Potential newbie to Boxster ownership, help!!

[coopedup]

Hi all,
Please forgive me as I am sure this has been done many times but I am after any advice I can get on buying a second hand Boxster.
My budget is only up to 8k but I have never considered one before and at the ripe old age of 46 I have decided to test the waters.
I have had decently quick cars in the past (Tvr 400se) but I am completely in the dark when it comes to boxsters.
I understand that it will be at lease 10 years old but I only do about 4k a year so.............
What are the major pitfalls I need to look out for, ie big services?
Having been abroad I have no no claims bonus and am currently paying 330 fully comp on a Mini Cooper, I assume this will go through the roof, are there any good specialist insurance companies that can be recommended?
I live in Woking in Surrey, can anybody recommend any good dealers in this area?
Along with a mountain of other questions, but not wanting to bore you all straight away, it goes without saying that any good advice would be really appreciated
Many thanks in advance
Simon

Sorry, forgot to say it has to be a manual...

Edited by coopedup on Wednesday 19th February 17:32

[edc]

Have a look at boxa.net

I am often between Woking and Frimley and would be happy to show you round my Boxster.

[edc]

If you want a local Porsche specialist then Eporsch, cridfords or GT One.

[Magic919]

911 Virgin have one in stock.

[coopedup]

Many thanks for the replies and edc I would love to check your car out, please e mail me when you have time, that would be great. Am I looking at a massive difference between the 2.7 and 3.2?
Are there any extras that are considered a must have?
As said before I am looking to keep the car for a few years so any weak points would be greatly appreciated to know before I take the leap of faith....
Simon

Ps. I will check out the recommended places, thanks for your help

[mrdemon]

tyres are 1k
major service 1.2k

at OPC

being a cheap car does not mean it's cheap to run.

nice 987's start at 12k so I would aim for that to spend on one.

any less than 12k I would look at the Honda S2000.

[edc]

Major service is 395 at an OPC. Top price tyres for 18s is circa 900.

[matjk]

Well my tyres have never cost anywhere near that (bridgestone N Rated) maybe £600
Big Service is about £300 from a decent specialist
Whats wrong with a 986, good car, mine has been with minimal costs over the years, I have a 2.7, insurance is not bad, plenty quick enough for UK roads, if he wants a Porsche a Honda is not going to be a substitute (even if it is a great car). There's always the worries with the engines, but any car might blow up, crash, get stolen or washed out to sea, that's life!! I think a good 986 thats been looked after and serviced regularly represents great value for money. So there !!!

[billzeebub]

matjk said:

Well my tyres have never cost anywhere near that (bridgestone N Rated) maybe £600
Big Service is about £300 from a decent specialist
Whats wrong with a 986, good car, mine has been with minimal costs over the years, I have a 2.7, insurance is not bad, plenty quick enough for UK roads, if he wants a Porsche a Honda is not going to be a substitute (even if it is a great car). There's always the worries with the engines, but any car might blow up, crash, get stolen or washed out to sea, that's life!! I think a good 986 thats been looked after and serviced regularly represents great value for money. So there !!!

Agree, totally love my recently purchased 2000MY Box S, 57k miles cost me £6700, 2 previous owners & FPSH (10 stamps). I've done 2000 stonking miles in it since purchase (inc 800 mile roadtrip)..It's booked in at OPC next week for Minor Service, Air Con Service, Brake Fluid etc..my number plate going on too, price quoted £480..then next month it will get new rear Pirelli PZero Rosso 'Ns", quoted £320 for 2 fitted. Getting it fettled to perfection before spring/summer.

Although having said the above, I am also planning to get the precautionary Clutch/IMS combo done fairly soon, that will be over £1k anywhere...There are really good 986s knocking around for approx £7k leaving £1k of your budget for any fettling after you've driven it a while and gone through the 'shakedown' process..

Go for it, get a good un and you will absolutely love it

Edited by billzeebub on Thursday 20th February 04:14

[mrdemon]

edc said:

Major service is 395 at an OPC. Top price tyres for 18s is circa 900.

that prices misses off most things :-) esp spark plugs, brake fluid, AC etc.

not a fan of running/buying old cars, as people don't really change the shocks or bush's at 60k miles which imo is def needed on a sports car. also that that age ie pre 2005 you need to look at rads, steering racks etc etc

buy a poor car at 7k it could cost you 7k to get it back to being tight !!!

people say they will be ok regarding shocks etc, but drive a new car vs one which has done 70k miles !

