Audi S8 Interior Screen Porsche 911 Key Curcuits
► Diary notes on long-term 997
►Year-long test of six-year-old 911
► Living the dream? Or a nightmare?
Month 13 running a used Porsche 997: the conclusion to our long-term exam
Is the engine in the incorrect place? Would Porschefying our lives ruin our depository financial institution balances? Can you possibly justify spending forty large on a vi-yr-onetime, out-of-engagement car? Would decades of rave reviews end up unravelling under the cold scrutiny of day-to-day life with a truculent, impractical status symbol? All these questions – and more – have been bubbling away during our year-long tenure of a secondhand 997.
We've learned from enquiry that ix-elevens nigh probable effigy in your dream garage: they hail from that mystical sweet spot between the exotic and the attainable, and past picking an approved used one we hoped to discover whether we could mitt-on-center recommend you lot follow suit.
The Porsche arrived simply in time for Le Mans 2014 and contributing editor Ben Oliver drove to La Sarthe as his kickoff assignment in the Carrera 2. Our spec was tantalisingly close to perfection: it's a second-generation 997 which ushered in the directly-injection flat-six and PDK twin-clutch machine, optioned with niceties such as zippily heated leather seats, extended nav package, Bluetooth phone connectivity and upgraded 19-inch alloys.
The car came from the Porsche Approved Pre-Endemic scheme, arguably the safest way to source your organic used Pork. With it comes the security of a two-year warranty and breakdown cover in case things go incorrect, and a 111-point neb of health and servicing top-up to make certain information technology doesn't. Yes, you lot'll find cheaper at supermarkets but we'd encourage you to check franchised dealers outset; their prices are on occasion closer to reputable specialists than you may think.
We made one change to FE59 SJY before commitment, swapping the crap gearchange buttons on the steering wheel for a more intuitive paddleshift. What a difference! The plus/minus buttons on early Gen 2 cars are banished forever – they're a rare Porsche imitation pas – and the satisfying clunk of metal paddle (so much ameliorate than an F-type'south) has been a highlight of 911 ownership this year. It did cost us £865, mind.
I ended upwards quite liking the PDK transmission. Damned with faint praise? Early on doors, I regretted our sports car not having the transmission only, after a twelvemonth of commuting and trudging to airports or around town, I'k almost convinced. You have to tap the Sport button outset, to sharpen the shift speed, as it's sluggish in motorcar mode. Truth is, the first-gen PDK isn't as slick as subsequently iterations, but the auto does add together an extra degree of flexibility to the repertoire. Driven in manual mode, information technology'due south virtually as satisfying as DIY.
With seven ratios, cruising is very relaxed indeed, the 3614cc flat-half dozen barmy away at just 1900rpm in tiptop. This helps fuel consumption and we were impressed by how close to the claimed average of 29.4mpg we came, routinely hitting 25mpg+. With a decent 64-litre fuel tank (iii litres down on Carrera 4s, anoraks), we enjoyed a frisson of reassurance every fourth dimension we filled up and saw 400 miles wink up on the predicted range.
Zippo broke or failed in our year with the 911. Faults can be summarised on the fingers of one hand: the PDK threw a wobble twice and went into neutral at low, nigh-boondocks speeds, but the trouble disappeared; a rear exhaust finisher came loose and ended upward at a wonky angle; and the front bumper had a small area of delamination, perchance subsequently a ability hose too many. But the 911 left us after nearly xiii,000 hard miles of daily driving feeling as tight as the mean solar day it arrived.
Palpable engineering integrity is ane of the crowning achievements of the 911. It feels so much better congenital than comparable exotica of this vintage – from the solidly assembled dashboard to the fashion it sits on the road, dives into corners and responds to every input into those precisely weighted, delicate pedals and (still hydraulically assisted) cycle. The leather hide felt like new, the air-con blew so cold we occasionally froze and the retro touches such as carpeted doors are beautifully finished.
Running costs were bearable, bar ane pricey visit to Mid-Sussex Porsche at 32,820 miles. The scheduled service at £398 was very reasonable, but three tyres (£853), bi-almanac brake fluid change (£114), six-yearly replacement filters, belts and fluids (£307), new catalytic converter heat shields (£241) and sundries sent the total spiralling to £2297. Exist reassured that 911s only need maintenance every two years or xxx,000 miles and those 19in N-rated Michelin Airplane pilot Sports had 5mm at every corner when it left usa.
