I've had my 2001 Boxster for about a year and a half now. I bought it 5 years old, but with only 11,000 miles on it. The car had NO visible wear & tear inside, but lots of little dots on the front bumper & mirrors, some on the hood, and specks on the windshield. This is consistent with a lot of highway use, but very little city use.
In the summer of 2006, I used it pretty much as a daily driver in the city. I was driving about 70-80kms a day, mainly highway speeds. In addition, my wife and I took a couple of longer road trips. I found that it was quite practical and enjoyable for this type of use, and I put about 9,000 miles on it by the late fall when I put it away for the winter. Only maintenance was an oil change at the end of the year which cost me about $100 for the oil & filter (did the swap myself)
In the summer of 2007, it was used very little as a daily driver as I had moved to a different city and my downtown parking was kind of sketchy. Almost all of the mileage was accumulated in one LONG road trip at the end of the summer, from Regina, SK to Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, up PCH1 to Monterey, San Francisco, then back through Reno, and Montana. Although this was a long road trip, we were getting in and out of the car quite frequently at times for photos, scenic views, coffee & washroom breaks, etc. In total I put about 6000 miles on the car this year, and costs incurred were oil & filter, air filters for a total of about $200 (doing the swap myself). In addition, my tires (which were new when I bought the car) finished part way through the trip and had to be replaced. The best bang for your tire buck seems to be the Bridgestone RE050A PP, at about $800/set in the US (about $1500-1600/set here in Canada!!!).
So, in total I spent about $1100 in maintenance over 15,000 miles. Brake pads have lots of life left, but I should flush the fluid this spring, so should actually add another $150 parts & labour to the total. Overall, less than $0.10/mile doesn't seem too bad for a car of this type.
What I have found, however, is that the car's finishes are not that resistant to the wear & tear of every day driving. Much of the matte black painted finish (such as on the consoles, door sills, etc) is very easily scratched and is showing lots of wear for a car with only 43,000kms. The seats, especially the driver's side bolster, are also showing a lot of wear. I have the tan interior, and despite regular cleaning the seats are getting wrinkles/cracks in the leather that show up darker colour.
All of this wear has been under my ownership.... but I have had many cars, including convertibles, many cars with leather interiors... and I have never seen this kind of wear before. My 944's interior showed less wear after 200,000kms! My Lexus IS300, which I just sold this summer with 70,000kms and saw much the same use as the Boxster, had a pretty immaculate interior.
In addition to the interior, the exterior of the car seems to also lack resistance to scratching. My car is Lapis Blue, and the exterior seems to pick up rock chips, as well as scratches, quite easily. The scratching seems to be consistent with other dark-coloured cars I've owned, but the rock chipping is (to me) excessive. The windshield is so badly pitted (all very miniscule) that I'm considering replacement (getting tough to see through the glare when the sun hits it just right). I've never seen a windshield get so rough so quickly, either. Maybe I'm being picky, and most people wouldn't notice such things, but my observations are in comparison to other cars I've owned.
All that to say, I've LOVED every minute of driving my car over the last 18 months, and and wouldn't have any hesitation in using it as a DD... but you have to accept that it may wear faster than other cars, at least cosmetically.
Just my $0.02 Cdn, which is again worth a little less than American cents (or is it sense?)
