Joel Newman London, UK
Model 996 Turbo Year 2003 Acquired April 2014
Well ladies and gentleman, it looks like that may be that. Yesterday I had an offer on my Turbo, and I accepted it. It actually came from my mechanic, who knows the car very well, and which says a lot about the confidence in his work too.
Pleased last night, today I have been checking my phone, hopeful that the chap pulls out of the deal!
It is strange, but today for the first time I started to have a look at what my next car could be. I had never wanted to really do that until I knew it was time, but today I spent a couple of hours on Auto Trader, and do you know what? For, lets say, £30,000, there is really nothing, and I mean nothing, that comes close in terms of performance, looks, cool factor and future value – in my opinion, of course.
It feels like it’s only when you sell a car that you realise how utterly superb it is and how you can’t live without it. I’ve never owned a car that was so insanely fast and so easy to drive. Things have broken or work out as they do on 19-year-old cars, but it’s never left me stranded (well, once when I ran out of fuel!). At any point, at any speed, if you drop a cog and pin it you will be scared and amazed, even if you have a history with fast cars. The 996 Turbo gets the mixture of raw performance and GT bruiser just right, the 997 Turbo following it being far more refined, and the 993 Turbo before it a wild beast!
It’s a car that has performed incredibly well, but in all honesty is not a car
I have fallen in love with. It was just too composed at the speeds I drive at to make it feel like you are driving something special.
So what do you get in the Porsche world for £30,000? Funnily enough,
not a 996 Turbo, which seems to start at £34,000! Mine however, listed at less than this, failed to raise any interest whatsoever, so I do wonder how many of these Turbo owners’ phones are actually ringing.
The irony, however, is that I could not replace my Turbo for the price I am selling it for. Does that mean I am making a terrible deal? I am quite sure it does, but what options do I have? Continue to drive the car in the hope that it will be worth more next year, or just get on with it and take an offer a couple of thousand away from the listed price, even if that listed price was cheap?
In my price range, as a replacement you are realistically looking at a 997 3.8 Carrera S or 4S. Is that a better car than my Turbo? Do I really sell a modified and focused 500bhp 996 Turbo and replace it with an all-too similar 997.1 C4S? I don’t think it is if I’m honest. That makes this a very hard decision, and one that may take me away from Porsche for the time being.
Next month, I will confirm if my cold feet got the better of me, and if the car has gone and what has replaced it, so it will either be goodbye or hello to something shiny and new.