Should you plunge your hard-earned into a like 997-era 911? Our experience would resoundingly support yous if you did. Its size remains a treat to use –narrow and wieldy enough to drive every day, the +2 seats smashing for kids – the drive never ceased to put a smiling on our face and the best bit is solid residual values: it's lost £9k in a twelvemonth, less than our new Seat Leon Cupra 280 did. Go along information technology for longer – or life – and you won't suffer that loss.
Past Tim Pollard
Month 12 running a used Porsche 997: just how bulletproof is an quondam(er) 911?
Has anything gone incorrect with our nigh-40,000-mile secondhand 911? Reliability has been robust for the by year, but we've had three blips in quick succession: ii minor cosmetic flaws and a rather more ominous PDK fault experienced by two colleagues.
Those quad exhausts are in fact strapped-on finishers. Peer inside and you'll see two smaller pipes within. Someone pointed out nosotros were suffering from wonky pipes, equally the right-hand pair had swivelled around. Easily solved past crawling underneath, adjusting the angle and tightening a bracket. Another fault belying this motorcar's six years is a modest area of peeling lacquer on the front bumper; information technology'southward not been hit, but I fear a ability wash too many may have stressed the top coat.
Of more business concern is the manual alarm light and lack of drive suffered by colleagues Ben Miller and Matt Tarrant, both at busy junctions. A simple switch-off-and-on routine fixed it both times and it'due south not reappeared since. Otherwise, the 997 continues to polish and the flat-half-dozen feels bulletproof.
Past Tim Pollard
Month 11 running a secondhand 911: how practical is a Porsche?
Cards on the tabular array: I've always preferred the mid-engined modernistic Porsches. My toxicant of pick? Cayman. So our year-long fling with a used 911 is a good examination of my loyalty. And I'm fast learning the packaging genius of shunting the apartment six engine backwards past a metre.
Information technology's the +two chip of the equation that is actually proving its worth. My kids are 8 and six and those rear pews transform the car from serious sports coupe into 18-carat, surprisingly practical family transport for those with pre-teenage youngsters.
Information technology'due south a tight fit to scramble past the front seats into the 2d row only once installed the children never complain, calling the deep rear buckets their 'thrones.' That they don't demand boosters back there (unlike in mummy'due south sensible crossover) is an added bonus. Rivals simply can't match this two+2 practicality, all thanks to that rear-engined layout.
I've nonetheless to fold the rear seats down to chuck more numberless back at that place, just information technology's useful to know you tin. The photo above isn't staged: you really can pack a lot into the 'frunk' of the 997, especially if you stick with soft, squashable numberless. Sharing much of their hardware, equally they do, the Cayman/Boxster twins echo the sizable kick play tricks fifty-fifty if they practise miss out on the occasional rear seats.
It's this versatility that worms its way into your angel as much as the Porsche's punchy performance, its switchback poise, the trusty reliability. Later all, if you can utilise a car more than of the time, that surely broadens its appeal and makes it a properly rounded daily driver. And that'south exactly what the 997 has become: a brilliant, versatile sports car.
By Tim Pollard
Month x running a Porsche 997: the rear seats for kids
Information technology might seem a strange question, but does a used Porsche 997 make a good family unit car? Depends on your kids. My two-yr-sometime was happy – the rear seats don't have Isofix, so your child seat needs to work with the diagonal seatbelt, only there's enough of room. (Isofix in the front end is a retrofit option.) My 17-twelvemonth-sometime was less happy: with his blood brother in the front end, seat pulled frontwards, poor Seth was all the same jammed in, head cocked because of the sloping roof. All of a sudden arriving at school in a Porsche didn't seem quite so cool.
