19 months and 60,000 hard earned miles later, my experiment is over. The old 986 now has 175,000 miles on it and has been completely reliable. I've replaced worn out suspension parts and accessories, but it has never actually broken down. It was only towed twice: once when it had a coolant leak, and only then because I was afraid of damaging something by driving it to the shop, and once when it was in a fender-bender, and it was still drivable, but I couldn't latch the trunk.
However, the tiptronic transmission has begun to slip and it has been determined it's on the way out. Because of the high miles, I've decided it's not a worthwhile idea to try to keep it on a job that puts close to 40,000 miles a year on a car. It by far outlasted any other used vehicle I've put on this job that requires so much traveling, often in challenging conditions.
Soon I'll try to sell it as a parts car or track project for someone.
I appreciate everyone following my exploits and commenting on them. It has been a blast!
(Note: I'm not out of the Boxster game, I'm still keeping my weekender which is like new... I love these cars).
I guess the below will be the equivalent of a movie montage!
