Sound like a good price for this 981 Boxster?

[PTY]

2013 Boxster 981 2.7
45k miles - serviced at 40k (independent) OPC service at 27k (sparks changed)
MOT till April 2020
Multi - Function wheel
Electronic retracting mirrors
19" Boxster S wheels
Sound package Plus
PCM + Nav (not sure what version this will be)
Park assist front+back
Mesh wind deflector
Heated Seats
Bluetooth

Managed to negotiate to £21,500. Seen all the paperwork and invoices and the guy is the first and original owner.

As far as i know these 981's with the V6's are holding their value very well since Porsche are now doing 4 cylinder engines in majority of boxster/caymans, and the next best i can find similar is around the £24,000 mark.

Oh also does anybody happen to know what the best/cheapest car checking (hpi) service is atm? Thanks

Edited by PTY on Saturday 27th July 13:31

[Simon E]

V6?

[LunarOne]

You haven't mentioned whether it's manual or PDK. I don't suppose it matters. Manual is rarer and worth more (to me) but most people clearly want PDK.

The price seems average for a private seller and the spec is pretty basic. If it really has a V6 that's going to mess with the handling and stop the roof folding flat. How much more to refit the flat 6 that's supposed to be there?

[PTY]

hahahaha Flat 6! sorry i have no idea why i had v6 stuck in my head i just automatically put that when i think of anything 24v, might aswell have put straight 6 haha

Its a manual and seems to be rarer but obviously i guess that depends on whos buying/driving it to be worth more or less but tbh in this type of car i would much prefer a manual tbh.

Yeah i think specwise its missing most of the performance related stuff which im not too bothered about to be honest as i am not an enthiusiast but like this version of the boxster for its looks and more modern interior.

[Koln-RS]

£21k for a 981 is a potentially good price.
Moving out of the OPC network will knock a bit off values.
Extended Warranty would have been nice - you'll need a PPI to check for over-revs,how much is left in brakes, tyres, etc
45k on a Boxster is bit higher than average.
Condition is obviously important - neglected paintwork, wheels, interior, hood can all be expensive to put right.
Colour combos (esp interior) can make a big difference to values - some sought after, some 'marmite', some very hard to sell.
Cruise is a popular 'must have' option, not on your list.

[PTY]

Koln-RS said:

£21k for a 981 is a potentially good price.
Moving out of the OPC network will knock a bit off values.
Extended Warranty would have been nice - you'll need a PPI to check for over-revs,how much is left in brakes, tyres, etc
45k on a Boxster is bit higher than average.
Condition is obviously important - neglected paintwork, wheels, interior, hood can all be expensive to put right.
Colour combos (esp interior) can make a big difference to values - some sought after, some 'marmite', some very hard to sell.
Cruise is a popular 'must have' option, not on your list.

Yeah pricewise i have been unable to find anything within £3k close to this one so far.

I managed to negotiate based on the non OPC and that it was in need of 2 tyres pretty soon.

they have it covered when not used and is throwing in the cover which was around £300 which i think gives a good indication that they have looked after it fairly well, most likely alot better than i will tbh lol

Interior isnt the best tbh but is the alcantara/leather combo.

I dont think it has cruise on it but is that a cheap option to retrofit or just not worthwhile? say if it costs £500 to fit and then residual value might add on £250 then it would be worthwhile in my opinion as you'd be paying £250 for the feature for however long decide to keep the car for

[LunarOne]

I had cruise (and voice control) retrofitted to mine. Cruise is an essential for me as there are plenty of average speed camera zones near me - if you're just going to do weekend blatting then don't worry about it! I wasn't put off buying the car as I was aware that it wasn't so expensive to fit.

[Green1man]

It’s as cheap as you are likely to find a 981 and doesn’t have a silly mileage so looks good value to me.

Obviously one main reason is the pretty basic spec, but you can’t have everything, better spec -> higher price.

But the only other cars I’ve seen at this price point have tended to be 2012 cars with 50k+ miles.

[PTY]

LunarOne said:

I had cruise (and voice control) retrofitted to mine. Cruise is an essential for me as there are plenty of average speed camera zones near me - if you're just going to do weekend blatting then don't worry about it! I wasn't put off buying the car as I was aware that it wasn't so expensive to fit.

Yes i was thinking this too, better than getting a speeding ticket and paying £100 fine and then increased insurance cost over 5 years lol

do you mind if i ask how much you paid and was it from a Porsche Centre? thanks

[PTY]

Green1man said:

It’s as cheap as you are likely to find a 981 and doesn’t have a silly mileage so looks good value to me.

Obviously one main reason is the pretty basic spec, but you can’t have everything, better spec -> higher price.

But the only other cars I’ve seen at this price point have tended to be 2012 cars with 50k+ miles.