By Mark Walton
Porsche 911 diary dates: the colour game
Is a Guards Ruby nine-eleven a bit besides clichéd? It'south a colour many associate with the yuppyish excesses of the 1980s, for certain, but I've come to appreciate it. As Ben Oliver notes in his introduction (lower downward this page), it is in fact the oldest colour in Porsche's colour chart, and then comes with some heritage. And in an age dominated by endless palettes of silver and - nowadays - omnipresent whites, it'due south a refreshingly well-baked, bright change. And if y'all can't take your sports motorcar in brilliant cherry-red, and then I tin can't recall of a more acceptable recipient.
The paint is impressively crisp and even and unblemished, with only a handful of mild rock chips to ruin its six-twelvemonth-old lustre. Seems to exist hard-wearing then. The only bit of trim where we tin can run across any sign of ageing is on the forepart bumper where a small area of lacquer appears to be peeling.
No complaints inside, where the 997 feels tight and wearing its age far amend than some of the flimsier brand-new long-termers we see laissez passer through our hands after one year. The leather is hard-wearing and durable, with just the right amount of patina and signs of comfy bottom-cradling after 40k miles. The seat padding itself is every bit good every bit new. As you can tell, life with our secondhand 911 is going rather swimmingly. It's a bright point in my motoring career.
By Tim Pollard
Month 9 running a Porsche 997 Carrera: playing the generation game
Might yous plow your carefully built-upward SCARF (or Sports Car Acquisition Rainy-24-hour interval Fund) into a used Porsche 911? Or will you exist forever worried about having yesterday's model? This strikes at the middle of our twelvemonth-long test of this 997, acquired through Porsche's ain approved used scheme. So when a brand-new 991 Turbo S Convertible recently passed through CAR Towers, it seemed remiss not to compare new and old. They're at opposite ends of the 911 periodic table, but this not a lab exam, information technology'due south an anecdotal glimpse at the motorcar'southward ageing process.
Our auto is now inbound its sixth twelvemonth and is begetting up remarkably well. Sling a private plate on our Carrera 2 and nobody would judge we're a generation backside. That Guards Carmine bodywork is in fine fettle and I'm relieved/delighted/ardent to written report that every 19in alloy is unblemished, even after 35k miles. Lined up abreast the newer 991, the evolution is noticeable, particularly since our Turbo wears the broad-hipped 4wd shell. New lamp graphics are another giveaway.
Within is another story. Or and then I thought… Mentally, I had pegged our 997's cabin as feeling its age and I've not actually clicked with the digital architecture of the centre console. Information technology's amazing how quickly we now expect niceties such as DAB radio equally standard (Fen FM is a scrap rubbish) and the old-school sat-nav graphics motility with an primitive judder.
So I jumped into the 991 expecting to fast-forward smugly into 2015 in a Matrix-like mistiness of binary clarity, simply honestly things didn't feel half dozen years improve. The digital centre is indisputably upgraded and the abrupt resolution of the sat-nav and switchable instrument read-out is heaps better. But I was left nonplussed. The blunderbussing of switches beyond the centre panel and manual tunnel has ever been messy, and I returned to the 997 really preferring its simpler ambience and black leather.
Less surprising are the mechanical upgrades on the latest 2+two. Although my least favourite 911, the Turbo South cab is withal a devastating machine: listen-warp rapid, swell steering, quiet and with a slickness of gearchange that highlights our PDK twin-clutch 'box's v1.0 condition.
Which auto would I sink my SCARF into? Putting to one side the – gulp – £107k price gap, I'd have our Carrera ii.
By Tim Pollard
Click here to read CAR'south Porsche 991 Turbo Cabriolet review
Porsche 911 diary notes: size, usability and sheer fun in spades
Unsurprisingly, our secondhand 997 is proving popular around these parts. Contributing editor Mark Walton snaffled the keys for a week as he headed due north on vacation. Editor Phil McNamara borrowed it for a trip to the West State at the weekend. Add in my ain Easter holiday and a trip to the New York motor prove plus a few diary clashes, and I've not driven the Guards Cherry-red Porsche for three weeks.
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and y'all can certain say that virtually the 911. I've driven information technology every night this calendar week and so far and reacquaintance has been a joy. The sun'southward shone, the terminal frosty clutches of winter are receding and the coupe'south dorsum in its chemical element.
