I am starting to get scared of having my engine blow on me ; ;. I have 77k on my 02 and dont want to risk losing $12k to replace and engine. Hell the replacement cost of the engine is almost as much as the car worth! I am planning on selling it when I get home from Iraq. It seems like every time the car is driven something needs to be fixed. If I knew as much as I did now I probably wouldnt have bought one. Yeah its a fun car and all, but I dont have the type of money to risk having it blown up. I guess I really didnt even have the money to buy it in the first place lol.

I have to admit that horror stories scare me too.....
And I don't think the car is particularily dependable considering how long these things have been made in one form or another. I've had to deal with a lot of silly little repairs in the 5000 miles I've had it, but..........

For what's I'ts worth I checked the Consumer Reports annual car issue and the data they use is gathered from MANY owners or all kinds of cars.
They say:
The '02 Boxster is a Used Cars "Good Choice" for cars in the $20k-24k range.
In overall rating they give top rank to the 2007 Boxster in the $40k and up Roadster class.
In their reliability survey they rank '02-'06 Boxsters Average or above, with the exception of '03 which they rate well below avarage. The '03 scored poorly in "major engine", cooling, electrical, and body integrity. The '02, '05 and '06 scored very well for "major engine" catagory.
Under the "Used Cars to Avoid" catagory they listed the '99 and '03 Boxster as well as the '03 911.

Overall, the Box is much better than the Nissan Z, the Corvette, any Mercedes product, and nearly anything built by the big 3 American manufacturers with the exception of the highly rated Ford Crown Vic (but I don't think they do too well on the track!!!!!!!).

So, pray often, maintain your Porsche and enjoy it while you can.

Bob

I always get nervous and scarred when this engine failure subject comes up. Even if you can afford to replace an engine , who wants to do that due to a failure ? I always enjoy driving my car, but still a little nervous about taking it on a long trip. I haven't developed that 'trust' factor yet.It seems to me from reading this forum that the engines over 100K are the exceptions rather than the other way. Of course proper maintennance is required with any car BUT in particular high preformance engines. Like BruceLee said "It's a crap shoot". Not very reassuring.

Sorry, I did not wanted to open the "Pandora Box", but people should be aware of the issue with the Boxster Engines... Here is the link from the other forum if you are interested in reading some of their engine failure issues...
http://forums.roadfly.com/forums/porsche/porsche_boxster/

I agree that the overall reliability is probably better than some of those marks you mentioned, but it is a lot cheaper to replace a Corvette engine than a Boxster engine. For $9000.00 it must be made out of gold. It is ridiculous that you can't get a short block from the factory for $3-4k or less.

All cars have their issues and manufacturers are not keen to share that information with the public.

That being said I try to make my decisions based on proper data analysis (consumer reports) vs. anecdotal information. And the data shows that Boxsters have an above average reliability rating (cold comfort if your engine goes). I sure hope I never suffer a catastrophic engine failure but it doesn't make a lot of sense to worry about it.

I gotta tell ya, I have a VERY HARD time buying the CR data but then I always did.

How many buyers of CR are driving Boxsters?

we'll never really know the answer to this issue but when I used to visit the vette forums, I never heard of anyone complaing about a blow motor or RMS. They do use a bit of oil but hey, that is not 12K cost.

CR will not use insignificant data. In some cases they leave a rating blank for some cars where they say "insufficient data". I would take CR data into consideration along with individual horor stories.

It is certainly true that $9K + is a lot for a short block. It's only a flat 6 cylinder. It amy be better than most for power and it's development, but $9K?????

It such a failure happened to me, I could NOT repair it. I'd just spend forever searching for a used engine or a wreck.

Bob

I wished mine lasted 100k miles. It had 22.5K before it died. Replaced it with a 3.4L and all is fine for now.

I gotta tell you, if I was Porsche and I had my engines blowing at 12K and 22K miles, I would be ashamed to show my face.

Get with the program guys, no engineers in Germany anymore?


:confused:

Important survey link
 

Based on the numerous horror stories that appeared in this thread, I have created a survey thread asking box owners who have suffered blown engines to post some details about their experience......especially what Porsche has done to accept responsibility for the engine failure and what recovery cost them. The link is at:

http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/16822-shortlived-boxster-engines-survey-post148368.html#post148368

Thanks for participating,
Bob

Most of the major problems I have ever heard about happened to weekend and summer Boxster's. I have heard of very few problems with DD Boxster's, including my own.

You also have to remember that people that have a problem, like an engine failure turn to the internet to look for answers. There are plenty of boxster owners who have never had a problem, and have never been on a 986forum. So any internet only survey will be slightly biassed.

Perhaps the problem is that letting your Boxster sit is bad for it, and you need to take it out and drive it! :D

The real reason for this survey will be to determine what the cost was to those owners with major engine failure and if Porsche made it right for them.

I'm not trying to determine what % of engines fail or anything like that...as you say, that would be biassed survey info. And perhaps you are right about the need to keep an engine active to keep it healthy.....but in the northern snow States, most of us prefer a more rugged and capable winter vehicle.

Almost pushing 120k here

I would be willing to bet that there aren't too many folks who "Porsche made it right for." My bet is that if you are out of warranty, you are SOOL.

Even under warranty, they DO look at your CPU readings etc. to see if MAYBE there may be an out.

IMHO! :)

Just based on anecdotal observations... Let me propose a theory:

If you have a Box that's made it to say, 75K miles, then there's no reason to assume it is at higher risk of catastrophic failure than an "average" car for the next 75K miles.

Thoughts?

Many cars from any manufacturer require a lot of repairs between 75k and 125K. Hoses, belts, clutches, water pumps, power steering pumps, CV joints, suspension components, brake components, etc.

Some say to never own a car between 75k and 125k.

+1000!!!! Let it sit or baby it, it will make you pay!

If you just looking at cost, and engine replacement averages about $9-12k. And I agree, Porsche has done very little to help people that have had engine failures.

I think I read something a while back, about a class action lawsuit against Porsche over this. They were trying to make Porsche responsible for out of warranty engine failures, but I don't recall the specifics of the suit. :cheers:

boxster engine
 

hello all,

I am at 180K on my 200 2.7.... daily driver...winter & summer... I change the oil every 5K... and go on the track a few times a year....

needless to say that I am extremely pleased about reliability of that car...

Michel.