First Porsche - 04 S vs 06 Base
 

Purchasing my first Porsche and have it narrowed down to two options - a 2004 Boxster S or a 2006 Boxster. Both have similar miles, same colors. 04 is a MT with 2 previous owners and 45K miles for $15K from dealer. 06 is an AT with 1 previous owner and 40K miles for $19K from private seller.

I am leaning towards the 06 for the obvious reasons of it being newer, lower mileage, and one owner....but I'm wondering how much I will regret not having the S? As a first time Porsche owner, will I even know the difference? Does being AT make it totally lame? I do drive in a high traffic area, so while this is going to be a 3rd car used for "fun", traffic is absolutely inevitable.

I would not buy a base Boxster with a slush drive. Drove a tip S last month and hated it. Boxsters are made for manual transmissions, unless you go to en even newer one with PDK.

I would go for the 04 as it will have the replaceable IMS bearing. I think for the 06-10 they increased the size of the IMS bearing so it is more reliable, but not serviceable. I would also recommend replacing the IMS for the 04 for peace of mind

I live in Tucson, where there seems to be a traffic light on every corner and all of them are red. I have an 01 base with the tiptronic and the smaller engine (2,7 liter.) It's pretty fun around town, the trans does most of the work, but give you the choice of putting it in manual and using the paddles to shift. I guess my next one will be an "S" for the larger engine and the better options package. The difference in miles, imho, is not pertinent. Both are very low mileage. Whatever you buy, be sure to get a pre purchase inspection from a porsche specialist, beware of tires that are more than 3 years old (age is not your friend.) And even a low mileage 13 year old car will need love and attention.

Having owned both a 2.5L 1999 and a 3.2L 2001 S both TIP transmission cars, it would depend on what your intended use and experience was. I was in a dense suburban area and occasionally drove both into the country and into a very congested city. I grew up driving stick shift cars for my first cars (Volvo, Alfa, VW, Alfa, Porsche 914) but switched when traffic got really bad (7 minutes commute changed to 45). I also found that I got lots less tickets with the automatics. I attribute that to not wanting to shift and thus running too many yellow lights with the stick. And when I got home I was much more relaxed. As to the difference in power, I actually thought the smaller engine was more fun because you could put your foot down harder and longer without being a complete fool. Both cars would do 100+ quite easily and I never found much difference in freeway merging situations. I used both cars to commute 15-20 miles to work on all but snow and ice days. And volunteered to go for pizza or to the grocery store or even take the trash to the dump. I didn't use the most direct route, but the fun one. And after all that, I just went out to find a rural road and enjoy the car without getting to crazy.

There are many changes to the '06 over the '04 detailed by year here.

Get a PPI by a very experienced mechanic which should include inspecting the oil filter and connecting to a PST2, PIWIS or Durametric diagnostic machine. The PPI will tell you what work needs doing now and what the next year or so shoul bring. No guarantee but worth doing to learn more about your car than even a long test drive can tell you. The private car may have a more revealing maintenance history and that is really important on what are now 10 to 12 year old cars.

Wonderful cars. Both.