997 Reliability Concerns

CK99Something · 8 Sep 2009

I've been looking around for a 996 for some time so I'm aware of the cylinder liner and RMS issues.

I was looking upto £30K for a late 4S but a friend has offered me a 2005 997 C2S for £32 with 45k as this was what a dealer offered him for the car. He has had a few warranty issues but nothing that would suggest the above problems.

I thought all the engine issues had been resolved with the 997 so I was a bit dismayed to see that there are a significant number of people saying their engines have let go.

This is a significant purchase for me and way above what I would normally pay for a car. I can't justify the £1400ish a year Porsche warranty and none of the specialists near me (south coast) offer warranties.

At the risk of starting another a the huge threads on here (and I do understand the disgruntled generally shout louder than the satisfied); does anyone have a real handle on the %age of these cars that do let go their engines and does anyone have an opinion on whether it's foolish to own one without any warranty?

I'm torn between owning the car of my dreams but ending up with a nightmare!!

baxster · 8 Sep 2009

Personally I would not buy a car without the warranty as the thought of paying 8k+ for an engine is not very appealing.
My advice would be seek out a car privatley or from a really good indy or opc making sure that there are no mods that could effect warranty renewal and suffer the 1400 notes each year, build in say part of that cost to any offer made.
If you buy privatley ask the owner if you can take it to an opc to get the 111 point check done and make sure there are no warranty exclusion issues, there have been stories of after market ipod interfaces invalidating warranties and refusal to renew. Good luck.

bigfish · 8 Sep 2009

It is a shame but the 997 is not as reliable as I thought

My engine went pop after 32k miles

And this weekend my mates went pop after only 10k miles!

So....go in with eyes open is my advice....but I would still lothe to lin Porsche pockets still wit £1400 per year warranty

But...if you buy your mates car...you do have a nice deal I think

northpole · 8 Sep 2009

I think I would hedge my bets - that's what I did when I bought my 996 - buy the car with a new warranty and you'll feel much better placed to make a decision on renewing the warranty after a year. I wouldn't have the courage to buy without.

Peter

Tiger911 · 9 Sep 2009

In my humble and respectful opinion I agree with the chap above.

Go for the one year £1400 payment. Reason being is you are torn between the car of your dreams and a Nightmare if gone wrong.

How to eliminate this nightmare and leave just the 'car of your dreams' is to go with the warrenty for one year. Do it its necessary by which time you will know the car well and if you feel any slight niggles in its performance then you can get it sorted.

After one year drop the warrenty as you know the car with thorough checks pretty well by then

HTH

CK99Something · 9 Sep 2009

Warranty for one year is a good idea.

It would be my daily drive so I would put some miles on and I would certainly be above 50K miles within the first year which some seem to think is where the danger passes.

The only concern with that is that I have seen on this forum that the OPCs 'find' all sorts of work that needs doing before they will put it back under warranty.

Hartech seem to do a good scheme but they are the wrong end of the country.

CK99Something · 9 Sep 2009

Just realised that the Porsche Warranty will only be in force after I've had the car for 90 days and knowing my luck thats when the motor would blow.

Has anyone hade any luck with 3rd party warranties?

GT4 · 9 Sep 2009

AFAIK any Insurance based warranty (ie 99%) will not payout/allow claim in the first 30 days/month. Even dealer warranties.

If a new or used car dies in this time it is down to the dealer in the first month. (obviously this is not relevent to your case, just FYI)

Bit of a scam really as they are sold as 12 month warranty etc, but only effective for 11 months!

The reasoning behind it is that they don'trwant people to take out warranty on the point of breakdown, then claim immediately!

The Porsche 90-day clause is similar (why should they miss out on a sale when you buy indy or private then lumber them with immediate big bills)

Bags · 9 Sep 2009

I can so relate to this. I've been a lurker here for a while and read this forum daily. After hearing for years that the 911 is the super car to have that not only can blow other marques into the weeds but can be used as a daily drive to the shops and back no trouble at all.

So, you save and save, search through Auto Trader every Monday and arrive at your perfect choice but then the snags hit and you realise that after all that time saving, it's only the people with deeper pockets than you that can afford to, not buy essentially, but keep on the road, the car of your dreams.

£1400 per annum for a warranty that you'll have to argue with your dealer once bought to get anything sorted, plus other parts that go wrong that really shouldn't, and the dream disappears.

Yes, I know forums are the place to go to be scared to death of any make and model but a second hand £100K car shold be there to be enjoyed, every day, surely?

Simon.

speedy_un · 9 Sep 2009

I enjoy mine everyday, have had niggles not problems, don't have to argue with my OPC (Cardiff - brilliant), don't have deep pockets, have the warranty (mad not to in my opinion) and enjoy every moment in the car.

Just don't go into 911 ownership thinking it's cheap - it isn't. The £1350 you pay for the warranty, plus the servicing costs (again, don't think this is cheap - even with 20k mile service intervals) mean that you will end up paying a fair bit to keep it on the road.

Who said 911 ownership was cheap? I think the point is that it is good value relative to what you will pay for other cars in it's class.

Also, what is written about 90 days is misleading - here is the actual text from the warranty booklet...

