2000 911 Carrera 4 as my daily?

I have been looking for a replacement for my daily driver (old Miata). I work from home, so my daily might  get 10 miles on it, many days it just sits. I basically need a car to run to the store, take to the airport for business trips run down to see customers in DC occasionally. Just needs to be reliable and fun at this stage in my life. I have a truck for large stuff and fun cars in my shop.

Found a 2000 911 Carrera 4 convertible which has had a bunch of work done on it. Description reads "2000 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 convertible with hardtop. 6 speed manual. $23,000 in repairs and servicing from Intersport Performance since 2022, Porsche specialist in Ashburn, VA to include new IMS, clutch, engine servicing, motor mounts, alternator, HVAC evac/pressurize, Separate work in last 10,000 miles includes all new suspension, brakes, tires, and convertible top totaling approximately $12,000. Receipts available and private inspections welcome. Mechanically sound, everything working as it should. Some paint chips, road rash on rims, and blurred display on HVAC controls. Hard top has a dent"

Car is priced at $20K, which is at the top of the values, but given all that has been done to it, what do you think? Is this a continual money pit or a good deal on a fun car? Car has 88K miles on it, is cosmetically in good condition. With the IMS done and all the work, is this something I can drive for another 50K miles without major issues?

It's a Parsch, which should answer the moneypit question.

I've dailyed a 2001 C4 cabriolet year round out West until a nice truck driver punted me into the center divider and I enjoyed it (the daily driving, not the center divider). That said, mine had a few more miles on it when I got it, still had the original soft top in good shape and didn't need that level of work. OK, it needed an engine rebuild not due to the IMS. All new suspension, brakes etc seems a bit much at those miles unless it had been neglected a bit.

I've only dealt with Intersport once as they're my closest Porsche specialist, but so far impressions are good and I'll take my 997 there for its annual service again.

Can you drive it for another 50k without major issues? It depends - aka my favourite consulting answer. If it's been looked after properly, had the oil changed much more often than Porsche recommends etc, then it should. OTOH, the amount of money the seller dumped into it and then trying to sell it shortly afterwards sounds to me more like potential additional projects lurking.

Are you DIY handyish? I would have the engine scoped for bore scoring at a minimum as well as having a thorough PPI completed by someone knowlegable on these 996 era engines.

Aside from that, old Porsches are all money pits unless you intend on keeping up with maintenance through DIY work. 

The M96 engines in these seem to develop the dreaded bore scoring issues most frequently when used as short trip vehicles and if not religiously taken up to full operating temp before any spirited driving. Given that, it sounds like a 996 might not be ideal for your use case.

I would not recommend a Porsche that is not used all the time. Sitting is horrible for them.

996 911 routine maintenance is pretty strict/heavy and repair costs are not cheap. If that engine wasn't perfectly taken care of, there can be bore scoring which is an automatic 20k+ repair. I've been looking for a 996 eventually as a weekend car but with everything I've read for the past year, daily driver duty doesn't look good.

preach said:

I would not recommend a Porsche that is not used all the time. Sitting is horrible for them.

That's a good point and the reason I ended up with a 65k miles 997 instead of the 23k mile one that was the only other choice when I was shopping.

Re the PPI - I'd definitely get one, even though my 996 passed its PPI with flying colours and then we found parts of the chain tensioners in the oil filter a month later (and yes, the oil filter on it was cut open during the PPI).

As to DIY-friendliness, they're a bit of a pain to work on in certain areas unless you enjoy building Lego sets through a mail box slot.

To me, the big issue on 996s is that especially the cabriolets aren't worth that much and as a result, they tend to be neglected more often than the coupes.

I'd check with the seller how much maintenance history he has on the car. If it's been maintained properly, it should have a pretty thick folder.

Forgot to mention - if you're on Farcebook, there is a "DMV Porsche Enthusiasts" group on there. Someone there might know about this car.

Great advice as I expected from this group and thanks for keeping me from an impulse purchase! I 100% agree that a PPI is necessary and you do have to wonder after all the money spent so far if the car does not have something lurking (like bore scoring), so I'll decide what to do, but what you all are telling me is that perhaps this is not my best choice for my daily!

In reply to RyanGreener (Forum Supporter) :

My wife was okay with getting one as a weekend fun car, so that is where I started but then started thinking why not drive it as my daily? But I don't want to buy a 20K toy and have to put 20K into a new engine, so I think this group has talked me out of it.

