Thinking about trading in my BMW on a PCar…whats the general thoughts?
Obviously we live where it snows…so i understand driving a 911 all year seems goofy to most peeps. I personally look at it as a car and DGAF - thats the appeal of a 911 to me, is that it is a daily driven car as opposed to a a ferrari or W/E. Slap some blizzaks on and go. There are countless posts online about people swearing their C2s are perfectly capable in all weather…Porsche doesn’t just develop their cars in german summers.
I would prefer an old A/C 911 obviously…prices are crazy, and they’re not reliable enough to use as on only car…this kind of to me is a compromise between a burning desire for the past 20years to have a 911…and get me to work each day.
This one had the clutch, IMS & RMS replaced at 50kmiles.
I HATED 996s for years, then did a ton of research and found out the hatred came from blown up over exaggeration of diehards that were butthurt at the loss of air cooled engines, as well as, people pissed off about IMS & RMS…once these are done, they are supposedly extremely reliable cars and feel as any NA RWD 911 should…and regardless of what people want to think, out brake/out handle/out accelerate/out everything a 993.
This one is clean AF, cheap AF and IMO a perfect color combination. looks like a doctor driving through Maine in a viagra commercial. I love it.
the main thing that has me hesitant, is my current car being really awesome and i don’t want to lose that. fuuuuu i can not decide.
When I was real close to DD’ing a Boxster the more I read about the IMS bearings the more I decided I simply wouldn’t own a pre-2009 model. 2009 and newer they changed the engine design and totally eliminated the IMS bearing. For every “the latest IMS design is so much better so you don’t have to worry about it anymore” testimonial you find you can find another that says their latest design or updated IMS still failed and took the engine with it. Even if it’s less likely the cost involved with a total engine replacement was just too much of a risk IMO. Constantly wondering if that IMS was about to fail would ruin the vehicle for me.
@JayS I hear you. It was only a small percentage that this issue happened with - most however (from what I read) were replaced when the clutch was replaced “just because” with a better ceramic bearing? and typically don’t have issues after that - usually higher mileage out of warranty cars had everything sorted and weren’t an issue.
…but i hear you theres still a chance - with a really expensive gamble to take…
you hear a lot of bad stories…you also hear a lot of stories of 200k miles in all weather with zero problems. Theres no symptoms of a bearing ready to shit, so how do you know which yours will be - tough…
Good article @Onyx_Z32 looks like original is 4yr/50k mi (which was done) and the replacement is 6yr/75k mi…so Hypothetically I could drive problem free a few years and do a preventative replacement (around $1k) once i reach 100-125k mi.
Hopefully I don’t even own it that long.
I think seeing a Porsche in the snow is cool as FUCK!!! I here and there see an Asian guy driving a red 997 C4 in the snow, plastered in salt-FUCKING AWESOME!!!
If the IMS has been done/upgraded to the LN engineering bearing then there really shouldn’t be much to go wrong besides normal crap.
I see a red C4s around in the winter and I love seeing it, that guys cool :tup:
Besides the car being on the lower side of things height wise, it’s really no different than any RWD car you could buy (camaro, mustang etc…) With the weight being over the rears it may be even better than those mentioned.
You can fit a surprising amount in the “frunk” I take mine to wegmans and shopping. Love the look on stupid peoples faces when they think I am loading groceries into the engine bay, it’s priceless.
Buy some good snow tires, have a blast. Hell if you end up hating it sell it/trade it in on something else the following year, at least you can say you did it right?
Don’t sweat the IMS bearing issue, I talked about buying a P car for years, my only mistake was waiting so long. Great car to drive everyday, and if you have a kid, its a great family car. If I didn’t DIY stuff all the time, I would have sold my 4runner and put snows on my 997.
The 996 will also hold value much better than a late model BMW.
running out of room until i decide to move out of the city. If i had a bigger garage I would have BMW and old 911SC all hotrodded out. Need a compromise of 1 vehicle due to space…cant even leave my bike in the garage this winter because the move-in gf thinks she gets to go in the garage this winter. unbelievable.
Barring any of the mechanical pitfalls being mentioned here, I generally have a problem with “nice” vehicles being driven on our winter roadways. I’m sure it’s cool to see these types of vehicles in the snow, and I’m sure outfitted properly they function as reliably as they can for winter driving. I think “nice” cars are something you don’t want to ruin and would like to see make it through the years so to speak. I look at it like going to work in the garden wearing your nicest suit instead of something you could care less about if it gets ruined. I know opinions are like Aholes, but that’s mine. I would just hate to see something like this rotted out by our NaCl ice solutions. It’s your car / money so if you’re OK with it, go for it. I just know I wouldn’t be able to do it.
