What do you think?

[z12358]

"...by that point I should be in a position to purchase a new 997, which is what I really want."

So you'd be willing to spend $30k more for a 997 which has the same "issues" as 987 and 986? You are rightly forewarned that Porsche will cost more to maintain than a Nissan, but the same can be said about Ferrari, Aston Martin, and every other high-performance, high-precision car. Even regular maintenance will indeed cost more. Fixing a problem, indeed even more so.

Personally, I think Porsches are designed to lure their drivers into driving them hard. My Box rpm needle resides in the 4k+ area much more often then the needle in my Maxima. Still, there are no 30 year old Maxima's doing hard track laps at DE events (not that I've seen).

Nothing bad with playing it safe. But more often than not, it's only by taking some risk that you get an extraordinary reward.
Z.