Well maybe you will hit a jackpot in the appreciation department

 

This makes sense to me, kind of.

I bought a '99 with 63k miles. Indy PPI said the clutch was ready for replacement.

So, I went ahead and did the IMS retrofit. Maybe unnecessary, but what the hell. You just have do decide what helps you sleep better at night. Besides whiskey and Ambien.

 

Sure, agree that if you are having the clutch done anyway, then makes sense to think about the IMS bearing. I am referring to taking a '99 with a perfectly good clutch, running just fine, and spending $3,500 or $4,000 to fix a bunch of stuff that ain't broke. That doesn't make sense to me. If you have to go in to fix something that IS broken, then take a look around to see what else makes financial sense to address, which is exactly what you did.

 

With a base price in the mid-high 80's, and nicely equipped 996's originally selling for $100K and more, it's hard to VASTLY overpay...I paid $30K for my '99 C4- and while that was 4 years ago and the previous owner had dumped over $20K into upgrades, it's still a whole lot more than the $18-20K people seem to be spending these days.

If I could go back knowing what I know now about the car, I still would have bought it...it's been fantastically reliable and I have yet to see a 996.2, 997, or 991 that I would rather own. Sure, maybe a Turbo would have been nice from the power and "yay Mezger" perspectives, but there has not been a single day I have regretted the purchase.

I hope that - even though you paid more than you might have - you can still derive some enjoyment from your 996.

 

The 986 Boxster is an amazing car. Sure, it has less HP than the 996, but the driving experience is incomparable. I'll get called out for exaggeration, but the Boxster was just...sublime. I could confidently throw that car into curves at speeds I would not be comfortable with in the 996 - the neutral balance was SO hard to upset, and even when I did push the car up to and past its grip limit, it wasn't a surprise. Out of a dozen or so AX with PCA and SCCA in that car, I spun out exactly one time. Sure there were times when I slid off track or otherwise blew a corner so badly I had to get flagged back on, but that car was amazing at keeping me out of trouble. In my first or second AX, my driving instructor could not believe the car didn't have PSM or stability control - he just didn't understand how some of my overly-ambitious maneuvers didn't upset the car.

Only if I was buying a car I _knew_ I wanted to turbocharge would I consider an S2000 or a Miata; I don't think the Boxster is a terrific candidate for boost. I think the Z3 was a beautiful roadster, but a Boxster in seal grey with side skirts looks even better.

If you go the 986 route, buy an '03 or later. The glass window may not be a big deal for many folks, but a cloudy or cracked plastic window just looks crappy, especially on an otherwise beautiful car.

While I never, ever even want to contemplate getting rid of my 996 - I truly love this car - I wish I had not sold my 986. The 911 is superior in a number of ways, but you cannot recreate the feeling of powering the top back after a long work day with a sunroof.

I would gladly pay $2K more than I sold it for to get my old Boxster back - I miss it that much. Here's a photo of the one I stupidly let get away...

 

The Boxter S is just as powerful as the 3.4L 996.

 

While I hesitate to enter into yet another 996 engine failure discussion, it's not accurate to say that problems always surface by 40k miles, even on cars that aren't garage queens.

 

Totally agree. The 2003 had some very nice upgrades over the earlier ones, not least of was the glass rear window. Steering feel is even better than the 996 IMO. You do need to wind it up to find the power, but that's where the fun is! Here's a shot of mine:

 

Ah, so, this has turned into a "post an oblique view of your Boxster" thread. Well, okay then, here's mine.

 

Speaking from the perspective of someone who DID pay a big price when my car was about 2 years old, I echo this sentiment. Of course that was before the IMS issue was widely known ( at least to me). Sure it's annoying to have the price crater on me, but I've lost money in other stupid things in my life so, no big. It's been a fun car for sure, the only knock I have is the ongoing maintenance can be annoying and the extensive use of cheap plastics at the time. So it's amusing when I read about people fishing for one below 20's. As long as the previous guy didn't use the car like rented mule, you are getting into a 911 on the cheap.

 

I also hesitate and I probably should have said probably at least twice more as a further qualifier. That said, I am firstly only talking about dual rows. The single rows are junk in my opinion. Will a few more dual rows with 40k+ fail? Probably. But they would probably also fail with anything less than the solution because it will probably be something else that causes the bearing to fail. The one caveat, that applies to any 996, is that the car received appropriate maintenance in its prior life, especially oil changes.

Would I suggest that someone buying a 15k car spend 4k to fix something that has a 1-1.5% chance of failing? No. In fact my business sometimes takes me to used and new car dealerships and indies, I used to drive my 99 996 to them. All but one of them said, without even looking at the car, "you need to replace the IMSB right away". Guess which one got to service my car.

 

haha

 

Man, I don't even own a Boxster. But, if I did . . .

 

My 996, 40th aniv. must be an exception to the rule!

 

Did you drive it to the moon and back?