Best year to buy a 911

obi_waynne

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What years are the best ones for the 911? Do you prefer the air cooled or water cooled? Turbo or non turbo?

What about the stripped out GT models and the Carreras?
 
If the prices are anything to go by a 993 turbo is the best model. Last of the air cooled models with excellently dynamics mixed with old school 911 swithgear and noise, absolutely brilliant. They are fetching more money then a 996 turbo now in some cases :shock: The 996 was the first of the water cooled engines and has a lot more modern interior and is suited to someone using their 911 as a more everyday car. For me any of the turbo cars are very special :love:
 
For overall value for money I'd say an aircooled. I know you can get a 996 quite cheap, but a 3.2 Carrera will hold is value all day long. Mind you Im a little biased :)
 
I bought a 1993 964 C2, spent a bit of money on lightened valve springs, a cam profile a chip and some exhaust work. Im stoked! Goes like the clappers and still a classic 911 air cooled without any "turbo" issues. A can even afford to insure it. They are getting a little exe now but after 2 years mine has appreciated noticeably.
 
An appreciating car price is perfect! I wonder how residuals will fare over the next few years. You'll have to post up some pics for us Craig when you get to 10 posts oh and a warm welcome to TorqueCars, nice to meet you.
 
Yes I very happy. Here in Oz we haven't suffered to much from the financial crisis so we haven't had much of dip in the residual for cars a few years old. There were some bargains in late 08 if you had big money to spend but life for us mere mortals wasn't bad. I'll stick up some photos soon. cheers
 
I bought a 1993 964 C2, spent a bit of money on lightened valve springs, a cam profile a chip and some exhaust work. Im stoked! Goes like the clappers and still a classic 911 air cooled without any "turbo" issues. A can even afford to insure it. They are getting a little exe now but after 2 years mine has appreciated noticeably.

The 964's are a great a buy. They were a high tech revolution in their day and their 3.6 engine is bullet proof. They seem to be appreciating while the later 996's are depreciating. Good buy!
 
Welcome Craig from a fellow Porsche nut. 964 excellent car, classic looks, love to have one in my garage. I'm with the front engine brigade at the moment though :toung:
Have you got the full whale tail aswell, love those. What's best about these classics is they hold there value, my 22 year old 944T is more valuable than my 4 year Golf GT :lol:
Glad to hear your're enjoying your Porsche, it's what they were built for. Is it your first Porsche?

Andy
 
Now the sun is shining I am yet again hankering after a Porsche, So do I blow a small wad on a cheap 944 or save for a few years and get a 911 (Possibly dreaming anyway) So which 911 overall represents best value for money and is noted for reliability and lesser maintenance? 964, 933 etc? Thanks
 
Hi Aston mate, still looking ;) Pete's the one to ask about 911's as he owns one but the modern water cooled 996 models are still dropping sharply, seen £12k and less for 10 year old cars :eek: these will give a modern drive and mechanics and all the engine problems on the early cars will have been sorted by now. All the air cooled models are still holding well there was an 3.2 targa at the Charterhouse auction last week £18k! 944s are not shifting still but you are looking at the youngest ones being 20 years old so expect bills as when cars get this cheap the first thing to go is the major servicing. There's a tidy 944 turbo well known club member car going for £4800 with plenty of mods and servicing done :blink1: Don't forget the baby Boxster aswell, they're heading towards the £5k budget. Not my thing but a lot of performance with modern mechanics. There's a club display at Downton car show soon, I won't be there but Nick, Jim etc will be there to have a chat.
 
Maybe not the best buy but something I have in my garage waiting to be restored after the stagea and GTR are finished (which will probably be sometime :sad2: )

I have owned it for the last 25 years . Its a 1973 targa which came out the factory like the pic ( except rear spoiler) with carerra decals and front spoiler from THE original carrera of that year.
I even have the fsh from new ,mileage is 98.000 and I am only the fourth owner
image-4-1.jpg
 
That's nearly as old as me Sleeper, and probably in better condition. :D

:lol::lol::lol:

Latest June issue of Classics Cars dropped through the letterbox this morning. Has a 9 page special on buying a classic air cooled 911 for £15k budget from all eras with cars and info being supplied by PCGB and TIPEC members :D General opinion is the same advise as from the clubs, go test drive as many as you can to get a feel of them.
 
Mine just needs 4 wings , inner and outer cills and door shuts . Mechanically its good .
Its still worth doing as a mint example with full service history history will always be highly sought after.

A few other things about early 911s if anyone is looking for one .

Early 911s are particually difficult to find in top condition because Pre 76 cars were not fully galvernised and tend to rust quite badly . In fact most early UK cars including mine seem to catch the iron leprosy

Also a lot were fitted with the later impact bumpers , This was considered at the time to be a really nice upgrade but that was then . Now an unmolested car will be worth much more.
Trouble is to fit the impact bumpers you had to cut away a small part of the chassis . This included the mountings for the earlier bumpers . It is very difficult to change things back.
Also check that if it is supposed to be the model it says it is - a lot of cars have engine swops and again original condition is everything .

You can get the origanal factory spec of any 911 by writing to porsche with the chassis number. I dont know if its still free but it used to be and although it took a while they were usually very helpful

Finally if you are looking at an early UK 911s and see a pre impact bumper car advertised as original with no rust get it checked by somone who knows what to look for because its probably to good to be true .
 
the greatest porsches are the 1978 - 85. 930, 3.0 - 3.4 ltr turbos very quick and still bring high prices

Greatest porsche ever is without doubt the first and original 911 rs carrera

Manufactured in 1973 and about as rare as a three legged chicken

As for a porsche still fetching high prices this model makes your 930 look positively cheap.
 
I've spent weeks reading about purchasing a 911 and it seems for absolute reliability over other 911's the 3.2 carrera with the g50 gearbox is possibly the best buy however the older 3.0 SC isn't far behind with the 915 gearbox, but as with all older motors at this age you have to look at every car individually, Interestingly the LHD cars are much nicer than the RHD cars to drive (Due to the pedals being offset amongst other things, Something else I was surprised to read was that the engines are good for 200k and the gearboxes 100k (I would expect much more from Porsche TBH)
 
^^ I must admit to being a little surprised by that also aston, 100k for the life of a gearbox! Not sure about that at all as I can imagine that to buy a replacement and to have it fitted is mucho dinero.
 
Sorry but I have to question a few things - posting something doesnt make it so.

gearboxes last more than 100k for sure

The thing about lhd handling better doesnt have any factual basis apart from the fact that they were originally designed lhd. This was only because germany drives on the left !
In fact 911s are one of the few cars where the steering rack isnt split unevenly. This means that lhd/rhd swop doesnt involve a steering rack change. (not on the earlier 911s anyway) so theoretically they should handle the same

and 2K for an engine rebuild ???

well over £3k for a top end rebuild and that was in 2004. You wont get change out of £10k to do a complete top to toe engine rebuild with genuine parts AT TODAYS PRICES.
Ive got receipts for my rebuild and that was nearly £5k over twenty years ago.
 
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