Yeah currently there doesnt seem to be much around the sub £25k mark even when now is the prime time to be selling this type of car.

Im never too bothered about the spec, as long as the sound system is half decent which at least this one is the upgraded (but not bose) version, and it has bluetooth then that suits me perfectly. Otherwise id end up paying more for stuff i wont use/be bothered about lol

[LunarOne]

PTY said:

Yes i was thinking this too, better than getting a speeding ticket and paying £100 fine and then increased insurance cost over 5 years lol

do you mind if i ask how much you paid and was it from a Porsche Centre? thanks

I can't remember exactly but yes I got it done at Brooklands service centre which is an OPC. They did me a deal on getting both fitted as it's more or less incidental to do one when doing the other. Prices are on the tequipment website:
http://content3.eu.porsche.com/prod/pag/tequipment...

Also regarding your later comment about Sound Package Plus. You get these upgraded speakers when you order PCM vs the CDR31 standard audio head unit. But Sound Package Plus (which I have on my car) is absolute garbage and sounds like a Fisher Price My First Car Radio. I absolutely regret that my car doesn't have the Bose upgrade because the sound is so crappy at decent volumes that it makes my head hurt. I've invested quite some time in finding out how to retrofit Bose but it doesn't seem possible without serious cost. I'm now looking into an aftermarket amp and speaker system because Sound Package Plus is so awful. I dread to think what the standard speakers sound like. Perhaps I'm spoiled but my 20-year-old BMW has a Harman/Kardon 10-speaker system and that's light years better sounding than Porsches SPP even if it's not exactly hifi audio. I think my H/K system sounds better than Bose too, which goes some way to explaining why I find SPP so hateful. I'll never buy another modern Porsche that doesn't have proper audio.

[PTY]

LunarOne said:

PTY said:

Yes i was thinking this too, better than getting a speeding ticket and paying £100 fine and then increased insurance cost over 5 years lol

do you mind if i ask how much you paid and was it from a Porsche Centre? thanks

I can't remember exactly but yes I got it done at Brooklands service centre which is an OPC. They did me a deal on getting both fitted as it's more or less incidental to do one when doing the other. Prices are on the tequipment website:
http://content3.eu.porsche.com/prod/pag/tequipment...

Also regarding your later comment about Sound Package Plus. You get these upgraded speakers when you order PCM vs the CDR31 standard audio head unit. But Sound Package Plus (which I have on my car) is absolute garbage and sounds like a Fisher Price My First Car Radio. I absolutely regret that my car doesn't have the Bose upgrade because the sound is so crappy at decent volumes that it makes my head hurt. I've invested quite some time in finding out how to retrofit Bose but it doesn't seem possible without serious cost. I'm now looking into an aftermarket amp and speaker system because Sound Package Plus is so awful. I dread to think what the standard speakers sound like. Perhaps I'm spoiled but my 20-year-old BMW has a Harman/Kardon 10-speaker system and that's light years better sounding than Porsches SPP even if it's not exactly hifi audio. I think my H/K system sounds better than Bose too, which goes some way to explaining why I find SPP so hateful. I'll never buy another modern Porsche that doesn't have proper audio.

Ah thanks for that mate, i'll get in contact with my local OPC and see if i can haggle if i need anything else doing at the same time.

Yeah i looked around at the Bose retrofit too just incase it wasnt as good but came across the same thing that it'd just cost way too much, because im guessing due to the additional new speaker locations the majority of the dash/surroundings would have to be removed and then coded etc. Better off just replacing the existing speakers im guessing

Do you happen to know if you can play Bluetooth audio as standard on PCM or if it requires an upgrade of some sort? the car has PCM 3.1 and Bluetooth enabled. i watched a youtube video of someone playing Audio (spotify) from their phone via bluetooth on the 981. I asked the seller this but they werent sure because they only ever used CDs and bluetooth to make calls lol

[LunarOne]

I had a 2012 981 Boxster S previously with PCM. Bluetooth audio worked fine but it just wouldn't work as a handsfree phone for some reason despite all the required hardware being present. My current 2014 car with PCM works flawlessly for both bluetooth audio and as a handsfree. I did have problems with my microphones on the new car being dud, but I replaced those and it's all good now. If he can use bluetooth to make calls, then all the hardware is present to stream music too.

You can also connect your phone via USB and it will work as an ipod if it's an iphone or as USB mass storage and get your music files from your phone's memory. You may not be aware that PCM includes a 40GB hard drive internally which they call Jukebox. You can suck music off an Android phone or a USB stick and store it on the hard drive. Or PCM can rip the tracks off any CD you insert and store them on the hard drive. Or you can play tracks direct off a USB stick. I do a mixture of all of these except ripping CDs. I do use Amazon music to stream music. Via bluetooth PCM will display the track name and artist and you can use the fwd/back controls to skip through tracks but you won't get a menu of all available music like you do with a USB stick or with an iphone/ipod.

