2001 Porsche 911 (996) Carrera 2

Owner Jon – a very interesting chap at the Royal Warrant end of the building trade (Windsor Castle post-fire repairs, Big Ben and more) – is a classic car nut. He’s either already owned or currently owns the kind of cars you or I would love to have in our garage, or perhaps more accurately on the drive as Jon is a firm believer in the ‘cars are meant to be driven’ school of thought. That goes for his rare Aston DB7 Volante manual as much as it does for his Range Rover P38 – a car that, in his case at least, has somehow managed to defy its fearsome reputation for unreliability.

Jon bought this 2001-registered 996 a couple of years ago to replace a sorely-missed ’89 Targa. ‘I never should have sold that,’ he smiles ruefully. The 996 was meant to be his wife’s, but now she’s getting nervous about ‘wasting’ it as a daily driver and feels more at ease in another, more modern Range Rover in Jon’s stable. So now it’s here on The Market, ready to deliver that unique Stuttgart experience to its next owner.

This five-owner 117,000-mile car is not perfect, but in our opinion that’s one of its best features. It’s extremely useable and, supported by a massive service history file, wants for nothing as it stands. It’s a super drive.

The black paint is still deep and lustrous. There’s a minor scuff on the front left bumper, and a few stone chips. Other than that, it’s just the standard wear and tear and polishing marks that you’d expect to see on any 20-year-old car. It’s not hard to visualise how spiffy this Porsche might look after a machine polish.

Look hard and you’ll find small areas of paint loss/surface corrosion on the top corners of the windscreen, presumably caused by gradual abrasion from the hard- and soft tops over the years. It should be an easy half-hour job to sort.

The electric soft top is in very usable condition, showing a few folding and water marks and the usual organic greening you get on cloth tops, but the plastic rear screen is uncracked and the raising/lowering mechanism works as it should, taking just 19 seconds to deploy.

Jon’s 996 comes with a good condition factory hardtop, a useful feature as secondhand 996 hardtops in decent shape rarely come on the market for less than £500, and black ones seem to be particularly rare. When the hardtop is in place a warning comes up on the dash to the effect that there is a problem with the softtop, but Jon’s Porsche guy assures him that this should be a straightforward sensor reset.

Joy of joys, the active rear spoiler that raises at around 75mph and lowers at around 30mph also works perfectly. Super cool, especially as there’s also a cabin switch for you to move it up and down at will as you cruise around the supermarket car park (say).

The 996’s interior design was sneered at by 993 owners for not being modern enough, which is ironic when you see the 993 dash, but we think that the evolutionary look of the 996 really works in its favour now in 2020.

The leather on the non-sports 911 seats is nicely weathered in and the leather-rimmed steering wheel and gearknob both have plenty more life left in them. There’s a small tear on the nearside rear seat. It was like that when Jon bought the car. His theory is that a previous owner chucked a water bottle in there after a visit to the gym, and that the bottle leaked a bit, weakening the next to some pleat stitching. Well, it’s a better theory than ours, which is that a tiny mischievous goblin did it.

In keeping with the general air of the car, the dash, door cards and carpets (protected by Porsche overmats) are in a nicely used state, while the interior sill plates with their correct Carrera badging have miraculously come through two decades’ worth of scuffing with barely any signs of wear. There are a few marks on the inside of the headlining of the hardtop and on some of the cabin plastics, again no more than the normal signs of usage and all easily remedied. All the electrical comfort features work.

You’ll note that this 996 hasn't been treated to a set of big alloys and painted-on low profile tyres. In our view that’s another point in its favour. Read just about any authoritative 911 road test and you’ll come away with the idea that the basic models unencumbered by over-hard suspension settings or by sensor-driven chassis-sharpening technologies are usually the best all-round drivers.

The intermediate shaft bearing (IMS) was a poor design that could and often did lunch 996 (and other) Porsche flat six engines, but our car has had the fix so this should no longer be a concern. The clutch was replaced at the same time.

The car stands up well on its Michelin tyres, with no evidence of suspension sag. We assume that the original ten-spoke Porsche alloys have been refurbed at some point as they’re in very fine condition. Either that or all this car’s owners have been very good drivers/parkers. A weekend spent detailing the engine bay and maybe restoring the soft top’s hard plastic cover will freshen things up very nicely.

At ground level you’ll see evidence of paint flaking on some of the underbody in the usual areas but the suspension componentry looks very clean and the underside of the engine and transmission appears to be dry.

The service manual has a stamp from H R Owen in 2003, by which point the car had done 10,000 miles. After more stamps from Porsche Reading the 996 was mainly looked after by Brooklands in Swanley, Kent. All the books are provided, as is the leather wallet and two keys.

One big invoice in the history file was for just over £2300 in 2018 when the gearbox was attended to after reverse was proving elusive. Six years before that a previous owner paid £5500 for an engine rebuild. In late 2018 there was another sizeable bill for just under £1200 to replace the heater matrix and one of the camshaft actuators.

The MOT, which runs to 24 October this year, is clear with no advisories.

We all know that the value boat on air-cooled 964 and 993 911s has long since sailed. It’s therefore entirely reasonable to look at their successor, the 996, as the next investable 911, especially with the prices still being as low as they are.

Perhaps more importantly, these 996s are very driveable. Much of the distrust of 996s centres around mechanical issues like the IMS bearing, but most road-registered cars will have had this work carried out by now. The car you’re looking at here has had it done, along with everything else that has needed doing over the years, making it a very appealing prospect for first-time 911 buyers who want something that they can drive and enjoy and that, with luck and a following wind, won't lose money in the process. Better yet, it’s a convertible. Can't you just see yourself humming down an autoroute this summer with your significant other by your side, reveling in that flat-six zing and marveling at the 30-plus mpg figures you’ll be getting? 

Nobody in their right mind should buy a Porsche that’s too nice to drive. This super-honest 996 is bang on point for somebody who is in their right mind. Don’t fall for the anti-996 hype. These are great cars ¬¬– and this one could be an absolute steal at the lower end of its £9,500-£12,000 estimate.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; to arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.

If needed, please remember we have a network of trusted suppliers we work with regularly and can recommend: Classic & Sportscar Finance for purchase-financing, Footman James for classic car insurance Thames Valley Car Storage for storing your car and AnyVan for transporting it.

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