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Originally Posted by Vaportrail
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am proceeding to move from a 1976 914 to a Boxster. 914's had good years and bad years. What is the best year used Boxster to buy, what should I "steer away from", and possibly what issues/problems are common for each year. Any other information would greatly be appreciated!
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Vaportrail,
Two suggestions for you, having recently bought an MY02 Boxster S - hope they help you in your search, as I think I would probably have preferred an earlier or later car for different reasons...
My favourite thing about the MY01 (and before) is the layout of the dash, with the tacho having pride of place and the digital speedo appearing directly below the tacho in the same dial. For the track, or on any piece of road where you need to spend as much time looking at the road as possible, having both key instruments in the middle of the dash where they can be seen at a glance is most useful. For MY02 and later the trip computer display was placed in the middle of the tacho (even on cars where the trip computer was not optioned and you only see the odometer/trip meter), and the digital speedo made smaller and moved to the left to sit under the analog speedo. To me this was a step backwards in the layout of the instruments, and given the minimal other differences between MY01 and MY02 I would prefer the MY01 layout unless the MY02 actually has the trip computer as an option (which mine does not). I’m not sure when Porsche realised their mistake but the 987/997 cars have the speedo in the middle again.
On the other hand, if you plan on driving with the roof down fairly regularly (I only ever have the roof up if it’s raining or my wife has just been to the hairdresser…) the glass rear screen in the MY03 and beyond is a godsend. With the plastic screen in the earlier models (as per my MY02) I find myself needing to get out of the car at least every 2nd time the roof is opened to ensure that the screen folds correctly and I don’t risk cracking the plastic, which gets kinda annoying. I also managed to scratch the rear screen with the (plastic) buttons on my shirt sleeves, so I don’t think it’s the most durable of parts. The glass screen in MY03+ is a much better design and doesn’t have either of these issues, and I certainly underestimated the value of the glass roof when buying the earlier car..
The only other advice I can offer is that, in my opinion, an earlier ‘S’ is a better purchase than a later non-S. I ended up comparing a straight 987 (MY05) and an MY02 S, both available for roughly the same money, and I found the S to be a much better drive all round. Had the 987 been better optioned (esp sat-nav or heated seats, the latter of which are invaluable when driving on colder mornings with the top down) I might have been persuaded otherwise, but as it was I ended up buying the MY02 S.
Best of luck with the purchase.
James@fish