I realize this is kind of a dumb question.

But I have issues with my porsche.

You see -- I hate putting miles on it.

But maybe I need to gauge its lifespan better.

How far do they usually go before everything basically hits the fan?

Also -- when do the clutches usually wear out?

 

Any more than 10 miles is dangerous.

 

If it's not your daily driver than don't worry about the miles. The pity is if you don't drive it much you'll never learn how much fun it is. So when you do drive it get some good seat time in with some DE events. Just sitting in the garage is not the best thing in the world for it. Take it out a least once a week for a spirited run and turn on the AC for a bit. You've got to change oil and filter annually and brake fluid bi-annually regardless of miles. Tranny fluid and coolant also have time limits. Most of the things that wear out are meant to, tires (15-20K), brakes (fronts 25k rear about 50k), clutch (about 50K) etc. Hoses and belt will eventually fail. Sometimes it's a good idea at the 10 year mark just to replace all of the. Things that will go bad if you don't drive it are engine/tranny seals (esp RMS), tires will get flat spots, and the battery will sufate (keep a tender/charger on it to be safe). All my Pcars have been toys so I usually average about 300-500 spirited miles a month. Well taken care of with low milage usage, you could go 20 years easy.

 

Thanks for the great response. Yes its my daily driver in the summers.. thanks for that information.

 

My previous "weekend" car was a 2002 BMW MCoupe. I bought it with 22K miles, andn it was a garage queen for 6 years. I probably spent $15K+ on mods and I sold it this year with only 30K miles. It was a joy to drive, but when I look back, it was such a waste. My C2S now has 65K miles and I am happy for it...its not to collect, its not to save..it already has a nice amount of miles, so I am driving it any and everywhere without much concern for its mileage and I love it.

 

Thanks Island.
Yes mine is a Carrera base model that had about 32k miles on it and now it has 34k and I got it about 3 weeks ago.
I need to just get over it and keep driving the bastard.

 

Think of 'them' as points instead of miles

 

My 09 C2S is CPO'd til Sep 2015 or 100K mi. I plan on getting very close to the 100K mark before the time runs out. I'm going to enjoy this one.

 

The magic number on any car is 50K miles (in my opinion) . It's harder to find a buyer who can qualify to finance in the higher mile range and the guy who has the $$$ will want lower miles.

 

I don't care how many miles I put on mine. I'm not saving it for the next guy. Don't look at it sitting in the garage. Go out and drive it.

 

You heard that Manthey Racing just won the 2011 24 hours of Nurburgring, right? 156 laps in 24 hours, all out full contact racing. And the GT2RS driven by Jeff Zwart was driven off the showroom right to Pikes Peak where it placed second climbing the hill (in a time faster than his modified GT3 Cup from last year.)

I mention this as you should consider Porsches to be durable beyond belief. They are meant to be driven daily to work, driven on weekends for groceries, drive to the track, endure the hardships of lap after lap. You should enjoy driving them in the rain, the snow, the sleet. If you properly maintain the car, a Porsche will outlast most owners.

bob

 

Normal miles would be somewhere between 5 - 7 K per year. As for your clutch, it could go 100 K + highway miles, in town only driving will be a lot less. I put 36 K, mostly in town miles, on my Boxster's original clutch when I traded it in after 8 years of trouble free miles. No RMS or IMS issues. No blown up engine or transmission. ( Only recurring problem was with the coolant tank and the caps on it. Weak design from the get go but a minor issue. )

But, the real issue here is to drive the car as much as possible for all the reasons already stated by others. It is a car to be enjoyed, not maintained in perfect condition for the next owner. It will wear out and can be put right again when something needs replacing. Drive it or trade it in for a Honda. No one worries about how many miles they put on their Honda.

 

exactly!
this is the kind of car you need to enjoy.

don't worry as to what is too much.. I'm sure the engine can handle as much if not more miles than most engines, and I've seen engines run with 160,000miles.
so I wouldn't worry about it
if you are afraid on losing money on trade-in due to high miles, just think of the money lost as money well spent on hell of fun

 

More Miles = more smiles in my book. That said Larry's spot on if life ownership is not a vocation. I wish I could 'whiteout' the odometer and just focus on the driving but real life must be respected. Maybe a 12k/year target is reasonable.

The roads driven are just as important as the miles; getting off the Interstate as much as possible. There are many great 'detours', time allowing of course.

quote=yrralis1: The magic number on any car is 50K miles (in my opinion) . It's harder to find a buyer who can qualify to finance in the higher mile range and the guy who has the $$$ will want lower miles.[/quote]

 

Glad to see so many people chiming in that share my opinion on this (not that I would expect much different on this site)

I tend to have the exact oposite problem with my 996... I LOVE putting miles on it! As my useername implies my 996 is a daily driver. If a weekend goes by where the car stays parked, I will actually leave for work early and take an extended route to the office. We went to Austraila for 3 weeks this winter and on multiple ocassions flying home I found myself drifting off thinking about how nice it would be to get back in the seat of the 996.

I am in a slightly different position as I bought the car used, knowing that the previous owner had incurred the lions share of depreciation on the car (from a percentage basis). The previous owner only logged about 30k miles on a 9 year old car. He still turned the keys over to me for less than half of the original sticker price. The car was well maintained, garaged, near perfect paint and interior and he/she still lost half the value over 9 years just staring at the car

Long story short and speaking in general, cars make terrible investments. If you are looking to invest in something that will hold/gain value contact your financial advisor. If you are looking for a big fat grin everytime you turn the key I'd say you invested wisely!

Case in point drive the car that is what it was made for! I like the idea of viewing miles as points... I just choose to count them as (s)miles.