Hi,

I moved from the UK to the US about 2 years ago since my wife is American and I've decided that this year I'm going to go to med school to become a radiologist.

I have an 06 C2S in silver that I bought a little over a year ago for $68k with 21k miles. It has electric seats, Bose, sports chrono, cd changer, seat crests and it had an AWE muffler set on it too. Since then I've added an EVO MS intake system, a lot of interior bits done in the body colour and I have a set of HRE P40's due in next monday! The car now has 34k miles.

I need to replace the clutch in the car and of course maintenance is going to start racking up soon with brakes etc. It is a CPO car so it still has another 60k miles or another 2 1/2 years left on it.

I've been offered a new 09 C2S in black, 6 speed, electric seats, heated seats and bluetooth for $74k.

That's about $30k to change after everything's done and dusted for me. Now as I'm going to med school, I want something that's reliable and not likely to cost me as it goes out of warranty. However, spending $30k to save money in the future is a large outlay and since I only ever pay cash, it's not clear cut for me.

This is where I hope you may be able to offer some advice. Do I stick with my '06, replace the clutch and run it until I'm done with med school? Or do I buy the new '09? I know spending money to save in the long run isn't perhaps the most obvious way of saving money but I wouldn't mind a new 911 either

Thanks for reading

 

I would keep your 06 and save the money. You can do a lot of repairs and maintenance for 30K. The 09 will also require you to do some maintenance down the road, so it becomes a wash!

 

Oh one more thing, I was going to add the Dension this month to my C2S and the new one has the ipod kit already in it. I should also mention that my current C2S has been a bit of a lemon, I've lost count of how many things have broken on it, rattles, squeaks etc. I'm hoping these will all be ironed out soon but its been a bit of a shocker compared to my brand new Cayman S that I traded for it.

 

Lucky you, I was only driving a Suzuki Sidekick when I was in Med school, at least it was a stick shift.

Good thing I saved my money at that time, now look at my garage...

 

Haha, well to be fair I'm going to med school a little later than most, I'm 26 and I've already run 2 of my own successful businesses. The time away has just made me realize how much I want to go back to what I loved doing in school.

So it's off to med school! Albeit in an interesting car

 

That explains a lot Tim!

 

I have seen people come up with all kinds of reasons to buy a new car but I found this the most amusing .
"since my wife is American and I've decided that this year I'm going to go to med school to become a radiologist."

Of course you ought to buy the new car . The 06 needs work so add that to whatever discount you get on an 09 .

Never .I repeat . Never has Porsche 007S discounts been like the way they have been . This is still the time to buy. Plus yoir 06 can be priced to sell as the competition in that range is dismal . Price it at 56K and sell at 52 and you are in.

That's less than 30K

 

I would keep the '06. Even though the 997.2 has a few newer bits, I think it will largely feel like the exact same car.

 

I admit, it's a bit of an odd reason to buy a new car but I think you can see what I'm getting at ; I just don't want my 06 to go bang whilst I'm forking out $100k+ for med school... and clearly the solution is to spend another $30k...

It's a tough one for me, I'm really torn between both options.

 

in a good or bad way?


@Dave,

how about getting extended warranty for the 06?

all the best to you in your medical career.

 

Yeh I'm leaning towards that idea. Can I extend a warranty beyond the original CPO or does it have to be one of those aftermarket ones?

 

Keep the car, save your dough. With Obamacare coming, the years of the MDs making high incomes may be over. You'll be lucky to earn $500K in the future.

 

Ever thought about selling the 06' and replacing it with an inexpensive reliable DD until you're out of med school?

I certainly don't know your financial conditions and am not about to judge, but if you're worried about maintenance costs of a CPO 06', spending an extra $30k for an 09' to mitigate said risks seem to be a fool's errand. If you just want a newer/better 911, then get it on those reasons.

 

I'm not worried about maintenance costs, I can quite easily afford them, it was more a case of 'what would you do' when you factor maintenance vs the cost of a currently heavily discounted brand new car.

I'd just not like any surprises that's all

 

I dunno ... unless there's something you don't really like about your existing car, trading up to an 09 seems like a bit much. It may be good deal on an 09 ... but it's still an 09 and you are going to eat 20-30k in depreciation all over again. If you're worried about reliability a solid third party warranty is the way to go ... buying a new car for that seems like rationalizing.