KWP1911

I'm 45 and looking for my first 911. It'll be a 991. Looking to buy in the next year or so. Want to pay off the Cayenne first.

As I check the HFS thread and check cargurus.com for the car, I see a lot of 2012 - 2014 with multiple owners and it begs a question: Why do guys buy these nice cars and sell them within 2 years having only put 5000 - 10,000 miles on the car???? I see a lot of them from 2009 to 20014 have 2, 3, and even sometime 4 owners.

I'm not the type to buy a car and let it be a garage queen. I buy cars for myself and don't worry much about resale. So, why so many owners on a car that's less than 5 years old?

LexVan

Car ADHD.
Guys lease, through company, and then buy out, pinging ownership twice to the same guy.
Guys always chasing the next best thing.

Just a few answers. There's more.

Porsche_nuts

Many reasons:

1. some are always ready to buy newer models - I went from base to GTS in 2 years
2. many do not drive in winter, which accounts for low mileage
3. some buy to show off, and after novelty wears off, they go after the next novelty
4. life circumstances makes them sell (buying house, getting married, having kids)
5. not practical - its a sports car, and even though it is practical for a sports car, it can only carry 2 adults and limited luggage
6. as lex said, many are leases

many other reasons I am sure I missed, but others will chime in on

STG

This, plus cars in this price range guys have multiple cars and rotate them through quick many times. Commitment issues.

Look at the GT cars, multiple owners with less miles many times.

No need to be concerned. Comes along with the territory with any high end sports cars. Nothing new!

KWP1911

I have multiple cars and motorcycles too. I put miles on all of them.

Gus_Smedstad

Here are my symptoms. Some may not deliver any insight into behavior of owners in general.

I'm retired. Despite driving only a 911, and driving it in winter, I tend to put about 2000 miles a year on a car, because I don't commute. Even though I tend to make excuses to drive more than I need to, I still don't drive every day.

I ordered a Panamera S e Hybrid in 2014. This is not a 911. Turned out that, despite the various things I liked about the Panamera (the electric drive, the scads of cargo space with the rear seats down) I wanted a sports coupe, not a station wagon. So I sold it in 2016, which means I put a low-mileage car with only 18 months of ownership on to the market.

I drove a Toyota Supra Turbo for 16 years. Despite owning the 911 for only 15 months, it hasn't been punching all my buttons the way the Supra did, and I've been thinking about replacing it with something "better." This may simply be a mid-life crisis type stuff.

Better may not be possible. My C4S cab is pretty close to perfect for me. But I'm starting to think I'd rather be driving manual again over PDK. And a coupe would look a lot nicer, and have better visibility when the roof has to be up. I wish the leather were black, not beige.

Yet I like the amazing visibility out of a cab with the top down. I want the impossible. I want a car that is a cab when it's sunny, but magically transforms into a coupe when it's raining. I may be perpetually unsatisfied from now on, now that I've experienced a cab. This could lead to pointless switching back and forth between cars every few years as the grass on the other side of the fence always looks greener.

I'm lusting after some minor stuff you only see on 991.2's. I like the idea of RWS, even though I doubt I'll get much benefit from it. Those steering wheel based mode selectors you get with 991.2's with Sports Chrono look far more convenient than stabbing blindly for "sport" on the center console.

Logically, I shouldn't care about the mode switch. I should just leave it in Sport at all times. But I compulsively switch Sport off when I'm waiting behind several cars at a stoplight so the engine will switch off. Not because I care about the fuel cost, but because of a compulsive desire for efficiency.

A manual would fix that, mainly because of how auto-off works in manual cars . You have to shift to neutral and let the clutch out while stopped, and that bugs me. My wife's Cayman S is manual, and I just don't do it.

sechsgang

Car ADD for me!

KWP1911

Gus, thanks for the info. Maybe there are many owners like you and like STG describes.

fast1

I believe that reason 3 is probably the biggest. Many first time buyers always wanted a 911, but after owning it for a few months the dream doesn't match the reality of ownership. I have never purchased a used car, but I have to admit that if I did I would be concerned about a car with multiple owners.

Cherryblock

full on ADD here as well- My wife and I went through the list of cars I have had since we've been together (Nov 25 1977 High School Dance- totally out kicked my coverage) and we remembered 177, probably at 200. The only difference between then and now is the average PP is a bit higher!

Gus_Smedstad

Oddly enough, I strongly resisted buying a 911 when I was shopping for a replacement for my Panamera last year.

Heresy, I know.

My primary motivation was that I was unhappy with the Panamera after driving a sport coupe. Basically, too big and too slow unless I was in Sport+ mode.

My wife has a Cayman S. Getting a 911 felt like it would be overlapping too much with the Cayman. My primary plan was to pick up a used Panamera Turbo. I'd get to keep the cargo space, so the car would serve a different function than the Cayman, but I hoped the additional power would make me happier about driving the car.

I also looked at a BMW i8 and a Jaguar F-type R as fallbacks. Neither of which are cargo haulers , but they were sport coupes, and likelier to make me happy. They were also both substantially different from the Cayman, so I wouldn't feel like I was being quite so frivolous. Plus, the BMW i8 is ridiculously sexy to my eye, though I know not everyone agrees.

I didn't like any of them. The i8 was particularly disappointing - I had no idea how clumsy entrance into the car was, due to the carbon fiber tub, how poor the rear visibility was, or how ho-hum the acceleration was. The Panamera Turbo was definitely an improvement, but not enough better to justify spending the money.

I test drove a 2013 991.1 S. It was so much better to drive than any of the above it's hard to describe. Above all, when I was checking behind me, I could see. Not something that's true in any of the other cars I test drove. And of course the acceleration and handling were great, significantly better than the PTT despite the 120 HP advantage of the PTT.

I'd always thought of Porsches in terms of being status cars, so it was a bit of a revelation to me that I plain liked driving the 911 better than comparable cars in the same price bracket.

fast1

Porsches have changed a lot over the decades. I was first introduced to Porsche by a coworker who owned a 356. I owned a C2 Vette at the time, which had a couple hundred more HP than his Porsche. Nevertheless, I drove the 356 and was quickly addicted. I had never driven a car that handled like that 356. So in 1970 I bought my first 911, and have been buying them over the years. My last 911 was a 997S which I loved.
Some people love 911s, but others deride them. If you love them, you'll find it challenging to find a replacement.

DerekS

I for one love those crazy people who buy expensive cars, garage them a few years, then sell them.

It makes for excellent low mileage CPO cars for me!

fast1

Any reference to low mileage sports cars remind me of an ad that appeared in AutoWeek over 40 years ago. It was for a low mileage C2 454 ci Vette. The ad went something like this: Low mileage C2 454 Vette, driven only on Sundays, a 1/4 mile at a time.

ace37

Sounds like you'll be configuring a Targa GTS in the near future!