Later on driving an array of other cars, returning to the 911 reminds of its biggest nugget: its size. Information technology's and so meaty and usable in modern-day Britain, that upright screen affording neat visibility where the Lexus RCF I drove at the weekend has A-pillars like a wrestlers' forearms. Threading information technology forth land lanes/city streets/anywhere is reliably a sure-fire.
And, at the take a chance of sounding similar a wimp, this machine is cementing my belief that the best models often lie at the bottom of a range. It might be heretical to say this around here, just I actually prefer the Carrera two to the upper-echelon Turbos and GT3s. I mean, who wants something faster than this 997.2 C2 PDK with the Sport Chrono pack that can crevice iv.5sec 0-62mph? That Lexus sounded improve, though - a reminder that our 911 sadly doesn't have the Porsche Sports Frazzle. A shame.
By Tim Pollard
Month 8 running a Porsche 997 Carrera: the 911 returns to Peterborough
It was likewise skillful an opportunity to pass up on. We sometimes swap buying of our long-term test cars to ensure multiple perspectives on the vehicles we alive with and drive 24/7. And when the chance arose to snaffle the keys to Ben Oliver'southward used 911 for the 2d half of our test, my hand shot upwardly faster than a grade swot's.
It'due south a great hazard to plug a five-yr-quondam 997 into my life and understand why this sports car is for many the definitive My Starting time Supercar. No, it has no warbling V8 or V12, the engine's not in the correct identify and it's clearly besides common to exist a existent supercar, but isn't the Porsche a good first step up the ladder?
Transfer from Chez Oliver on the due south coast to CAR HQ in Peterborough coincided with the onset of winter, then the first months were spent pussyfooting effectually getting to know each other. Happily, handling has been remarkably surefooted even in light snow and ice, and I've been impressed by the 911'south pert dimensions, commencement-first-time reliability and toasty heated seats that take the chilly border off the motel at réveil.
A few colleagues report that demisting takes longer than information technology should, but I've yet to find. I'm as well busy enjoying the classic 911 motifs, evolved at a glacial stride but looking all the improve for a light smear of wintry muck.
By Tim Pollard
Month 7 running a Porsche 997 Carrera: service time
Better reliability and longer service intervals mean 'our' cars seldom see a iv-postal service lift while in our care. Hence your interest in our used Porsche 911 Carrera. You practice have to pay for servicing, and you probably wonder what sort of carnage a secondhand exotic would inflict on your finances were you brave enough to buy ane instead of some other new 3-series.
Well, hither's a fractional answer. The last matter I did with our 911 before sending it up to CAR HQ for my colleagues to bulldoze was to book it in for a minor service with my local dealer, Mid-Sussex Porsche. That 'minor' service on a car just over 5 years onetime and with 32,820 miles on the clock, was, including the VAT, £2297.08.
Phone call that minor?! Cue dozens of readers abandoning the thought of buying a used 911. Just await! That number includes iii new tyres: the rears were shot, unsurprisingly, and there was a bulge in one of the fronts. The £710.91 ex VAT to replace them is about 20% more than the quotes I had from two major online discounters, so a few quid could accept been shaved there, if I'd had the time. The service itself was £398.39, of which labour was £180. The car likewise needed its bi-annual brake fluid change (£113.96) and its six-yearly service items which seemed decent value at £307.46 all-in for air filters, PDK clutch fluid alter and a new auxiliary bulldoze belt.
A drone from the exhaust was traced to corroded catalytic convertor heat shields, both of which needed replacing at £241.xv. An occasional crepitate from the front suspension was traced to a control arm which will be replaced later nether the 2-year Porsche approved warranty. New wipers, a new encompass for the warning triangle which was eaten by mice (further harm was investigated just not plant) and new coat claw for a Skoda-like £16.82 rounded out the bill.
It was large, just with the exception of the cat heat shields, none of information technology was either unexpected, nor particularly expensive. The dealership feel was slick, very time-efficient and felt suitably 'premium'; thanks, Jackie. Reassuringly for side by side time, the front discs and pads were only showing twenty% habiliment, and the rears ten%.
This motorcar is proving our initial theory that with a decent warranty, you ought to be able to calculate your known service costs and likely depreciation, and figure out how much the thing is going to cost y'all. Running a 911 volition never be cheap, but a motorcar like this needn't be ruinous either.
