[RandallNeighbour]

Fastback, I do not mean to throw water on your fire, but if I were you, I would you pass on this car. Not because of anything you've written, but for what you have not written and the PPI will probably not show... what this car will cost you in repairs in the next two years.

The suspension is worn on this car with 95k on it. Unless the PO replaced the struts and all 9 control arms and wheel bearings, you will spend at least a grand or two in the next two years on one or more of these things.

The emissions and engine management sensors are probably the culprit for the idle issues. A mass air fuel sensor is a couple of hundred bucks, and then there's the four oxygen sensors that should have been replaced on a car with this many miles on it and they're $550 for a set if you install them yourself (easy to do, but not cheap!)

There's also a long laundry list of other things with the cooling system and the top mechanism that will hit you on a car with nearly 100k on it.

Here's the deal. In this crappy economy, you will find pristine Boxster S models in the 2003 or up model year (which is the only 986 I would ever buy) for just a little more money and they will have very low mileage on them (25k or so).

Don't be foolish like me. I bought a high mileage boxster on it for $15k and I have put another $15k repairing the car and fixing it up to look newer. Had I waited a year, I could have bought a much newer S model with the larger engine and far fewer miles and I would have been so much happier with myself and my car.

If you throw caution to the wind and buy this car, I would not pay a dime over $10k for it because you will certainly put another couple of grand into the car in the first year or two of ownership if not far more money. I don't care what the blue book value is, that's all the car would be worth to me considering what I know I'd have to do to it to keep it on the road running the right way.