The car is awesome. Just do it! No regrets.

 

I'm debating when to buy and frankly have been giving some serious thought to the M3, I almost bought one earlier this year. It would be nice to have a performance car with some real world practicality.

On the other hand, the Porshce is sweet and this is not a dress rehearsal. I will probably wait for the next allocation as well to avoid any early production bugs.

 

So I was sitting there in the dealership after the test drive, looking through the build guide, and my hands are just itching to pull out the checkbook and say "I'll take it". Then, this little voice in my head said to me ...

"Remember the M3 ..."
"Remember the M3 ..."
"Remember the M3 ..."

The M3 will probably be the last first-production cars I'm ever going to buy. Patience pays off, and that's what I plan on doing. WAIT. Right now, I'm going to order in either December or Jan ... not sure yet, we'll see how the newest owners of the 997S like their cars.

 

well, dont feel bad, it wasnt only the early production M3s that had problems

 

As a previous M3 owner, if you are worried about the engine problem, regular 996 and 997's certainly won't be of any improvement over the M3.

In the 996 range, only the GT2, GT3, and the Turbo use the GT1 derived M64 dry sump block from their race cars. The rest of the 996 uses the sorry punched out Boxster "integrated dry sump," aka, really a semi dry sump M96 engine with RMS problem and oil starvation issue. Sure, you can buy an oil starvation prevention kit (standard on the power kit option), installing it voids the warranty on your engine.

997 is no better, same ole M96 block, same RMS and oil starvation issue, nothing's changed except the displacement went up to 3.8. PAG is doing this because the M96 is way cheaper to make than the M64, and makes them more $$.

And yes, I know that PAG calls the engines in the GT2, GT3, and Turbo M96 also, probably as a marketing effort to make people think that there's actually something race bred about the M96 engine when there isn't. PAG does not race this block, only the M64. If it ain't got a separate oil tank, it ain't M64.

For me, if I couldn't have swung a 996 GT2, GT3, or the Turbo, I would have gotten another M3. I drove the regular 996's and 997's, and they are just underwhelming to me, certainly if those were the only ones that I could afford, I would have ended up getting another M3.

 

@Kevin: Try a 996 TT before you decide. It'll make you forget about the 997 S.