Speeds5

I'm seriously considering buying a cheap boxster to daily drive it. Now get this, my commute consists of 1.3 miles drive to a train station, park the car, and then drive back at night. Am I crazy to consider a boxster for this? I know it won't properly warm up during such a short trip, will be sitting in the rain, and maybe occasional snow if i don't check the weather in the morning, but i did say cheap one right?
Please don't recommend a honda or a toyota. DON'T WANT ONE. I want something that i can maybe drive around town on the weekend also. Doesn't have to be comfortable, but fun.

RVA

buy a 99 , it has a double row IMS bearing and will live forever.....for the price i dont even know why you are on the fence, the price will only go up in years to come......dont believe me,...15 years ago no one wanted a 72 911.., now try buying one.

joseph mitro

eh; go for it

Gerd

Everyone on this website knows that there is no such thing as a cheap Porsche, Santa perhaps!

Merry Christmas;
Gerd

dr914

excellent choice, and by a hardtop for the winter,. Boxsters are by far the best Porsche value

Byprodriver

IMSB's lives are similar to people, alot depends on how they are fed & cared for.

Geof3

Here is what you do... Boxster's are seriously fun to drive. Buy one. Find 20 or so minutes of fun driving to do for your commute. You will be happy, the car will be happier, you will have fully charged your battery and IT'S ALL GOOD!

lmnsblu355

Go for it!!! Speedwerks has 2 that they are refreshing for sale. Give Nyol a call.

elgy

1.3 miles?! Try walking (or biking) and save the boxster for the weekend....

Anker

Any car that gets driven twice daily such short trips won't last long. The engine oil will turn into an acid bath that will eat it from the inside out.

geetee

My current commute has become really short. 9 or so miles. What i do is head out 10 min early and take the back roads 15 miles or so.
Take the long way any make that 1.3 miles into a 5+miles or so.

Macster

Back in the late 1990's I had a short commute. A bit over 1 mile from my house to the office. I had a '96 Mustang then. I took the "long" way to the office to give the engine time to warm up some and to give the battery time to be topped up to replace the charge it lost from sitting overnight and starting the engine. It also gave me time to switch from home mode to work mode. I need that. And after work I took the long way home and gave myself time to switch from work mode to home mode and time for the alternator to top up the battery. Then on weekends I drove the car more. IIRC the oil change interval was 3K miles -- and Ford specified a mineral oil for the engine too -- and I stuck to the 3K mile oil/filter service schedule. I think I did this short commute a year or more and the car was fine.

You should try to drive the Boxster for more time/distance by taking the "long" way to work and then driving the car on the weekends. A short drive to/from work won't replenish the battery and the car could develop battery issues from the lack of engine run time. I would also recommend you change the oil in the fall before winter and again in the spring just before summer. Going into winter the engine has fresh oil and again in the spring going into the summer driving season the engine has fresh oil.

Have to mention my experience with my Boxster is the longer drive can't be all highway as the engine will not get very hot. it takes driving in town, in stop and go driving, for some time to get the coolant hot enough to trigger the radiator fans. This was what I used to know the engine was "hot". (Or I'd monitor the engine coolant temperature with an OBD2 scan tool/data viewer connected to the car's OBD2 port.) The radiator fans should come on low speed when the coolant temperature reaches 212F. At this temperature the oil's hot and hot enough to boil out the water it collects. If you drive with the A/C on the fans run all the time and this works to keep the engine cooler especially in milder ambient temperature.

(I have an oil temperature display with my Hellcat and it takes some several miles of stop/go driving -- and just otherwise driving normally (and sanely) -- for the oil to get to 212F or above. And once on the freeway the oil temperature drops. The other day with air temperature in the low 50's after a few miles the oil temperature was down to 178F after starting out at 212F after some town driving. Coolant temperature was around 199F to 200F.)

Be sure you keep the Boxster water drains clear. And check for dampness along the door bottoms after washing the car or after a rain. The door membranes of these cars will fail over time and when they do water gets from the wet side to the dry side of the door and that ain't good.

Brian in Tucson

You don't want a Toyota, so I won't suggest that. Tho you would be an excellent can.didate for an electric car or a plug in hybrid. My other car is an ancient Prius. Fun and functional.

I don't think I'd buy a "cheap" Boxster. Buy a nice one instead and pay a fair price. Like my Prius, not all mechanics are even close to competent working on Boxsters. Down time is both inconvenient and expensive. If there's salt on your roads you will need to be very proactive in cleaning it off especially the parts you can't see so easily. Even so, you'll probably lose it to body cancer in a few years. Get whatever you want, forewarned is forearmed. And one of your weekly chores is to put 25 or so freeway miles on the poor thing.

hf1

Fined

My work commute is about 2.5 miles and I bought a 987.2 Cayman S specifically for the purpose of daily driving it. It's been fine the last few months and its much more enjoyable than having a dull daily.