986 Boxsters - Issues with higher mileage?
Discussion
Hi All,
So I'm looking into getting a 986 Boxster - I'm not going to discuss IMS or RMS here as it's been done to death and I've done my reading, but I'm asking about other issues, particularly with higher mileaged cars.
My budget is around £6-6.5k, and most cars around this age have 90-100k ish miles. Asside from usual wear and tear: tyres, brakes, etc, what else potential bills will be coming up? How long do clutches tend to last? I guess by that age / mileage most cars will be on a replacement hood by then.
High mileage doesn't put me off running a car, but it will be a daily driver so just want to know what to consider. I'm looking at 2.7's mainly, as the 3.2s is quite a bit more on insurance and parts, not to mention fuel also.
Although if I see a decent deal on an 'S I'd probably get it anyway
Cheers.
So I'm looking into getting a 986 Boxster - I'm not going to discuss IMS or RMS here as it's been done to death and I've done my reading, but I'm asking about other issues, particularly with higher mileaged cars.
My budget is around £6-6.5k, and most cars around this age have 90-100k ish miles. Asside from usual wear and tear: tyres, brakes, etc, what else potential bills will be coming up? How long do clutches tend to last? I guess by that age / mileage most cars will be on a replacement hood by then.
High mileage doesn't put me off running a car, but it will be a daily driver so just want to know what to consider. I'm looking at 2.7's mainly, as the 3.2s is quite a bit more on insurance and parts, not to mention fuel also.
Although if I see a decent deal on an 'S I'd probably get it anyway
Cheers.
My facelift 2.7 is on 126k miles and the original hood is still fine - glass window, obviously, and it's been garaged, which may help, but it's been up and down plenty.
It's also on its 3rd clutch and I suspect it'll have another before long. They don't need replacing until they slip, but because you do the RMS at the same time and they feel much nicer when new, it's an easy decision to get them replaced. £600-650 from a good indie including RMS.
Plenty of other stuff isn't specific to higher mileage cars, such as rotten radiators and condensors, that sort of thing. Don't let high mileage put you off but do look for a stack of bills to see what's been replaced already.
It's also on its 3rd clutch and I suspect it'll have another before long. They don't need replacing until they slip, but because you do the RMS at the same time and they feel much nicer when new, it's an easy decision to get them replaced. £600-650 from a good indie including RMS.
Plenty of other stuff isn't specific to higher mileage cars, such as rotten radiators and condensors, that sort of thing. Don't let high mileage put you off but do look for a stack of bills to see what's been replaced already.
Thanks for all the advice guys, also:
xmrichar said:
If you like the 2.7 go for it, but if still tempted by an S shop around more on insurance - it only added 10% for me, not 30!
I'm 25, so 30% on a £900 policy is a lot, especially with the other increased costs, but as I said, I'm not totally ruling them out, but they didn't come in yellow.. and I really want a yellow one anonymous said:
[redacted]
2.5 is actually more expensive to insure - go figure?Riknos said:
2.5 is actually more expensive to insure - go figure?
HiIf you are 25 and consider 30% on a £900 policy a substantial amount of money, I would strongly advise you against buying any Porche.
Yes if you can save 30% on insurance go for it but this is peanuts compared to what you may face in terms of maintenace/parts/servcing.
Even though you can pick a Boxster up for less than 5k, you have to remember these were circa 40k cars amd stil require looking after.
When Mr X paid 40k for his Boxster in 1997 and his service bill was 1k, it's ok, Its a 40k car.
When Mr Y paid 5k for his Boxster in 2012 and his service bill is 1k it does not sound so good.
If anything the bills are going to be higher now as the car is older/more parts are worn/labour costs are significantly higher than they were when the car was knew.
When I goy my 911 996 last year the previous owner spent 9k in the previous 12 months on servicing and maintainence alone.
Give it some serious thought!
