Hey all, another newbie here searching for his first 986. I'm a grad student looking for a fun driver (I bike nearly everywhere at the moment, so I won't be relying on the Boxster for much other than fun weekend car for wine tasting in the valley, driving downtown, etc). I took a look at a couple cars in the LA area over the weekend, and one in particular stood out to me as an interesting case that I wanted to get a bit of input on.
It's a '97 Tiptronic, 75k mile, 3 owner weekend car. Matte gray vinyl exterior (which looked better in person that I thought it would, to be honest) over Arctic Silver base paint with 19" black BBS Staggered rims. Seller is asking $9000 for it at the moment. However, the problem is that I never got to drive it! As he was pulling the car out of the garage I noticed the back right tire was flat. Unfortunately, both rear tires were worn down almost completely to the point where they would be unsafe to drive on, hence the flat. Front and rear brake pads looked a bit worn too (around 50%). Plastic window has a slash in it that needs to be replaced. No maintenance history to speak of, though seller mentioned that he recently took it to a local indy porsche shop for an oil change (at 3k miles).
All of these threw a few red flags for me. It is highly optioned, however. Interior is in good condition, exterior is well cared for, and seller has both keys, manuals, and all the other little goodies. He just doesn't seem like much of a car person/mechanically inclined, so naturally I'm worried about mechanical gremlins that have gone unchecked (suspension, pads/rotors, water pump, RMS, etc) as there's no way to confirm if it has had the scheduled maintenance. Is it worth biting, or at least scheduling a PPI? Seller said he would be replacing both rear tires this week and invited me out again to look this weekend.
How helpful would a PPI be in this situation, given that I have no idea of past maintenance? Is there anything else in particular that you would suggest I ask if I decide to go back to test drive it? Anything that jumps out at you immediately as a problem area on these cars that should be checked that I might have missed?
A couple pictures for your enjoyment:
