Justin76

at the end of the day you can daily drive anything .. I know a guy that daily drives a Carrera GT and his weekend car is a Bugatti Chiron.. so yeah anything can be.

966 as a daily is doable and like everyone says just do the maintenance that needs to be addressed. I'm the type to redo it all the maintenance even if it's been done.

The one trick i will tell you is that working on a 20 year old car is a little different. Whatever part of the car I'm working on i just replace everything available while working on it for that area. example is if you are working on suspension just replace all the arms with new bushings etc... it's worth the extra cost as you are already in there.. same for when I replaced the water pump, thermostat, as i just replaced all the hoses being removed and replaced with new.. Did this also with the center radiator install as i had to remove the fenderliners to get better access and i just replaced with new... Bolts and all .. don't forget the bolts and plastic clips ..

Is it more expensive yes, but all that plastic and rubber is 20 years old and no matter the mileage it's been through a ton of heat cycles so its brittle and won't last forever..

Mike Murphy

That’s how I feel. The 911 does this really well, as does an M. My 06’ M5 was not as great in real life as it was on paper, but that’s a car you can drive your grandmother to church in, go across country, and then put it into sport mode for tracking up to 8,000+ redline on the weekends.

911curious

That is exactly what intrigued me about Porsche in the first place. Superfast Matt has a video where he goes around ant interviews a bunch of Porsche guys about what makes Porsche special and the answer was always that they design cars as a system with usability and subjective feel in mind instead of just chasing performance numbers. I dig that.

It’s also what attracts me to the GR86.

To update everyone, I put down a deposit today on a 2023 GR86 allocation a local dealer has on the boat right now. Should be here in 3-4 weeks. I’m sad I’m not gonna have a Porsche but will revisit the idea in a few years when I am more established and have more savings.

Mike Murphy

I saw that Superfast Matt video, it was great. Congrats on the GR86. Maybe come back and post about the car, what you like, how it compares to the 996, etc.

911curious

I can actually comment on that now. I rented a 2022 BRZ for a trip recently so have had the opportunity to compare them fairly back to back.

I’d say the biggest difference is just in the feel. The BRZ is sort of boy racer aggressive in its looks, the suspension is very playful, steering is fast, it really feels like a car built to have fun and hoon around in. The Porsche feels much more refined and buttoned down. It has loads more rear grip, more power, a better sounding engine, and the simplistic Porsche styling.

The Porsche has better steering with the fairly heavy hydraulic PS, although the 86 is also great in this regard. The 86 has a much better shifter. I was kind of disappointed with the sloppy shifter in the 996 given Porsche’s reputation for great shifters but I have a feeling it just needed a rebuild.

The interior build quality and usability seemed pretty similar, with me giving the edge to the twins. I remember in 2005 or so thinking my uncle’s 996 felt amazingly refined inside, but today it looks dated and has all the small flaws of an older car that has seen plenty of use. The 86 is similarly plasticky but it’s obviously new and has all the modern amenities.

Dryslick13

+1. Use my 2001 C2 Cab all year in CO mountains. Even in heavy snow. Is my DD. Just use good quality full winter/snow rated tires and you won’t have issues. Only time it was a problem was with the rare early or late season heavy wet snow over 8” deep, but then every vehicle would have issues.

brontosaurus

Congrats! Probably the right choice. There's a lot of joy in just using something and not having to think about what will break next.

Switch to either the 996 or 997 GT3 shifter and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

worldwideviking

THIS. In the winter, CO uses something closer to gravel than sand, so expect rock damage. In the summer, we have hail that leaves dimples. Also, Denver is America’s car theft capital (how I lost my Mk7.5 GTI). There’s a reason why car insurance here is insane. Anyway, I have a pristine 996.2 C2 that I drive when conditions are acceptable and just picked up a CPO Macan as a daily to replace my GTI. I love my 996, but as a year-round daily in Denver, I’d really think hard about it. Golf R would be an interesting alternative, imho.