1997 993 Carrera S

[Keith Moore]

I have a 1989 911 Cab Dark Blue Grey Int. with 26,000 miles ...all original and I will not be selling it. But, I am looking for another Porsche and have decided on a 993 1996 to 1998 C2S...talking to a guy in Tx. that has a 1997 993 C2S widebody with 21,700 miles...2nd owner since 2001 and he has driven it 730 miles per year...silver with grey Int. asking 49,000 for the car...car looks straight up and have checked it out on carfax...it has failed emissions or safety inspection at 20,948 and again at 21,063 then passed at 21,336, passed at 21,386, passed at 21,494 in 2005 then failed in 2006 with the same miles...can not belive the guys does not drive the car more than that, why have one..passed 2006 at 21,755. He says battery ...because he drives it very little..gets so low that there is a problem with ressetting the codes...anyway...The only thing I am not to sure of is the Tiptronic as all my other cars have been 5/6 speed man....I would appreciate any feedback on this model...another thing not very many of these cars to be found with low miles under 50,000. it seems.. Thanks for the help...Keith Moore

[993iinc]

I have a 1989 911 Cab Dark Blue Grey Int. with 26,000 miles ...all original and I will not be selling it. But, I am looking for another Porsche and have decided on a 993 1996 to 1998 C2S...talking to a guy in Tx. that has a 1997 993 C2S widebody with 21,700 miles...2nd owner since 2001 and he has driven it 730 miles per year...silver with grey Int. asking 49,000 for the car...car looks straight up and have checked it out on carfax...it has failed emissions or safety inspection at 20,948 and again at 21,063 then passed at 21,336, passed at 21,386, passed at 21,494 in 2005 then failed in 2006 with the same miles...can not belive the guys does not drive the car more than that, why have one..passed 2006 at 21,755. He says battery ...because he drives it very little..gets so low that there is a problem with ressetting the codes...anyway...The only thing I am not to sure of is the Tiptronic as all my other cars have been 5/6 speed man....I would appreciate any feedback on this model...another thing not very many of these cars to be found with low miles under 50,000. it seems.. Thanks for the help...Keith Moore

If it weren't for the Tip, that would be a steal. Having said that, the asking price is probably right on. There have been quite a few trading hands lately for the mid $50k and with 30k miles +/-, so to pick up a C2S in the 40's, you won't go wrong......other than the effects of the auto tranny.

[ez996]

Why would you buy a PORSCHE with tiptronic?

[Loren]

Why would you buy a PORSCHE with tiptronic?

Why wouldn't you buy a Porsche with a Tiptronic?

Have you ever driven one?

Did you know the 997TT with a Tiptronic is faster than the 6 speed (0-100)?

[ez996]

Loren that is not the point, no offense to anyone. No, I did not driven Tiptornic nor I realy have to. I enjoy shifting gears, heal-and- toe right before turn in etc. For me Porsche is a sports car -like Jay Leno said about Carrera GT " it has a proper transmission..... not a video game controls". Numbers don't mean to me that much anymore. I want to have fun with a car, that is my objective. Trust me I drive plenty of cars every day (500hp plus with auto boxes ) that's my job. But it is nothing like after long straight-away downshifting thru the gears, double clutching, bleeping throttle, braking, and at the same time hitting apex spot on, accelerating out of the turn it is so much fun I'm sure you know it. And yes you can drive fast with autoboxes but you miss all that fun between.

[RandomMoon]

Keith,

I live in CA (where SMOG emissions are tight) and have a 97 993 Carrera S. Bot it with 16k in '00, has 48k now. I have been driving the car much more often these days, however, early on, I did keep it in the garage looking pretty and not driving much. Great to keep the low miles, not so great for the battery and car overall. Porsches like to be driven. Anyway, when I read your post about the smog testing/failing, I was compelled to chime in.

I have had the same problem with passing smog with the low/disconnected battery scenario... basically, if the battery amperage gets too low, or is disconnected, some of the OBD codes that the CA (and probably TX) emissions tests look at are faulted. Having these in the faulted state causes the smog guy to give you the thumbs down... Insult to injury: It takes a specific set of steps (certain speeds in certain gears for a certain duration of minutes/seconds in a certain sequence) and, from what I can ascertain, the dealership (or decent pro-shop) computer voodoo to get these codes to reset to where they PASS the SMOG test... these codes do not just reset themselves after 20 minutes of driving. (like some other cars). I have had to do this twice now since I've owned the car. Each time it ran between $150 and $200.

I've seen this mentioned on other 993 specific boards here and there... but, I think it mostly applies to the tighter emissions states... I believe there are other states which ignore this particular set of OBD codes completely. Other 993 owners feel free to chime in here.

My lesson learned: If you are going to stable the car, or live in cold weather climate, get yourself a good (Porsche approved) battery charger and hook her up. Also, if you have a shop do major work (like dropping engine to install a new clutch), have them ensure you that they will reset the codes such that you'll still pass smog given they will likely have disconnected the battery as part of the work. Otherwise, come smog check time, you'll be heading over to the dealership to pay them $200 just to reset the codes, and then back over the SMOG guy for the retest. BTW, the $200 is for labor time only, no parts are required. No other work/tuning is done, they just get the codes to reset... what this means is that if the car passes SMOG after the codes are reset, then it would have passed before getting the codes reset... and the $200 is just a penalty that 993 owners take thanks to some much needed, but ill-directed, smog legislation.

All that said, I love this car and wouldn't trade it for my left lugnut. ;-)

[RandomMoon]

Keith... there's also a thread on this in the DIY for 993 in this Forum... it looks like at a couple of guys have figured out how to reset them! (but also confirm a prior $300 trip to the dealership).

[swmrdrn]

Keith... there's also a thread on this in the DIY for 993 in this Forum... it looks like at a couple of guys have figured out how to reset them! (but also confirm a prior $300 trip to the dealership).

My father has a '97 993 targa with a tip (I have an '03 targa /tip). He has had the same problem with smog as a result of only driving it a few thousand miles a year. In November it failed smog and he was told to drive it for a few weeks and retest... it failed again... so he kept driving it. After driving it 3 days a week for the last few months it finally passed smog here in SoCal.

As for the manual vs. tip question. I assume that the 993s has the same tip as the 993 targa. I will say that the 4 speed tip does not drive as well as the new 5 speed tip in my car. In my opinion the 4 speed as too wide of gear spacing.

[irhmsd]

On the 993s. don't forget that some of these cars had pre mature valve guide wear and inherent problems with the emmission system. Have a dealer check the car out to make sure it is nothing more than the low battery scenario described.