Ah, good ole BMW. 


http://www.insideline.com/bmw/7-series/2005-07-bmw-7-series-recalled-because-doors-may-inadvertently-open.html

Ah, good ole BMW. 


http://www.insideline.com/bmw/7-series/2005-07-bmw-7-series-recalled-because-doors-may-inadvertently-open.html

BMW is recalling 7,485 2005-'07 BMW 7 Series cars because a software problem may cause the doors to inadvertently open, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Maybe I'm just too old school but I think the fact that this is even possible is cause for a recall.  I can't stand newer cars...

Rust in a German car?!  Is this like a flashback to Japanese cars from the 60's?  Let me guess, made in South Carolina perhaps?

Porsche gets very high marks in the typical journalistic rags for reliability.  However, I hear mixed things but nothing authoritative like I usually hear.  There seems to be something of a disconnect between limited usage by drivers/owners basking in awe of ownership and reliability due to lack of miles.  Or maybe they are that good?  Not sure.  Few owners, few miles, rarely seen in numbers driven daily.  Good reports, few sightings, I dunno.  I need to buddy up to a Porsche tech and find out the real scoop. 

Since a properly optioned Boxster or Cayman hits $90,000 now they sort of fell off the map for me.  The whole 911 thing doesn't do it for me as the idea of a rear engine sports car designed around back seats is offensive to my sensibilities.  Though I'd take a Turbo S over a GTR anyday and gladly pay the price difference.  But that's when the 458/MP12-C/Aventador start calling, so....

The only Porsche I'd want is a Boxster w/ retractable hardtop or more affordable 918.  The odds of either happening in my lifetime are pretty nil.  Well, at least before I have to wear diapers and glue my teeth in.

How bad of an idea is it to get a 996 911? There are plenty base 996s running around that are well within budget (2001-2002 or so), I just don't know what something like that may be like to live with. A Cayman S may be an option either, that's just barely depreciated to where I can start thinking about it. Either way, I know absolutely nothing about Porsche reliability.

Obviously I care nothing for mileage and practicality. I want something that can be a comfortable daily driver for when I just want to get somewhere, and something that can go absolutely nuts when I want to. Plus, I want something iconic that's more than just a car. Except that I'm don't have any money, and that puts a damper on things.

No, no, no, no, no.

"The list of cost-cuts in the Porsche 996 can be recited by nearly every Porschephile. Frameless doors, complete commonality with the Boxster from the door latches forward, horrifying interior trim quality, drop-in assemblies provided by the lowest bidder, and the engine…

An article on the most common failures suffered by the 3.4L watercooled boxer six can be found here, but for those of you who don’t click on links, the problems range from oil leakage at the rear main seal (which is more or less universal) to cylinder head failure. In nearly all cases, the “fix” is the same: to purchase a complete rebuild from Porsche, at your expense. Figure on $15,000 or more for the “subsidized” engine.

Porsche had been “fighting” failures of the watercooled engine, which appeared first in the 1997 Boxster, from the very first car that rolled off the line. Porous engine blocks, intermediate shaft failures… the watercooled boxers were junk. This is enough for a Deadly Sin — knowingly equipping every naturally-aspirated Boxster and 911 they sold from 1997 to as late as 2008 with failure-prone engines — but, as always, Porsche raised the bar in the customer-screwing department.

During those years, Porsche worked with its dealers to deny warranty claims, place blame on customers, withhold knowledge of fixes, and generally burn every last bit of goodwill they had built up over years of… um… previous engine failures in air-cooled cars. Again and again during those years, owners of pampered, low-mileage cars found themselves paying five-figure bills to keep their cars on the road. For more than a decade, Porsche simultaneously denied knowledge of engine problems while claiming that their newest engine revision did not suffer from the problems that they were denying had occurred previously.

While waiting for his $75,000 Porsche to experience a $15,000 engine failure, the 911 owner could at least fail to enjoy the most dismal, fragile interior ever seen in a production Porsche. Buttons wore out, dashes cracked, radios committed suicide in new and interesting ways, and every single electrical component in the car seemed prone to intermittent, untraceable failure. Naturally, the fabulously low prices Porsche paid suppliers for the jumble of garbage components in a 996 were never reflected at the parts counter. The replacement cost for the “Litronic” headlamp assemblies is enough to make an NBA player weep. I saw brand-new 996s with cracked leather on the seats when the cars were still in dealerships. Make no mistake. Every possible corner was cut.

Long-time Porsche owners found the 996 driving experience to be as bewildering as the build quality. This was a quiet, flimsy-feeling car that outhandled, outaccelerated, and outbraked the outgoing 993 while never feeling anything like as substantial as said air-cooled predecessor. The flimsy feeling came honestly � �� amazingly in this modern era, Porsche actually cut weight out of the car compared to the previous model — but it didn’t satisfy.

The men from Stuttgart knew they had a loser on their hands, so the 996 was freshened in 2002 with a more durable, more powerful engine, interior revisions, and a facelift. The market’s opinion on these cars, however, is written in the resale values. If you had purchased two Porsches in a row — a 1998 Carrera 2S for $75,000 and a 1999 Carrera 2 for $75,000 — and put 50,000 miles on each, you would find that the 1998 car would command an easy $50K in PCA classifieds, but the 1999 would struggle to fetch $20K."

There's a reason why 996 911s are priced within the range of mortals - they are trash and the Porsche guys all know it. I'd suggest looking into something like a 2006 BMW Z4 3.0si. They are affordable and from what I can tell at a glance, they seem to be holding up surprisingly well. That generation of Z4 appears less dated today than the equivalent SLK350, and I'd be worried about squeaks and rattles from the Benz's hard top. The Nissan Z is very crude, particularly the last one. I'm not a fan. The G37 Coupe is a better idea.