[Unhappy]

I have a 02 Boxster I bought in Dec of 03 with 6k miles on it. As of 01-19-06 it has 28k miles on it. This car seems to be falling apart around me just as the warranty expired. The car is garage kept and I do tend to “baby” it to my wife’s dismay.

1st the plastic housing on the ebrake cracked and split in two (2 weeks out of warranty). I was going to replace the ebrake anyway because the leather has gotten funky & discolored. The dealer wanted close to $500 to replace, I found a nice one on eBay for $200. I am going to attempt the install myself any tips would be appreciated.

2nd the tether on the gas cap broke for no reason (4 weeks out of warranty). I have no idea how to fix this as it seems to be bolted to the fuel door lid.

3rd & most expensive, I put the top down on my way home from work yesterday ( as I do most days, I live in Florida and the top is down 75% of the time I am in it) and heard a dry crack. Sure enough that crappy plastic window finally cracked (5 weeks out of warranty). No matter how clean I kept it and I used some marine strength vinyl & plastic cleaner it still scratched & dried out. I am thinking about going with an aftermarket top with a glass window any recommendations will be appreciated.

Don’t let me forget to mention the paint. It is triple black (interior, exterior & top). The car is 4 years old with 28k miles on it and it looks like I commute to Stuttgart and back once a week. The front is riddled with pocks & chips. I finally bought a bra, I am not crazy about the way it looks but I’ll live with it.

And don’t get me started on taking it in for service. The closest dealers to me are about 50 miles away in Naples & Sarasota. Good luck getting an appointment in Naples if you are not bringing in a $100k car. Here is a story from my last trip to Sarasota. I brought the car in for its yearly maintenance ($750 thanks for nothing). Opened the trunk 2 days later only to discover someone had left an open half full jug of washer fluid in the trunk. I assume it was half full anyway because the rug was sopping wet and my books and gym bag were ruined. I tried contacting the manager and the service manager but never got return calls. I even sent them letters & mailed them the empty jug as proof and still haven’t heard squat. Is expecting an apology too much to ask for? It’s been 4 weeks now I don’t know what else to do.

I love this car. It was always a dream to own a rag-top but that dream is starting to sour. I owned a Lexus IS300 before this and never had a problem with the car and the service at Lexus is the best, they treat you like you just spent a million bucks in there every time you are there. I would have purchased a Lexus convertible but they are just too damned expensive.

Here is the question: Do I fix the top & sell it before I start having real problems under the hood? I don’t want to start dumping thousands of $$ into this car. I always thought Porsche was a prestige automaker, but I have found some things on my car to be really cheaply made and am becoming very dissatisfied.