I still have my 328 as a daily and from a dd standpoint it is definitely more functional especially with a 6yr old. That said, the 997 would work perfectly fine and I have taken her to school/taken the family out quite a bit with it so far. We all fit great and can get a decent amount of stuff in it. If it were not for the snow/salt and really not wanting to drive a car like this in those conditions I could daily it no problem.

i get 6-8 mpg better in the 328, but that could be due to my driving

I can say the previous owner had the car for 8.5 years, prior to that it was the original owner. He tracked the maintenance very well on his end and based on that it cost $11k over those 8.5 years, this includes everything (brakes, tires, oil, etc.). He had two repairs under CPO including the rear window for defective defroster. Overall I don’t think that is bad.

I am getting ready to drop $3k in a clutch, IMS as preventative, RMS while I am in there, and oil pan baffle for the couple times I take it to the track. It needs brakes which I will have about $800 in a DIY and it will need tires over next summer at some point which will be $1k. I did all of the fluids which cost me a total of about $250 (it takes 9 qts of oil!!).

What gets you is if you need an “engine out” repair, which is certainly more frequent with this car. That said the engine can come out stupid easy.