TROOPER88 said:
If anything the bills are going to be higher now as the car is older/more parts are worn/labour costs are significantly higher than they were when the car was knew.
I'm certainly paying a lot less than OPC labour rates, and look at cmoose's link for clutches - so don't be too hasty in saying costs are higher when it's older.Jobbo said:
I'm certainly paying a lot less than OPC labour rates, and look at cmoose's link for clutches - so don't be too hasty in saying costs are higher when it's older.
An older car is going to require a lot more 'maintenance' jobs than a new car. I did not mean that this work had to be completed by an OPC.
Going back to my example above, the money that was spent on my car was all through an Indy and still came to many, many thousands.
Take the radiators as an example, they are known as a weak area just due to their location. To do both at an indy your probably looking at circa £700. A lot, lot more than a rad on a more run of the mill car.
TROOPER88 said:
Jobbo said:
I'm certainly paying a lot less than OPC labour rates, and look at cmoose's link for clutches - so don't be too hasty in saying costs are higher when it's older.
An older car is going to require a lot more 'maintenance' jobs than a new car. I did not mean that this work had to be completed by an OPC.
Going back to my example above, the money that was spent on my car was all through an Indy and still came to many, many thousands.
Take the radiators as an example, they are known as a weak area just due to their location. To do both at an indy your probably looking at circa £700. A lot, lot more than a rad on a more run of the mill car.
Yes, they're going to cost more than a Golf GTI to service but there's no mystery or magic to them; they're just cars, and while plenty of specialists charge a Porsche tax, some don't.
As for rads, my car (2003) has never had them and doesn't need them now. Look after the car by cleaning the crap out of them and it'll reward you in lower maintenance costs.
Jobbo said:
ou said labour was more than on a new car - but pretty much all new Porsches will be serviced by an OPC for a few years, so my point is that labour rates are in fact less. The cost of a replacement clutch and RMS at an indie on my car is pretty much the same as a fairly ordinary service at an OPC in the history, for instance.
Yes, they're going to cost more than a Golf GTI to service but there's no mystery or magic to them; they're just cars, and while plenty of specialists charge a Porsche tax, some don't.
As for rads, my car (2003) has never had them and doesn't need them now. Look after the car by cleaning the crap out of them and it'll reward you in lower maintenance costs.
You misunderstood what I meant.Yes, they're going to cost more than a Golf GTI to service but there's no mystery or magic to them; they're just cars, and while plenty of specialists charge a Porsche tax, some don't.
As for rads, my car (2003) has never had them and doesn't need them now. Look after the car by cleaning the crap out of them and it'll reward you in lower maintenance costs.
In 1997 the OPC hourly labour rate was probably around £70 an hour.
In 2012 the OPC hourly labour rate is more like £130 an hour.
Therefore the labour costs to service a car today is more expensive than it was in 1997, yet the new cost of the car may be very similar. A 1997 2.5 was 34k, today the basic Boxster is 37k; not a lot of difference yet the hourly labour rate would have got up percentage wise a lot, lot more.
BliarOut said:
Boxsters are a doddle to work on
A local place with a Hunter Hawkeye machine did my wheel alignment recently - the chap was very complimentary about the way Porsche had designed it to be so easy to adjust. Which therefore meant it was a pretty cheap (and highly accurate) 4 wheel alignment, at £75 inc VAT.Riknos said:
Hi All,
So I'm looking into getting a 986 Boxster - I'm not going to discuss IMS or RMS here as it's been done to death and I've done my reading, but I'm asking about other issues, particularly with higher mileaged cars.
My budget is around £6-6.5k, and most cars around this age have 90-100k ish miles. Asside from usual wear and tear: tyres, brakes, etc, what else potential bills will be coming up? How long do clutches tend to last? I guess by that age / mileage most cars will be on a replacement hood by then.
High mileage doesn't put me off running a car, but it will be a daily driver so just want to know what to consider. I'm looking at 2.7's mainly, as the 3.2s is quite a bit more on insurance and parts, not to mention fuel also.
