Reliability issues

Dear Sir,

As I read the letter of Mr. Paul Helps in issue 208 regarding his problems with the 991.1 I could only sympathise. Being an owner of a 997.1 4S (manual of course) I had my share of problems too. One of them was a broken spring at the rear left. The difference to Mr. Helps was that I was driving at the time, being on a road trip with my father in the Alps. I was just accelerating from 30mph to overtake a car when it broke (!) and the car immediately fell flat on the left rear corner. Luckily I could park the car on the left side of the road and no further harm was done. I don’t want to think of the situation if I were to do 120mph on the German Autobahn.

Besides this I had a lot of work done to the car. It's fair to say that a lot of it had to do with (regular) maintenance. I bought the car in 2015 with 70,000 miles and the first five years I've used it as my daily driver. It has now done nearly 150,000 miles and it recently had a full engine rebuild. All in all the car has set me back about £40,000 in six years of ownership. My former BMWS never cost me this much. So, in my opinion Porsche is not as reliable as it should be, despite its claims to be the bulletproof daily driver. Maybe for a sportscar in comparison to a Ferrari or Lamborghini it is, but my experience is rather disappointing in this aspect.

Nonetheless, Porsche (and especially the 911) has always been my dream car and it still is. Only the dream comes at quite a cost. Dag Gidding

It goes without saying that while these cars generally have a reputation for superior engineering, they are not infallible. Where your 911 has senior miles too, you may find lots of mechanical parts need to be replaced, as they have lived their life – I am finding this on my own 911 currently, which is quickly gaining a new nickname of ‘Trigger’s Broom’! It does sound like your 997 has cost an awful lot to maintain, though in comparison to previous BMWS you have owned, I assume the 911’s residual value still remains higher?