WHAT IS THE PORSCHE 996?, WHY WAS IT HATED? WE COMPARE TO AIR-COOLED 911’S, & THE 997 & AS A SAFARI

With the decision in 1997 to end the air cooled 911 and replace it with a new water-cooled car, Porsche created the 996. Right from the start the car was meant with mixed reviews and much outrage from the dedicated Porsche 911 purists that thought that Porsche had yet again lost its way as it did when it almost replaced the 911 with the 928, please read below.
The overall look of the 996 was completely different from the last air cooled 993 that it had just replaced, with an overlap in style that it also shared with ther much less expensive and entry level Boxter, which also came out at the same time as a two seat sportscar. But most despised of all, were the totally new looking headlights, which were no longer round from previous 911 models, but with a certain shape as to mimic, “a fried egg look” The 996 had a lot wrong with it the 996's problems didn't stop with the fried egg headlights.
The decision to abandon air-cooled engines in favor of water cooling did not sit well with many Porsche purists. At the time of its inception, the 996 signified the biggest change from the 911 series of traditional times, including a water-cooled engine. These changes brought on many different responses - some positive, some negative - and most of them being negative.
The 996 also shared some of its interior look with the Boxter and along with the cheaper plastic and totally unfamiliar interior from 911’s of the past continued to polarize the 996 and its introduction was not well received forcing Porsche to go into crisis mode and make immediate improvements on its look, starting with removing the orange contrast on the headlights, and making them clear.
In addition to the interior being a source of complaint, the exterior was also despised, as the purists deemed it lacked character.
But the most problematic issue came a little later, with the Intermediate Shaft Bearing, known as the IMS, which in a very small number of the cars can fail without warning - okay, that's dangerous. When the IMS fails, the engine can explode. Now, this is a bad design flaw, but you have to keep in mind a few things. First, most high-performance cars have some type of factory malfunction. Unfortunately for the Porsche brand, they did not address this issue and there were numerous cars which did have this bearing fail and had to replace the engines. Later, it was determined that the earlier shaft was easily replaced when doing a clutch replacement and the problem was rather solved, but for those that had cars ruined, that obviously didn’t sit well with them.
At the end of the day, it really depends on how much of a traditionalist you are. I mean, there really were some bad features of this model. The "fried egg" shaped headlights garnered poor reception, while the immediate shaft bearing failures caused concern about the safety of this car.
However, the Porsche did give water cooling to this model, and the features included might actually make this one of the best Porsche models that you can get for your money and in this video I will show you a new resurgence that is making the 996 a very loved car.
In the late 70’s Porsche believed that the 911 faced a limited shelf life. Its roots could be traced back to the Volkswagen Beetle and evolving it further still was proving to be a headache for the company’s best engineers.
So, the company set about recruiting the brightest brains in product planning, market research and engineering, with the aim of creating a car that would power Porsche into the next decade and beyond.
Yet the 911 was a stubborn so-and-so. Drivers loved its distinctive qualities - an air-cooled, flat-six engine set in the tail of the car, challenging handling and enough seats and luggage space to make it a practical everyday proposition - and so the model lived on, turning 50 years old in 2013.
What was the car that was meant to outlast the 911? Believe it or not, it was supposed to be the flagship model of that time, and that was the 928.
Conceived as a highly sophisticated grand tourer, the 928 was designed by Anatole Lapine, formerly a GM car stylist who’d worked on the Corvette Stingray, the 928 showcased the very best of Porsche’s engineering know-how.

[@dietmarspriesterbach6]

I think the hype around the aircooled 911 is just too much! Don’t get me wrong, they are good cars but in the meantime far too expensive! I bought a 997 with 213.000 km on the clock thinking the engine must be about to blow up. However, wenn I took it to the Specialist they said that the condition of the engine was not perfect but still good but the suspension was gone. So I had the suspension overhauled. Last year I thought the engine had eventually gone, but is was only a camshaft adjuster, which is still an engine out job. I am very happy with my 997! I change the Oil every year using an oil which has additives for the Locasil coating and hope the engine goes on „forever“😀!