What's high miles for an 01 Boxster S?

[turbo23dog]

I have a passing interest in a 2001 Boxster "S" that has some good options with 66K miles on the odometer. The car shows no signs of wear and tear at all, leading me to think that the car was pretty much pampered for most of its life. I drove it and it ran great with lots of ooomph and excellent stopping power.

What's going to go wrong on an 01 Boxster S with that many miles? I already thinking about the clutch, but what else?

Thanks,
Rich in NOVA

[KevinH1990]

I was looking at upgrading to an S for a while but decided against it. I found this car in Virginia Beach: http://norfolk.craigslist.org/car/405286069.html

Seems like a fair price for the mileage, and if you don't want a hard top you could sell it to recoup some of your cost. I don't think there are too many significant differences between a 00 and and 01.

[RandallNeighbour]

The average mileage per year for a Porsche is about 7,500 miles.

[turbo23dog]

I'm leaning toward buying this car. I'm trying to work out arrangements for a PPI this morning.

I've come to the conclusion that 66K miles might be a bit more useage than some might expect but its probably a good sign. If something major was going to go wrong with a drivetrain component, it would have happened by now.

[Sboxin]

Do you have a complete history on the car?

I found (by personal experience) that the documented service and accident
history is more important than anything else. And don't trust CarFax for accident history, they are not always correct because of the method they use to collect data (voluntary by insurance company).

The service history can be obtained, but sometimes is difficult because of PCNA's
system. If you are buying from a dealer this should be an easier process to get the history.

Good luck,

Ed

[RandallNeighbour]

Turbo, get a 4 wheel laser alignment in addition to the standard Porsche PPI list of things to check. It will tell you instantly if the car has been wrecked and there is frame or subframe damage that has not been corrected.

I sure wish I had done this before I bought my boxster. I'd have walked away if I had known it had subframe damage. And it only faded to the right a little... nothing noticeable until I got new tires and had it aligned. Then I was told it could not be brought into alignment because it had been wrecked.

After replacing a bent strut on the back and having the front end tweaked on a frame straightening machine, I was wishing I had been far more careful in the car I chose.

Today I realize that I just bought a trashed car, but dang, it looked good when I picked it up and it passed the PPI just fine.

The car you're looking at is probably just fine, but why risk it when you could throw another $75 bucks at it for peace of mind? It probably needs to be done anyway to insure even tire wear.

[turbo23dog]

Guys,

The deal fell through at the 11th hour due to discovery of leaking rear main engine seal. It may not be a big deal to some, but it was a deal killer for me as I didn't want to buy something that needed work.

Thanks for your input and the search continues.

Rich

[Wonko The Sane]

Turbo,

I can understand you letting this one slide because of RMS.. Just remember that RMS is a design flaw, and not indicative of a higher-milage box. For example, my box had 103k on it, and I'd have NO qualms about jumping in it for a trip to california (I'm in PA). The RMS can happen to any of the engines at any time.

[turbo23dog]

I'd heard comments here and elsewhere that the RMS problem was blown out of proportion. Af first, I thought, yeah right, more of these cars have leaky RMS than don't. In the end, I figured it was just my luck that the one I set my mind on had the problem. It was a real let down. Now I'm just glad I found out about this before buying the car, not after.

It was a really clean (inside and out) 01 S in guards red/savannah with 18" sport design wheels, litronics, heated memory seats and windstop. It did have the base stereo which I'd planned to upgrade with aftermarket anyway.

Please look me up if anyone knows of one like this for sale.