03/04 Boxster S vs. 99/00 996
Discussion
Hello!
I'm new to the forum and could use some advice. I'm looking to buy my first porsche and have narrowed it down (within my budget) to either an 03/04 Boxster S or a 99/00 911[996]. The Boxster obviously is much newer for the same money and will have lower mileage (there are several clean 03/04 20-30k mile examples) whereas the 911 will likely have 50+k miles, be 4-5k more expensive than the boxster, it will effectively be a 7-8 year old car, but it's well, a 911 after all. Both servicing costs seem to be similar from what I gather. Performance also will be fairly similar, particularly if I got a convertible 911.
I am test driving some examples of each (so may well choose with my heart), but wondered if anyone had any candid comments or advice on which is more likely to be the most sensible way of getting into Porsche ownership with as few headaches as possible but maximising my fun
Thanks
I'm new to the forum and could use some advice. I'm looking to buy my first porsche and have narrowed it down (within my budget) to either an 03/04 Boxster S or a 99/00 911[996]. The Boxster obviously is much newer for the same money and will have lower mileage (there are several clean 03/04 20-30k mile examples) whereas the 911 will likely have 50+k miles, be 4-5k more expensive than the boxster, it will effectively be a 7-8 year old car, but it's well, a 911 after all. Both servicing costs seem to be similar from what I gather. Performance also will be fairly similar, particularly if I got a convertible 911.
I am test driving some examples of each (so may well choose with my heart), but wondered if anyone had any candid comments or advice on which is more likely to be the most sensible way of getting into Porsche ownership with as few headaches as possible but maximising my fun
Thanks
Thanks guys
I don't think I can quite afford to spring for a 05 model boxster s as they seem a fair bit more expensive - I'm guessing the 03/04's are such a steal because of this.
Is the 03/04 boxster still superior to the 99/00 996 or is it only the changes for the 05 boxster that propel it past the older 911's?
Thanks
I don't think I can quite afford to spring for a 05 model boxster s as they seem a fair bit more expensive - I'm guessing the 03/04's are such a steal because of this.
Is the 03/04 boxster still superior to the 99/00 996 or is it only the changes for the 05 boxster that propel it past the older 911's?
Thanks
I've just made the same decision and took the safe option by buying an 03 facelfited Boxster S with an OPC warranty.
I had a pretty open mind, had always wanted a Porsche since I was a little kid dreaming and now have the spare cash to do it with a pretty good car. I had my budget set in stone and was buying private. Being in a good position with cash and in no rush to buy made it easier to get a deal. I did lots of reasearch on both the MY03 Boxster S and 98 996 C2. I had criteria for both cars and made offers on numerous cars having a good understanding of pricing, what goes wrong with each, potential repair costs, what work would be nice to have out the way by certain mileage milestones etc.
Some of my offers were a bit cheeky but I finally reached a deal with the owner of an S on budget. The Boxster was just a safer buy. The car I have bought has 48000 miles on it and I have got the owner to have this service done (big one worth getting out the way), an OPC inspection, correct any faults and put a years waranty on it included in our agreed price. This way I have far better piece of mind as a first time Porsche owner and have bought the equivelant to a dealer car minus OPC's huge margin. The fact the car comes with a fresh OPC inspection and fault correction ment that other than a HPI check I didnt have to check every detail of the car myself, whereas with a 996 I would be crawling all over it trying to look for any money needing spending in the future, trying to find a car with certain jobs recently done to minimise exposure.
Yes the buying, running, servicing costs etc are almost identical for the facelifted S and 97/98 996 but finding a 996 which is under OPC warranty is hard, (although I had cheeky offers in on a few advertised in the very low £20k's which had)if you can afford to chance running one without a warranty you are maybe able to afford to buy a more expensive car in the first place. I would have bought a 996 if one of the cars I made offers on had come into budget but if I didnt have one with an OPC warranty I would probably put myself out, travel for servicing and go into the Hartech scheme.
Maybe I wimped out of the 996, reading too many forums probably makes us too paranoid of what can go wrong and the associated costs. I did the same with Ducati motorbikes some years back but eventually bought wisely after careful research, looked after it properly and never had a single issue when the world was telling me it would be a money pit. Maybe after a period of Boxster ownership and getting involved with Porsche people I will build more confidence in the brand and go for that 996. Best thing about the Boxster is that its a great way into Porsche and the S is far from a compremise, I now have the 996 to look forward to in the future whereas if I had one first I would probably never drop back to a Boxster and would of missed this experience.
I had a pretty open mind, had always wanted a Porsche since I was a little kid dreaming and now have the spare cash to do it with a pretty good car. I had my budget set in stone and was buying private. Being in a good position with cash and in no rush to buy made it easier to get a deal. I did lots of reasearch on both the MY03 Boxster S and 98 996 C2. I had criteria for both cars and made offers on numerous cars having a good understanding of pricing, what goes wrong with each, potential repair costs, what work would be nice to have out the way by certain mileage milestones etc.
Some of my offers were a bit cheeky but I finally reached a deal with the owner of an S on budget. The Boxster was just a safer buy. The car I have bought has 48000 miles on it and I have got the owner to have this service done (big one worth getting out the way), an OPC inspection, correct any faults and put a years waranty on it included in our agreed price. This way I have far better piece of mind as a first time Porsche owner and have bought the equivelant to a dealer car minus OPC's huge margin. The fact the car comes with a fresh OPC inspection and fault correction ment that other than a HPI check I didnt have to check every detail of the car myself, whereas with a 996 I would be crawling all over it trying to look for any money needing spending in the future, trying to find a car with certain jobs recently done to minimise exposure.
Yes the buying, running, servicing costs etc are almost identical for the facelifted S and 97/98 996 but finding a 996 which is under OPC warranty is hard, (although I had cheeky offers in on a few advertised in the very low £20k's which had)if you can afford to chance running one without a warranty you are maybe able to afford to buy a more expensive car in the first place. I would have bought a 996 if one of the cars I made offers on had come into budget but if I didnt have one with an OPC warranty I would probably put myself out, travel for servicing and go into the Hartech scheme.
Maybe I wimped out of the 996, reading too many forums probably makes us too paranoid of what can go wrong and the associated costs. I did the same with Ducati motorbikes some years back but eventually bought wisely after careful research, looked after it properly and never had a single issue when the world was telling me it would be a money pit. Maybe after a period of Boxster ownership and getting involved with Porsche people I will build more confidence in the brand and go for that 996. Best thing about the Boxster is that its a great way into Porsche and the S is far from a compremise, I now have the 996 to look forward to in the future whereas if I had one first I would probably never drop back to a Boxster and would of missed this experience.
Edited by tuckerossi on Monday 2nd April 15:19
tuckerossi said:
I've just made the same decision and took the safe option by buying an 03 facelfited Boxster S with an OPC warranty.
I had a pretty open mind, had always wanted a Porsche since I was a little kid dreaming and now have the spare cash to do it with a pretty good car. I had my budget set in stone and was buying private. Being in a good position with cash and in no rush to buy made it easier to get a deal. I did lots of reasearch on both the MY03 Boxster S and 98 996 C2. I had criteria for both cars and made offers on numerous cars having a good understanding of pricing, what goes wrong with each, potential repair costs, what work would be nice to have out the way by certain mileage milestones etc.
Some of my offers were a bit cheeky but I finally reached a deal with the owner of an S on budget. The Boxster was just a safer buy. The car I have bought has 48000 miles on it and I have got the owner to have this service done (big one worth getting out the way), an OPC inspection, correct any faults and put a years waranty on it included in our agreed price. This way I have far better piece of mind as a first time Porsche owner and have bought the equivelant to a dealer car minus OPC's huge margin. The fact the car comes with a fresh OPC inspection and fault correction ment that other than a HPI check I didnt have to check every detail of the car myself, whereas with a 996 I would be crawling all over it trying to look for any money needing spending in the future, trying to find a car with certain jobs recently done to minimise exposure.
Yes the buying, running, servicing costs etc are almost identical for the facelifted S and 97/98 996 but finding a 996 which is under OPC warranty is hard, (although I had cheeky offers in on a few advertised in the very low £20k's which had)if you can afford to chance running one without a warranty you are maybe able to afford to buy a more expensive car in the first place. I would have bought a 996 if one of the cars I made offers on had come into budget but if I didnt have one with an OPC warranty I would probably put myself out, travel for servicing and go into the Hartech scheme.
Maybe I wimped out of the 996, reading too many forums probably makes us too paranoid of what can go wrong and the associated costs. I did the same with Ducati motorbikes some years back but eventually bought wisely after careful research, looked after it properly and never had a single issue when the world was telling me it would be a money pit. Maybe after a period of Boxster ownership and getting involved with Porsche people I will build more confidence in the brand and go for that 996. Best thing about the Boxster is that its a great way into Porsche and the S is far from a compremise, I now have the 996 to look forward to in the future whereas if I had one first I would probably never drop back to a Boxster and would of missed this experience.
I had a pretty open mind, had always wanted a Porsche since I was a little kid dreaming and now have the spare cash to do it with a pretty good car. I had my budget set in stone and was buying private. Being in a good position with cash and in no rush to buy made it easier to get a deal. I did lots of reasearch on both the MY03 Boxster S and 98 996 C2. I had criteria for both cars and made offers on numerous cars having a good understanding of pricing, what goes wrong with each, potential repair costs, what work would be nice to have out the way by certain mileage milestones etc.
Some of my offers were a bit cheeky but I finally reached a deal with the owner of an S on budget. The Boxster was just a safer buy. The car I have bought has 48000 miles on it and I have got the owner to have this service done (big one worth getting out the way), an OPC inspection, correct any faults and put a years waranty on it included in our agreed price. This way I have far better piece of mind as a first time Porsche owner and have bought the equivelant to a dealer car minus OPC's huge margin. The fact the car comes with a fresh OPC inspection and fault correction ment that other than a HPI check I didnt have to check every detail of the car myself, whereas with a 996 I would be crawling all over it trying to look for any money needing spending in the future, trying to find a car with certain jobs recently done to minimise exposure.
Yes the buying, running, servicing costs etc are almost identical for the facelifted S and 97/98 996 but finding a 996 which is under OPC warranty is hard, (although I had cheeky offers in on a few advertised in the very low £20k's which had)if you can afford to chance running one without a warranty you are maybe able to afford to buy a more expensive car in the first place. I would have bought a 996 if one of the cars I made offers on had come into budget but if I didnt have one with an OPC warranty I would probably put myself out, travel for servicing and go into the Hartech scheme.
Maybe I wimped out of the 996, reading too many forums probably makes us too paranoid of what can go wrong and the associated costs. I did the same with Ducati motorbikes some years back but eventually bought wisely after careful research, looked after it properly and never had a single issue when the world was telling me it would be a money pit. Maybe after a period of Boxster ownership and getting involved with Porsche people I will build more confidence in the brand and go for that 996. Best thing about the Boxster is that its a great way into Porsche and the S is far from a compremise, I now have the 996 to look forward to in the future whereas if I had one first I would probably never drop back to a Boxster and would of missed this experience.
Edited by tuckerossi on Monday 2nd April 15:19
the warranty route is a good one to go down and you are quite right about the opc margins.
i am not one of those people who get het up about stories of 996 engine failure, and if you ask Baz he will tell you that the Boxster has its fair share of faults too.
regardless, car a is a combination of mechanical components some of whick will fail from time to time. porsche are not immune from this
I'm facing the identical situation myself at them moment, there is a definite increased risk of a major multi "k" bill on the 3.4 996 compared to the 986 so it does feel a safer buy. However as you say the boxster is not immune to expensive failures. Did your 03 budget 3.2s come in less than 20k?, you certainly negotiated a good deal, did he give you a bunch of flowers when you collected it! Ian
The Boxster can suffer all the same faults as the 996 and they cost similar amounts of money to rectify. The fact you are buying a much newer car means that you have a far better chance of snagging one within an OPC warranty plus with its age you have more years of optional continuation which again helps resale.
If you can get a 996 in OPC warranty then its a better car to have than the Boxster S. My budget was just £20K so all the 996's I was looking at were 1997/98 cars so even if they were in warranty were not renewable once the car was 10 years old. If I stretched another few thousand to get into a newer 996, with OPC warranty in my opinion it would be a better buy than a Boxster costing similar. I didnt want to do that as I wanted to buy without financing and had to draw a sensible line somewhere, which in my case was £20k. I also saw it as a bit of a challenge to get the best deal I could for this money. I knew it was rock bottom but I know of other people who have achieved it six months previously with the same model car, warranty and figures.
I ended up paying £20.5K for my S, my budget was strict (although I did exceed it slightly to get the warranty in)and my criteria pretty tight. I eventually found my car after a good few months looking and some very hard bargaining. The guy who selling me the car didnt do so bad, he's made an easy sale a little bit over trade and moved his car on. Most the other cars I've made offers on which were declined are still hanging about even though they are good cars and the sellers have reduced their asking prices much closer to my offer. The car I've bought had already been on the market for some time and from what I can tell with little other genuine interest. Its a buyers market at the moment, asking and selling prices are seemingly two different things on these types of cars on the private market. Boxsters are taking a hit as there are so many cars available and the huge numbers of identical looking £12K 2.5's all make the car seem less exclusive.
I've not actually collected mine yet, hopefully toward the end of this week. Its all been held up as getting it into OPC for service/warranty has been difficult taking 3 weeks to get a booking after trying four different dealerships. Its been a long wait but im sure its going to be well worth it. I can live without a bunch of flowers for the sake of the saving I've made over buying from OPC.
If you can get a 996 in OPC warranty then its a better car to have than the Boxster S. My budget was just £20K so all the 996's I was looking at were 1997/98 cars so even if they were in warranty were not renewable once the car was 10 years old. If I stretched another few thousand to get into a newer 996, with OPC warranty in my opinion it would be a better buy than a Boxster costing similar. I didnt want to do that as I wanted to buy without financing and had to draw a sensible line somewhere, which in my case was £20k. I also saw it as a bit of a challenge to get the best deal I could for this money. I knew it was rock bottom but I know of other people who have achieved it six months previously with the same model car, warranty and figures.
I ended up paying £20.5K for my S, my budget was strict (although I did exceed it slightly to get the warranty in)and my criteria pretty tight. I eventually found my car after a good few months looking and some very hard bargaining. The guy who selling me the car didnt do so bad, he's made an easy sale a little bit over trade and moved his car on. Most the other cars I've made offers on which were declined are still hanging about even though they are good cars and the sellers have reduced their asking prices much closer to my offer. The car I've bought had already been on the market for some time and from what I can tell with little other genuine interest. Its a buyers market at the moment, asking and selling prices are seemingly two different things on these types of cars on the private market. Boxsters are taking a hit as there are so many cars available and the huge numbers of identical looking £12K 2.5's all make the car seem less exclusive.
I've not actually collected mine yet, hopefully toward the end of this week. Its all been held up as getting it into OPC for service/warranty has been difficult taking 3 weeks to get a booking after trying four different dealerships. Its been a long wait but im sure its going to be well worth it. I can live without a bunch of flowers for the sake of the saving I've made over buying from OPC.
Edited by tuckerossi on Monday 2nd April 17:49
I have just been through the same dilemma...early 996 or newer Boxster 'S'. In the end I purchased an '03 Boxster S after looking at many 'tired' looking 996's. I collected my car a couple of weeks ago and have had smiles everyday I drive it.
Just wish I'd done it sooner Bring on the Summer!
Just wish I'd done it sooner
Bring on the Summer! duncan123 said:
I'm also new to this and am only at the stage of trying to get an idea of reasonable upfront costs for a 911 996 2 '00....
a decent car will cost you between 23/25K. warranty 895 pa upto 10 years/125000 miles (i think)
12000 miles a year budget 600 for tyres every 20k, 600 brakes every 25k, servicing 600 a year at an indie.
all based on the above that you dont drive like an arse
cheapest form or supercar motoring there is out there
the best is now for sale
www.pistonheads.com/sales/151369.htm
www.pistonheads.com/sales/151369.htm
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