I plan to buy towards the end of the year. Will be my first Porsche. I currently drive a 2013 535i with a M Sport pkg. The beemer has been good to me...best driving experience of the lot I have owned so far.

Prior to the 535, I have owned - corvette c6, acura rl, honda s2000, volvo s60R, honda prelude

I am looking for that sweet spot of year and trim level I can find for under $40k and with less than 60k miles.

I am honing in on the 4s.

should i get the 4s with the v8 2010-2013 or should i consider the 2014 onwards with the v6 turbo?

I don't mean to sound like a wuss but I am 45 and not into any kind of track scene (scarred from some mishaps from the past). I only see myself enjoying the occasional spirited driving else mostly cruising.

Please share your thoughts and recommendations to help me make this decision. I have always wanted a Porsche ever since I was a kid and this is a dream come true for me and I am super excited.

Your comments and advise are much appreciated. Cheers!

 

I have 14 S, haven’t been in 13 so others will have to weigh in there. Sport Chrono and PASM required for me. I also have air suspension which I love, some don’t like it cause can get leaks and it’s fairly costly to repair. But air suspension in P far more reliable than Mercedes etc so I’m still a fan of it, ride is really really good and flat thru curves. I also have sound insulated glass and extended fuel tank. Makes car quietest I’ve been in, and if you do long trips, nice to get 575 or so from tank. Have some other options that don’t matter much to me. Also recommend dumping the high performance tires for all season’s, they still handle very well and eliminate the front wheel “crabbing”.
You’ll like either one I’m sure, blows BMW away. I’ve had several and will never go back from performance and quality perspective.

 

Thanks...I am leaning towards a 14 s or 4s also.

 

The one change that was odd on the 2014 was the rear end where the license plate moved. They put it back in the same place on the 2017 as they did on the first gen.

 

That is an interesting observation. Thanks!

 

The license plate position relates to bumper protection required if the plate is in a designated zone (height-related to my knowledge). Look at the current MB C63s as an example, it has a low license plate position and two bumperettes for protection.

 

Yes, they moved the beltline up trying to make the back appear a little leaner and colored the lower section black to give the appearance of a smaller rear. I think they missed the mark and makes it looks somewhat more round. It was a design choice and the position of the license plate remained in the same spot (height).

 

I recently splurged (for my budget) on a 2016 Turbo, and added BMC filter and FVD/Brombacher tune to let the engine achieve more of its potential. Car was $66k with 30,000 miles on it, in great shape.

As modified, this thing is a real supercar, roughly 600 bhp, with PASM, Sport Plus, valvetronic exhaust, etc. Not sure if you can find a well maintained Turbo under $50k, but that’s where I’d be looking.

 

It’s hard to beat a GTS🖖

 

Except with a well optioned Turbo/Turbo S

 

Exactly. Turbo S > Turbo > GTS > 4S or S

 

@Hemanth Kumar how is your search going? My view is to go with the newest, lowest mileage vehicle that fits both the budget and transportation requirements. For me this would lean towards the later model with the turbo V6. Yes, V8 is awesome but, all things considered, I would likely go with newer/lower miles. I have not deeply researched the V6 turbo engine, but VW does well with V6 engines in general. I don't see alot of turbo (not Turbo) disasters reported in the Panamera section of this site. I place a fairly high priority on reliability and longevity.

Another concept at work here is, assuming you are not targeting the Turbo or Turbo S models, you will end up with a vehicle platform "overdesigned" for the powertrain. This is important in my view, in the current era where auto companies are better than they have ever been at designing and producing cars with razor thin margins of durability. Test-to-failure is the norm today in automotive R&D and, combined with high quality (consistency) manufacturing, auto companies can predict when components and systems will fail, with a fairly high degree of accuracy. This was not possible before the early 2000s.

An example is the M-B GLE350 I drive. The W166 vehicle platform is designed for a powertrain with twice the horsepower, compared with the engine I have in my vehicle. The engine bay, with V6 naturally aspirated engine, has gobs of extra space that is eaten up by the nearly double displacement twin turbo AMG GLE63s. Very different driving experiences between these examples (both Porsche and M-B), and also very different reliability experiences.

 

I had a 14 4S and it was a great car. Like others I had air suspension failure but I only buy CPO cars so it was covered.