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Porsche 911: The Adventure Begins

Back in June, I bought my first Porsche - a 2004 40th Anniversary 911.   Original rennlist post:


After a couple years of researching, looking and comparison shopping, I finally bought a Porsche - #1147 40th AE. It's only gone 34.5K miles in the hands of the previous owners, of which there have been three.

I drove a bone stock 1999 a number of years ago and, while it was a very nice car, it left me wanting. Fast forward five or so years and a number of cars owned/sold later and I came away with a much more positive view of the 996 after driving a friend's 1999 911. Specifically, I was impressed with how solid the car felt with 115K miles. He's put a fair amount of work in it to get to that point, but it's impressive nonetheless. I was convinced that I could drive a 996 on a daily basis. It's faster than any sane person needs to go on public roads, makes a great grand tourer and is fairly robust is one starts with a good foundation and observes the proper maintenance schedule. I narrowed the field to the later 3.6 cars. At first, I didn't think much of the 40 AE. After researching the car & learning that it is so much more than a badge job, I was sold. I'm not a Porsche purist and am willing to take advantage of the fact that the 996 is the red-headed stepchild of the 911 family. At current market values, they're a lot of car for the money. Even before buying one, the 40th AE 911 seemed underrated to me. The purist may regard it as something akin to being the valedictorian of summer school. To me, it's like the indie guitarist who plays like a man possessed, but never receives the recognition he deserves.

I researched quite about the AOS/IMS/RMS issues & purchased a warranty with my car to get me through the first 5 years/65K miles of ownership. The Porsche is not my only car, but I still plan to drive it ~8-10K miles per year. My hope is that if anything major fails, it does so under warranty. A PPI revealed a couple things that I missed, but the seller (CarMax) worked with me on those, performing about 5K worth of work on the car.

Profile shot from this summer:








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