Where are all the high mileage 911s gone?

[joshkbaker]

Bit of an odd question, but I've owned 2 Porsches now and I regularly look at 911s of all generations on car auctions, auto trader and everything else.
Sometimes I get the itch to look at classics, sometimes something more modern.

I currently own a ducktailed 997 C4S.

But one thing I've noticed is; there aren't ever many high mileage cars. Even 40-year-old 911s often have less than 125-150k miles on them.

Where are they all?

For example, I just looked at 997's and the highest mileage car is 133k.
It's a 15-year-old car!

It gets even worse when I look at 993s or even 964s. Frequently the cars have 30k-50k mileage and no more than 120k

So the question is, with the old saying of 70% of ALL Porsches are still on the road, where the heck are the cars that are actually being driven?

I'm also trying to stay set on driving my car regularly for a very long time.
That means in 10 years, it would have 200k miles...

Is there a law or something where you can reset the mileage if enough work has been done or it's reached a certain age? Or is it more the truth these cars just eventually die after 150K miles, or on the more optimistic side, do people that rack up the miles just never sell them?

JB

 

[spongebob squarepants]

Alex will be along shortly to answer.....

 

[wilpert]

My feeling is that it's because the newer models are often daily drivers, possibly leased for 3 years, so they get a fair bit of use. Then as people buy them used, they become second or third cars. So they don't get much use but because they are a bit special people still keep them.

My first one was a daily driver and I did around 15k a year then I started driving something a bit more suitable for work and only kept a Porsche as a weekend car. So now I won't do more than 5k a year in it, usually a good bit less.

I also think it could be down to high fuel prices.
Which can only make things worse.

 

[jonttt]

As above you will find that the majority of 911 / 98x are not daily drivers, those with what would normally be considered 'average" mileage eg 5-10k pa tend to have done that in the first few years and then much less as they get older..........mine (from memory) did c50k in the first 5 years (and most of that by the first owner in the first 3 years) and then 20k over the next 20 years resulting in 70k over 25 years .......ie thats much more the 'norm" with Porsche sports cars with obviously exception either side. None sports Porsche are more 'normal" eg Macan's :grin:

 

[martin t]

I am keeping the mileage down on my car by not using it.

It has been tucked up in it's garage all winter because being black i would need to wahs it every day!!!!

I have yet to experience the petrol price issue but again because i would only use it for day trips to the seaside and similar, and extra £10 to fill the tank will make little difference.


As for high mileage, i am always wondering why there are so may cars advertised at around the 80k mile mark. Makes you think eh.

 

[Luddite]

If you are interested in high mileage cars I suspect you are looking at the wrong marque and perhaps should ignore sports cars altogether, and look at something like Volvo, perhaps estate cars as they are likely the most practical and reliable of vehicles. I also suspect that much depends on the country in which the vehicles are owned..? I suspect many in the US cover much higher mileages than in the UK relative to the difference in size of the countries..?

Following on from that then I suspect the financial standing of the owner may alter the amount of mileage a Porsche or any sports car might be driven..?

As wilpert suggests, if bought new by a company, it seems likely to be regularly used and OPC maintained to both be reliable and to some extent to retain a degree of value when eventually traded.

Second owners and beyond seem less likely to put as many miles on their Porsches as many will have adopted the investment mindset to some extent given that the Porsche is likely to be some degree of stretch on their finances, and dependant on how much of a stretch, will likely determine a number of factors relative to expenditure..? With that in mind cutting corners in varying degrees seems par for the course, part of that may be a considerable reduction on mileage, cutting down on OPC maintenance or using INDY`s. Fewer miles covered seems to equate to less wear and tear, and therefore smaller bills..?

Perhaps another factor is that which wilpert suggested in that as a second car, Porsches and other classics become hobby cars in their many guises, from ground up restorations to maintaining as near perfection as might be affordable, or modifying to suit personal tastes and so much more, all of which can be justified using a degree of man maths and investment thinking, thus unlikely to increase the desire to clock up high mileages..?

I have read of people who when their vehicles begin to approach or hit their personal idea of a recorded mileage which they feel to go beyond will effect of an imagined drop off in market value... at which stage it seems the vehicle may become more of a garage queen.

