On a topical note, there's been a lot of discussion around the reliability of the 3.4 and 3.6 water cooled engines.
Not that is helps the chap with the recent engine failure, but I have been looking around a bit on this subject and I am now very much in 2 minds as to whether I'm going to buy a 996.
A friend has had no RMS or engine problems in his 03 3.6 996 and I had no problems at all (inc. RMS) with my 2.7 Boxster over 5 years.
Present issue aside, is it possible that this issue is being blown out of proportion?
I mean, no disrespect, but Internet forums do attract a certain type of poster (present company excepted!!!) and probably isn't representative of the population of Porsche owners.
There's a survey being run on Pistonheads which lists this:
"Out of 73 996's:
- 13.7% or 10 engine failures (six 3.4 and four 3.6)
- 52% or 38 cases have had RMS. When you have it, you get it on average 1.3 times.
- 41% or 30 cases have had none of these two problems (seventeen 3.4s, twelve 3.6, one unspecified).
In the survey, there are 30 3,6s, 39 3.4s, and four unspecified.
To summarize, the mean car in this dataset is a september 2000 996, that has 52% chance of an rms problem at 39.6K and 13.7% chance of an engine failure at 46.6K."
Now this is massively subjective and is purely based on PH owners (past/present) that can be bothered to post. It's more likely you will post if you've had a problem (after all, this is a very popular reason why people register in the first place). Furthermore, I've also noticed that the posters on this forum (and PH) have a higher track day usage than average (not that this should affect the reliability)...and on average, a 7 year old car!
Furthermore, I bet that RMS are replaced under warranty because of the awareness (indeed, I am sure people take out extended warranty for this main reason...and to get a cheap replacement clutch).
It's a nice little earner for OPC, we take our warranty to cover ourselves and the dealer replaces it FoC, but of course invoiced Porsche GB (who I think own the OPC dealer network now anyway). I bet the used car warranty doesn't lose money for OPC, so the real losers here are the consumer.
Is it possible that the RMS problem wouldn't be so widely reported if it wasn't covered under warranty and people accepted that the car drips oil occassionally? I would bet money that this is the case.
I don't for one minute believe that greater than 1 in 10 911s have had engine problems. That would clearly demonstrate an issue that Porsche would have to address.
Looking at used 996s for months now, I rarely come across one with a replacement engine (I'd suggest more like 1 in 10)....although, that's not to say that more of them have had replacement engines, it's just the advertiser didn't think this was important to mention!!!
My view is that there is a small issue here, which does unfortunately affect a few unlucky few in a big, big financial way.
But is it any more than another manufacturer....I personally don't believe so.
However, this whole topic has really made me very concerned as to whether I want to pay £40k on a Porsche....and I'm gutted tbh. But not as gutted as I would be if I had a major problem and needed the engine replacing (whether in or out of warranty, because the resale value of the car would be affected regardless...not to mention the inconvenience of not having the car whilst it's repaired).
This is a reason why I'll never buy a BMW again, because these are nowhere near as reliable as they should be...especially when compared to Japanese cars.
Not that is helps the chap with the recent engine failure, but I have been looking around a bit on this subject and I am now very much in 2 minds as to whether I'm going to buy a 996.
A friend has had no RMS or engine problems in his 03 3.6 996 and I had no problems at all (inc. RMS) with my 2.7 Boxster over 5 years.
Present issue aside, is it possible that this issue is being blown out of proportion?
I mean, no disrespect, but Internet forums do attract a certain type of poster (present company excepted!!!) and probably isn't representative of the population of Porsche owners.
There's a survey being run on Pistonheads which lists this:
"Out of 73 996's:
- 13.7% or 10 engine failures (six 3.4 and four 3.6)
- 52% or 38 cases have had RMS. When you have it, you get it on average 1.3 times.
- 41% or 30 cases have had none of these two problems (seventeen 3.4s, twelve 3.6, one unspecified).
In the survey, there are 30 3,6s, 39 3.4s, and four unspecified.
To summarize, the mean car in this dataset is a september 2000 996, that has 52% chance of an rms problem at 39.6K and 13.7% chance of an engine failure at 46.6K."
Now this is massively subjective and is purely based on PH owners (past/present) that can be bothered to post. It's more likely you will post if you've had a problem (after all, this is a very popular reason why people register in the first place). Furthermore, I've also noticed that the posters on this forum (and PH) have a higher track day usage than average (not that this should affect the reliability)...and on average, a 7 year old car!
Furthermore, I bet that RMS are replaced under warranty because of the awareness (indeed, I am sure people take out extended warranty for this main reason...and to get a cheap replacement clutch).
It's a nice little earner for OPC, we take our warranty to cover ourselves and the dealer replaces it FoC, but of course invoiced Porsche GB (who I think own the OPC dealer network now anyway). I bet the used car warranty doesn't lose money for OPC, so the real losers here are the consumer.
Is it possible that the RMS problem wouldn't be so widely reported if it wasn't covered under warranty and people accepted that the car drips oil occassionally? I would bet money that this is the case.
I don't for one minute believe that greater than 1 in 10 911s have had engine problems. That would clearly demonstrate an issue that Porsche would have to address.
Looking at used 996s for months now, I rarely come across one with a replacement engine (I'd suggest more like 1 in 10)....although, that's not to say that more of them have had replacement engines, it's just the advertiser didn't think this was important to mention!!!
My view is that there is a small issue here, which does unfortunately affect a few unlucky few in a big, big financial way.
But is it any more than another manufacturer....I personally don't believe so.
However, this whole topic has really made me very concerned as to whether I want to pay £40k on a Porsche....and I'm gutted tbh. But not as gutted as I would be if I had a major problem and needed the engine replacing (whether in or out of warranty, because the resale value of the car would be affected regardless...not to mention the inconvenience of not having the car whilst it's repaired).
This is a reason why I'll never buy a BMW again, because these are nowhere near as reliable as they should be...especially when compared to Japanese cars.