By Ben Oliver
Month half dozen running a Porsche 997 Carrera: the large question - used Porsche or Maserati?
I feel terrible about writing this, but I'm going to anyway. I recently had lunch with a mate who knows a bit about fast cars: he works for the Bloodhound country-speed record project. He has just bought a 32,000-mile, 2006 Maserati GranSport: a tweaked version of the old Coupe with its Ferrari-sourced 4.two-litre V8. Like me, he has two kids, and he bought the Maserati because it's an Italian sports car with a V8, but also because information technology has semi-usable rear seats. He didn't endeavour a 911 get-go. He wanted to see upwards and drive mine to see if he'd made a terrible mistake. The wait on his confront told me that he knew he had, despite the Porsche'south smaller rear perches.
I drove his Maserati, and was frankly pretty shocked at how information technology has aged. The switchgear is flimsy, the suspension is hard and rattly, and the flyweight throttle and Cambiocorsa paddle-shift transmission gearbox feel under-engineered. The engine is lovely, but after my rock-solid, basically as-new five year-old Porsche, the Maserati merely feels similar a big garage neb waiting to happen. Information technology reminded me why 911s make such a smart secondhand buy. Oh, Richard, I'one thousand so deplorable. I know you love your car, but you should have tried a 911 first.
By Ben Oliver
Calendar month 5 running a Porsche 997 Carrera: we catch a mouse in the frunk!
I worry about the bang-up piles of useless motorcar knowledge that lie like snow-drifts in my mind. When I opened the bonnet of the 911 to find rodent damage, from the dustiest corner of my brain came the fact that onetime tennis ace Sue Barker's Ferrari 550 Maranello suffered thousands of pounds of damage when a mouse chewed through the wiring.
I had to Google this to be certain that I hadn't only dreamt it. The Sun did report information technology, merely that doesn't make it true. Anyway, neat to avoid Sue's misfortune (and neb) I decided to lay a mousetrap (first time I've done that in a car) and returned with one only to detect the mouse looking upward at me, before scurrying behind a plastic console.
By next morning, it was an ex-mouse. See the value of these long-term tests In the fifty years CAR has been driving 911s, nosotros never knew that the 'frunk' isn't rodent-proof. I appreciate that this won't be an effect for most 911 owners, whose cars live in garages like operating theatres.
Mine lives in a barn. Still, they read these reports in Stuttgart, then the next-gen 911'south boot will now be like Fort Knox to mice. And you lot volition never forget that a mouse ate Sue Barker'south Ferrari.
Past Ben Oliver
Calendar month 4 running a Porsche 911 (997) Carrera: Ben Oliver gets tested/tortured at Porsche's Human being Performance Centre
Then after years of testing Porsches, it was finally Porsche's turn to test me: its hazard to exact revenge for the years of torture I have inflicted on its tyres, brakes and clutches. I expected it to exist painful, and it was.
For nearly Porsche owners, a trip to the Porsche Experience Centre aslope Silverstone's Hangar Straight is a pleasant twenty-four hours out. Admission to the swanky clubhouse and the three miles of private test track (built on the erstwhile rally sprint circuit, used in Rally GB) are a considerable perk of Porsche buying. Purchase whatever new Porsche and you become a 90-minute session with i of the centre'south 'driving consultants' designed to get you comfortable with your new car's ability, and demonstrate how its rubber systems might save your ass. Equally well equally the handling circuit and a new set of straights for full-bore acceleration and braking, there'southward a depression-grip area, an 'ice hill', and a kick-plate which will snap your car'due south rear end out in a random direction for you lot to salvage (or in my case, on several occasions, fail to).
If you're a really serious client, Porsche might also send you lot hither to collect your 918 or your GT3, or even let yous take a back-to-dorsum test in cars with different specifications if y'all're having difficulty deciding what options to tick. Given that ceramic brakes lone tin toll equally much as a decent family car, it seems only fair to offering yous a exam-drive.
Y'all don't automatically get a session at the middle if you buy an approved-used 911 like mine, but if you're spending plenty you can probably sugariness-talk your dealer into sending you. And anyone can purchase their way onto one of the 'experience' sessions in a specific Porsche model, or onto i of the longer courses designed to improve your driving skills.
