2003 Porsche 911 Carrera from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

Transmission noise at 7000kms.

RMS (rear main seal) leak at 16000kms.

Interior falling apart and of poor quality.

I've always loved Porsche, but since having bought it, I'm starting to have grave concerns, especially when the warranty runs out!

The built quality is not what I had expected from a car in this price range. The problems with the RMS and transmission are really worrying me, although they were eventually repaired under warranty (dealer support sucks). I'm worried if this happens again, I'll be up for mega bucks $$$$ to fix.

I hear on various forum that the 996 and 997 911's suffer from all these type of problems. This was not the experience I was hoping for. I'm now sadly selling this car.

Deteriorating build quality has been affecting many of the mainstream German marques (VW, Audi, BMW) for some time, but I am shocked it has filtered through to Porsche.

I would be gutted had I spent that sort of money on a car and had even trivial problems with it.

A Porsche 911 after a Lexus GS300???

You've must cracked the lottery... or maybe you are on a mid-life crisis and decided to sell you wife and kids and decided to buy a 911.

The only advice I can give you: Sell it and buy a Ferrari F430 or the forthcoming BMW M6.

The GS300 has gone to the wife and YES I'm selling the 911 even though I've been informed I stand to lose around $70,000 AUD. I have enjoyed driving the car immensely, but don't want to be stuck with any future problems, once the warranty expires. Associates of mine own or have owned the older 911's mid 80's vintage with high KMS and suffer very few problems. Although I've always loved Porsche, it seems the company philosophy has changed.

I have had the same problem with my 02 carrera- twice.

Great car, but the extended warranty is a cost you should build into ownership.

I agree, my Porsche dealer offered to extend my warranty, at a cost!!, $1900 AUD per year. I declined the offer and presently trying to sell the car. Great to drive and lots of fun, but reliability and build quality should go without saying for a vehicle in this price range. I shouldn't have to think and worry about what else can go wrong. Most other manufacturers of cars costing a fraction of what I paid for the 911, offer 5 year warranties as standard. My GS300, which I bought new in 1998, has close to 150,000km and apart from scheduled servicing nothing has gone wrong!! Driven by myself and the good wife, on occasions abused, and still drives like it was new. I admit its not an exciting vehicle to drive, but appears to have been put together rather well. Maybe Porsche should take a leaf out of the Japanese assembly style, there current methods appear to be producing inferior cars, that will not stand the test of time, or run without problems.

I've heard from a mechanic (who is also a relation) that works for a Porsche dealership in Sydney, he was advised by the service manager not to spend too much time on client vehicles. There was a productivity policy of the dealership to spend minimal time. He advised me that cars where leaving the the service shop, that were not 100% and the knowledge and technical expertise of most technicians was average to say the least. On one particular vehicle 3 items were changed before the fault was found, at the clients expense. I personally take my car to an independent and watch the work been carried out. Over the years I've established a relationship with the shop I'm very happy with the work and not charged a fortune.

I am very surprised - and disappointed - by this review, particularly as I am in a position to upgrade my (VERY reliable) 2003 Subaru WRX to a 2000-2004 911.

Would love to know from the original reviewer: have you serviced your car regularly? (and yes, I know that the handbook probably recommends relatively long intervals between servicing). Did you buy the car new and if so, did you follow a prudent running in procedure? How hard have you driven it? (e.g. any track days?)

Having said all of the above, I can entirely understand your disappointment if you are comparing it to the experience you have had with your Lexus. No German car (Porsche included) ranks as highly as a Lexus (or most Japanese cars for that matter) when it comes to reliability. But even so, I have always heard that Porsche ranks a lot higher than your experience seems to suggest.

LEXUS more reliable???

I can make LEXUS a service nightmare in 2000km of edge-on-edge driving.

Porsche is 10000 times more reliable and cheaper to run if you drive cars hard.

Well maybe the owner just don't have the guts to put down full throttle everyday.

So why would you, and where can you' legally drive a car "hard"?