TroyP

Hey folks, first post, be gentle!
I'm probably planning to purchase a 981 Boxster in the next couple months, I currently have an SLK 350 and I've been a MB guy for a while now, but I think I'm ready for a change. I'm likely going to get a 2013-2014 Base, I've got a few must-have options and a few like-to-have ones. The challenge is that when searching for a used vehicle, most dealerships (especially non-Porsche dealers) have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to what options are/aren't installed. So I've tried to identify visual cues that tell me the true answer, ie heated/ventilated seat buttons present or not present, BOSE tag on the door speaker (when there's a pic from the proper angle), Sport Plus button present/not present, and so forth.

So my first question is whether there's any visual way to determine if a car at least has the Infotainment system vs the base 4 speaker config. I'd strongly prefer the BOSE I think but there's no way the 4 speaker will be sufficient, so the 7 speaker Infotainment package would possibly be a consideration at least. Are there any differences on the center stack that I can look for? Also, some door pics APPEAR to have more than one speaker but can the grates just be cosmetic (see attached image)



Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Bud 981

Hi Troy, first off welcome to the forum. I'm not sure there is a visual way to determine if the car has infotainment without starting it up to check (NAV=PCM/Infotainment). Bose gives you all the speakers w/ sub and I would highly recommended it vs base speakers. Good luck with your search.

TroyP

So for instance in the picture above, do the multiple speaker grilles mean anything at all or not necessarily?

Bud 981

From the Porsche site and some other posts I looked at it seems like all the audio systems use the same grills, the Bose at least will have the Bose logo on them. Good luck.

Milehigh981

Dealers can get a list of factory installed options very easily. They just need to contact Porsche or a Porsche dealer and give the vin. A printout of the options will give confirmation.
Look for the center speaker as well.

Schpee007

What's the VIN? I'll post a build sheet.

PorscheStrong

^^^ Good man. This is exactly what you need. I share your frustration on trying to read dealer ads (especially non-Porsche dealers) - the build sheet will clearly lay out all the extras.

I'm sure you've run all the traps on performance, cost, etc., but might be worth keeping the S in mind. The market is much deeper (probably 2-3x the number of S vs. Base), and value retention may be different (cannot say whether better or worse).

In either case, it's a great car and phenomenal chassis. Happy hunting!

TroyP

If it were just one or two cars I'd take you up on the offer, but right now I'm basically going through ALL the ones listed and trying to pare the list down simply by eliminating all those with the base 4 speaker setup or no Infotainment package. My search filter currently looks something like this:

Year: 2013-2015
Color: Not black or lime gold
Mileage: Under 30k

So next I want to narrow down based on sound system since that seems to be (at least in the Base) an option to narrow the choices down by about half and hopefully get me to a more manageable list.

I don't want to call or email 50 dealers to ask a yes or no question and have sales weenies calling me back for three months trying to change my mind, so trying to do as much homework as I can beforehand and walk in knowing more about the car I want than they do.