Excellent point.

I've had similar discussions with quite a few NSX owners over the years. Many owners stress over taking their cars out on a less than perfect day and/or putting more than 3,000 miles on their cars.

I say hogwash. That mindset just means you're saving the car for the next guy!

Get in the damn thing and drive it.

IMO, most of the important components of a modern Porsche (drivetrain, suspension, brakes, etc.) are over engineered for the way most of us drive on the street and while maintenance won't be cheap there's no reason why those big ticket items shouldn't last a long, long time. I'm a little more suspect of some of the electronic gadgetry (nav system, sport chrono.) but my bet is that a well maintained 997 will be tight, solid, and reliable in 5,10 and 15 years if you maintain it and are lucky enough to avoid accidents.

 

My wife drives an '05 997 tip as her daily driver. She is out of town a lot for work (car parked at the airport), but she has still managed to rack up about 44K miles in just under 3 years. The car has been extremely reliable - at least as reliable as the '93 Lexus GS300 before the Carrera (we keep cars a long time and try to drive them into the ground or until we can't stand them any longer). I stay on top of maintenance on the car (change oil about every 7K miles instead of the unrealistic 20K miles per Porsche). Tires wear OK (28K on original rears), but not spectacular - you have to check air more often in low profile tires.

We have an '08 Cayenne S on order for the dog (to add to our Boxster and Carrera collection). When my wife drives down to San Diego for meetings, she finds the 997 noisy for conference calls and bouncy for working on the computer (someone else in the car punches the keys), so she's planning on driving the Cayenne for longer work trips. Despite the noise, she'll still drive the 997 instead of the old Lexus (which we still have, but will be replaced by the Cayenne)

She originally "had" to have a 7 series, but after driving it and every other luxury performance car liked the Carrera the best. After 3 years, she likes the car more than any other car she's ever had or driven. Her attitude is she'll buy a new one when this one wears out.

Driving / commuting in LA, you also have to realize after a few years the car won't be in concours condition or look like it's just been driven off the showroom floor.

 

I have an '08 and rack up about 2000 miles/month. For me it's about quality of life -- I like driving the car.

 

911 is my daily. Did over 100 miles a day in it for 8 weeks last year. Other than a new engine, new radio, new a/c control unit, radiator hose detaching, and left radiator fan repaired after it would no longer come on, it has run like a champ! ;-) Oh, reverse lights stopped working for awhile there too. But as long as it has a warranty don't worry about the reliability. Just drive the heck out of it and when stuff breaks have porsche take the bill. I know others have probably had better luck than I, but I won't sugar coat the fact that the watercooled cars seem to have more problems than the air cooled cars did. Since you said you would like to use the car for many years, perhaps try to find one that has a few miles on it and is already certified preowned and has the extended warranty. The other added benefit is that you avoid the initial depreciation that these cars take when they are driven off the lot for the first time. Good luck with your purchase!


Forgot to mention, but as others have said, the tire wear is what is the biggest nuisance. I need to replace my rears again after just 10k miles.