There are two situations that can happen when someone spends that much money and then dumps the car:

- They're just fed up with it and want to see it gone (this could be a spousal mandate, given they've spent $22k on it in the past two years)

- They know about something else on the horizon

Of course, the answer can always be somewhere in the middle.  But with a run-rate of $11k a year in maintenance/repairs over the past two years, I'd pass.  All the threads on here about Porsche's and the various engine issues (bore scoring, IMS, etc.) have done a good job of scaring me away from them.  And it's not unique to Porsche, the FR-S/BRZ twins scare me, as well.

What other options are you looking at?

Of course when looking at 911 Cabriolets, you start looking at cross shopping with Boxsters and Caymans in that price range. 987.1 cars a better option? I know they have the same bore scoring issues.

If I had to drive down to DC daily like I did 10 years ago, I would be looking at practical sports cars (Honda, Mazda, Toyota) that are bullet proof for the most part. But now that I will be working from home, I can pretty much drive anything. My clapped out Miata has 200K on it but still runs 100% but I am tired of the lack of creature comforts. Been considering a ND generation Miata, Fiat 124 (basically an ND with a Fiat turbo engine), Boxsters and Caymans (see above) and some crazier stuff. I always told myself that if my commute ended, I would drive a Lotus 7 as my daily, but need something a little more practical than that. Just need enough space to bring my suitcase to the airport when needed and two seats are all I want, have more practical cars for hauling stuff.

As others have said above, I am always wary of the big maintenance spend and then listing for sale shortly afterward.  

In reply to dherr (Forum Supporter) :

The interiors are nicer but really it's most of the same issues until you get into a 987.2/997.2, which is when Porsche actually engineered most of the engine problems out.

I've got a 987.1 BoxS and it's the greatest driving car I've ever owned and I've had a few cars. Literally does everything asked of it and truth be told, it has been better than expected. Bonestock with mediocre tires when I got it and it was still marvelous. The Mich PS4S's I slapped on it last month are a revelation.

All that said, I would never daily it unless I was driving more than 30-45 minutes in each direction. All of the pre-'09 Porsche's are subject to the dreaded bore-scoring and from what I've gleaned from the forums and internet experts, the short hop driving is the prime culprit. For the dash to the store or 15 minute drive to the office, the Audi A3 works great. And I'm not constantly tempted (poor impulse control) to see if I can blast the ramp a little harder or take a second out of the PR to the office...

pointofdeparture said:

In reply to dherr (Forum Supporter) :

The interiors are nicer but really it's most of the same issues until you get into a 987.2/997.2, which is when Porsche actually engineered most of the engine problems out.

+100

Hmmm,  I don't know?  In general, outside of the well known problems, these are very durable cars that are easy to work on.  Parts supply is very good, industrial knowledge is very good and easily found on Rennlist.  I've only seen these blow up when used on the race track, I've never seen one blow up with street use, although I'm sure it does happen.

My turbo has the older Mezger motor in it, but it's been one of the most reliable cars I've ever owned.  So if you have the budget to get a 996 Turbo Cab, I highly encourage you to buy one...

my 987.1 was faultless. It seems like the base model cars don't suffer from the same issues as the S cars. Every instance of bore scoring in the 987.1 that I've was an S. They also have an upgraded IMS that doesn't fail much.

I agree with docwyte that these are very durable cars overall, at least if you don't have my talent of picking the most reasonably looking problematic one of the bunch .

With these, a lot comes down to previous owners taking care of pre-emptive maintenance. Unfortunately these have been relatively cheap for quite a while and a lot of them haven't been maintained like they should've been, and that's when things get expensive.

gixxeropa said:

my 987.1 was faultless. It seems like the base model cars don't suffer from the same issues as the S cars. Every instance of bore scoring in the 987.1 that I've was an S. They also have an upgraded IMS that doesn't fail much.

People seem to be figuring out that really one of the biggest factors with the bore scoring is cast pistons vs forged pistons. Anything with forged pistons (IIRC all 911s, Cayman/Boxster S) is substantially more likely to have the bore score problems. The IMS is a failure point in all of them, it's just slightly better and actually fixable in the M96 engines vs the M97. 

In reply to pointofdeparture :

LN Engineering says about 1% failure rate for the MY 06-08.  Bigger concern is oiling issues if you plan to track it, need an upgraded oil pan/baffle 

I bought a '99 C4 for a commuter.  I kept it for maybe four years and it was great, but I sold it for a few reasons.  It was too nice to drive in the snow and I didn't want to get stuck with the hot potato if the engine failed.  I miss driving it a lot though.

Last year, I bought this C4 and made it my daily. It is a really nice place to be and I enjoy driving it .  While I have been very happy with the reliability and how this car has run, the back of my mind is always worried about the one big thing that could ultimately end up having me parking this in my garage for a while.   But I am naturally a worrier with big ticket items like this.