FRUNKenstein

I've got a thread going under the General Discussions, Other Marques heading asking for recommendations for a cool first car for my younger son who just got his learner's permit and will be getting a license in about a year. We bought his older brother a 951 for his first car and it has worked out great getting him a unique, relatively inexpensive enthusiast car. He likes to say that he's got the only red Porsche turbo in the high school parking lot.
There have been a number of good suggestions on the other thread. But the question not answered there by anyone yet is whether I should hand down my '99 C4 996 Aero and upgrade myself to a C4S or 996TT. Crazy bad idea? Too much car for him?
My '99 has 139k on it (but only 69k on engine). It's stable with AWD and PSM. It's not crazy fast compared with many newer cars. I've got about 9 months to decide and shop.
What say you guys?

ditto

If you have to ask....

washington dc porsche

Keep the tradition going.

My first car was a Mercedes my brother had when he lived in Germany. I have to admit, I did drive at least 100 mph daily for years but I had been driving a toyota mini van on backroads at high speeds since age 14 prior to the MB.

Dennis C

Only you can answer that question. It is quite a car for a new driver, but your son may be up to it.

My plan with my boys was to buy a beater first. Statistically speaking, most young male drivers will wreck a car in the early stages of learning to drive. It was the case with both of my sons. Now that they have some experience and they have calmed down a bit, I bought them each something newer.

garrett1021

My first car is my 964! and I keep it perfect, no accidents or tickets, food for thought

FRUNKenstein

Garrett, how old were you when you got it? My 964 C2 had wicked oversteer if you did something stupid, so would not have considered it. I think the 996 C4 is pretty forgiving, but wonder if you ever felt your engine was going to pass you on a cloverleaf ramp.

silotwo

Both of my son's did total their cars. I have a rule that if you disrespect what I provide, I stop providing. Both of them now have cars on their own dime, although they often hint about inheriting the Porsches and tell me I am one Porsche short since there are three boys.

I don't think the 996 is a poor choice for a first car if you believe that your son is mature enough to understand what he is driving and respects what it has to offer. I know that my middle son would get in some trouble as he would be show boating for sure.

Dennis C

My first son was given a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am. This was in 2009. He totaled it in 6 weeks. He went without a car for some time. I replaced it with a 1995 Volvo 850 with 150K miles. It was ugly and slow, but it was transportation!

terbiumactivated

Sorry but No Way! That's way too much car for a brand new driver, for the same reasons my dad wouldn't let me buy the three speed v8 Lemans we had on our lot as a first car. Instead I got a 1.1 Opel Kadette. If you do give it to him, better have the ticket doctor on speed dial and frankly that would be the least of my worries.

Quadcammer

its your kid...only you know what he can handle both physically and mentally. I drove a 95 M3 and modified mustang cobra in high school without any problems, but it really depends who the kid is.

rglbegl

All depends on the kid.
When I was 16 there is NO WAY I would have trusted me with a Porsche as my daily driver.

That said
When I was 16 (Dad owned a dealership) we had 1 Lambo, 2 Ferrari's, An IROC, A kit car with over 500HP, a Lexus, Buick Grand National, BMW 7 series, and about a dozen other cars. I was allowed to drive anything I wanted once in a while. But my car was a 1962 VW bug.

I will say that I tested the limits of every car I ever drove.
My brother on the other hand . . . . . Driving Ms. Daisy.

So if your son is like my brother, sure get him a rocket. If he is like me. . .. 1992 Honda Civic

Edit - If he is like me, I am taking the RX7 FD off the table

jimq

insurance company probably wont be to happy with that decision.

Dale Gribble

rglbegl,

similar story here, we were actually a mazda dealer and all my life the only car i ever lusted after was an FD RX7. It was actually the only car that dad ever overuled and said no ****ing way am i giving a kid this thing, it's too tail happy and the impact protection is laughable.

I did however learn to drive stick, or rather pretty much drive on my ol' man's 996 C2 (under his supervision as for the 1st year up here you have to drive with a fully licensed driver...and there's no way dad wasn't driving anything not RWD at the time).

It was challenging for the first day or two, then once I figured out how the clutch worked, it was a pretty tame car till you stomped on the go-fast pedal. Once I got my "solo" license, i was given more or less free access to the Porka when he wasn't using it. Did I speed in it? Yeah, i'm not going to BS the OP on that, but did I do anything monumentally stupid in it?

No because I knew it wasn't my car and that it had to come back in one piece. Trust and all that stuff. Not to mention that as my school's head car guy at the time, if anyone found out that I wrote off the 996, it would have been disgraceful. Not too long after, i bought my first motorcycle the summer before heading off to university, didn't kill myself on it either.

If the OP has that kind of relationship with his kid, and his kid has some good values and self preservation instinct, then why not. Plus, the OP's talking about a C4...how much trouble could he really get into with one

sjfehr

Getting a young new driver a high performance car is a recipe for disaster. If you get him a nice slightly underpowered FWD sedan he'll be far less tempted to push it to ludicrous speeds and be far more likely to survive long enough to develop the skills to properly enjoy a 996 as his 2nd car.

Gonzo911

For me, it's not the fact it's a very powerful car, it's the image. Of course our cars are relatively cheap, but they were close to $100k new. My 2 sons got cars when they turned 16 provided they had jobs and paid for gas and maintenance. The cars were provided to get them from point A to point B. When and if they wanted a sports car, they can buy it themselves with great satisfaction in doing so.

In our community, there are plenty of teens driving brand new $50k cars. That just goes against our values and the thought of me giving one of my kids a Porsche 911 as a first car just doesn't sit well with me. A car like that, whatever the cost, should be earned.

I gave my eldest a Jag S-type when he graduated college. It was 6 years old. I didn't want to rob him of the satisfaction of being able to buy his first car all by himself.