Hope that's useful.

Edited by LunarOne on Sunday 28th July 10:42

[LunarOne]

Oh, and the Bose architecture is quite different to SPP or standard audio. PCM has optical outputs that go to the Bose sound processor and amps - basically you're bypassing any sound processing in the PCM unit itself. With sound package plus the optical cables are missing and it uses PCMs own inferior audio circuitry and copper cables to drive a low power amp and speakers. So if you don't have Bose, your options for installing an aftermarket amp are more limited as you don't have the optical pathway. One third party audio guy I visited wanted to replace the PCM head unit in its entirety as without doing so he would have to install a sound processor to try to improve the PCM audio output. I will not consider replacing PCM unless the replacement replicates all PCM computer, sport chrono and car configuration functions. Third party head units might offer improved navigation, audio and internet functions, but if you lose access to basic car setup screens then I'm not interested.

[PTY]

ahhhhh yeah i see what you mean there, just going via optical cables vs copper wire makes a big difference tbh and tbh i have looked at some of these aftermarket options (android auto) but considering this is my first porsche i'd rather stick as close to OEM as possible.

So all in all the only 'easy' option really is to replace the speakers themselves which will only improve the quality slightly but power output and processing will pretty much remain the same unless you change the headunit entirely.

The only other options i am thinking to improve audio Quality is if the PCM system will decode Lossless/FLAC files via the DVD/HD/USB. Although finding and downloading new/recent music in a true Lossless/FLAC format is pretty much a ballache these days, streaming is so much easier lol

My previous car XF came with the standard audio setup which was pretty abysmal tbh, but i couldnt modify anything as it was a lease, so im hoping that even this system will at least be better than what i had previously (minus the wind noise from the roof hahaha)

[LunarOne]

I honestly don't think you'll hear the difference between a 128kbps mps and a 192khz 24-bit FLAC or whatever when you're in a noisy car like the Boxster. Sure, it has great soundproofing when the roof is up but it's a roadster and it should be all about the sound of the wind in your hair and the engine. My problem is that SPP is too crappy to even turn up the sound so that I can groove while I drive. I've said it a few times elsewhere, but the bass is buzzy and muddled and the treble is bright and shrill. You know that bassline in "You got the Love" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpqrM9TPFXc ? Well it just sounds like there's a load of wasps trying to get out of your door. Dancing on the Ceiling by Lionel Ritchie usually makes me want to dance, but it has no rhythm or drive through SPP. And you can forget listening to anything with a thick soundstage like Everlong by the Foo Fighters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBG7P-K-r1Y . It just sounds like a mess. Even my old Logitech computer speakers do a better job of it!

Good audio in a car is about having enough power to be able to drown out background noise with clarity and without distortion, and having enough power to keep rhythm and accurate timing going so that you can really rock out. It's not about the last word in fidelity, balance or accuracy that you get from true hifi, so I actually think that the boy racers big amps and subs are more suited to a sports car environment than going down the Burmester Audio route. That's basically where Bose comes in. It's got the power to let you groove, but it doesn't have the refinement of true hifi. SPP has neither refinement, nor the power to make anything sounds good. I guess if you just want to listen to a bit of pop or Radio 4 it's fine but if you enjoy your music, look for another car with Bose or be prepared to spend a bit. A decent aftermarket system is going to cost you about £2-3k including fitting but with any luck it'll sound better than Bose.

[PTY]

ahhhhh yeah all that makes total sense, its moreso just one of those things where its how much are you willing to throw at it in order to improve the quality. Which tbh if you retrofitted Bose then you would most likely get some of that £ back since it was part of the original factory options whereas if you went aftermarket i doubt it would account for much during resale time.

Picking up the car tomorrow so will see how bad the sound is gonna be and if its 'livable' lol

[LunarOne]

Don't be put off. Even with SPP the Boxster is a fantastic car. In was driving home last night at 10pm with the roof down listening to the Big Band stuff on Radio 2 and I thought to myself that I'm probably being a bit harsh. Sure, SPP isn't what I would have specced if I'd bought the car from new, but it's really not THAT bad. I have the S model with Sport chrono and PSE, so I also have the tunes from the tail end to keep me entertained. I still had a great drive and I'm sure you too will be thrilled with the car!

[DJMC]

SPP is fine, as good as my BMW HK set up.
Maybe some folks' SPP has issues?

[LunarOne]

DJMC said:

SPP is fine, as good as my BMW HK set up.
Maybe some folks' SPP has issues?

Perhaps some folks' H/K setups have issues!