911

Ok, I am 50 next year and am now at the point in my life where I can afford to spend, shall we say up to £50,000 on a car, but I am not prepared to buy a new one, no thank you, I want someone else to pay the depreciation.

So I have decided to buy a used 911, what do you recommend?
I must admit to being somewhat confused by the 911 range, so any advice much appreciated.

I think there are several people who have lost their 911 cherry on here, so hopefully they will give their informed opinion.

My first (uninformed) question is: sensible or air-cooled?

Brewster is your man I think though not seen him about much.

Does it have to be a 911 or would a high end Cayman R also be an option?

I did consider a Cayman BUT I feared that however good it was, I would be asking myself, "How much better is the 911?"

I think a water cooled one.

I really have this one opportunity to own a "supercar" and need to get it right.

I totally agree that a 911 is the supercar of choice unless you're blessed with many options and bottomless finance!
Please make the most of your opportunity - I'm vicariously living it through you!

Gt4, best you can get as an all rounder. Gt3 if you want leary crazy arse action.

Does it have to be a 911? Some nice Aston Martins in that price range.

I wouldn't go Aston Martin but that's just my preference for your price range you can pick up a 996 turbo for that money maybe a 997 depending what year.

Get a turbo, just to stay away from all of the crap about IMS and bore wash etc. Why spend £20-50k on a car where the engine could self-destruct without warning. I know it is a rare problem, but it is a worry with all that money out there (re-builds ca. £10k). Turbos use race proven Metzger engine free of issues.

Aston Martin out of the equation after a mate got a DB9 and its been nothing but problems, spends most of its life at the dealers.

For me it's simple. Get the highest model you can. It may mean it's a few years older than some of the others you could own but you won't be left thinking if only I'd......

997 Turbo. A friend had one and it is crazy fast.

With a £50k budget why not consider a Ferrari 355 or 360 ?
The values are on the up.

Values for 355's have shot up in the past year, from a typical £30k+ to £50k+ now so there's not much at or below £50k unless LHD or a dozen previous owners. For the 911 you'll be looking at the older/cheaper "996" (with Boxster style headlights) or the later "997" without the Boxster style side light extensions.

Before spending everything on an extension, I was regularly looking at ad's for 355's and 911 turbos

My mate bought this 997 Turbo not long before sadly passing away... but his lad has inherited it and it is indeed nicely rapid - typical Porsche-quality in build and materials and sounds lovely and strong. I was a little suprised by the amount of lag but this seems to have eased with a Tubi-style system


Another mate has a Cayman R which I was massively impressed with in terms of how near a 911 it was but as you say you would probably feel a little short-changed by not having the 911 badge.
For me for £50k I would be looking at MC-shift Granturismo's.......

355 is an investment for sure.
There is still some that pop up around £40k, only a few weeks ago there was a spider a £38k. Private sale.
At a specialist dealer the same age/mileage 355 was £53k.
The only downside to the private sale stated it as a repo. Still a bargain though.

All Fezza's values have gone nuts for some reason in the last 6 months..... Appear to dramatically react to market/publicity... Even the 308 GT4 and 400 seem to have found fans in the Stable now.

For the budget 997 Turbo.

Other options Corvette Z06 or GTR??

I am considering the Carerra 4S, that will leave me enough to get the Coupe into Joe for lots of love

I don't want a Ferrari , while I do love them, I want a car thats a daily drive, not one that I can admire and only take out at the weekends. Also would like 4 seats.

I considered a GTR but its too "playstation" for me.

Corvette is a lovely looking car but, its not me.

I have one chance to own a "supercar" and its got to be one thats special, well to me anyway, also I would like to occasionally take the wife and kids out in it. Well thats what they tell me anyway!

Noble 3R or M400 would be my choice. It would leave lots of change out of £50k and you wouldn't lose money on either.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201409057142429

One choice for me but 2 seater I believe. Audi r8. Fast fun and can be used daily.

No turbos and should pick one up for around 40k?

Great call if you can live with 2 seats.

Well a 911 isnt really much of a 4 seater anyway.

Nearly new BMW M4? Probably as fast as, if not faster than, anything mentioned so far and will easily seat 4.

But is it special like a super car ???
It will depreciate too.

This is crucial! I'm sure the M4 would be astounding in every way, except that it lacks the wow factor.

Some of the time, I'm sure the relative anonymity of other competent cars would be a plus, but if you are buying your once-in-a-lifetime supercar, then you want it to be properly special.

Jaguar E Type. Much classier.

Sure, but he wants 4 seats. The ONLY car I can think of that would do both (special and 4 seats) would be the Ferrari 550. Or, dare I say, a heavily modified Fiat Coupé 20v Turbo

That got me thinking...

How about a Scag ?

There are some seriously gorgeous 4-seater Maseratis well within your budget. But I presume they will not meet other criteria (probably the one involving A and B).

This looks good:

Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag

XKR - that is my choice of special car!

But is also only a 4 seater if you know two legless dwarfs even though it is 4.8m long. I shoe-horned my 13 year old daughter in the last one we tried but she is not keen to repeat the experience. Apparently being dropped of at school would be OK though!

A bit left field:

Trevor

I came very close to getting one when i last changed jobs.

Somehow ended up with a VW T4

Had you not mentioned taking the kids out I would say a 996 GT3 which are just in your budget. These are creeping up all the time and would be an excellent investment, just be quick! Having enjoyed my brief ownership of an air cooled 911 and ongoing share of my wifes Boxster S I will almost certainly return to a 911 once I have completed a seasons racing in the Elise in 2015.

I went for a 997 Carrera S and love it. If my budget was bigger I'd've gone for a Gen2 model with the dfi engine that cuts out the bore scoring issues and IMS problems I believe. The back seats are useable especially the one behind the passenger seat and the boot swallows a lot more than you'd think. I would recommend getting one with a Porsche warranty though, I had plenty of little niggles sorted on mine with the 6 months warranty left but it's now over ten years old so can't be extended.