Although if I see a decent deal on an 'S I'd probably get it anyway
Cheers.
Well, there's always the exception... So I'm looking into getting a 986 Boxster - I'm not going to discuss IMS or RMS here as it's been done to death and I've done my reading, but I'm asking about other issues, particularly with higher mileaged cars.
My budget is around £6-6.5k, and most cars around this age have 90-100k ish miles. Asside from usual wear and tear: tyres, brakes, etc, what else potential bills will be coming up? How long do clutches tend to last? I guess by that age / mileage most cars will be on a replacement hood by then.
High mileage doesn't put me off running a car, but it will be a daily driver so just want to know what to consider. I'm looking at 2.7's mainly, as the 3.2s is quite a bit more on insurance and parts, not to mention fuel also.
Although if I see a decent deal on an 'S I'd probably get it anyway
Cheers.
My 02 Boxster is on its original clutch and the car now has nearly 253K miles on it.
Original radiators, hoses, top (new rear window). Oh and original engine too.
Let's see... at around 78K miles the 1st (original) AOS went bad. At around 90K miles one or two (I forget now) O2 sensors needed to be replaced.
At under 100K miles the rear wheel bearing required replacement. I forget which side now. The other 3 are all original.
Before the water pump the 2nd AOS failed.
A MAF went bad in here somewhere.
2 more O2 sensors.
At 172K miles the water pump failed.
At 200K miles the fuel pump.
Either between the fuel pump or just after the coolant tank, the passenger side VarioCam solenoid/actuator failed.
At 220K miles the coolant tank split.
Other stuff: passenger side door lock assembly. Driver's side door latch. Driver's side window raise/lower hardware (wore out). Most recently the CV boots finally cracked and were replaced, after the CV bearings were cleaned/repacked with grease.
The Porsche techs who service/drive the car tell me though the car feels pretty good.
Engine still runs good and fuel consumption has remained constant. Oil consumption is up to around a a quart every 5K miles.. I change the oil/filter every 5K miles. But believe or not I drive the car a bit harder now than I did in the past. I have an 03 Turbo and when I get in the Boxster I miss the Turbo's get up and got and so give the poor old Boxster the whip.
Sincerely,
Rockster.
Thanks for the very descriptive post Rockster. Interesting about the clutch at that mileage, very impressive.
I'm looking at one this weekend from a dealer; 101k miles, it has had the rads replaced, a ball joint / track arm, full service history, been serviced at the same garage since 2006 (which is also where it's currently for sale) so they know all the history of it, so sounds like a good one.
I'm looking at one this weekend from a dealer; 101k miles, it has had the rads replaced, a ball joint / track arm, full service history, been serviced at the same garage since 2006 (which is also where it's currently for sale) so they know all the history of it, so sounds like a good one.
Jobbo said:
local place with a Hunter Hawkeye machine did my wheel alignment recently - the chap was very complimentary about the way Porsche had designed it to be so easy to adjust. Which therefore meant it was a pretty cheap (and highly accurate) 4 wheel alignment, at £75 inc VAT.
This is actually quite ironic, as it's not - camber changes affect toe big way and caster is non-adjustable - hardly features of the well designed and adjustable suspension 
Otherwise agre with cmoose - parts are expensive, including aftermarket ones (for instance check coiliover prices).
chris7676 said:
Jobbo said:
local place with a Hunter Hawkeye machine did my wheel alignment recently - the chap was very complimentary about the way Porsche had designed it to be so easy to adjust. Which therefore meant it was a pretty cheap (and highly accurate) 4 wheel alignment, at £75 inc VAT.
This is actually quite ironic, as it's not - camber changes affect toe big way and caster is non-adjustable - hardly features of the well designed and adjustable suspension Otherwise agre with cmoose - parts are expensive, including aftermarket ones (for instance check coiliover prices).
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