Hi I'm new to Rennlist!

before you complain, I have searched and looked around and read some of the threads here on this site and a couple others.

I plan on selling my 2000 Audi A4 1.8T and buying a car for under $15,000. It has come to my attention that 1997 and 1998 Porsche Boxsters can be found within this price range!


Would I be walking into a world of trouble buying one of these? I am very young (still a minor) so my car payments/gas/insurance would eat up most of my income, and the rest of my income will be blown for a good time of course.


Here are my questions:

1) On average, how much do Boxster owners spend on maintanence?
2) How common does this known catastrophic engine failure issue occur? Is it known to happen in 97's? Most of the posts I have seen about this are from 99-01 models.
3) are there any other issues I should know about?
4) I ALWAYS have $1000 set aside for car emergencies. Will this be enough to keep me covered?
5) How much does the routine tuneup parts cost? (spark plugs, tires, brakes, etc)

 

Welcome aboard!!!

I own a 2000 Boxster, will give you my numbers over the years.

1) Per year?? 1k (mostly rotors and pads and of course service)

2) This is greatly debatable here, it can happen on even newer cars, but mostly I read about them on 97-99 986's. Current wisdon tells you if the car is < 2000 MY and it has passed the 32k mile mark, your probably safe.

3) There is allway the RMS (Real Main Seal) issue, but is < 1k to fix

4) I would take that extra 1k and add a little more to it and buy an extended warranty for the piece of mind.

5) These cars are serviced at 15k mile intervals alternating between a Minor and Major service. In my area a Minor service run $425 and a major $750

I drive my Boxster daily year around putting 13k miles a year on it with no major issues to date. It has been in the shop twice, each time a wheel bearing went out.

Enjoy, Boxsters are fun cars

 

be careful when buy a used porsche (or any other car); you get what you pay for...getting the cheapest one out there usually means you that you will be giving all the $ you saved at purchase to your mechanic (ask me how i know). for what it is worth, i have also been researching used boxsters. it seems to me that a more realistic starting point is about $20k. in anycase, good luck with your search!

 

thank you two very much for your input. This is honestly alot more valuable info than I expected to get, and for that I thank you

I think you're probably right that if I buy a Boxster for $14-15k I'll probably end up spending more money in the shop than what I have. I think I'll look into alternate cars such as a BMW Z3 or Mazda Miata

Thanks alot! This is a great board

 

...mmmmm, miata. I am fortunate to have one of those too. Also a very fun car. Considerably less expensive to maintain, and with just as good of a forum. But what was the slogan? Ah, yes, "Porsche, there is no substitute."

 

If I were you I would wait to get a Boxster until you are older for several reasons. I know patience is hard...but it will be better for you in the long run. THere are PLENTY of awesome rides out there for you until you get a little older.

1) You're a minor...you are gonna pay insurance like CRAZY on a car like this...even an older one. When you are older the insurance impact will be lesser or none at all.

2) These cars run forever, but need regular maintenance. Labor even at an INDY runs minimum $75 an hour, and at that price it is a bargain. You want to make sure you are using Porsche parts or Porsche approved parts. So those aren't usually cheap. My 60K at an INDY ran $1600. Between regular maintenance and the preventative maintennace i had done that would have been easily well over $2000 at the dealer. This was a scheduled maintenance!!We're not even talking emergency repairs and towing (you should have AAA Premium or something equivalent).

3) With what little money you'll have left after the above, there's still the $3.18 (that's what it is running around here now) a gallon premium gas to figure in.

When you are older and have more finances to work with you can get the newest Boxster you can afford.

Of course...I also believe in carpe diem! But I'd hate to see you get a "cheap" Boxster - they're that cheap for a reason. Or get one, fall in love, but have to sell it later because $$ is tight.

You certainly sound responsible and you're doing homework. Best of luck!

Melissa

 

plan on dishing out around $10k right away when your boxster engine blows.

 

bopxster engoine is about 5800 + labor 2 grand

 

....and there isn't.

but they are right...the insurance will KILL you at a young age, and you will not be making enough money to properly maintain the Porsche in all likelihood. That would not be a good situation for neither you NOR the car. Miata or maybe a used RX8 might be a better option for now.

Hey...you can always sock some money away toward buying a Boxster or Caymen a few years down the road. I waited about 30 years to be in the position to get a Porsche in my garage, and I'll bet there are quite a few more guys here that can claim a similar dedication to the quest.

 

97s and 98's aren't prone to that. Only that run of 99's. Please make sure to specify that or you're gonna scare a lot more folks away from these fine cars instead of just away from that one bad batch.

Melissa

 

i believe the bad batch included late 98's into the 99's..

 

If i really wanted to I could afford the boxster now, and even manage to keep enough money away to pay for the repairs, but this would put me in a tough situation. I'm a senior in high school right now, working at a 5 star restaurant, and pulling a full years worth of college courses. AKA i'd like to have a little money hanging around to party with, and not have a high maintanence car to put more stress on myself with. I'm not at all doubtful that I will bedriving a porsche before I'm 30, among other cars. Until then I can wait, it just gives me something else to look forward to, another thing to motivate me. Thanks alot for the replies folks.

 

You should look up several documents:

1.) Buying a 986 boxster, edited by Mike fokke
2.) 986 FAQ
3.) Thread here on engine failure. Three problems existed, most across the 97-99 range (all 2.5s), one continuing to '02 or '03:

3.1) Porous block (mostly 97 and 98)
3.2) Sleeved motors with manufacturing defect in sleeve insertion (mostly 98 and 99)
3.3) intermediate shaft (improved in 03 or 04, still weaker than it should be)

RMS is, IMNSHO, a red herring. So it may leak a little oil. Darn.

Oddly, the more miles, the lowe rthe chance of a problem.

I do NOt believe you get what you pay for. A well maintained older car can be a good value, btu yes, count on spending $1000/year on any older car, above and boyond catastrophic failures. brakes, miscellaneous breakage, tune ups.

Learn to work on them yourself. Get bentley immediately.

Treat it well. Drive easy when the motor is cold. Change the oil and tranny oil.Use mobil1 or equ.

Grant

 

Thank you for everyone's input on this topic, I am also new to Rennlist and read most comments made on this engine failure issue but I am not sure where I stand still...

I own a 1998 Boxster and enjoying every minute of it! Of course, I had to spend $ here and there as my baby is approaching 13 years of age. Anyway, I recently asked my Porsche Mechanic if it was time to let her go and maybe get a newer one. He told me that the engine on this model was sooner or later going to fail... He quoted me something like $14K to replace it when it will happen. Yes, he is not even telling that it might happen, no, he is pretty certain it will happen. Well, as Boxster Gurus on this Board, I would love to receive your opinion. I have a hard time to let her go, she is such a beauty and so fun to drive.....

Could it be that mine will be fine since he has passed the 32K mile mark? (it currenlty has 106K miles, I drive it everyday!)

 

Driving the car frequently and giving it proper servicing and with a bit of luck I think you'll be ok. No promises but not every Boxster with high miles blows up.

Thankfully, my 02 Boxster doesn't need a new engine but out of curiosity I asked about a factory engine and a Porsche dealer tech quoted roughly $10K for a factory sourced engine and a day's labor ($150/hour, 8 hours?) remove the old engine then install the new engine. But there will be almost certainly additional costs since I would use that opportunity to have other items taken care of like the clutch and so on. But I'm not going to worry about this until the time comes if it ever comes. The 02 Boxster I'm talking about has over 241K miles on its original engine (and clutch) so your car at just 106K miles is hardly broken in.

Relax and enjoy your car.

Sincerely,

Macster.