Simon as Terry said prices of 997.1 are moving up slowly and 997.2 the depreciation is slowing as they are hitting the bottom of the depreciation curve.
You could get into a good gen1 for circa 28k and a good gen 2 for circa 38k depending on mileage and spec that price could be a few K higher or lower.
Chrono is a sports setting with a lap clock on the dash so you get sport on or off this firms the ride and changes the map to a more sporty mode the tip also gets a sports gear change . on the gen2 cars the PDK also gets sports plus with launch control.
If you buy a gen1 with an X51 power kit its 385 bhp over the 355 bhp stock
but they generally command a few K more to buy. there are lots of mods you can do to the gen 1 to get the power up quite easily.
re the exhaust the PSE is an option but if you find a gen 1 you like then £750 would buy you a valvetronic sports cat back set up with a remote control to turn it on or off.
RE THE MAN MATHS and locking up your cash info to pacify the other half
gen1 cost 28k keep for 4 years as a second car so 7k miles pa resale 22/24k minimum ave. depreciation 1k pa maximum more likely with prices moving up that would be zero loss maybe even a small gain. but at worst case mot much money to run a 911 as your toy £280 pa tax and low mileage
Insurance for a few pounds a month. service every 20k although I would do oil changes more often than that.
gen2 cost 38k keep 4 years maybe a little higher depreciation but not much, the rest of the numbers are very much the same.
If your financing the purchase then the gen2 will cost more in interest and repayments than the gen1.
Both are very good cars and pretty bullet proof the gen1 has the concern that maybe 10% or so will suffer borescore but that means 90% won't . just get a borescope done circa £200 as part of your ppi and you can be sure you have a good one.then a proper warm up regime staying under 3k rpm until up to temp and regular oil changes maybe change to millers nano oil and fit a low temp thremostat and your good to go.
If your only compromise from the SWMBO is an older cheaper 997.1 then remember pre march 06 cars most had the smaller IMS bearing and you would need to factor 1k for the upgrade as this can be a catastrophic failure if it goes.
hope that helped a bit .
:thumb: :grin: