im looking into buying a 911 wondering which route to take wanted to ask the experts here for their input. aircooled or watercooled which is better for maintenance breakage all together better vehicle. im leaning toward aircooled but open to suggestions, thank you all for your help in this matter sincerely mike abella

 

Any air cooled street you buy will be "classic" which means it is all of the below:
- kind of cool just because it is old
- an old car, with parts and systems that will fail occasionally
- a car most mechanics you can find will not be able to diagnose well
- more than average (even for Porsche) trouble getting parts, etc.
- no where near the performance of modern sports cars unless it is a pure race car. A new 370Z has a wider performance envelope in every dimension than any air cooled Porsches except for a few exotic (read expensive to find parts for) models.
All of these issues are manageable, not even objectiable, if this is a true hobby car that sees, much less than 5000 miles a year. If you expect to drive it daily, or say, even twice a week to and from work, prepare to be frustrated from time to time and make sure you have a backup car, even if its just a beater.

If you a buying the car to drive a lot, get the latest model you can afford, in good condition, period: better a four year old Boxter than a ten year old 911 S, etc. If you can't get something less than 8 years old, probably better to skip the idea. And if its your only car, one you have to depend on solely, don't go back much more than five years.

 

thank you lee for the advice funny though cause all the people i have asked say to stay with the latest air cooled. even a tech told me the watercooled models break often or atleast more than aircooled.

 

Well, you have to do what you think is best. I would not own an aircooled vehicle if I needed to depend on it for transportation, at all.

 

I have a 1997 993 C4S, one of the last air cooled 911s. It is a awesome. I drove my friend's 996 water cooled Turbo, found it to be very soft compared to my C4S. I would vote for the 993 hands down. I have used it as a commute car and racing on the track. No problems at all. I have spent more on my 1999 Mercedes C280 on maintenance than on the Porsche.

 

thank you george im leaning towards aircooled but watercooled is so much cheaper i can buy a nice 03 04 for the price of a 95 96