Not to beat a dead Porsche horse, but reliability...

[Topless]

My car is 15 yrs old, 80+ track days, 108K miles and extremely reliable. It compares well to my fleet of Toyota trucks which have been known to throw worn brake pads , self destructing auto trans, cracked exhaust manifolds on almost all of them, and failed suspension ball joints.

All cars have warts and the m96 IMS issues are well known and easily solved for about the price of two sets of tires. The cost of an IMS bearing replacement has already been factored into the price of used cars so they are a great value compared to other cars in class. Still a lot of car for the money.

Much ado about nothing.

[stephen wilson]

Originally Posted by Topless

Toyota trucks which have been known to throw worn brake pads , self destructing auto trans, cracked exhaust manifolds on almost all of them, and failed suspension ball joints.

I'm surprised, my '89 'Yota has been great, IIRC I still have the original rotors, manual trans. , and original ball joints, with 190,000 Miles. I guess I should do the ball joints soon though with 37" tires .....

[Topless]

Originally Posted by stephen wilson

I'm surprised, my '89 'Yota has been great, IIRC I still have the original rotors, manual trans. , and original ball joints, with 190,000 Miles. I guess I should do the ball joints soon though with 37" tires .....

My 89 4Run never had ball joint issues but several 96-02 Tacomas have. The 4Run did develop a common cracked manifold and would slip out of 3rd gear under heavy load but she was a workhorse that logged 260K miles without ever burning oil or overheating.

[kk2002s]

It seems these cars (I'm sure many higher priced sports cars) do lead an un-typical car lifestyle. Drive time is limited. My car seems to have followed a typical pattern of 4-5k mile per year from it's previous owners. So age and non-use plays heavily into it's reliability. I have driven it 10-11k a year and the more I drive it, the longer the trips the better the car runs.
Some things I want to replace are preventative, water-pump, thermostat.
Other items I need to repair, front suspension, appear to be suffering due to age not miles or use. Mid 60k miles and several boots have cracked and it's a matter of time and grit intrusion before the handling suffers

I suspect that if these cars were driven more traditionally (10 - 15k miles/year) their reliability perception would go up, IMS failure % may go down.
So I replace, water pump, front suspension, etc at 65k miles thats terrible - How Unreliable
BUT replacing at 12 years old now that's not bad at all - That's pretty reliable

My car does protest when I don't drive it regularly

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by kk2002s

I suspect that if these cars were driven more traditionally (10 - 15k miles/year) their reliability perception would go up, IMS failure % may go down.
So I replace, water pump, front suspension, etc at 65k miles thats terrible - How Unreliable
BUT replacing at 12 years old now that's not bad at all - That's pretty reliable

My car does protest when I don't drive it regularly

not sure if you are being tongue-in-cheek but 65K miles from a suspension on a low-sitting sports car is not bad. Especially if its been subjected to low profile tires and heavy aftermarket wheels over urban roads.

The water pump issue seems to me, and this purely anecdotal, to be an issue of a Porsche component that has little margin of error for any air in the system. The coolant cap is a weak spot and I often wonder if all those who had multiple water pump failures kept up with the updated caps or simply changed them every couple of years to ensure a tight seal. I doubt it. Then you have the coolant tanks that are a second weak spot that are prone to cracking. My point being that the waterpump has to be addressed as part of a group/eco system of items and not just one thing alone. I don't think this is the standard procedure for most owners when it probably should be.