Comparisons
Porsche 996 vs 997: which used 911 to buy
A practical comparison of the 996 and 997: engines, the IMS bearing, bore scoring, and what each sub-generation is listed for today.
Published by Hyper Velox
Who each car is for
Our view: buy the car whose engine you are willing to have inspected, not the badge that sounds newer. A 996 or a 997.1 Carrera can be a sound car with records and a borescope. A 997.2 Carrera is the one that left the IMS bearing behind, and it usually asks more. The prices further down are today’s asks on this site. They are not a rule about what the later car is worth.
Inside each generation, the early and late cars are different. On Hyper Velox, 996.1 is model years 1999–2001, 996.2 is 2002–2004, 997.1 is 2005–2008, and 997.2 is 2009–2011, unless the listing itself names a sub-generation. LN Engineering’s IMS problem-years page, as we read it on October 26, 2026, puts some 2005 cars with the 996.2 and some with the 997.1, and it treats the 997.2 Carrera as running through 2012. A 2012 car is filed here as a 991.1. Use the model year on the listing when you compare a car to those lists.
| Generation | Filed years | Carrera engine |
|---|---|---|
| 996.1 | 1999–2001 | 3.4-liter M96 |
| 996.2 | 2002–2004 | 3.6-liter M96. LN Engineering also lists a 2005 996.2. |
| 997.1 | 2005–2008 | 3.6-liter M96 or 3.8-liter M97 |
| 997.2 | 2009–2011 | MA1 (also called 9A1), with no intermediate shaft |
Engines, IMS, and bore scoring
The 996 and 997 Carrera engines people worry about are the M96 and M97. LN Engineering’s bore-scoring explanation says the 1999–2001 996.1 Carrera used a 3.4-liter M96, the 2002–2004 996.2 Carrera a 3.6-liter M96, and the 997.1 Carrera a 3.6-liter M96 or a 3.8-liter M97. From 2009, LN Engineering says the Carrera moved to the MA1 (also called 9A1) engine, which has no intermediate shaft and no IMS bearing. LN Engineering sells replacement parts.
The IMS issue is that sealed ball bearing on the intermediate shaft. LN Engineering says it was used on M96 and M97 engines in the 911, Boxster, and Cayman from the late 1990s through 2008, and that a failure can take the engine with it. On their problem-years page they describe 1999 as a dual-row bearing, 2000–2001 as dual-row or single-row, 2002–2005 as the smaller single-row bearing, and 2006–2008 as a larger bearing that is not replaced without taking the engine apart. They report an approximate 8 percent failure rate for that single-row bearing during the warranty period, and about 1 percent for the earlier dual-row bearing during the warranty period. They say neither figure is a lifetime rate. We are not repeating those as our own statistics.
Bore scoring is wear of the aluminum-silicon cylinder wall. LN Engineering says the 1999–2008 normally aspirated Carrera engines can score, and that in their experience the 3.6 and 3.8 show up more often than the 3.4. A borescope of the cylinder walls is what confirms it. Noise, oil use, or a sooty tailpipe can be a clue, and none of those alone proves the bore is scored. They also say later Alusil engines, including the 2009–2012 Carrera, can score, at lower rates in their experience. A 997.2 is not a free pass. The Porsche Club of America series is aimed at the 1999–2008 cars and points to the same specialists. It does not publish a separate failure rate for us to quote.
Do not treat every 996 or 997 as a Carrera engine. LN Engineering says the Turbo, GT2, and GT3 models of this era that use the Mezger engine are not part of the Carrera IMS failure: that shaft runs in a pressure-fed plain bearing. They also list a 997.2 Turbo on a later engine, so “997 Turbo” is not automatically a Mezger car. Read the model.
The 997.1 versus 997.2 choice is mostly this engine change. Pay the later-car premium when you want the MA1 (also called 9A1) and you have checked the car. Stay with a 997.1 when the inspection and the records are stronger than the ones on the later cars you can afford. The 996 years guide goes further on the early cars.
Asking prices today
Asking prices were read from Hyper Velox listings at October 30, 2026 at 10:29 AM EDT. They are the seller’s asking price, not a sold price.
Listing counts include auctions and cars with no asking price. The dollar columns do not. 996 listings and 997 listings are the live inventory behind the table.
| Group | Listings | Low asking | Median | High asking | Days of supply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 996.1 | 288 | $12,900 | $31,174 | $229,000 | 145 |
| 996.2 | 449 | $15,700 | $42,900 | $599,995 | 123 |
| 997.1 | 651 | $19,795 | $59,996 | $650,000 | 129 |
| 997.2 | 269 | $38,500 | $84,925 | $999,998 | 87 |
Days of supply is the cached reading already shown on the generation pages. It is not calculated from the cars in this table. A dash means there is no current reading for that generation.
These are asking prices on active Hyper Velox listings, not sold prices and not auction bids. Prices under $5,000 are left out, the same floor the marketplace uses when it sorts by price. In a group of at least 5, a price under one fifth of the figure three quarters of the way up the sorted asks is left out, and that check is repeated. In a group of at least 8, a price under the lower quartile minus one and a half times the gap between the lower and upper quartiles is also left out. That floor never rises above 45 percent of the median, so a wide spread can still include a genuinely cheap car. If either low-price step would remove more than 40 percent of the group, the low, median, and high are withheld instead of published. In a group of at least 8, a price above the higher of $500,000 and 15 times the median is left out, unless that would remove more than 20 percent of the group. 2 asking prices were left out of the ranges above as outliers.
How to choose
If the table is up, use it as a budget check and then ignore it. A clean 996.2 with paperwork can be the right car at a price a tired 997.2 does not justify. A 997.2 with a poor history is not a better car because the generation is later. Have a specialist do the inspection in the checklist, including a borescope on any M96 or M97 Carrera, before you treat an asking price as a plan.
Sources, read October 26, 2026: LN Engineering, IMS bearing problem years, LN Engineering, what bore scoring is, and Porsche Club of America, bore scoring series. LN Engineering sells replacement parts.
996 and 997 cars on the site now
Current listings from the asking prices we kept, so you can open a real car next to the table.