I know one retired classic car owner who travelled across numerous countries in his classic, and restored his car over Winter each year, it was returned to being a highly polished machine at the start of each season. On the other side of the coin, I also know of one owner who ever purposely minimised the use of his classic over a decade or more, preferring to maintain it as near his idea of perfect as he could... I guess there will be many who fall in between those two real world examples... Each to their own..

 

[rickprice]

Mine has 130k on it, 35 of which I put on it over the last 4 years. I drive it every day, kids have no respect for it, I clean it every week or two - it's a daily car; you get the idea. I have a different sports car under a cover in the garage but it has 2 seats so was relegated from the daily when the kids came along.

I do spend on the mechanicals - annual service, alternating between OPC (stamp) and indie - because I don't fancy being stranded on the roadside and I want a reliable car.

And I do take out the back seats before the dogs get in. The claws not good for the leather. It's about the only concession.

So yes, high mileage examples are out there. I am wondering if I can get 200k on it before petrol becomes obsolete...

Rich

 

[911C4M96]

Possibly maybe as the value of certain models has rocketed , and the market place demand for low mileage cars , the cynic in me might suggest that the advertised mileage might not always tally with the actual.

 

[wilpert]

Just realised that I've only covered 1000 miles this year in my 981 gts.
Although I'm feeling my new 991.1 turbo s isn't going to suffer the same fate.
Mrs Wilpert drove it today for the first time and said 'hmm I really like this one, it's really fast and I'm getting used to it already, I'll take this to work tomorrow"
It was at that point that my bottom started to tighten. I tried to sound relaxed but my voice went a bit high pitched so I fear I've been rumbled.

Look out next year for a high mileage rhodium silver turbo s in the for sale ads. :dont know:

 

[Alex]

Alex will be along shortly to answer.....

155k on mine, used daily.

I think most high milers are usually keepers, hence the high miles. Bet if you could do a check with the DVLA you'd be surprised how many there are knocking about with 150k+ on them.

There's currently a gen 2 997 on AT with something like 286k on it.

 

[wilpert]

Makes me wish I had kept my first Porsche.
Base model 996 c2s. That would have had around that mileage by now.

I convinced myself I should sell it at around 70k.

All of this is giving me doubts about selling my gts 981 gts.

 

[joshkbaker]

Some interesting comments, however, it still seems odd that so many are low mileage. Even with some people's theories.

I think most likely right now is that as they get older, people simply drive them less.

Surprised there isn't some rogues out there that just enjoying driving them everyday like I do...

 

[Robertb]

Mines on 122k miles now. I tend to use it sparingly because there is frankly little to be gained mooching along in a queue of cars day to day in the 911 vs my daily driver. It's fun to commute in it as a novelty from time to time.

I'm doing around 2k miles a year so it will take 4 yrs to reach 130k!

 

[T8]

I used to study average mileage of 996s and 997s using adverts on AT and PH as my data source.

See -> http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=121998&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=average+miles

At that time I concluded that an average water-cooled 911 would do 32k miles in its' first 4 years and a further 30k in its' next 6. This meant that an average mileage 10 year old car would have c62k miles showing.

After that it seems that most cars are owned by people that want a 'cheap' 911 to own and drive sparingly which is why many haven't yet reached 70k miles.

There are plenty of 70k+ mile cars out there but I suspect that most are in the hands of people that have owned them for a while or new owners that intend keeping them a long time.

I find it interesting that some think it strange for a 20-25 year old car to have less than 100k miles on it when most cars from other brands have actually expired and been scrapped long before that. I bet there's a lot more S,T,V Reg'd Porsches running around than any other make.

 

[MaxA]

I suppose they're still getting driven, but what I suspect is that most 911s are now 'third cars' in the family fleet and most of the miles get loaded onto a financed or leased Merc or something. And the 911 is used for high days and holidays.

I don't store mine for winter, but I split my miles more or less evenly between the family tank, my project car, and the 997, depending on what I'm up to, and given that I've not been commuting to work every day for the last two years, my total mileage (spread across the different cars) has been about 12,000 miles a year.