A friend recently lost her dad and she's trying to sell his '99 911 cabriolet automatic. It has about 60K and she is asking $12K. The price was $16K, but a Porsche dealer just told her the car needs a pair of cats to pass smog. I think the same dealer said it's OK besides a few other small problems that he didn't reccomend fixing: nav is kaput & airbag deployed at some point (but no accident history). Another non-gearhead friend is looking for a pimpmobile and is considering the car. Are there any quirks to this year? I'm concerned the bad cats are a symptom of other probs. Will it cost as much to maintain as I think it will $$$ ?
You had me right up until "cabriolet automatic".
Tiptronic? That car would seem to go for $20k or so but there are lots of maintenance issues with the car. I have been looking at a bunch of these 911's but decided to go with an air-cooled car.
Early 996 had 5-7% engine failure.
most of them were fixed by 99, but i would do some research.
Also, I hate tiptronic...
It's a cheap 911 - why all the complaining?
OP: aftermarket cats might could cost you as little $200 and some welding, if that's any help.
pres589
HalfDork
10/19/10 9:42 a.m.
Yeah, if the thing needs cats, I would take it to an exhaust shop and talk about some universal replacement cats, like Random Technology or Catco, etc. And really, I bet the nav systems in play back in '99 aren't that hot; for less than a grand you could have something really nice from Alpine or Pioneer with a fold out screen and all that other junk if that's your bag.
I personally wouldn't want an auto in a 911 but it's a cab, so I could give it a pass for the price asked. Don't know much about those cars specifically but it sounds worth being curious about.
Cotton
Dork
10/19/10 10:20 a.m.
that's cheap....even for a tip.
BTW if you want Porsche info you'll be much better off doing your research on Pelican parts on Rennlist..
NOHOME
Reader
10/19/10 11:18 a.m.
Airbags+ Cats+? gotta be 4k worth of work to be done. Quick search shows them in the 22k asking range, so not far off the mark once repairs attended to. I would ask that the work were done so I did not have to runaround myself.
Trying to sell a car with the airbag hanging in your lap and just saying "It was never in an accident" is a non-starter from my point of view. If the car is going to carfax as clean, might as well fix this and just up the asking price.
I think the dealer saw evidence that the bag deployed at some point, but it's been replaced. Yeah, I'm not interested b/c I don't have the money and it's not a manual. I was surprised to see these average about $20K in the SF bay area. I might check on Pelican or Rennlist if I get time.
My friend that is interested is just looking for sporty reliable coolness with auto for around $15K. I'd suggest a C5 vette, but I don't think he's a vette dude. An E36 M3 is cool to me, but I doubt seeing one would make him say wow. His wife wants an old bug. She comes from car people so she's probably the one who needs to steer him in the right direction, not me. The happy medium would appear to be some 60s muscle.
skruffy
SuperDork
10/19/10 5:15 p.m.
An aftermarket X-pipe (fabspeed or the like) really makes them sound like a 911 should. It'll also be about 25% the cost of cat replacement, and the O2 sensor spacer trick works on these cars, so it'll probably pass smog if you don't have to do a sniffer test. The rest of the stock exhaust kind of sucks too, replacing it with aftermarket stuff brings the proper sound and gets a decent amount of weight off the back of the car.
Look for RMS and intermediate shaft seal leaks (oil hanging around the bottom of the bellhousing). It's a trans-out fix, and a bitch to do on the floor, and automatics are even more fun. Also, the intermediate shaft failure rate isn't anywhere near as high as the internet will lead you to believe, but it is an issue to look out for on those cars (it's a several thousand dollar fix).
They all make a horrible timing chain rattle on startup, don't let that scare you away.
Porsche automatics are quite good, so while it won't be quite as fun as a stick, it'll still be fun.
I work on these for a living, they were $70-130k when new, it will cost slightly more than your average $12k used car to maintain. Be prepared for $100+ oil changes and stuff like that, or get used to the idea of working on it yourself.
