996 c2/4 or BMW E63 M6

mpowerrob · 23 Sep 2019

Hi all, As the title says I'm looking at buying either a manual Porsche 911 996 c2/c4 or a BMW e63 M6.

Now they are both very different cars in soo many ways but both ridiculously good value and roughly the same price to by used, both suffer from a few big issues but are sure to be future classics.

Question is which would be the better buy in terms of reliability, driving experience and future classic values. It would be used as a weekend car and will only cover around 3k mikes per year.

All advice Is appreciated but If anyone has experience of both cars your advice would be really great.

Wh1t3Kn1ght · 23 Sep 2019

IMO they are two cars designed for totally different purposes, one is a 2+2 little light sports car for having fun in and the other is a GT touring car which is significantly larger and heavier.

So really it depends what you are after in a driving experience? I see you already have a 996 Turbo - do you really want two 996s? or are you thinking of getting rid of the Turbo and replacing it with a C2/C4?

I haven't driven an M6 but two of my friends have had them (I've been a passenger) and personally I'd compare them to the Audi A5/S5, Porsche 928 etc. Big luxury GT car not really a small point and shoot sports car like a 996.

EG-C4 · 23 Sep 2019

I've no experience of the M6 but have run an E63 635d alongside a C4 for the past five years with both doing reasonable mileages in that time (75k and 15k respectively roughly).

The 6er is probably the best kept secret in the BMW range but as above I would agree that it's not a sports car - it's a firm, bullish, brilliant GT car that can be hustled. It's effortlessly fast and covers a huge number of bases really very well. But it's not a 911 and is nothing like as precise and involving. I've never found that it really encourages you to drive the wheels off it on a back road and it doesn't have that sense of telepathic analogue connected flow that the 911 chassis does. That said, I've done several trips out to the Alps and it's been brilliant as a long distance companion and certainly no disgrace on the twisty stuff.

Obviously mine's a humble oil burner (albeit not to be underestimated in terms of usable pace and 500+ mile range) so sticking a rip-snorting V10 in the front is obviously going to change the experience somewhat. But, I don't think it would fundamentally change the chassis feel of the car - a point which was made by Autocar when they road tested an M6 against an early 997 back in the day. PM me an email address and I'll scan you the article if you like.

Rear seating in a 6er is not great - really they're small adult only (ie less than 5'10") because there's very limited headroom. But you can happily use them as luggage or labrador space. Boot space is usefully large. All up it's surprisingly practical for a lengthy road trip. So it wins against the 911 for boot space and labrador storage in the back if that sort of thing features in your decision.

A good friend had an M6 and absolutely hated the SMG gearbox to the point where it forced him to sell so you might want to check out whether you can live with it or whether it would drive you bonkers before dropping cash one way or the other.

Anyway, sorry not directly relevant to your question but hopefully some help!

996 c2/4 or BMW E63 M6

mpowerrob

Monza

Wh1t3Kn1ght

Montreal

EG-C4

New member

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