First pls excuse any typos. I’m on a plane typing on this little iPhone!

Yes as my my title says my net admittedly quite broad! Let me give a little background. I have owned 944 turbo, 944S, 968, 993, and a heavily modded 997TT shock I sold for my current main toy - a Lambo Huracan.

I am now lookong for a mew daily and will be moving to SoCal in a month. Hence I was shopping for Cabs. The criteria is:

Fun to drive - meaning steering, ride, sound
Great looking
No rattles
Appreciating - cause why not! Nearly all the non 991’s are!
Bonus - Can take toddlers in back. Have a Land Cruiser for family duty but would be nice to be able to occasionally enjoy the Cab with them as well.

I took a trip to drive a 90 C2 Cab. I think these are the coolest looking of the three I am looking at.

964
I used to only prefer the 993. Now I find it a little bit around and dare I say not as much character as the more chiseled lines of the 964. The 964 still has that flat front in profile where the lights go from a pillar straight to the nose. Which looks great when it is lowered on nice wheels. I think these are the coolest looking of the three I’m looking at. Plus they are much more rare than a 993. When you see a super clean 964 it looks pretty special. The only problem Is that either all of them or the one I drove is really lacking in the fun to drive department. It was solid for a convertible, no real rattles, but the steering felt unnecessarily heavy and without feedback or sharp turn-in. The AC did not work very good. And I was told that this is common on 964. It felt like I’ll would get this one almost exclusively for looks and nostalgia - less for driving pleasure. This was a bit disappointing to me. I really was excited about the idea of having a somewhat classic 911 that looked gorgeous and even better lowered on some Turbo 3.6 replicas.

996TT Cab
It was an X50, full leather, exhaust - forgot which one, lowered on H&R’s. This one was the most surprising. It was super solid. Had great steering feel with its somewhat thin wheel. The interior looked and felt great with all that leather! In a strange way it felt like it had better build quality and ride than my old 7TT or the 7TT Cab I would drive next. I did NOT expect this. True, missing the overtly bulging fenders gives it a more svelte lowslung coupe feel - yet it felt more engaging to drive. Very shocked.

997.1TT Cab
For some reason the one I drove did not impress at all. More rattles than 996TT, felt more bumps and the steering didn’t have as much feedback of what’s happening at the road. I wonder if this is typical or if I need to drive to another.

993 Cab
I have not driven one since have not driven one since my old one which has been about 13 years! I have been so focused on trying out a 964 that I had not seriously planned on driving a 993. I may need to do this.

Summary
Which one seemed I could immediately get in drive and enjoy? Shockingly the 6TT Cab! And ironically where I used to hate the lights and lack of curvy fenders (hence my 993 and 997) I now kind of find them sorta cool and even exotic when lowered and GT2 nose! The fenders not popping out as much makes the car look longer which is either good or bad. Since this will be my chill car even with kids I suppose it’s neutral to good. Not nearly as long and bloaty looking as M4 I was also considering!

Fiscal considerations... the uber clean and low mileage 996 I would buy would be around $60k. A clean low mileage 997.1 around $70k-$75k. The 996 is on the rise. The 997 has been flat for the last 5 years or so. Which is very good. Perhaps 996 is only rising because it was ridiculously undervalued in the first place! Who knows what the future holds - but I predict the very things that made the 996 a dog will make it desirable later (its size, GT-ish, lights etc) cause that’s what always happens. I wonder if I would be an idiot for spending $60k for a low mileage 996TT cab instead of like $43k for a 40k mile car!

Anyhow, whom of you have also owned or currently own a 997TT, 964 or 993? Would love to hear your thoughts.

 

A lot of people like the driving characteristics of the 996, I've heard that quite a bit from Porsche people who aren't too biased against them. A coilover upgrade and a bit more power really makes it great too.

 

I currently have a 996TT X50 Tip Cab. Came from a 996TT manual coupe. I appreciate the option of having the top up or down. I've barely started on the slippery slope, having a COBB installed, and X73 suspension in a box ready to go...

Bang for the buck, the 996TT is still the winner, despite the big runup recently in values. But you'd expect that feedback on the 996TT forum, eh?

Mod-ability on the twin turbos is way beyond that of the air cooled cars. Nice to have that option.

Finally, I looked at a local sub-10K mile 996TT cab a while back. If that's potentially of interest, I can run it down.

 

Yes you would expect that feedback in 996 forum haha. Precisely why I've posted in 997 and will also post in 964 ;-).

DM the color of the 996TT cab you speak of. Could be of interest...

 

Similar situation here. I've been searching for a 964 Turbo for almost 2 years. Passed on one that was nearly perfect right at the beginning of my search, and have been kicking myself ever since. Best of luck to you.

 

Moderators, why was this thread moved classifieds? I am not trying to sell a car nor did I solicit with a "wanted" ad. This was a comparison/feedback post. For the record there are other posts in the 996TT forum asking if they should pay x price for a given car. Those are directly associated with a vehicle and even they don't go to classified... why was this one moved?