Given the towering ability of most modern sports cars, if you want to go faster the start matter y'all should amend is yourself. The Porsche Feel Eye doesn't limit that to driving skills. It's also dwelling house to the Human being Performance Centre, run by a bunch of sadists with sports science degrees and past lives in the Spanish Inquisition. They have strong history of making fast blokes fitter. Mark Webber is a regular, and I nearly fainted at the sight of the 74 year-one-time Richard Attwood, i of my great heroes and Porsche's commencement Le Mans winner in 1970, pictured in the brochure stripped to the waist on the treadmill having the special medical that 'senior' racing drivers require. The FIA should merely give him a lifetime pass.
You lot don't need to have a 911 to use the place, but information technology is a nice way to arrive. I booked in for a trunk composition assay, in which a clever motorcar calculates what proportion of your body mass is h2o, skeleton, muscle and pie, and for a lactate-threshold exam that helps you fine-tune your training. This 1 is properly cruel. You cycle for iii minutes at a power output of 100 watts, afterward which someone sticks a needle in your finger to measure out the lactic acid in your claret. Then they up the ability by 25 watts for another three minutes, and jab you lot again. They keep doing this until you lot're striking your personal rev limiter and have the heart'south staff (and in my case, Le Mans winner and ex-F1 driver David Brabham, who just happened to be passing) standing around the bike, shouting at you and getting the adjacent needle prepare.
My ain operation figures were rather less impressive than those I've extracted from Porsches over the years. Merely despite the dissolute lifestyle of the motoring journalist it seems I'one thousand less shut to death than I thought, and you might be reading my words for longer than you'd hoped. I left with the facts I needed to amend my ain operation to friction match that of my glorious 911, and, after a quick spin around the centre'due south newly expanded tracks, a clear plan to come back and explore my car's limits, rather than my ain.
By Ben Oliver
Month 3 running a Porsche 911 (997) Carrera: some of the tech is 10 years old
I am aware of how lucky I am to be driving a 911 every solar day. If any of the post-obit observations seem churlish or spoiled, don't hate me. The purpose of this test is to see what it's like to live with a last-generation 911. That involves accepting that in return for a thumping saving on the price of a new auto, your automobile won't be the latest thing.
As previously reported, this matters less in a car equally timeless as a 911 than it might in some others. You need a second look to tell my 997 from the newer 991, and Porsche cabins are so well-made that it feels as if these cars and the cockroaches would be the but things to survive nuclear holocaust. My car laughs in the face of the 26,000 miles it endured earlier coming to me.
Only I'm also lucky enough to get to bulldoze the very latest kit as function of my 'job'. I'm aware of how rapidly automotive tech is moving on; just how much new car my 911's even so-considerable £43,850 would also become you, and how much you're foregoing by going used.
Mine is a second-generation and much updated 2009 997, but the car was originally launched in 2004, and much of it was unchanged in the update. And some of it does feel a decade old. Information technology's not of import if you merely want this automobile for the way it drives, but may be significant if you need to use it every day, as I practise. Yous can spot the car'south age in the yellowy cabin lights (a £44k new automobile would accept LEDs) and in the handbrake, which requires you to pull on an actual lever yourself.
These things are noticeable to someone used to the latest models, but not important. But the inaccurate saturday-nav, clunky iPod and phone interfaces and the lack of some useful recent innovations like active cruise and digital radio remind you that five years – let alone x – is a long time in technology.
By Ben Oliver
Month 2 running a Porsche 911 (997) Carrera: joining the hamlet motorcar show
Long, hot summer days and Guards Red Porsche 911 ownership are seriously detrimental to the productivity of the self-employed. Fortunately, I can't actually see it from the window of my part at home, or I'd get no piece of work done at all.
When you lot're calculating the total price of ownership of a used 911, you lot're not being honest if you don't include the value of the hours lost to 25-mile round trips to get a pint of milk. Or you tin see it the other way, and justify the price with the fact that you're ownership not only practical everyday transport – which this machine is proving to be – but likewise a leisure action: though at that place's nada specially leisurely nigh the way it goes down the road.
