NOW REALLY IS THE TIME TO BUY A 911...
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If you listen to all the doom and gloom merchants you'd never actually go out in a car! When you investigate in detail, however, now is an excellent time not only to own and drive a Porsche.... but to actually go out and BUY ONE! In this month's issue, we take a detailed look at the 911 market and find that there are some extremely tempting bargains to be had if you shop around. And we give you all the advice and help you'll need911 & PORSCHE WORLD PICNIC28th SEPTEMBER 2008
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EDITOR'S BLOG - Now's the time to buy that 911........
Things seem to be pretty gloomy at the moment, which is why it’s a good time to buy a Porsche. What? Have we gone mad?
No, on the contrary. If you’ve kept your fiscal powder dry (er, so to speak), then this is the time to swoop and pick up the car you’ve always wanted. The market for second hand cars might not be quite on the floor, but it’s certainly staggering around a bit and that applies to Porsches as much as anything. No, that doesn’t mean that ‘73 RS and pre-impact bumper cars are suddenly going to drop significantly – some cars are always going to be immune – but for everything else it’s game on.
In our latest issue we’ve cruised the dealers, spoken with those who know about these things and tested some bargain metal and none more so than the £15,000 996 that I found myself punting around for a couple of days.
I’d been down at my local Porsche specialist, Autowerke in Norwich, to drive a 993 at a realistic £22,000. Main man Matt Baxter nodded at the unassuming looking silver 996 Carrera 2 in the corner and dropped the bombshell: “yours for £15k,” he said. ‘What’s wrong with it?’ I retorted. The answer was 120,000-miles and a glut of equally silver and rather bland looking 996s on the market, most of them carrying that question mark over the longevity of the engine thanks to a cylinder liner problem that has effected some cars.
This early 3.4-litre 996 was a dead ringer for the first Porsche that I ever drove, a car that had a profound effect on me in terms of truly understanding what all the fuss was about when it came to the marque. Indeed it probably had something to do with me ending up in the Ed’s seat at 911 & Porsche World. I had it on test for a week and took it across Europe and to the Nurburgring for a few laps. A hit 180mph on the autobahn and back home charged around my favourite B roads. It’s value with the extras was about £75,000 and if anyone had told me then, eight years ago that the same car could be on my drive for £60,000 less, I’d have considered them to be one cylinder short of the full flat-six.
But here is the reality of Porsche’s move into the mainstream. The arrival of the 996 coincided with an economic boom and it’s a car that was attractive to a wider audience than any 911 that had gone before. Big sales eventually leads to lots of cars on the secondhand market and it’s not unusual to see a 996 adding a bit of bling to an otherwise ordinary non-specialist forecourt. Exactly the same thing happened with the 944 in the late 80s, early 90s.
But this 996 was at a specialist dealer and it had had a new proper Porsche engine at £8000, plus two previous owners and a fully stamped service history and news discs and pads all round. Matthew lobbed me the keys and off I went. Sure there was the odd creak and groan and a few scuffs but dynamically it was all there. It felt like the same car and it went like the same car and did it go? Lighter than the current 997 it feels more nimble, will crack 0-60mph in 4.6 secs and stomp on to what every darts player wants to score – for £15,000.
It’s at www.autowerkenorwich.co.uk but I might have got there before you.
Steve Bennett, editor, 911 & Porsche World
