Is the turbo a car for the massess? Granted, a very good looking car, and it performs very well. There are few enough of them around to make the owner feel a little special, but enough of them around so alot of people can buy or lease the car.

Is the 996tt to Germany what the Corvette is to the US? To many this has a silver lining because there are enough of them around and modifying them is somewhat economical as many mods are available.

Which brings me to the orginal question. Looking at this board, most viewers want to modify the stock 996tt. However, when most people sell their cars, the modifications are worth only pennies on the dollar. It doesn't really matter if the modifications are motor, handling, interior or exterior.

I am curious to hear the thoughts of others.

 

None of the TT owners I know as long time family friends cares about mods or boards like this one. They happily drive around with their stock ECUs and ..horrors ... amber side markers .
Same goes for the other 4 996s on my block , three of which the owners park on the street under tree sap so they can protect their cherished bikes and such in the garage.
We have to keep things in overall market perspective on these types of boards.

 

If you look at the number of people on the board and in the Turbo section and compare it to the number of turbo owner out there it's a small fraction (20%). The 20 per cent that are on here are more hardcore than the average owner in terms of mods....

I think waiting and finding the right buyer is much better than just stripping the car and putting it back to stock.

 

With this sort of question, ultimately it's about you. As Lance
Armstrong said, "It's not about the bike". If you want to feel
special, you are ultimately going to have to convince yourself
that you're special. Otherwise you won't believe others it fhey
think so, because you'll thick you conned them.
You can only be special by what you personally did. Earning
enough to afford a 996tt is special, but unfortunately enough
folks get this sort of money by non-respectable ways to make the
impression debateable in other's eyes. You have to know it for
yourself.
You can be special by what you accomplish with the car. This can
be an artistic designer statement about you (for aesthetic mods),
or a technical statement about you (via the functional mods), or a
driving skill statement about you (by how you actually drive the
car).
What you spend is only an issue when you're not sure you
wanted what you bought. Some people spend thousands on a
trek to risk their life to climb some rock that 10 people have ever
heard of, and come home in debt if they ever do come home.
In all these cases, what we really have is our memories. For what
it's worth, *you* should be proud of having gone where no one
has gone before exploring the power possibilities of the already
amazing 996tt. Your post sounds as if "the bloom is off the rose"
a bit. I hope you continue to be happy and proud of your car and
accomplishments, but everyone should feel free to do or change
what they want to do whenever they want. The key is to do what
would make you proud of yourself or entertained by yourself, as
you see fit at the time.
Joe
Joe

 

I have to agree with what Sharkster said. After surfing this board for a while, you think eveyone can go out and buy a Porsche/turbo whatever. But to me the reality is that driving up and down from Palo Alto to SF 5+ times a week, I dont really see that many Porsches, especially turbos. Maybe its just me, but I think we are definitely the lucky/crazy 20% (not me...my car is as boring as peanut butter and jelly sandwich )

 

I say, if you can afford it, buy what you like. Mod until you are happy then repeat the whole process when you get bored.

I never worry about the next buyer. I do what pleases me and will worry about the consequenses when they come.

 

Great attitude.

 

There are way too many Turbos out there. Yet another brilliant move by Porsche to overproduce cars... Every other generation of the Turbo was produced in FAR less numbers. Here in LA, there seem to be more Turbos than C4S's.

One thing nice about having a GT car is that there aren't too many around. Perhaps this was part of Porsche's marketing strategy.

Back in 2000/2001, I used to do a double take every time I saw a Turbo. Now, I just look once and unless it is highly modded, I don't even bother to look again. Around here, the problem with Turbos is that they have become too accessible to the masses, so now you see housewives driving Tiptronics and posers who put 19" CHROME HRE's and neon lighting and 12" subwoofers. Unfortunately, the Turbo in many ways has become Porsche's answer to the Mercedes Benz SL-class.

The reason why mods are not worth much is because the majority of aftermarket products actually make the car worse overall than better. Whatever you gain by running more boost you lose in engine longevity and now you don't have a Warranty on the motor. I also tend to think that most Turbo owners have enough money to start their own mod projects.

I like the hardcore enthusiast cars, even the lesser priced GT3 makes me look and fawn over it, over and over and over again.

If they had brought over the GT3-RS, that would be the car sitting in my garage.

 

as Hamann said

Back in 2000/2001, I used to do a double take every time I saw a Turbo. Now, I just look once and unless it is highly modded, I don't even bother to look again. Around here, the problem with Turbos is that they have become too accessible to the masses, so now you see housewives driving Tiptronics and posers who put 19" CHROME HRE's and neon lighting and 12" subwoofers. Unfortunately, the Turbo in many ways has become Porsche's answer to the Mercedes Benz SL-class.


all true..i used to see a turbo and go wow.now its a mee too car around here(ny)...

i am sort of glad i sold the tt,because i am getting a 997 tt(# 3 on my dealers list) when they are allocated(when?) and the new bentley coupe next month!!!!

 

This will be a perfect question for the 997, the car is going to be more and more common in any version, the target is to get the marque everywhere, I see a lot of 996 cabs where I am and not many TTs at all so the car is sort of rare here, modern day Porsche is not an enthusiast's car anymore, except it for what it is and enjoy it.

 

thats why i decided to keep my 2001 C4 and it has the full GT3 Aerokit. I haven't seen any in my area, and when i do we have a special bond on the road

 

Can you believe there was a time people were paying $10-20K over sticker for these cars? A friend of mine made $40k on 2 TT's back in '01. My how things change.

 

My question was directed more to the fact you can buy a completely bare bones 996tt or one that has 50-100k of options and /or modifications and the options/modifications bring back very little.

 

It depends on what "out there" means. Here in Atlanta, or really even anywhere around the Southeast, there just aren't many Turbos at all. In the last week I've seen one other Porsche, a 964. And I drive 35 miles each way to work on Atlanta's Interstates.

I've had Porsche friends drive thousands of miles on a road trips through the central portion of the U.S. and not see another Porsche the entire time.

Porsche's marketing plan can't be knocked due to regional sales numbers.

 

Exactly, Thats why people who mod should mod for thier own enjoyment and not worry or expect and return on it, just enjoy it.