Jack - I owned an '02 S for 6 years as my daily driver. I drove it every day in the NE (rain, snow, etc). I put 60,000 miles on it and it was inexpensive and reliable. I bought the car for $25K and sold it recently for $12K (traded it). My total cost of ownership was about the same as buying a Honda Accord.
I had some silly issues along the way (3 ignition switches...), but overall the biggest expense was for routine maintenance. You need to do all routine maintenance on these cars (all fluids, all belts, all filters, tires and brakes), etc.
Two things:
1 - I never gave a moments thought to my IMS...(original and likely single row
).
2 - My RMS "leaked" the entire time I owned the car. I never fixed it and I didn't care.
A note on the RMS: "leaked" is a strong word. "was moist" may be a better way to describe it. I've taken some heat on this board for that, but reality is I kept an eye on it (and my oil levels) and it had zero impact to the overall ownership experience. From my perspective it gave the car some character (it smelled like leather and burned oil which any good sports car should...).
IF I were going to buy a new 986 today, I would:
- Choose wisely (based on history and
documented maintenance)
- Replace the IMS (there are inexpensive solutions now, and do the clutch while your in there).
- Replace all filters, fluids and belts immediately (and by all, I mean "all").
- Finally, nobody talks about it here much yet, but I would absolutely 100% replace the suspension on the car day one. I would lower it and put on coil-overs.
- Spend up for good tires day one too.
- My car had PSM, litronics, cabin air deflectors and a glass rear window. I wouldn't buy a car without those four things.
If you total up the above, you are probably spending $6-8K on top of your purchase. So from my perspective, you may as well get an S (with the four features I called out). But, once set up you will have a simple, reliable, timeless, brilliant sports car to enjoy.
Good luck with your purchase, and I hope your ownership experience is as good as mine was.
Mike
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Hybrid Mode