Certainly, there's little I could have bought new for the same money that would accept won me invitations to exhibit at both our village 'vintage' motorcar shows. Villa d'Este and Pebble Embankment take nothing to fear from this corner of rural Sussex, yet.
But there was an impressive plow-out, including Edwardian Renaults and de Dions, a Model T, a pair of '30s Rolls-Royces, various E-Types, and an ex-Duncan Hamilton Jaguar C-Type (the very first) towed by a MkVII saloon. Fifty-fifty against that lot, the 911 drew plenty of interested visitors. It might exist a piffling more frequently seen, simply it'south even so one of the earth'due south great cars.
By Ben Oliver
Month 1 running a Porsche 911 (997) Carrera: introducing our second-paw 911 test
As first drives in a new Porsche 911 go, this must rank pretty highly. Sun shining. Walk upwardly to Guards Red 911, pop the front lid, throw in an overnight bag, then get behind the bicycle and drive from Sussex to Le Mans to watch Porsche'south works render to the world's greatest race after too long an absence.
And there was no pesky running-in catamenia to spoil the fun. FE59 SJY is, you lot will have noticed, a three-and-a-half year old, 2nd-generation 997, and arrived showing 26,601 miles. Virtually all the long-term examination cars nosotros run are box-fresh, and might non even demand a service in the course of a yr'due south utilise. A twelvemonth in a new car is withal revealing, and our experience useful to anyone considering ownership ane. But it doesn't reflect how many of us purchase cars. Some of us will buy simply used, and about of u.s. will consider swapping new-machine aroma for the pleasure (and associated risk) of buying something previously cherished, but two rungs upwards from what we could afford to buy new.
Click hither for our original Porsche 997 review.
Research tells us that for many of you lot that wild-carte du jour used-car buy is a Porsche 911. Experience tells usa that the 911 is so phenomenally well-fabricated that nix should become incorrect in year one. Lilliputian is likely to go wrong in years iv to five either, simply this test should even so brand for a more interesting, relevant read.
And if at that place is a rainy day, nosotros have the umbrella of the Porsche Approved Used scheme to protect us. It supplied our car, which has been through the scheme's 111-point check and benefits from a comprehensive ii-twelvemonth warranty, which is effectively the aforementioned as that given to new cars. Once issued, mileage is not limited, which might exist useful given the 1000 miles I put on my car in its kickoff weekend with me. And the 2-twelvemonth Porsche breakdown cover specifically includes recovery from a racetrack, which is generous and advisable, but I hope unnecessary.
The theory is that with this kind of cover, you lot ought to be able to extrapolate your known costs (big services, etc) over the length of time y'all program to keep the car, take a reasonable stab at likely resale value (not hard to work out, and the worst depreciation has passed) and summate with some confidence what driving one of the world's smashing sports cars volition toll you. It will compare more favourably than y'all might call up with buying something more mundane, simply new.
(Please excuse the digression into service costs and depreciation4 and fuel economy hither: I haven't forgotten to be stupidly excited about driving a 911 for a year, but this stuff is important, right?).
To dial up the affordability angle to this story, and give me the man-maths ammunition to justify running a 911 rather than another sensible diesel fuel, I was assault having a base Carrera. It's easy to forget how gob-smacking this 2d-generation 997 was when it was launched in summertime 2008. It got bigger brakes, a mild suspension rethink that finally tamed the 911'south nose-bob, and LED daytime running lights that are among the few ways to spot it from a first-gen car.
Merely more importantly, not but was it the offset Porsche to become the house's PDK twin-clutch gearbox, but information technology too had an effectively all-new engine. Lighter, smaller, set lower in the chassis, with lower friction and a Bosch direct-injection system, information technology pulled off that rare fox of managing both a pregnant increase in power – upward 20bhp over the old unit of measurement, to 341bhp – and an equally significant decrease in consumption and emissions: downwards 15% to simply 225g/km. That still sneaks it inside ring K for road revenue enhancement, and will save you effectually £200 a year on anything vaguely comparable. And it will do 0-60mph in 4.7 seconds, or 4.5 if fitted with the optional Sport Chrono Plus pack, as mine is. iv.five seconds! What am I doing at my desk writing this?
