Oshin11

So I found a speed yellow boxster in my area that the person is holding for me. Here are the specs. 2000 boxster with 18000 miles on it. One owner, all service done at dealer minus oil changes done by the owner. The inter seats look just a bit beat up for only 18K miles which is the only thing that seemed weird to me. Other than that it needs new tires and has just a 3 millimeter paint chip on it. The engine seems to be sound (only 18K on it). Looks gorgeous, nice paint minus the chip, and seems like it would be a lot more stable than my 87 911 as far as money dumping goes haha. He is asking 18000 USD for it, and says blue book is about 20K. He is taking 2K off for the paint chip and tires. Obviously I would have to get a PPI but it seemed like a good deal to me, especially the low miles. The seals didnt seem dried up but again PPI. All comments welcome

Art_Z

I've been looking for a Boxster as well, and it looks like you should be able to get an S for right around that price, especially out in Cali where there seems to be more Boxsters than anywhere.

there is a speed yellow S, NY, for $19k on petes boxster board. www.ppbb.com

Oshin11

Yea but that boxster has 60K miles on it. I am willing to pay the premium for a car that only has 18K miles on it.

Art_Z

Are the low mileage Boxsters having the same issues the low mileage 996s are? It seems the low mileage 996s are much more prone to engine failure than cars that were actually driven.

Oshin11

I have no idea, hopefully someone will chime in.

Turboflyer

If the mileage and seat wear dont look consistent check the last smog certificate to verify the speedometer has not been altered.

Ray S

Is the guy big? That might explain the seat wear.

Otherwise (if your PPI check out) it sounds like a very fair price.

Giacomo

When I moved to South America two years ago I was forced to sell my '01 S. It had over 65,000 miles on it back then and had only been driven 8 months of the year. I would have no concern about buying any well maintained 986/996 with that kind of mileage. You will actually catch many warranty items that will not come up on very low mileage cars. I had a rear wheel bearing replaced at 40,000 miles and some sensors at 30,000 miles. The higher mileage car will actually depreciate less quickly and if you ever intend to do any performance driving / DE event the S of that vintage is the only way to go...

Giacomo

Macster

the car might not have enough miles so that any inherent or latent problem has had time to surface and be dealt with under warranty.

Questions for you: If car after you buy it developers rear main seal leak and leaves you facing say $1500 bill to repair how would you feel?

If while on lift to have rear main seal replaced tech found crankshaft out of position and thus car required a $10,000 bill to have engine replaced how would you feel?

Or if engine suffered from an intermediate shaft bearing failure and required an engine rebuild or replacement (at around $10,000) how would you feel?

Has car has rear main seal and intermediate shaft o-ring/bolts 'fix' applied?

If so, then at that time was crankshaft checked for position and found to be well within spec?

Even if you are prepared to assume the not insignificant risk of the above I'd not pay a premium for low miles. As soon as you buy car and start driving it that premium will evaporate pretty quickly. Thus you absorb a majority of the depreciation of the car's value than the orignal owner absorbed.

After a while a low mileage used car is just a used car with low miles. Low miles while car still have some warranty is of some value. But a low mile car sans any warranty requires some consideration for the risks involved.

Sure, you could buy the car and drive it 100,000 miles and nothing bad happens.

But more than one buyer of a low mileage well maintained Boxster has suffered a very rude surprise when something horrible goes wrong and leave the owner facing a very big repair bill.

Sincerely

Macster.

Art_Z

the boxster will never be a collectible car, just way too many were made. I don't the risk of low miles being worth premium to pay for, given all the issues reported with these cars

Sputter

I'm with Macster. As a Garage Queen it might be preferrable to have low milage. As a car to be driven I prefer to see the miles (within reason). IMHO, 5k per year is a decent rate.

Oshin11

Thanks for the education, wow. I love RENNLIST! I think I'll stick with my 911 for a few more years haha.

993TTmike

Contact Todd Holyoak as he is currently selling a '98 Boxster converted to a 3.6L for $27K obo. You will not find a better deal than this anywhere. The engine is the 3.6L that he was running in his car prior to going with the 3.6L X51 Engine.

Good luck with your search

dennisafrompa

RMS leak is the most blown out of proportion issue with Boxsters.
They do not predict problems. They need not be taken care of until you need clutch work or need to remove the trans for some other reason.
My son's '99 had an RMS leak for many years and miles with no issues other than afew oil spots on the drive...now IF you have one of those fancy block driveways well there's the rub.