A Porsche for the price of an iPhone.
Discussion
Changes to my work life (hybrid working mixed with a short commute) meant I was using my car less and less, to a point where I struggled to justify my relatively valuable 640d sitting outside doing nothing for 3 or 4 days of the week.
So, I came up with a brilliant idea. Sell the BMW, go back to "bangernomics" and stick the rest of the money in the bank. It made perfect sense.
An evening of browsing Marketplace, Gumtree, AutoTrader and eBay proved relatively fruitless, but I started to build up a small list of potential prospects. A British Racing Green S-Type with the 3.0 petrol engine? Lashings of leather and wood and a reliable V6 petrol engine under the bonnet sounded great, but it sold within 3 minutes of it being posted.
Maybe an early R53 Mini Cooper S? Everyone loves a supercharger, and I've always had a soft spot for the early Rover/BMW "new" Mini. I found one in my "bangernomics" budget so went to view it. As I stood in the rain watching the seller ambitiously try to jump start it using a £9.99 Amazon booster pack, I decided to go home.
Back home, and wondering whether the seller was still braving the elements trying to coax his Mini back to life, I spotted a Porsche Boxster listed on Marketplace. It was over budget, but I'd always fancied one, and they never pop up for sale locally. So a few messages later, I was off to view it.
It's a 1997 2.5 model with the 5 speed manual gearbox. I'm no Porsche specialist, but I believe these are the more robust ones to have.
It became apparent fairly quickly that the car had led a less than perfect life. A quick HPI check brought back a marker for the car being a Cat C insurance write off in 2013. The mileage is a lofty 157,000, but because the clocks had died in 2019 and were replaced with a 2nd hand cluster, they show as 117,000. The roof only works manually, it only has 1 key and the interior was specced in what can only be described as: "I told you not to get anything from that burger van" brown.
But, because I don't think things through properly, I wasn't put off. It drove lovely, the engine made a nice noise, it had just passed an MOT with a respectable pass and it has a car phone! A car phone that doesn't work I might add, but still.
The seller, who was lovely and quite shocked when I showed him the history of the car, having no idea it had previously been an insurance write off, was open to a negotiation on the price. So in the end I found myself driving home in a Porsche Boxster for the princely sum of £1,400.
At this point I realised that, while it was no doubt a risk, this is a car which cost the same as a 512GB iPhone Pro, so if it did blow up, I wouldn't have lost the world.
I genuinely expected to manage 8 miles home before being surrounded by huge plumes of smoke and being deafened by a knocking so loud, everyone within 3 postcodes of my location would have thought their washing machine had gone out of balance. But no, it drove home fine, and in the couple of weeks and 450 miles I've covered in it, it hasn't skipped a beat.
So far I've changed the oil and filter (using the 5w50 oil now recommended by Porsche for higher mileage older cars), ordered a new "Boxster" badge to go back on the bootlid, having been de-badged by a previous owner, had it up on the ramp at a local garage for a once over and applied a sealant to the roof.
As it stands there's an annoying rattle from something in the roof mechanism (it's lovely and quiet with the roof down, but with it up there's rattling and knocking over bumps) and the tracking needs doing which I'm aiming to get done this week, but so far, I'm really quite happy with it.
So, I came up with a brilliant idea. Sell the BMW, go back to "bangernomics" and stick the rest of the money in the bank. It made perfect sense.
An evening of browsing Marketplace, Gumtree, AutoTrader and eBay proved relatively fruitless, but I started to build up a small list of potential prospects. A British Racing Green S-Type with the 3.0 petrol engine? Lashings of leather and wood and a reliable V6 petrol engine under the bonnet sounded great, but it sold within 3 minutes of it being posted.
Maybe an early R53 Mini Cooper S? Everyone loves a supercharger, and I've always had a soft spot for the early Rover/BMW "new" Mini. I found one in my "bangernomics" budget so went to view it. As I stood in the rain watching the seller ambitiously try to jump start it using a £9.99 Amazon booster pack, I decided to go home.
Back home, and wondering whether the seller was still braving the elements trying to coax his Mini back to life, I spotted a Porsche Boxster listed on Marketplace. It was over budget, but I'd always fancied one, and they never pop up for sale locally. So a few messages later, I was off to view it.
It's a 1997 2.5 model with the 5 speed manual gearbox. I'm no Porsche specialist, but I believe these are the more robust ones to have.
It became apparent fairly quickly that the car had led a less than perfect life. A quick HPI check brought back a marker for the car being a Cat C insurance write off in 2013. The mileage is a lofty 157,000, but because the clocks had died in 2019 and were replaced with a 2nd hand cluster, they show as 117,000. The roof only works manually, it only has 1 key and the interior was specced in what can only be described as: "I told you not to get anything from that burger van" brown.
But, because I don't think things through properly, I wasn't put off. It drove lovely, the engine made a nice noise, it had just passed an MOT with a respectable pass and it has a car phone! A car phone that doesn't work I might add, but still.
The seller, who was lovely and quite shocked when I showed him the history of the car, having no idea it had previously been an insurance write off, was open to a negotiation on the price. So in the end I found myself driving home in a Porsche Boxster for the princely sum of £1,400.
At this point I realised that, while it was no doubt a risk, this is a car which cost the same as a 512GB iPhone Pro, so if it did blow up, I wouldn't have lost the world.
