[jdlowery]

First of all let me apologize for such a generic title. I'm hoping to gain a little insight without too much confusion. So, here's my story. My present car is a 2007 Lexus IS350. Nice car but not really a sports car. More luxury than sport and without a manual transmission. I knew when I bought that car in 2007 that I would sell it for something sportier. I had my eyes on a new M4 but the wait and the markup over MSRP is more than I'm willing to pay. Besides, I've always wanted a Porsche anyway.

A new Porsche would be nice but again, more than I want to spend. I've started a little research and checking out local dealers to see what they have used on the lot. My closest dealer didn't have any 997 manual gearbox but did have a 996 4S, 2004. I've read about IMS and RMS issues along with 2nd gear pop outs. This particular car had the IMS upgrade performed. It has about 58K miles and the dealer price is $43K. Does that seem a little too high for a non-navigation manual 996 with full leather, sport exhaust and BOSE sound package? KBB list that car at $43K exactly but Edmunds and NADA has it for mid $30K at best. I know there's a lot of debate over headlight and body shape with the 996 but I kind of like the way it looks. I do agree that the 997 looks better from the front but the wide body rear of the 996, 4S looks nice. I'm in no hurry so I can certainly wait for the right car it's just I'm not sure if a 996 or 997 is the right car for me. Ideally, I would want the S version of either car. Also nagging me is do I really need a 4WD car and isn't that more maintenance and possibly more things that could go wrong? Any help, thoughts, suggestions from you guys would be much appreciated.

Thanks