Porsche 996 Turbo – make sure you choose a good one

The Porsche 996 Turbo is being touted as the ‘bargain supercar’ by many pundits and they have a point – it’s a lot of car for the money. I remember when the Turbo was a new car, it was crowned ‘best car in the world’ by various motoring magazines, and it’s hard to argue with that.

Today, it’s a tempting buy but do be very careful by examples you see for under £25,000. There’s a fair chance that you’ll end up spending money on getting things sorted. I’ve heard this happen time and time again – people getting their fingers burned on cheap 996 Turbos.

It’s far better to spend a bit more in the first place to ensure that you buy a good, well-sorted 996 Turbo.

Take this car that we have in stock. The last owner spent over £15,000 on getting it sorted. Granted, this wasn’t all essential work – she had a full X73 suspension set up installed which makes the car handle like a GT2 – but much of it was. The front radiators and air-conditioning condensors needed replacing (a very common 996 problem which costs more to fix on a Turbo), the new fuel pump, water pump, alternator and turbo pipework. The Tiptronic transmission has been rebuilt, new brakes discs and pads fitted, all four wheels have been refurbished, plus a myriad of other jobs.

And even then, when we got the car in our workshop we spotted a few other things that needed attending to before it was ready for sale. Now, though, it really is a well sorted example.

Remember the old adage – if you buy cheap, you buy twice.