I genuinely expected to manage 8 miles home before being surrounded by huge plumes of smoke and being deafened by a knocking so loud, everyone within 3 postcodes of my location would have thought their washing machine had gone out of balance. But no, it drove home fine, and in the couple of weeks and 450 miles I've covered in it, it hasn't skipped a beat.
So far I've changed the oil and filter (using the 5w50 oil now recommended by Porsche for higher mileage older cars), ordered a new "Boxster" badge to go back on the bootlid, having been de-badged by a previous owner, had it up on the ramp at a local garage for a once over and applied a sealant to the roof.
As it stands there's an annoying rattle from something in the roof mechanism (it's lovely and quiet with the roof down, but with it up there's rattling and knocking over bumps) and the tracking needs doing which I'm aiming to get done this week, but so far, I'm really quite happy with it.
Have been following your posts on Facebook. This looks like a mega bargain.
Boxsters are brilliant. They can give some impressive bills (I had two cracked heads on mine!), but when they are working they are wonderful. At £1,400, even if you ended up breaking it you wouldn't lose a lot.
Before you get the alignment done, I'd check condition of the various suspension arms - if any of the bushes are knackered replacing those could be worthwhile - changing the 'tuning forks' on mine made it drive much better, for not a big cost.
Boxsters are brilliant. They can give some impressive bills (I had two cracked heads on mine!), but when they are working they are wonderful. At £1,400, even if you ended up breaking it you wouldn't lose a lot.
Before you get the alignment done, I'd check condition of the various suspension arms - if any of the bushes are knackered replacing those could be worthwhile - changing the 'tuning forks' on mine made it drive much better, for not a big cost.
Assuming you can do your own maintenance / repairs, it needn't cost a fortune to run.
I'd give the entire suspension a thorough check, replace anything slightly worn, and get a full 4 wheel alignment done. At this point, you'll have one of the best handling sports cars out there, for very little £££s outlay. I just did an OTT version of this on my 987, replacing everything from the chassis mounting points to the hub carriers, and the transformation is shocking - it drives like a new car again
I'd give the entire suspension a thorough check, replace anything slightly worn, and get a full 4 wheel alignment done. At this point, you'll have one of the best handling sports cars out there, for very little £££s outlay. I just did an OTT version of this on my 987, replacing everything from the chassis mounting points to the hub carriers, and the transformation is shocking - it drives like a new car again
From personal experience i'd change the fuel filter, not expensive but seems to get missed on these. My 96 car was original and gunked up.
Id then expect to have a few coil pack and spark plug type issues - nothing serious but if they've not been done its worth investigating this and swapping them out.
The most common niggle is if you need to remove manifold studs or fix a leak on the exhaust triangle gaskets - for both you really want a friendly garage thats dealt with both before.....
Id then expect to have a few coil pack and spark plug type issues - nothing serious but if they've not been done its worth investigating this and swapping them out.
The most common niggle is if you need to remove manifold studs or fix a leak on the exhaust triangle gaskets - for both you really want a friendly garage thats dealt with both before.....
I'd be checking the drains as these get clogged front and rear and will allow water ingress to the cabin, ECU's , Bose amp (if it has one) will be under the seat and it wouldn't take long for water to kill them.
Not sure what the rattle in the roof would be, there's a bunch on wires and velcro straps to keep things taught but could it be under the clam? There's is a maintenance position you can get to where the roof is 1/2 up and 1/2 down, you can then remove the roof and clam to access the engine, maybe doing that and having a poke around would help get to the bottom of it.
Not sure what the rattle in the roof would be, there's a bunch on wires and velcro straps to keep things taught but could it be under the clam? There's is a maintenance position you can get to where the roof is 1/2 up and 1/2 down, you can then remove the roof and clam to access the engine, maybe doing that and having a poke around would help get to the bottom of it.
Freakuk said:
I'd be checking the drains as these get clogged front and rear and will allow water ingress to the cabin, ECU's , Bose amp (if it has one) will be under the seat and it wouldn't take long for water to kill them.
Not sure what the rattle in the roof would be, there's a bunch on wires and velcro straps to keep things taught but could it be under the clam? There's is a maintenance position you can get to where the roof is 1/2 up and 1/2 down, you can then remove the roof and clam to access the engine, maybe doing that and having a poke around would help get to the bottom of it.
Yep well worth checking out. My friend's 2014 Boxster S recently had water into the rear from this and fried the amplifer.Not sure what the rattle in the roof would be, there's a bunch on wires and velcro straps to keep things taught but could it be under the clam? There's is a maintenance position you can get to where the roof is 1/2 up and 1/2 down, you can then remove the roof and clam to access the engine, maybe doing that and having a poke around would help get to the bottom of it.
OP - incredible find for the money!
Well, it looks like my first major job is coming up sooner than I thought!
After a drive today I arrived home and noticed an odd knocking sound, a bit of digging and forum hunting pointed towards it likely being the water pump failing, which will need to be replaced.
I've spoken with my local garage and I'm going to order the parts and get it sorted next week.
I've attached a link to the YouTube video showing the noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Az9nA3Yd0
After a drive today I arrived home and noticed an odd knocking sound, a bit of digging and forum hunting pointed towards it likely being the water pump failing, which will need to be replaced.
I've spoken with my local garage and I'm going to order the parts and get it sorted next week.
I've attached a link to the YouTube video showing the noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Az9nA3Yd0
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff