First Car?

[hboy828]

Ive gotten multiple suggestions for a boxster as a first car.
my budget is around 14K. Ive mainly been looking at the 99-03 models.
What would be the best for me?
This is not the car im learning to drive on, but the first car I will own myself.
also I want it to be a manual, and probably have a hardtop for winter.
What should I look for?
Dealership or private party?

Thanks!

[Zeke]

Wherever you can get a good deal. Be advised that dealers throw away all maintenance records so you won't know what service is due. Get an independent PPI regardless of wherever you buy. '03's have some nice upgrades over the series from '00. Older than that and it's year by year.

Read a lot.

[Wayne 962]

For the price, the premium to get a Boxster 'S' is typically a good deal. I would look mostly at 'S' models if I were you.

-Wayne

[mikefocke]

You are speaking of 8-12 year old cars. Any brand car you buy that old is liable to age related failures. After your purchase is made, will you have enough cash to maintain it? Have you access to a reliable mechanic with great familiarity with Porsches? Have you ever maintained any car?

As much as I love my '01 and as reliable as it has been (very), I can't imagine owning one as my only car if I didn't have access to reserves and help in maintaining it. Some newer under warranty econo-car would be better for basic transport at a lower cost and risk. (I made the mistake of buying a car that was a challenge to maintain when I was in my teens as my first car. My second car was a sports car that was an equal maintenance disaster/money-pit. )

You'll find about a dozen articles on buying a Boxster at mikesporscheboxsterwebpages - mikefocke2

Wonderful car, one I take for a drive just for the sheer joy of driving it.

[hboy828]

As of now, I'm looking at early boxster s models, 03 boxsters, and 99,00,01 with one owner low mileage

[Wayne 962]

Originally Posted by hboy828

As of now, I'm looking at early boxster s models, 03 boxsters, and 99,00,01 with one owner low mileage

A 2003 Boxster 'S' for $14K might be a stretch, but I know that the 2000 ones can be had for that. I think the 2003 with one-owner low miles are probably still around $20K or so.

-Wayne

[mdrips]

I used AutoTempest to quickly pull up cars.com, autotrader.com and craigslist all at once. The nice thing about their site is that you can plug in the year and the maximum price to search for, plus each of the three major sites allow you to tune the search feature as well.
I plugged the cars of interest into a spreadsheet by Year, Price, Model (base or S), transmission, mileage, color, contact info/location, source (cars, autotrader, craigslist).
I'm in northern California so I limited the search to 500 miles. Seems like there are plenty of Boxsters in LA, and if I lived there I might have ended up with a different car.

I finally bite the bullet and bought my 01 base Boxster for $9500. Yes I could have gotten an 01 S for 12000, and if I went to LA (or SF) could find 03 models starting at $13K.

My decision (uninformed or not) was to skip the first generation Boxsters (97-99).
Mine's a one owner car, but it doesn't seem common to find that. Maybe one listing a month.
My personal choice (and there is plenty of argument around this) is accept high mileage on the premise that if something's going to go wrong, it already has gone wrong.
I have more concerns about low mileage cars regardless of whether or not they were Garage Queens. Are the seals dried out? Why weren't they driven? Are they near a measurable failure point or major service point?

Of course you already know you have to own Wayne's book whether you work on the car yourself or not. It's an unstated requirement for owning a Boxster.

If you wonder where all the Boxsters are, the answer is Porsche doesn't sell that many cars on a worldwide basis. For the USA, the peak Boxster sales year was 2000/01 with 27K cars sold. For 03/04 sales plummeted to 13K. So finding those 03s with the glass rear is a little longer shopping process. Since '06 they've been selling less than 5000 Boxsters a year.

[mikefocke]

One owner is highly unlikely for the older cars. Porsches are cars that generally fit at certain points in one's life. Owned 3. A first owner at about 27, a third owner after the kids colleges were paid off and retirement was secure, and a third owner after I totaled the previous car. The last 2 third owner cars have been so close to flawless as ownership experiences I find it hard to worry about how many owners if you have a way of understanding the last 5 years of maintenance on the car and get a good PPI so you know where you'll have to spend $ to get the car into tip top safe driving shape.

People sell Porsches because their needs change...divorce, marriage, kids, college payments, retirement needs, move, etc. In both my Boxster purchases I knew exactly why the cars were being sold and what the maintenance history on them was.

[randy_k]

Pic's, We luv pic's!!!

[hboy828]

Realistically, I'd want anything over 2000 thats been well cared for by someone who knows what they are doing, an is not prone to problems.
What would fill that role?

[laphan]

As mentioned, you can buy boxster within your price range but can you cover the repair cost on the car if anything happens.
For example, IMS upgrade and clutch will cost you close to $2K. These cars eat rear tires and they are not cheap to replace (255 width). Also, the car takes a little over 9qt of oil per change which doubles your average synthetic oil change cost.

It is so easy to spend $3K on basic repair and maintenance on these cars (e.g. common repairs like IMS, RMS, AOS, water pump, engine mount, coolant expansion tank, spark plug tubes, etc). They also might need a new top (usually the rear plastic window crack because of age).

[mikefocke]

While there are model year differences especially at the '03 point, there isn't a big difference in reliability between an '00 and '01 and any of the other models.

Start reading here buyingorsellinga1997-2004boxster - mikefocke2 and read the dozen articles.

[hboy828]

After reading that, I will look primarily for 01,02 models. That's alot of info to take in, so I might have to find someone when I'm ready to purchase.
Thanks!

[KevinH1990]

Where do you live?

A friend of mine is selling his 02 base Boxster. I think he has about 40,000 miles on it. He hurt his back and has trouble getting in and out of it. It is blue with a beige interior and black top. The car is in the Richmond, Virginia area.

Send me a PM and I will give you his contact information.

[Wayne 962]

You might want to shop for a 2000 Boxster 'S' and then save the additional funds for upgrades or repairs that you will do yourself.

-Wayne

[hboy828]

You might want to shop for a 2000 Boxster 'S' and then save the additional funds for upgrades or repairs that you will do yourself.



-Wayne

Ok, sounds good.
I'm going to order your book as well!

[Wayne 962]

Originally Posted by hboy828

Ok, sounds good.
I'm going to order your book as well!

That's also a good plan, definitely a good guide for pre-purchases.

-Wayne

[mtnbiker326]

Just an FYI... Just picked up a 2001 S from Dallas for $9k with 160k (yes high miles but was owned by the mechanic from the Largest Dallas Porsche dealer).

Long story short, he did all labor for me for free... Did IMS upgrade and M030 for dealer cost and no install charge. Plus interior is imaculate. He bought it from the original owner that he himself worked on the car. The engine is perfect and about 3% HP loss from new. Gotta love German Engineering. I had budgeted $12k so I still have some dollars for other repairs/services in the future as they creap up.

Found it on Ebay. Checked craigslist in Dallas and found it there and called him. There are deals out there.

[thstone]

Just remember that any Boxster under $15K is likely to need some near-term maintanence which could run $2,000-4,000 in the first year of ownership.

Any "new" 10-year old Boxster is likely to need new brakes, full change of fluids, new set of rear tires, and a new front motor mount - or an equally similar list of items and they all add up quickly. Oh, don't forget to budget for some of the fun stuff like an iPod connection too!

[mtnbiker326]

I fully agree with that. You must budget for those things in the first year.