RE: The ?5K Boxster: Spotted
Discussion
I've had a '52 plate 986.2 'S' for about 6 years and can't fault it. It's a joint 3rd car and as such has only covered about 14,000 miles in my ownership. It has had a clutch in that time and a few other bits and pieces but nothing you wouldn't expect of a 15 year old car.
You do pay a bit more for parts than, say, my 205 but at the same time you are driving something with a Porsche badge on the front that performs as such. The handling is sublime, it goes as quick as I need a car to go and you can take it anywhere, it fits in.
In my opinion a sports car shouldn't be finished in safe bet colours. Every March or April I wonder about selling it but what do you go out and replace one with that has equal presence for ten or twelve thousand? I keep getting tempted by V8 Vantage's which for a reasonable one you're looking at low 30's at best.
You do pay a bit more for parts than, say, my 205 but at the same time you are driving something with a Porsche badge on the front that performs as such. The handling is sublime, it goes as quick as I need a car to go and you can take it anywhere, it fits in.
In my opinion a sports car shouldn't be finished in safe bet colours. Every March or April I wonder about selling it but what do you go out and replace one with that has equal presence for ten or twelve thousand? I keep getting tempted by V8 Vantage's which for a reasonable one you're looking at low 30's at best.
TVR?
I had a Chimaera and the Boxster 'S' for a year 2013 / 14 (I bought them 6 weeks apart). Ran both on and off for a year, and sold the Boxster. Kept the TVR a total of 3 1/2 yrs, the Boxster 1 year. On another Chimaera now. In a similar way that I would only buy another Porsche, it's had big bills met by the previous owner.
I had a Chimaera and the Boxster 'S' for a year 2013 / 14 (I bought them 6 weeks apart). Ran both on and off for a year, and sold the Boxster. Kept the TVR a total of 3 1/2 yrs, the Boxster 1 year. On another Chimaera now. In a similar way that I would only buy another Porsche, it's had big bills met by the previous owner.
ianwayne said:
TVR?
I had a Chimaera and the Boxster 'S' for a year 2013 / 14 (I bought them 6 weeks apart). Ran both on and off for a year, and sold the Boxster. Kept the TVR a total of 3 1/2 yrs, the Boxster 1 year. On another Chimaera now. In a similar way that I would only buy another Porsche, it's had big bills met by the previous owner.
Even that won’t guarantee cheap running, i’ve spent £2k on maintanence items since buying my 996 c4s in may this year even though all major common problems had been fixed before including hartech rebuild. But you are right in that you should hunt for one that’s had the work done but you’d still need to be ready for very big bills to bring it up to scratch!I had a Chimaera and the Boxster 'S' for a year 2013 / 14 (I bought them 6 weeks apart). Ran both on and off for a year, and sold the Boxster. Kept the TVR a total of 3 1/2 yrs, the Boxster 1 year. On another Chimaera now. In a similar way that I would only buy another Porsche, it's had big bills met by the previous owner.
I keep being tempted by a 986S and pocketing the change over my car but then the running costs would broadly be the same so personally i’d just go 996 for the 911 experience.
http://www.cardealerwatchdog.com/the-modern-classi...
Read the reviews on here for this dealer. ( They're not good at all ) .
Read the reviews on here for this dealer. ( They're not good at all ) .
akashzimzimma said:
http://www.cardealerwatchdog.com/the-modern-classi...
Read the reviews on here for this dealer. ( They're not good at all ) .
Formerly Buchanan motors I believe. As I wrote - good at polishing and photography...Read the reviews on here for this dealer. ( They're not good at all ) .
Stunning value cars currently the 986s. Over the years I have owned four of them, all the 'S' model, including two Anniversaries. I have covered around 80k miles in these cars and have generally used them as daily drivers, or as one of two equally used cars. I do not recognise any of the negative review posted here. Like any car a poorly maintained car that has been abused will be awful. The only issue I have ever suffered is a flat/dud battery. It's easy to be choosey with the 986 as Porsche made quite a few. The reliability of my cars may be due to the fact I never buy around the bottom of the market and would always rather put money in at purchase (extra cost never reflects additional maintenance spend) than be chasing faults around the car forever more. The trick is not buying one that's fallen into the grubby hands of a person unwilling/unable to spend on maintenance when it is advised at servicing time. They are epic cars if you find a good one that has been sympathetically owned/maintained. As the bad ones fall by the wayside the good ones, with originality and provenance will naturally see values rise. As time passes the true analogue sports-cars with manual gearboxes, 6 cylinders+ etc will be loved treasures
A £5k Boxster is hardly newsworthy. There are pages of them on Auto Trader for less than £5k. In fact, they start at £3.5k.
I had a 986, it was an enjoyable car indeed, but it wasn't terribly reliable, cost a lot to run. I found the 987 (2.7) to be way better built and worth saving up for if you can.
I had a 986, it was an enjoyable car indeed, but it wasn't terribly reliable, cost a lot to run. I found the 987 (2.7) to be way better built and worth saving up for if you can.
edh said:
akashzimzimma said:
http://www.cardealerwatchdog.com/the-modern-classi...
Read the reviews on here for this dealer. ( They're not good at all ) .
Formerly Buchanan motors I believe. As I wrote - good at polishing and photography...Read the reviews on here for this dealer. ( They're not good at all ) .
PunterCam said:
mooseracer said:
Hardly a full service history given the 5 year gap between 08 and 13, regardless of miles traveled in that time.
