Do Porsches Make Good Garage Queens?
04-23-2017, 05:48 AM
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Do Porsches Make Good Garage Queens?
As I have posted before, I have several out-of-production BMWs in my little car "collection," and I've been looking at adding a Porsche. I almost bought a C4 996, and have looked at, and driven, several others.
After spending a lot of time on these forums, and reading a lot of other stuff on the internet, I am left with the impression that Porsches don't do as well with infrequent use as do the BMWs I am used to driving, collecting, and talking about on internet forums. Most older BMWs seem to do fairly well with occasional use, and they don't seem to need a whole lot of work done on a time rather than mileage basis.
My impression, obtained primarily from the Rennlist forums, is that certain design decisions were made in (especially) the 996 and 997 series, usually for money-saving reasons, that make these cars prone to everything from various fluid leaks to (at worst) self-destructing engines, as in the case of catastrophic IMS Bearing failures.
Any Porsche that I would buy would be very unlikely to see much more than 2500 miles worth of driving in a year. This is the simple reality, in that I have multiple other cars and I only drive so many miles per year. There will be a period of about 4 months in the year where the car would be on a float charger with Stabil in the gas tank, not driven at all, during the winter; this is true of all of my "fun" cars. A lot of my driving is in fairly isolated areas where getting stranded would be of concern, especially if it occurred in a cellphone dead spot (and we have a number of those).
Another concern is that in my primary residence, I have a couple of car lifts in the garage, and during the winter the Porsche might well be up on a lift. If it is likely to spontaneously start leaking fluids on whatever car I have parked below, that is a non-starter.
Am I just a bad candidate for Porsche ownership, given the above? I would not buy a Porsche that did not have a manual transmission, and I greatly prefer hydraulic to electric power steering. I don't want an underpowered car, but I hesitate to specify a minimum HP requirement. Are there any particular model series that would do better with my usage pattern, any that should absolutely be avoided?
Finally, would this usage pattern be better for a sorted out air cooled model, or better for a water cooled one?
Thanks very much for any replies and suggestions.
After spending a lot of time on these forums, and reading a lot of other stuff on the internet, I am left with the impression that Porsches don't do as well with infrequent use as do the BMWs I am used to driving, collecting, and talking about on internet forums. Most older BMWs seem to do fairly well with occasional use, and they don't seem to need a whole lot of work done on a time rather than mileage basis.
My impression, obtained primarily from the Rennlist forums, is that certain design decisions were made in (especially) the 996 and 997 series, usually for money-saving reasons, that make these cars prone to everything from various fluid leaks to (at worst) self-destructing engines, as in the case of catastrophic IMS Bearing failures.
Any Porsche that I would buy would be very unlikely to see much more than 2500 miles worth of driving in a year. This is the simple reality, in that I have multiple other cars and I only drive so many miles per year. There will be a period of about 4 months in the year where the car would be on a float charger with Stabil in the gas tank, not driven at all, during the winter; this is true of all of my "fun" cars. A lot of my driving is in fairly isolated areas where getting stranded would be of concern, especially if it occurred in a cellphone dead spot (and we have a number of those).
Another concern is that in my primary residence, I have a couple of car lifts in the garage, and during the winter the Porsche might well be up on a lift. If it is likely to spontaneously start leaking fluids on whatever car I have parked below, that is a non-starter.
Am I just a bad candidate for Porsche ownership, given the above? I would not buy a Porsche that did not have a manual transmission, and I greatly prefer hydraulic to electric power steering. I don't want an underpowered car, but I hesitate to specify a minimum HP requirement. Are there any particular model series that would do better with my usage pattern, any that should absolutely be avoided?
Finally, would this usage pattern be better for a sorted out air cooled model, or better for a water cooled one?
Thanks very much for any replies and suggestions.
