My £5k Porsche
Discussion
I grew bored of my Audi TT pretty quickly and decided I wanted a rear wheel drive convertible so up for sale the TT went and the search for a new car begun.
I looked at S2000's, mx5's and even 350z's before deciding to swallow some brave pills and viewing some Boxsters. Now there are a lot of shed Boxsters out there for five grand and I looked at a few before finding a decent one. I handed over my cash for this one.
She is a 1999 2.5 in zenith blue with grey leather interior and 17 inch wheels.
The only thing I had noticed on the test drive was a knocking noise coming from e rear suspension so my first job was to replace the rear control arms and ARB bushes. These parts cost me £160 in total and I fitted them myself to keep the cost down. I paid £4800 for the car so at this point she has cost just under £5000.
The car now drives great with no unwanted noises from the rear. I am still getting used to the rear wheel drive and have had a couple of hairy moments on damp roundabouts (all good fun).
A previous owner had removed the lower centre console (GT3 console delete kit) but I didn't like the look of the interior without it. I don't have a great photo showing this but you can see what I am talking about here
Off to eBay I went in search of a matching colour console and bought this for £40.
Got it fitted and added an aux-in to the stereo and this is how it looked.
This looked great but due to the angle of the middle shelf things kept sliding out of it so I swapped things around and also added a flush mount aux-in rather than the cable that I originally put in. Here is how it looks now.
You will see the lower trim piece is from a Boxster S so I will change this once a replacement comes up at a decent price.
Anyway, that's all for now. I will update with any changes/repairs I make to the car.
I looked at S2000's, mx5's and even 350z's before deciding to swallow some brave pills and viewing some Boxsters. Now there are a lot of shed Boxsters out there for five grand and I looked at a few before finding a decent one. I handed over my cash for this one.
She is a 1999 2.5 in zenith blue with grey leather interior and 17 inch wheels.
The only thing I had noticed on the test drive was a knocking noise coming from e rear suspension so my first job was to replace the rear control arms and ARB bushes. These parts cost me £160 in total and I fitted them myself to keep the cost down. I paid £4800 for the car so at this point she has cost just under £5000.
The car now drives great with no unwanted noises from the rear. I am still getting used to the rear wheel drive and have had a couple of hairy moments on damp roundabouts (all good fun).
A previous owner had removed the lower centre console (GT3 console delete kit) but I didn't like the look of the interior without it. I don't have a great photo showing this but you can see what I am talking about here
Off to eBay I went in search of a matching colour console and bought this for £40.
Got it fitted and added an aux-in to the stereo and this is how it looked.
This looked great but due to the angle of the middle shelf things kept sliding out of it so I swapped things around and also added a flush mount aux-in rather than the cable that I originally put in. Here is how it looks now.
You will see the lower trim piece is from a Boxster S so I will change this once a replacement comes up at a decent price.
Anyway, that's all for now. I will update with any changes/repairs I make to the car.
Defcon5 said:
Looks great, although I'm going to guess these have massive bork potential?
Part prices do seem pretty expensive but the car doesn't seem overly complicated so I think DIY mechanics should be ok on it. The trickiest thing will be access to the engine (which is pretty restricted). There is a lot of scary stories about ims bearing failures but they seem pretty rare and my car is 14 years old and has done 89000 miles so I think the bearing is fine in this one (touches wood).
Defcon5 said:
Looks great, although I'm going to guess these have massive bork potential?
If the Internet was to be believed all non GT engined 996's and most Boxsters would be imploding like mini atom bombs around the world right now. As with all cars buy on condition and look at the service history for a well maintained car -the main problem with most used Porsches is that the second hand prices have fallen hard making them available to the masses but the servicing is and always will be conversant with a car that cost 60 to 80k when new ... Is it any surprise that some examples are now not being maintained and going pop as a result ? OP enjoy the 986 it's a beautiful car and the only Porsche I'd have if I wanted a drop top. For reference my 996 is and always has been serviced at a well known independent (now Porsche service centre) they serviced hundreds of 996s and 986s last year, how many IMS or bore scoring/oval problems did they see which resulted in engine failure ? - two.
Nice car, enjoy it
R.
sandman77 said:
Part prices do seem pretty expensive but the car doesn't seem overly complicated so I think DIY mechanics should be ok on it. The trickiest thing will be access to the engine (which is pretty restricted).
When the car was introduced, Boxster parts prices were unbelievably low, compared to the preceding models!Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff