I am looking to buy a Porsche Boxster

[Wings]

I am looking to buy my son a Porsche Boxster, possibly up to the £12k price bracket. I have been looking at car auctions, Pistonhead, Autotrader and Ebay, with the latter not giving me much confidence in using the same.

Can any of you offer me any advice in what to look for when being a purchaser, and in the case where the car does not hold a Porsche warranty, are there any inspectors I can use to get the car checked out. I am in the Bristol area

[Lurking Lawyer]

OPCs will put it through an official 111 point check for you - that would point out anything obvious wrong with it.

Or there are various people/companies that carry out pre-purchase inspections. Peter Morgan is probably the best known of them, but I'm not sure he covers Bristol. Phil Raby is another, although I think he mainly deals with the north.

If there are any recognised independent Porsche specialists in the Bristol area, they would probably do it too.

[LeeME3]

I've had 'cheaper' Boxsters/911s (no offence!) in the past and never had any major issues - buy on condition and history rather than mileage. At that price probably too old to be able to get an OPC warranty put on and most third party ones aren't worth the paper (do a search on here) but no reason why you shouldn't be able to get a good 'un. I've not bought via Pistonheads but when I get my next Porker (968CS or 996, yes, not exactly directly comparable I know!) I'm thinking I'll just wait until the perfect one comes up via PH as there is a (slightly) higher chance you'll be getting an enthusiast's car that's been cared for (probably not true but it'll make me feel better when I part with the £££!).

If your budget is £12K look at cars up to £15K and negotiate hard - definitely a buyers market at the moment and loads to choose from. There's a decent buyers guide on the Hartech website.