911ren

Hi Guys,should one get a 2009 Boxster S for around $30K and not worry about the older Boxster issues or Buy a 2003 S for around $13K and change IMS and other bits to make it as
good as possible.

mikefocke

You don't say anything about condition, miles, options, your intended use, color preferences, known maintenance history, styling preference, etc.

$17k is a big cushion. You can replace an engine for that quite easily.

911ren

My bad, the mileage i tried to compare as close as possible, the 2009 has 50K the 2003 has 65k,it will be a weekend car/fun not a tracker, the 2009 is sold by Porsche dealer, the 2003 private and claims has maintenance history, i am not good with wrenches, so will be maintained by local indie Porsche shop not dealer.

mikefocke

All things being equal, I prefer to buy from someone who owns the car and has for a while rather than a dealer who is trying to make money and charging a premium to what they bought the car for.

My two buys were because I could verify the motivation of the seller. One was replacing it with a Hummer and had no room in their 4 car garage! The other because they had a job as an outside salesperson and needed a multi-person econo car.

I'd be inclined to go with the '03 providing a multi-hour Pre-Purchase Inspection by the mechanic that would then maintain it was clean and didn't show any surprises. I presume carfaxes are clean and car was never in a hurricane area. I bought an '01S and promptly put $3k into it including a 90k service, complete brake replacement/rebuild and tires.I knew from the PPI I was going to do that. There were no surprises in the next 6 years. Could have been. I was lucky but I like to think the preventative investment helped.

Ask your mechanic what he charges for a complete PPI (oil filter exam, compression/leakdown, road test, etc) and ask to see a copy of the report format he uses.

Macster

Big difference between a 2009 S and a 2003 S.

The 2009 S has the engine with no IMS.

Plus the 2009 S is 6 years newer. The 2003 is 14 years old.

The general rule of used car buying is buy the best example of what you want and you can afford.

Of course with not having seen either car in this case that would be the 2009.

911ren

I found a 2009 Boxster 6 speed with 55K for $24000 and it is very tempting, and what i have read the 2.9 is a good motor.

HoBoJoe

Newer is better and the 2.9 has more than enough power for the street.

911ren

Macster, is the new 2.9 motor prone to scoring as well?

Macster

I don't know.

I have come across some posts that seem to imply all of the newer engines will bore score and then there are suggestions as to what to do to "prevent" this.

The suggestions make no sense to me.

To top it off some who scream the loudest about scoring apparently offer some "protection" in the form of I guess extended service contracts.

If you want a Porsche model with the 2.9l engine my advice is shop around for one that has been maintained reasonably well. Be sure that if the car is located in a cooler region that it has had 0w-40 oil used.

Give the car a thorough road test to ensure the engine (and the rest of the car) is healthy.

After your road test and used car check out arrange for a PPI to get the car in the air for a thorough check for any leaks. The DME overrev counters along with the engine run time is also pulled and gone over.

If you want arrange for an oil analysis -- expedited if possible -- to see if the engine oil is "loaded" with any metals that could suggest a problem.

If the analysis comes back ok, if the road test finds the engine the car are ok and if the PPI finds no deal killer buy the car.

Even with all of the above there is of course no guarantee the engine won't or can't develop a serious problem as you drive the car.

The only way to avoid that is don't buy the car. Shop another brand.

911ren

Well it is in my bucket list and i will risk life and limb to drive one for at least a year to get it out of my system.

Macster

No risk to life and limb. Maybe some -- slight -- risk to the wallet should the engine suffer some serious problem out of warranty. The bad few get all the press. The majority of good ones get almost no press.

Let me try to balance the scales a bit.

Drive my 2002 315K+ mile Boxster almost every day. Just replaced the MAF (because of a persistent P1128 error code) and the engine perked up some. So much so I'm torn between taking the Boxster to work yet again today or the 996 Turbo. The Turbo really should get the call as it needs use at least 2 times a week to keep the battery topped up and I probably will take the Turbo, but I will have to chose a route to the Turbo that doesn't have me walking by the Boxster or else I think I would end up taking the Boxster.

pcarfan944

I haven't driven a 987 but personally I think they're a bit dull compared to the 986.

Find a low mileage '00 S with the 6-speed and early production dual row IMS. Silver over red ideally. Now that's a Boxster.