The 997 was launched in 2004, and this major revision wasn't perfect. The exhaust note was muted and the cycle-mounted button-shifters were bafflingly crap, given that Porsche says it waited a quarter of a century betwixt competing at Le Mans with a PDK 'box in a 956 in '83 and putting information technology in a route car in '08 to ensure it was 'entirely perfect'. It wasn't. Those buttons were Porsche's biggest engineering science mis-stride in years. A paddle-shift option was soon offered, and the buttons subsequently forgotten.
One of the joys of an approved-used scheme is that it'south well-nigh equally good equally speccing a car yourself, especially if you lot're prepared to be patient. Buying a car at around three years former makes things even easier, as a lot come off lease and back into the dealer network at this age, so there'due south more choice.
This car was chosen by Porsche to all-time represent their used offerings, and not by me. Had I been choosing for myself, I'd take picked a more subtle colour for daily use, and the sweet, simple v-spoke cycle. I'd have opted for the sports seats, equally I find the squab in the standard seats also flat, and I'd have tried to find a auto with the optional sports exhaust.
Most of all, I'd accept picked a machine without those bloody buttons, but the proficient news is that Porsche can supersede them with a new cycle and paddles for a very reasonable £864.71, and yous become to continue the old wheel to throw rotten vegetables at. And so I had that washed, and will too retro-fit ISOFIX mounts and airbag deactivation in the front end, then I can carry our 16-month-former male child.
Merely the fact that this isn't my personal choice of spec won't colour the experience. Yous'll exist able to get pretty close to your ideal 911, and frankly, there's no such affair every bit a bad one anymore. This car, before the mods, was offered at £43,850, against a list toll of £62,899 new, and £69,538 with options at '09 prices. Those include the PDK box (£2288 at the time), the 19-inch upgrade wheels (y'all won't find many on the standard 18s) and inside, the extended nav package, heated seats, rear park assistance, Bluetooth, an iPhone connexion and contrast cherry stitching.
Information technology looks sensational. The Guards Red – the oldest colour in Porsche's pigment pots – and the wheels are both growing on me, but that'southward purely subjective. The standard, unadorned narrow-trunk 911 is a pretty thing, and although we criticised this 2nd-gen 997 at launch for not signalling its engineering advances more than clearly with a new look, you'll exist glad of Porsche'south glacial rate of design evolution when yous buy used. This still doesn't look similar a superseded model, even when parked next to a 991, every bit it was oftentimes at Le Mans.
The wheels and bodywork show non a sign of the car'due south (now) 28,000 miles. Same inside: other than some light scuffing to the kickplates, this looks and smells similar the 997 press cars I was driving until recently. The front seats seem miraculously unworn, and those rears await like they've hardly been saturday in (this is a joke). The controls feel equally tight and consistently heavily weighted as ever, but that's to be expected. 28,000 miles won't problem a 911 much.
And that showtime bulldoze? Every bit special as you lot might wait, and a foretaste of how good a year in a 997 might be. On the long drag down to Le Mans, its manners were perfect, the PDK'southward super-overdriven 7th giving an like shooting fish in a barrel, efficient prowl, with 28mpg and 300 miles between fills at a faster autoroute pace than we might choose in the UK. Around the tight corners and over the odd cobbled dips of the medieval eye of Le Mans information technology was wieldy and stress-free, unlike anything more than exotic. Merely like those exotics, which abound at Le Mans, it nonetheless got the crowds excited plenty to take its photo as it passed, and me excited enough to get drawn into a too-quick convoy on the way habitation which resulted in a cursory, cordial and costly conversation avec les flics.
But almost importantly, I swear I could feel the sway of that ancient excursion in the auto that took me there: in its utter unburstability, in its meaty, deliberate controls, in the annotation of the flat-half dozen engine blueprint which has lapped Le Mans more often than any other. Other brands talk about the link between their road and race cars, but in a Porsche you only feel information technology. No disrespect to Audi, but even later on all their wins at La Sarthe yous're not going to experience that in the mildly specced-upward ii.0-litre TT you lot could buy new for the same coin. I think it'southward going to exist a skilful year.
Past Ben Oliver
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