MNCsabi

Looking for advice and items of importance to look for while shopping for a Boxter.

Any help and advice is greatly appreciated

Macster

Look for a good Boxster, as new and with as few miles as you can find in your price range.

The ideal candidate car should have a good service history, no stories, no track time, and no mods.

If the car has many miles it will have some work done to it, like perhaps tires, brakes, clutch maybe, water pump, what have you. Depends upon the number of miles the car has covered and the philosophy of the previous owners. (Some are quite willing to be proactive replacing wear items before they are showing signs of needing replacing.)

You will have to educate yourself on the issue of IMSB (intermediate shaft bearing) and further on what (if any) aftermarket upgrades you approve of and which ones you would accept if the car has one these applied.

Search out Flat Six Innovations web site:

http://www.flat6innovations.com

and read up on IMS and IMSB.

There's some good reading at the Pelican Parts website too:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/boxster/boxster_tech.htm

You can get back issues of Excellence and Panorama in which Boxster buying guides were published.

The early Boxsters are going on 15/16 years old and are just turning in to old and in many cases high mileage used cars.

So you must be prepared/capable of performing a thorough used car check out, or knowing someone who can do this for you.

This begins with a 15 mile test ride followed by a 15 mile test drive. The route the seller selects should allow him to demo the car the way you intend to use it within reason of course so you can experience the car as you will use it. After the test ride then you take the car out as the driver and cover the same route and drive the car the same way.

Then comes your check out of the car. Assume nothing works until you verify it does. Get your hands on a CPO check list and use that as your used car check out check list. You won't be able to do every check but you can do enough that if there's something amiss with with the car you'll probably know it.

After the above then arrange to have an expert on these cars perform a pre-purchase inspection (PPI). Among other things he'll read the DME overrev counters and go over with you if anything concerns him.

Couple of final words of advice. Do your research. Do not rush into a car.

If you want the experience, leave your checkbook at home and go visit some cars that might be questionable. Look at, evaluate, a few stinkers to get a feel for looking at a crummy car.

Remember price is not a fact only an opinion and there is always another car. Do not be afraid to walk away if you find something not quite right with the car. I'm talking of course with something more than just worn brakes, worn tires.

You have to be careful. For instance while worn tires by themselves are not a deal killer, if the tires are worn unevenly this can be a sign of just a bad alignment. But this wear can be due to poor accident repairs which left the car too bent to bring the wheels into proper alignment.

mikefocke

More than you want to read on the subject here. Written by someone who bought 2, loved 'em but tried to be honest and realistic.


Maybe a price range might get you more specific responses.

brjak

http://www.iwantaporsche.net

I just purchased a few weeks ago. I found this page to be very very informative.

flyingpenguin

Also, when hooking up a Durametric when looking for over-revs, check for camshaft deviation. Good indicator for variocam pad wear (on the 5-chain motors) and could even point a red flag to IMS issues. See here:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/boxst...deviation.html