I?m moving to the Pacific Northwest and I?m looking to buy a ?99 996 C4 as my everyday car. Basically, I found one for 40k with 40k miles and all the features i want.
the car is a 6-speed and i?m wondering if there is anything i should look out for before buying like typical problems and so forth. i plan to use this as my everday car since i can?t afford a second car so, i?m wondering if rain tires or snow tires should be an investment. also, what sort of "cost of ownership" other than speeding tickets should i consider? i want to drive this car for at least a few years.
other than that, knowing any of the pitfalls i should avoid with owning a 911 would be appreciated.
am also contemplating the cayenne, but that car is just too much in terms of everything.
I have a 2002 C2 coupe, so the C4 is essentially alien to me. With Porsches in general, a good pre-purchase inspection by a qualified Porsche specialist is a must. You should also check the car's accident history.
Some 996s have experienced leaks at the rear main seal (RMS). These tend to be minor but annoying, so I'd check to see if the car has a history in that regard. My car had a two or three drop per week leak at about 5K miles that was cured by the installation of a redesigned seal. The car has over 24K miles now with no further incidents.
Check
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- they have forims devoted to specific Porsche models and also tech questions. they can be a good source of information.
With regard to rain or snow tires, I live in Southern California and don't take my car out on rainy days. From what I've read on Rennlist, C4 guys tend to say their cars do okay in rain and snow with the regular rubber.
The '99 996 has the 3.4 l engine, and while it lacks a little of the grunt associated with the 3.6l found in the 2002 and later cars, it's a very accomodating engine for just motoring about town, and it does OK when you open it up too.
Porsche recommends a 15K mile service interval on these cars, or an annual inspection for cars that travel less than 9K miles per year. Porsche recommends oil changes at 15K or two years, but even with synthetic I still change the oil annually. An oil change at the dealer will run you $125 to $175 depending on labor. Rennlist folks will be more than happy to school you on how to do it yourself, but the 996 is a very "black box" oriented car and outside of oil changes the dealer or a Porsche specialist with all the right machines is probably the one you want doing any serious work on the car.
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