Cars that get you all hot and bothered

[SlimKlim]

You cant replace the IMS on a 997.1 - well, not without a complete engine teardown, unlike the 996.  The IMS went away with the 997.2, which is probably still a really nice car although its still riding its depreciation curve downhill and its kinda... meh?  It just doesnt excite me.

The 996's have a multitude of engine failure modes - the IMS, chunked cylinder liners, cracked heads, cam carriers, and I think I am probably leaving some out.  When I worked at the P-car dealer, it was a year or three after the boxsters came out and there was a steady stream of boxsters and 996's coming in on flat beds with failed engines.  They had serious issues with their engine block supplier and had resorted to trying to fix a lot of alignment & porosity issues in assembly with predictable results.  

The 997's do seem better than the earlier cars, or, are they just newer with fewer miles so they havent shown up yet along with the fallacy of "its newer so they must have worked out all the probles" ?  Plus, its also over $50k.  Thats out of my budget, sorry, not when you can get an Aston V8 Vantage for low $30's.  Oops, did I say that out loud?

The 996s/986s were still pouring into the shop on rollbacks in 2009-2010 when I worked there. I've always heard the 2008+ ones are the motors you want to own, but I don't know all of the ins and outs. An 08-10 Cayman S sure is a tasty looking proposition for <$25k though