[san rensho]

I hope I don't jinx it, but three weeks after buying a 2000 2.7 5 spd, I think I did okay. During the test drive, the car drove absolutely perfectly. The motor revved eagerly, the gears were perfect, the clutch had just the slightest bit of catchiness below 1000 RPMs, but was perfectly smooth at higher RPMs. The steering was tight and the car tracked perfectly straight. Red exterior, black interior which I would say are 8-9 each on a scale of 10. New Bridgestones all-around with less than 2000 miles, new top with a glass window, and new brakes and rotors.

The maintenance records were spotty, but all of the work had been done at various dealers, including regular brake fluid and gearbox oil changes.

So far so good, but I had done some research on Boxsters before I went to purchase it, and of course came across all of the horror stories about spontaneous engine detonations due to IMS failures. When I checked out the car, I noticed there were just a couple of spots of oil on the seller's garage floor, which almost caused me to walk away. It's a high mileage car, 114,000 miles, but I figured if it had made it this far, then it must be pretty well sorted out by this point.

It was decision time. I had driven over three hours to go look at the car, and I would've walked away if I really thought there was something seriously wrong with it, so I decided to take a chance. We had agreed to a purchase price of $7,500 over the phone and the private seller held up her end of the bargain and I became the proud owner of a Boxster.

Once I got it home and up on jacks, I could see that there was absolutely no oil leaking from the flywheel area. What a relief. It looks like there is the slightest amount of oil weeping from the valve covers, but that's about it.

I love this car, knock on wood!