For an old car, this is pretty much what a full service history amounts to. Re. the article at the top of this thread: somebody wouldn't be getting ready to sell one by any chance? Hmm. None left under £5K? I simply don't believe it. These haven't even bottomed out yet. No 2.5 is worth a great deal more than shed money, unless it's a low miles cherished car with full leather interior, an exemplary FSH (no intergalactic gaps!) and an encyclopedia of new parts. The many, ubiquitous high milers with 5+ "owners" (track day hooligans) and baggy handling are difficult to sell at any price. You've only got to check a few PH threads to find out what goes wrong, and you quickly realise that even FSH cars have a catalogue of advisories flagged up every major service, never actioned, but the book got stamped anyway. 70,000 miles of that, and you'll need to shell out £3K to £4K just to get it somewhere roughly right and deal with the worn suspension. If you're thinking it's gonna follow the 911's trend, and go through the roof, guess again. The 911 is an icon, and will always sell well on that basis. Tired high mileage Boxsters, fresh from the tanning salon, are not. Nothing under £5K? Dream on, tiger.
Edited by Johnny5hoods on Sunday 12th November 00:09
Johnny5hoods said:
said much wise-ness here!
Especially: "somebody wouldn't be getting ready to sell one by any chance? Hmm."
And much wise-ness also expressed by other comments in this thread plus doubts casts about why the article's subject car happens to be for sale with that particular dealer?Especially: "somebody wouldn't be getting ready to sell one by any chance? Hmm."
Edited by Johnny5hoods on Sunday 12th November 00:09
Interesting...hmm? Should it read: "Somebody is getting ready to sell LOADS of them by any chance? Hmm."
Is this the latest in a long list of cars/models to be suddenly hyped by journos and the usual dealers? The latest best thing since sliced bread? They've certainly got one of the right credentials for them to suddenly make a load of money out of them...there are loads of them! The only trouble is, as I read it from the comments in this thread, is that this time there are so many potential alternatives?
billzeebub said:
They are epic cars if you find a good one that has been sympathetically owned/maintained. As the bad ones fall by the wayside the good ones, with originality and provenance will naturally see values rise. As time passes the true analogue sports-cars with manual gearboxes, 6 cylinders+ etc will be loved treasures
I had an Anniversary 986S for two years, and I wouldn't describe it as anything like epic. Most of the time it was little more than dull. In retrospect ownership was a disappointment and I was glad to be rid of it. Porsche in their typical German manner managed to engineer all the fun out of the chassis so while it would go round corners at almost any speed, and accelerate tidily enough, it was all very efficient about it and you were well into licence-losing territory before it even approached being fun. I'd describe it as a very ordinary-feeling car to drive. Perhaps the sports chassis of the Anniversary made this worse and the standard cars are more entertaining. Perhaps the rev-happy 2.5 provides more access to the excellent soundtrack at road speeds than the torquey 3.2. Despite having the extended leather pack and some nice Anniversary touches, the interior looked and felt very cheap. The steering column stalks in particular were nasty thin brittle plastic things.Mine was a decent example, and not much went wrong though. What did was the alternator, at which point I discovered just how ridiculously stupid Porsche designers can be. Who puts a battery under a lid which can only be opened with electricity? Added to which the electric release on that boot never did work reliably, despite several attempts to put it right, so I ended up routing the emergency cable through the towing eye. Other issues were the gearchange, which was reluctant when cold, and sometimes bloody impossible to get into 1st or 2nd gear (but always rifle-bolt-smooth in the 3rd/4th plane) and the rear brake discs which looked fine, but turned out to be terminally rusty on the handbrake drum part, and needed expensive replacement just before I traded the car in. Other than a bulb, some wiper blades and a new fuel cap that's all it cost me.
Johnny5hoods said:
If you're thinking it's gonna follow the 911's trend, and go through the roof, guess again. The 911 is an icon, and will always sell well on that basis. Tired high mileage Boxsters, fresh from the tanning salon, are not. Nothing under £5K? Dream on, tiger.
Which is a bit odd when apart from the turbo the 996 is cut from the same cloth...If I was after a cheap every-day sports car I think I'd find it impossible to look past the 986. Not only is it an incredible car for the money, it's even an incredible car for the money plus the price of an engine rebuild, should one prove necessary. Certainly not the last word in "fun" but they're just so enormously capable.
Edited by kambites on Sunday 12th November 19:19
Loved my old 2.5 boxster and would be my choice of sports car again if only needed 2 seats (have owned s2000, Elise, mx5 and mr2 for comparison too). Don't like interior much looks very dated and nothing special or the external looks (over hangs look to long and date it badly in my opinion), but they drive great, sound nice, have the correct amount of power for road and they are fairly light weight. They are comfortable enough for long trips but still fun for a Sunday morning b road drive. Given how cheap they are now they represent great value (few years ago when driving mx5s and mr2s people would want to aspire to a boxster now these are like for like normally cheaper than the Japanese options).
Had a 3.2S a few years back. Interior was boring but very hard wearing considering how old it was. Handling was great and more than enough power for the roads so I'd imagine the 2.5 would be just fine. Was very reliable for me and no issues other than your usual wear items. They are expensive to replace but that is expected. Did 30k miles in 3 years, budget £500 just for the servicing and some thing for the rear tyres they wear quite quickly but my fronts did 25k no problems. Then some more for other expenses and I think it would be ok. Still miss mine as I would love to go back to a convertible.
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