/thoughts/advice/models to avoid based on the following parameters:

- 2006 or newer 997
- Budget up to $80K (could go higher if justified)
- Use: not quite DD but primarily street, very limited track (if any)
- Don't want a huge maintenance headache
- Love the GT3, but probably too much for my needs
- In terms of styling, prefer the TT over the C2s/C4s, but can afford newer non-TT car based on budget

I realize this is posted in the TT forum, but looking for objective advice on models, options to look for, etc. If you had $80K, what would you do? Thanks in advance.

jcnesq

You know once you go Turbo you may never "go back". Don't know enough about you, but my offhand gut is to get a 2006+ 997S and enjoy the hell out of it! Get a CPO. SF Bay area, don't need a 4/4S.

RED 997

Cant go wrong with any of your model choices listed. Of course 4s and turbo are wide body if you want that look. I moved from C2s to turbo and couldnt be happier. Good luck with your search!

xseal

I went through the same process a year ago. Go test drive NA v. tt. For me, once I drove the tt, the NA was off the table as an option. Bought a great 07 tt used.

Terry Adams

Here in the Bay Area, it will cost you 9.25% sales tax when you change your mind on the way to a TT.

You do know that you will eventually change your mind, right?

And during the X thousand miles that you drove the NA, you would be anguishing like the "Coulda had a V-8" commercial.

This has been a Jedi mind trick, and I approve this message.

wallyworld925

Thx for the feedback so far. Sounds like an 07 TT is in my future (must be the jedi mind trick working).

Few more ??'s -
- In terms of mileage, what would be considered reasonable for an 07 TT?
- What are the "must have" options?
- I like 6sp, any compelling reason to go to Tip?

TT Gasman

TT FTW there is no comparison between the 2 cars.

dianic

You can not decide based on forum argumentation for 6sp vs tip. Drive both, see how you feel about shifting. There have been thousands of words written on the subject and millions of arguments on this and other forums. But at the end of the day, to you, they are all subjective opinions.

Must have for a TT isnt much, as they are usually loaded to the brim. Sports Chrono to me is a must (few cars without it - have a hefty discount - can be retrofitted) but again countless arguments about whether the wart on the dash is good or a flash is better. The Sports Chrono on the turbo gives a 0.2 bar overboost function, and that alone is worth a lot.

PCCB (Ceramic breaks) is another one to consider, with pros and cons... a search will reveal a lot I am sure.

Other than that, you are looking at cosmetic options, so again subjective territory. Enjoy the hunt is the best step before ownership!!

TT Gasman

You can probably get a better deal on a tip car.

fibredog

My 07 TT Coupe is going when my 11 TT Cab comes in Feb. I think mine is pretty nicely equipped with: 6sp, Sport Chrono, Adapt Seats, Painted Center Console (arctic silver), Red Belts (to match brakes), Illum Aluminum Sills, Locking Diff., Short Shifter. I've got 4,600 miles on mine and it's never seen a drop of rain and the dealer is telling me $77k for the trade. MSRP was 132k 4 years ago. Privately I think I could get around $85k. Hey if you can wait until Feb/March and like Arctic Silver/Black, you can buy mine.

TC

Macster

These cars accumulate (or do not accumulate) all sorts of miles, from near nothing to well lots.

Generally Porsche IIRC figures the cars are going to cover between 6K and 9K miles per year. Garage queens, of which there are a few, will cover less miles.

Daily drivers will of course cover more miles.

In the case of the car you are thinking about look at the build tag and find the build date and work out how old the car is in months and multiply the number of months by 500 (for a car that covers say 6K miles per year) and by 750 (for a car that covers 9K miles per year) and then see what the odometer has.

If the car's odo way under 500 miles per month, garage queen. (Or the odo's been tampered with.) If the car's odo shows way over 750 miles per month the car's a daily driver and then some. Might add that my 03 Turbo has over 52K miles and 42K of those miles I have added since I bought the car in June of '09. So in 19 months of ownership I've put an average of 2200 miles per month on my car. A daily driver and then some. 750 miles per month? I can cover that many miles in a day! I didn't buy the car to look at it. I bought it to drive it!

Anyhow, with a warranty a low miles example can be ok cause the car has some warranty left to use in case when you start to put miles on the car something that would have turned up had the previous owner covered more miles turns up on your watch.

(Case in point: My 03 Turbo's 6-speed developed a fluid leak at around 35K miles. I had bought it used with just around 10K miles on it. Thankfully the car came with a 2 year, 100K CPO warranty that covered the cost of having the transmission replaced.)

However, you do not want to pay much if any premium for a low miles example cause as soon as you drive it the premium will vanish.

6-speed vs. Tip. Drive examples of both and make up your mind. Or in Jedi (Yoda) speak: More test drives you need. Guide your choice the Force will.

Options? Well I'm not familiar with the 997 options but my 996 Turbo had every option I wanted and then some.

You have to sit down and work out what you would need in the car, what you'd like to have, and given a car in good condition what you're willing to give up or accept.

Generally used car buyers are primarily focused on finding a car in good and verifiably good condition, for a good price. Color, options, etc. generally (generally) have less priority. But you have to live with the car and only you can know what you can or can not live with or can not live without.

For options I like bi-xenon lights, cruise control, on-board computer, rain sensing wipers, rear wiper, auto-climate control, auto-dimming mirrors, heated outside mirrors and that's about it. Thankfully the car I found came with all of the above. Oh, and the car came with a 6-speed. I considered a Tip and had I found the right car with a Tip I would have probably ended up with a Tip equipped car but I found a very nice 6-speed equipped car first and that's the one I bought.

About the only option I'd like to have and don't -- and it may be for the better given the experiences some have had with these -- is PCCB brakes.

For colors they're all good!

Sincerely,

Macster.

NJR911

And as usual Macster's advice is spot on!

SeattleBum

I can't think of any reason not to get a low-mileage '07TT if you're planning on spending $80k. The Turbo looks meaner, is waaaaay faster, has much greater potential to be modded (if you're into that kind of thing) and should potentially retain it's value better after the initial hefty 3-yr depreciation. Here in Seattle the AWD is nice in the rain and light snow. In fact, I just did a Winter skills event with the local Porsche Club and it was really tought to get my car to break loose on the wet skidpad (w/ TC on). The thrill of boost is insane, especially with a tune.

I bought mine a few months back for $84k with 17k miles on the clock. It also had about $16k in mods on it. Love it, love it, love it!