[Aerkuld]

Welcome - I haven't been posting on the board for ages but I saw you were in the area so . . .

In my opinion there are no 'must have' upgrades. These are great cars right out of the box. It took me six years of owning my 996 before I made any changes to it at all. Once you start though it becomes a case of "Well, I may as well just do . . . . while I'm at it. Next thing you know you practically have a new car! Save the upgrades for later and just enjoy your car for now :-) Now, I'm sure there are some that will point to the IMS upgrade and I will admit - yes, I've done it. I consider it a peace of mind item. To be honest, when we took the old bearing out after 119,000 miles everything was absolutely perfect! Which brings me on to . . .

Maintenance - that's a whole different issue. I think the best advice;

Don't skimp!

Change oil regularly, by that I mean every 5,000 to 6,000 miles or every 6 months and fill it properly full. Use the oil Porsche recommend (Mobil 1 0W40) - They're Germans and they didn't just throw a dart at a dart board to pick that!
Keep up with the other service items too. If you need a recommendation on a good local independent then PM me. If you want to go the main dealer route then that's fine too. Just keep on top of it!

Other than that get out and drive. It's a Porsche and it needs driving. Hard! You have plenty of good roads within a few hours drive so get up to the mountains and work it. I honestly believe that good maintenance and hard driving are the real secret to IMS health!

Have fun!