So, I went and test drove the '08 BMW M3 that they had on the lot and the 2005 Porsche 911. I definitely liked the feel of the 911 transmission and the car was a dream to drive.
I think I might have talked the misses into keeping the current A4 or backup when needing to cart around the girls, and getting the 911 as a daily driver.
Salesman knew what I was talking about right away when I mentioned my concern on the 996 issues (the seal issue), but stated that the issue was more prevalent in the late 90s 996s, and that most of the cars got taken care of via recall from Porsche or updates to later 996s. The dealership is known as THE place to get your Porsche serviced around here, so I would think that they would know what they're talking about when it comes to Porsche issues.
That being said, he still said that he recommended the 2005 997 coupe over the 2003 996 targa that I was interested in as well (the 996 targa is $5k less but only about 10k more in total miles). I'm not sure if that was him just pushing the higher priced product or not.
'm thinking that I might wait until the A4 is paid off and reassess my selection options then. Any more opinions from the crowd?