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Originally Posted by Jeph
If one can't afford the maintenance on the car, they can't afford the car. If one can't afford the car, then your statement would be accurate. Otherwise, what makes it not so great? The chance that the engine might fail?
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The issue isn't the cost of repairs. The issue is the cost of a $10K engine failure on a car that's currently depreciating like a rock. Maybe you think a total engine replacement is a "normal" repair I certainly don't. Window regulators, torn rear windows, ignition components, rear wheel bearings and even having to replace 4 catalytic converters before 100k miles I would consider general maintenance but certainly not complete engine failure.
As far as the abuse question goes I'd say if Porsche isn't engineering its cars to test out the rev limiter at least once a day then they certainly don't deserve the price tag they've got. My little Toyota's got a redline of 7k. It's widely known within the MR2 community the actual redline is closer to 8.5k. It came with 200hp but the stock internals have been proven to hold up to 500hp. The turbo is set to run at 10psi while it could be run to 17 safely. My point? Toyota over engineered the car and then detuned it to be reliable. I'm sure Porsche does the same. If you read the article about the engine failures I'd posted one point they make is none of the track cars they have have ever had an engine failure. Porsche designs cars that will have to be driven on the Autobahn on a regular basis, do you really think they would factor that in to the engineering?
But, as we all know they made a mistake. Either in the design or the manufacture of the engine. I've only driven a few but I can tell you that I do believe they're wonderful little cars. I know an owner with over 150k on his odometer and has never had any problems. And he has no hesitation to hit the rev limiter every now and again. I also have a coworker who's got over 60k on theirs and I doubt it's ever been brought above 5k. Their only issue was with the top not working at one time.
Like I said I'd love to have one. But, I'm not happy about having to roll the dice on whether or not I
might have to replace the engine before 200k miles. If there were a rebuild option like Autofarm's here in the US I wouldn't have a problem at all. But when the option is $10k to Porsche or $3,500 for a used motor that
might also take a dump on a car that's depreciating quickly that's not a good financial option. Whether you've got the money for the repair or not.