Edited by mrdemon on Thursday 20th February 13:04

[coopedup]

Has anybody had dealings with either R & W in Iver or Alchemy Vehical Solutions in maidenhead? They both appear to have some fairly decent models, although when I pointed out to one of them that the Porsche logo was missing from the front they only agreed to replace it if I offer full asking price?!

[andymc]

The car at 911v should tick all the boxes, a well respected dealer

[Orangecurry]

Some weird 'advice' on this thread.

The OP want's a sub 8k Boxster, so we could try and help him?


OP you should do some research on the engines, and draw your own conclusions.

Buying from a recognised Porsche indie would be better than your two traders, so visiting 911Virgin would be a good idea.

But I'd go and look at a few (locally) to get some idea of what is for sale, as there are many to choose from - e.g. here's a couple of private for-sales that I would go and look at

http://www2.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

http://www2.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Edited by Orangecurry on Thursday 20th February 11:28

[Orangecurry]

If on 18s, rear tyres (265/35) are 140-180 GBP, fronts are (225/40) 90-120 GBP, so absolute top priced tyres (Michelin PS2) are only 600.

17s will be cheaper.


Many people think the 2.7 is perfect in the 986, rather than the 3.2, but as I said you need to spend some time doing research on the pros and cons - and although engine reliability is a much discussed subject, the percentage of failures is what you need to consider.

[Orangecurry]

coopedup said:

Has anybody had dealings with either R & W in Iver or Alchemy Vehical Solutions in maidenhead? They both appear to have some fairly decent models, although when I pointed out to one of them that the Porsche logo was missing from the front they only agreed to replace it if I offer full asking price?!

That attitude would have me running away, terribly fast.

[RichB]

mrdemon said:

edc said:

Major service is 395 at an OPC..

that prices misses off most things :-) esp spark plugs, brake fluid, AC etc.

Indeed, had the 4 x year service done on my 987 and was very surprised to hear that the OPC price for a service doesn't include the things you'd expect to be done at a service It was double the price shown on the web-site after adding in plugs, brake fluid, A/C recharge etc. More like £1,000

[Ozzie Osmond]

mrdemon said:

being a cheap car does not mean it's cheap to run.

I think that's sound advice. A car which is costly to run when new will not miraculously become cheap to run as it gets older.

One rough rule of thumb is to budget 5% of the original dealer price of a car every year for maintenance. If you're luck you'll come away with change - if you're not lucky at least you won't have been caught by a nasty surprise. i.e. £40,000 car = £2,000 p.a.

[coopedup]

Went to view one today at a garage in Iver, just might have mentioned their name before. Even though having been owned by a Rev no less the bs that fell out of the guys mouth was unreal. Boot covered in mould, oh that's just a leaking overflow pipe, no they only need servicing every 2 years or 20,000 miles, dreadful noise on start up, oh that happens with them all, just a glitch with the starter motor.........I ran away as fast as I could, the search goes on having been contradicted at everything that I said and knew to be correct!!

[RichB]

coopedup said:

...they only need servicing every 2 years or 20,000 miles...

That's certainly correct for my 987 Gen II

[edc]

mrdemon said:

edc said:

Major service is 395 at an OPC. Top price tyres for 18s is circa 900.

that prices misses off most things :-) esp spark plugs, brake fluid, AC etc.

not a fan of running/buying old cars, as people don't really change the shocks or bush's at 60k miles which imo is def needed on a sports car. also that that age ie pre 2005 you need to look at rads, steering racks etc etc

buy a poor car at 7k it could cost you 7k to get it back to being tight !!!

people say they will be ok regarding shocks etc, but drive a new car vs one which has done 70k miles !

Edited by mrdemon on Thursday 20th February 13:04

You're right but that is the service pricing and most indys price the same way. If you want brake fluid with a service then it is only £75 at an OPC.

Its when you want extras done that the OPC pricing really doesn't stack up http://www.porschehost.com/fixedpricemaintenance.a...

I also agree that the suspension is past its best at 60k. Not just the dampers but all the arms/bushes as well. I bought my first one at 58k and for its age and mileage it was a good condition car, but I spent good money changing parts, some would say unnecessarily. I went the whole hog and fitted brand new M030 and new arms all round. My current one is 105k and getting the same sort of treatment plus a bit more. I prefer to buy cheap with my eyes open and spend money, not so much fixing it as it isn't broken as such, but making it almost like new.

£7k is a pretty inflated number though. You would have to buy a major lemon with hidden problems and all the wearable and consumable parts shot to get to that sort of number. I've listed most of what I have bought and had done in my profile and it doesn't come to half of that.