I Want to Purchase a Porsche 911 -- How Reliable Are They?

Question

I hear expensive sports cars are rather unreliable.

Answer 1

Any Porsche that was maintained will be very reliable. Do be cautious however, if it was not maintained well then you could get into a money pit. If you like working on the cars yourself, you should have no problems. They really are not that hard to work on.

Answer 2

It depends on the 911 your are looking for. The new 997 is extremely reliable. Tolerances and quality of build are world class. The 996 (used) is a good car, but make sure the car wasn't abused. 993's had some issues - Porsche enthusiasts love these cars, since they are the last air cooled Porsches, but Porsche cut some corners and there are some problems with these cars. Anything older and you're looking at deteriorated parts, wear, etc. I would stick with the 996 or 997 and if you can afford it, get it with PSM so you don't get in trouble. PSM is Porsche's version of stability control. You can turn it off if you like. PSM keeps the car under control - 911's tend to get tail happy as you push the suspension/tires. Since this is a rear engine car, the tail will start to slide. Inexperienced drivers instinctively hit the brakes or drop the throttle, which causes the tail to swing out or spin. PSM keeps this from happening - unless you really go nuts. You can turn PSM off and let the tail slide, but make sure you know what you're doing. Also, if you want to smoke the tires, turn PSM off.

Good luck and don't be afraid to buy a 911.

Greg

Answer 3

Porsche's are actually quite reliable cars, and you will tend to see a lot more of the older ones on the road for a reason as compared to some of the other supercar producers.

What it all boils down to is how hard you drive the car, and how well you maintain it. If you take good care of the maintenance the odds are you will have relatively few problems other than doing regular maintenance. From my personal experiance most of the negative porsche reliability reports that I have heard came from cars that were already previously owned/abused, or cars that were heavily modified to increase performance (typically the turbo based models...which I would recommend..) but yes. Take good care of your car and it usually does the same.

Answer 4

I had a 2001 911 and had no problems with it except it'll eat rear tires every 8000-10,000 miles. I didn't hot rod the car at all. That's standard with theses 911's. They have the best of brakes. I'm thinking about getting a 2007 Turbo??? If you get a Porsche out of warranty I would think it would cost some heavy bucks for parts and labor so be REAL careful!! Have somebody other than where you're buying it to look at everything.

Answer 5

As a generalization, they are cars that are over engineered in key areas of stress. And Porsche have a preference for using qaulity components as well. The end result is a car that is very reliable, even under heavy driving.

The older cars seem to be a little more solid, though perhaps time will prove the newer cars to be cut from the same cloth as well. In either case, keeping them maintained is key. Oil changes being even more important on the air cooled models. But if you hang around with any Porsche mechanics, chances are they personally know of not just one, but a few 911SCs or 3.2 Carreras with 200k+ mileage without even a top end rebuild (I know of a 911SC approaching 500k without any major work).

The Turbo models will generally be more prone to issues just because they are pushing the envelop more, but against comparable cars, they will still come out as being very reliable.

Answer 6

Actually, they are very reliable considering that it is a real sports car and not a "sporty" car. Porsche has been using relatively the same engine forever on the 911's.
You should go to edmunds.com, there you can see what the owners of that particular model, of the 911 you want to buy, have to say about it.

Answer 7

They are very good cars, but you're going to be paying a lot for any maintenance as the good mechanics command obscene hourly rates. If you're going to spend a lot of money on one, you'll want to take it to a good mechanic or learn to work on it yourself. Regardless, they are probably one of the most reliable import sports cars available.

Older 911s are also air cooled, but take about 3-4 times the normal amount of oil. They seem to have no problem with over-heating, but factor that in with your maintenance costs given the price of oil going up. Porsche started installing water cooled engines in 1998.

Answer 8

Get one that's been looked after and it is no more expensive than an 'ordinary' car... plus if you buy one that's a few years old - your depreciation is very low... if any! I hate losing money on cars... that's why I drive a classic Porsche!

Answer 9

They are extremely reliable when maintained, like any high performance quality built sports car.

If you have the means... I highly suggest picking one up

Answer 10

I think Porsche beat Lexus last year in the JD power findings...

and they have a LOT more passion than ANY Lexus(dead-lay)