If the Manufacturer Warranty or Porsche Approved
Warranty has already expired, You can still
purchase a Porsche Approved Warranty, however,
an inspection of Your Vehicle will need to be carried
out by a Porsche Centre. If any Vehicle faults or
problems are identified during the inspection, they
will require rectification prior to a warranty being
issued to You. Such warranty will be referred to
as a Porsche Approved Standalone Warranty. To
be eligible to buy a Porsche Approved Standalone
warranty You must have owned Your Vehicle for at
least 90 days. In addition to this, Your Vehicle must
have a full Porsche Service History. If Your Vehicle
does not have a full Porsche Service History, a
major maintenance service is required prior to
the Vehicle inspection.

So you need to have owned the vehicle for 90 days.

Bags · 9 Sep 2009

Appreciated. I'm sure there are many, many 911 owners who have bought and never had a problem with their machine from the second they turn the key and it's smiles all the way.

Forums, a great source of help and knowledge, a great source of being scared to death.

GT4 · 9 Sep 2009

speedy_un said:
So you need to have owned the vehicle for 90 days.

This has the same effect (if not arguably greater) as the 1 month clause.

OK so when you do buy (are allowed to buy) the warranty you get the full 12 months, but for the function of removing pre-existing conditions from immediate claims it is actually much more effective, as you are unlikely to both have the car already broken (or on the verge of breaking) and wait/survive a further 90 days AND get it past the techies at 90 days.

The 90 day rule gives eligibility to having the 111 point test, which must be fulfilled, for the warranty to be offered!

Obviously a 111 point check on its own may be requested and paid for (sometimes used as PPI), but will not allow eligibility to warranty unless ownership has been for at least 90 days - and yes you need to take your V5 if they don't know you!

Obviously anything they find at inspection (and oddly they always seem to find a reason to change the RMS) will need to be rectified before the car qualifies for the warranty.

This is a nice sting in the tail aswell:

In addition to this, Your Vehicle must
have a full Porsche Service History. If Your Vehicle
does not have a full Porsche Service History, a
major maintenance service is required prior to
the Vehicle inspection.

So that money saved by the previous owner at JZM or other reputable, but indy, service centres comes out of your pocket in short order.

8 Steps to Pork freedom

1.) Buy Porsche (save a bit of money going non-OPC, just had a service, but not OPC, 4 new tyres, but not N-rated)
2.) Wait 3 months
3.) Strip out and throw away all the nice 3rd party stuff you bought this example for (tracker, exhaust, ipod thingies etc)
4.) Pay for big, probably out of schedule, service (approx £600 for 996 C2/4 £1,000 for 996TT)
5.) Pay for 111 point inspection (approx £200)
6.) Pay for all debateable repairs/maintenance RMS/N-rated tyres etc (approx. - use your imagination, then add a bit)
7.) Yippee - allowed to fork out further £1,400 for 12 mo warranty (OPC may reimburse inspection fee)
8.) Go play !!!

Senoj · 9 Sep 2009

if it's a friends car then get them to put the warranty on before you buy it, a current warranty is transferable on a private sale.

If it needs work to get the warranty then you'll have to negotiate that, and the warranty cost, in the deal.

MQ · 10 Sep 2009

CK99Something said:
I've been looking around for a 996 for some time so I'm aware of the cylinder liner and RMS issues.

I was looking upto £30K for a late 4S but a friend has offered me a 2005 997 C2S for £32 with 45k as this was what a dealer offered him for the car. He has had a few warranty issues but nothing that would suggest the above problems.

I thought all the engine issues had been resolved with the 997 so I was a bit dismayed to see that there are a significant number of people saying their engines have let go.

This is a significant purchase for me and way above what I would normally pay for a car. I can't justify the £1400ish a year Porsche warranty and none of the specialists near me (south coast) offer warranties.

At the risk of starting another a the huge threads on here (and I do understand the disgruntled generally shout louder than the satisfied); does anyone have a real handle on the %age of these cars that do let go their engines and does anyone have an opinion on whether it's foolish to own one without any warranty?

I'm torn between owning the car of my dreams but ending up with a nightmare!!

If you can't afford to put in a new engine or at least pay the £1400 a year for peace of mind then don't bother. Imagine the horror and your mates taking the mickey out of you for the rest of your time paying that piece of metal off that sits on your path without a £12k engine in it. Dreams are for dreaming, nightmares come true...

CK99Something · 10 Sep 2009

Senoj said:
if it's a friends car then get them to put the warranty on before you buy it, a current warranty is transferable on a private sale.

If it needs work to get the warranty then you'll have to negotiate that, and the warranty cost, in the deal.

Thanks Senoj, I had come to that conclusion myself and was going to check if there's any small print in the warranty to prevent this.

I cant negotiate on price as he's just offered me the car for what a dealer offered so if there are costs before a warranty is offered thats my call as to whether it's worth it. It just had a £700 service so I guess it shouldn't.

Its really hard to make a judgement as to whether you should ever end up owning a 911 without a warranty and how much you should listen to gripes on forums.

997 Reliability Concerns

CK99Something

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baxster

Monza

bigfish

Silverstone

northpole

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Tiger911

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CK99Something

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CK99Something

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GT4

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Bags

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speedy_un

Spa-Francorchamps

Bags

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GT4

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Senoj

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MQ

Sao Paulo

CK99Something

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