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The 996 Porsche 911 Turbo market seems to have a little something for everyone. If you want a sub-$40,000 example that you can drive and enjoy, there are plenty out there. Want a super-low mileage Turbo S? $90,000 will do it. Thanks to Porsche for cranking out a ton of these, a little over 22,000 to be exact. Compare that to just 6,200 993 Turbos, so chances are the 996 Turbo will be around for a while and maybe not at crazy prices. This 2002 up for sale in Miami has a few special touches, but seems to be on the higher end of the price range. Worth it?
Two decades in, is it finally time for the 996 Porsche 911? Personally, I think so. Our negative feelings on things generally seem to wane over time, and after 20 years, that seems to be the case for the 996.1. Are we looking at 964 and 993 levels of appreciation? Of course not. But I do think that these will slowly become less of a black sheep of the 911 family and more of just an entry-level into the 911 family.
Today’s car, a 1999 up for sale Nebraska, looks most certainly to be one the prime examples to snatch up. It’s classic Arctic Silver Metallic over a Boxster Red special leather interior, and just to top it all off, it has just 29,000 miles. This one will be a fight.
The legend of the 911 Turbo continues virtually unabated, with the most recent edition of the Turbo S bullying top-tier sport bikes in acceleration duels. Seriously, it does 0-30 in .9 seconds and hits 60 in a touch over 2 seconds. Two. I remember when breaking 5 seconds in the dash was a serious feat. The Turbo is is far from a one-trick pony, though, as it continues to demolish numbers – 100 in 5.3 seconds, the quarter mile in 10.1 at 137. It will hit 180 mph in 21.4 seconds, which is about the same time that it takes a VW T2 to hit highway speed. Of course, there’s also a price to pay…in this case, you’ll be out over $200,000 to leave the dealership in one. But it’s not like earlier generations of 911 Turbo are exactly pokey, right? Take the 2001 911 Turbo. That car disposed of 60 mph in 3.9 seconds with a manual, 12.3 seconds through the quarter mile, and it’ll ‘only’ do 150 mph in 21.6 seconds. Virtually stationary. On the plus side, they’re a whole lot cheaper than the newer 911 Turbos, to the point where people without trust funds could consider purchasing one. And this one certainly seems to fit that bill:
I don’t mean to harp on the Porsche 996 Carrera 4S so much, but the entire package of what they offer, especially at their current prices, always seem to draw me back in. Whether it be the wide rear end, 18″ Turbo Twist wheels, or the heckblende rear reflector, these cars just seem to do it for me. For what they were working with, I think Porsche nailed this design and pulled just enough pieces from the Turbo to keep you interested, but not so much that it was almost as expensive as the Turbo and no one would bite on it. Now, some 15 years later, this are at the bottom of the price curve and ripe for the picking. Time to snag one?
In terms of the “windowmaker” Porsches, the 996 GT2 certainly seems worthy of that title. Hard to believe that a 996 can be deemed scary, but that is exactly the kind of false confidence that gets you in trouble with these. Having a twin-turbocharged car that will get you to 60 mph in under 4 seconds without the help of traction control or stability control is the perfect combination for the result of “I just lost it” after getting a little too confident. I think Porsche knew this, and as a result only 303 examples of these cars made it to the US from 2002 to 2005. To put that into perspective, that is half of how many Carrera GTs there are.
