99firehawk

i saw one 97 boxster with 170k on it. most of the cars never get their since they are 2nd cars and only get drive a lil bit each year, or they live in states with snow and the cars get stored and not driven for 6 months

First986NJ

For what it is worth, My company has a manufacturing center in Germany, not to far from Stuttgart. In talking to some of the guys over there before I bought my 986, I was told that it is very common to see 25 and 30 year old Porsches as daily drivers over there.

One of the engineers drives an '87 930 and advised me to "just maintain the car in accordance to how much, and how, you drive it and it will last a long, long time." His is well over 100k miles.

Marc Gelefsky

I dont think the build quality of the new Porsches is even close to the old cars.
Thats does not mean the new cars wont last a very long time but it seems like the older cars were allot more over-engineered, my 86 911 feels like a tank.
Of course, that's just my opinion

First986NJ

A guy I used to work for had a 32 Ford coupe sitting in a barn in New Hampshire for like 20 years. The roof of the barn leaked, the weeds all grew up around the car, your get the picture. One day he went up and dug it out of the barn to trailer it back to NJ and restore it. Even though he owned his own body shop, he had this old timer he used to call in to restore all his vintage cars. This guy comes in, looks around the car (which was rock solid by the way..) and says, before we go to too much trouble, lets take the buffer to her and see how bad a shape she's really in. So, he takes a buffer to the paint on this car, and it starts coming up like a new paint job. They only had to do some spot lead work and painting to the outside of this thing.

Marc...I think it's safe to say that this is NOT going to be true of almost anything made today, and certainly of any automobile. "they just don't build 'em like they used to"....none of them.

mjw930

Properly maintained (and that means following the manual to the letter) and I would expect a new generation water cooled Porsche to run for as long as you want it to. Sure, you'll need some engine work, possibly tranny work and definitely go through lots of shocks, tires, ball joints, etc. but that's the same thing you see done to old 911's. There are certain maintenance intervals that you follow with the older cars like top end work between 75K and 125K, depending on the model and year, bottom end work at 150K - 175K (this is the strongest part of the old air cooled motors), brake lines, rotors and calipers as needed and electrical work as they reach 10+ years.

One of the reasons you see so many older Porsches still on the road is the care people take when maintaining them. I had an '89 930 with over 115,000 miles that I sold in 2004. It took about $4000 over the course of the last 4 years I owned it to keep it in top shape and I told the new owner to expect to pull the motor and do the top end within 20K simply because it was due and the last thing he wants to do is wait until something breaks and the bill triples. It's that kind of proactive maintenance that will keep ANY car on the road indefinitely.

Boxsterund914

No, they don't build 'em like they used to.....thank god!!! Even a Kia is better overall consistent quality than most cars from even 20 years ago. CAD/CAM evens the playing field a bunch. CNC machining and robotic welding makes a "Monday car" as good as a "Wednesday car" and the same as a "Friday car". Had to adjust your valves lately? Need new points in your distributor? No? Maybe just adjust those carbs then.

And as for the 944 guy...a water pump at 90K is bad? Do all 944s last past 100K with no problems at all? That's not the way I remember them.

First986NJ

[QUOTE=Boxsterund914]No, they don't build 'em like they used to.....thank god!!! Even a Kia is better overall consistent quality than most cars from even 20 years ago. CAD/CAM evens the playing field a bunch. CNC machining and robotic welding makes a "Monday car" as good as a "Wednesday car" and the same as a "Friday car". Had to adjust your valves lately? Need new points in your distributor? No? Maybe just adjust those carbs then.

[QUOTE]

Yea, but I'm old school....I miss doing all that stuff.

...and hey, EVERYBODY knew you didn't by a Monday car...

PaulStewart

A lot of 944 owners believe the front service (belts, rollers, seals, water pump, etc.) must be done every 3 years or 30,000 miles. If done at the dealer, it can cost over $1000.

I'm guessing more than 1/2 of 944s produced are no longer on the road, but I'm also guessing more than 80% of Boxsters will still be on the road when they are 20 years old.

Bill L Seifert

Paul

I agree with you. But, I think the reason is that more "Porsche" pleople bought the Boxster than the 944. I would define a "Porsche" person as one who knows how to pronounce the word.

Though I know one guy that has a Carrerra 4, Cayennne, and a Cayman, he speaks publicly for the Porsche Driving Experience, and still pronounces it Porschhhhh. So I guess there are exceptions to all rules.

Bill

gums

My 2001 S has 94k on it, although I acquired it with 85k. The intention was to build a race car out of it, but it turned out to be too nice to ruin, so it's still a driver. I just replaced the water pump, the bearing was shot, it wasn't spinning true and it ripped the teeth off the impeller as well. Couldn't miss it, there was water everywhere.