History is important, and today’s Nice Price or No Dice 911 is claimed to have stacks of historic maintenance records going back to when it was new. Let’s see if it’s offered at a historically good price.
OK, now, with no peeking, what are all the Buick models sold in the U.S. at present? I’ll give you a hint: there are four of them, and the names all begin with “En.” It’s tough, right? That’s because no one really cares about the marque outside of China, and Buick’s offerings in the U.S. have been whittled down to four nondescript crossovers that are differentiated only by size. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the Buicks are—in order of size—the Encore, Envista, Envision, and Enclave.
Buick’s perceived banality extended to the 2016 Buick Cascada convertible we looked at yesterday. A loaded car with Opel origins, that little front-driver couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for its arguably not unreasonable $13,875 asking price. Too many better options—cough, Mustang, cough—made the Cascada caustic, resulting in a 72% No Dice loss.
Nine eleven
One has to wonder if the executives at Porsche did any sphincter tightening upon the realization that the date of the worst terrorist attack on the U.S.—Porsche’s most lucrative market—happened on 9/11, a date now burned into history as “Nine Eleven” and also the nameplate designation of the money-maker the German company so enthusiastically likes to shake.
Fortunately, there appears not to be any collateral damage to Porsche’s venerated line of sports cars as the model continues to this day to be an oddball in the enthusiast and collector market, enjoying huge residuals despite being built, literally, in the millions.
OK, so in total, it’s just over one million, but still, that’s a lot of cars. And those cars keep getting increasingly expensive as the years go by and new models arrive with ever-higher sticker prices.
There are still opportunities to get on the 911 train before prices skyrocket across the board like they long ago did for Ferrari’s 308 models. We just have to decide what that threshold is.
Take, for example, this 1999 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet. This is an early version of the 996 edition, a model that has seen some hate over the years by Porschephiles for its too-close-for-comfort relationship to the lowly Boxster (both models are much the same from the B-pillar forward) and the durability issues that arose with its first-generation water-cooled engine.
Reading material
Those issues on the early 3.4-liter M96.01 motors can include cracking in the aluminum cylinder heads that can lead to the liner walking, bore scoring of those same cylinder liners, and the most infamous but probably least likely issue, the failure of the Intermediate shaft bearing, which will end in the complete destruction of the engine.
All those failures are relatively rare on even these early cars. There is a notable wear factor for the engine which is the timing system. On these early engines, that is comprised of five chains for the cams and a series of plastic pads and guides for those that can abrade with use, thus affecting the timing. That cam deviation is easily measured using a tool like the Durametric Diagnostic OBD reader, so no Porsche of this era should ever be a total roll of the dice.
According to the ad, this 91,000-mile Cab has a leg up on some others as it recently had what is described as an engine-out service. That replaced the clutch, water, and oil pumps and updated the IMS, even though that would be an unlikely failure. It also received new chain guides (yay!) and was bore-scoped for scoring. Hopefully, the air-oil separator was also replaced at the same time since that’s a cinch when the engine’s out but a pain in the posterior when in the car. All of this comes with maintenance records and receipts since new.
The right gearbox
That new clutch means this is a manual, which is the right transmission on the 996 911s since the Tiptronic automatic is kind of a party pooper. The six-speed is managed via a stock shifter in the also stock cabin. Another typical failure point in these cars is the leather seating upholstery; however, on this car, it looks to be in great condition. Everything else seems in equally nice shape, and the dash even has its original Becker stereo and kitschy four CD storage cassette in the console.
On the outside, things are up to the task, as well. The black paint looks to be in decent shape and sets off nicely against the later 997 five-spoke alloy wheels. We don’t get to see the car with the top-up, but the seller says that the motors for its actuation (it’s hydraulic/electric) have been recently replaced. The only puzzlement in the ad is the rear spoiler, which is shown deployed in all the pictures like some sort of Viagra ad, but which should be retracted at rest. There’s a manual override switch for that, so maybe the seller just thought the car would present better with it up.
Join the club
One of the great aspects of buying any Porsche in the States is joining the Porsche Club of America. The PCA is the largest single-marque enthusiast group in the world, offers the chance to socialize with like-minded folks, and puts out a pretty slick monthly magazine called Porsche Panorama.
This clean title 911 Carrera, while not the rarest, highest performance, or priciest offering, is still a ticket into the club. What should that reasonably cost? As we noted at the outset, there will soon come a time when even the cheapest 911s are out of the realm of a reasonable spend. This car—which seems to be a solid contender—asks $23,999, and based on that, we now need to decide if that day has already come, at least in this seller’s eyes.
What do you say, is $23,999 a deal for this seemingly well-maintained 996? Or is that too much for you to care?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Orange County, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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