Boxster vs. RX8

[CA_Boxster]

I just read some of the posts I didn't really look at earlier and noticed that it's your Dad's car you're talking about. You came to the wrong place to have someone convince you a Boxster is too much trouble and you should go for the Japanese pacticality

Here's the deal: as an owner of what would be considered a pretty atttractive MY 2000 base with 50k miles on it I'll tell you that if I were selling my car I'd expect around $18k and that's an informed estimate because I thought about that recently in determining if I'm keeping it for the long haul and need to plan for a 3-car future. If I were looking to spend $20-25k all in for another Boxster in my garage I'd be looking for a 2003-2005 base with 30k or less for mileage. Forget the warranty and spend the $4k on a car that's a couple years newer with fewer miles on it. If you're putting 5k/yr on your commuter what's the Boxster going to get? 5k? 8k? You'll have a warrantly to protect it in your garage for 36 months / 20,000 miles at that rate. Get a '04 with 30k miles and it's not going to break down in the next 20k miles. You'll still have to pay for the brake jobs, expensive tires, etc. either way. Warranties don't cover that. You'll find one before long if you keep your eye out and have the cash available.

My car is hitting some maintenance bills now simply because rubber seals and belts only last so many years. On a 8-9 year old car things like water pumps, engine mounts, cam cover seals, etc. start needing replacement. buy a newer car and delay that hit. I'd say either steal Dad's car and forego the warranty but get used to the idea that some of the money you saved is already "spent" for maintenance, or research the market for a few months and see how new a car you can get with low mileage for $20k so you don't need a warranty.

[Jacques79]

I bought a CPO 2000 Boxster S with 40 000 miles from a Porsche dealership in Virginia in November 2007 for only 22 000$.

The warranty is good for 2 years (November 2009) or 100 000 miles and covers engine, transmission-differential, electronic stuff and some suspension components.

I have already brought my car 5 times to Porsche and about 2500$ worth of parts-labor have been covered under warranty already. Plus when you buy a CPO car from Porsche they do a whole bunch of part replacements and maintenance.

I got unlucky with my car because it had quite a few problems though...I'm really glad I had a warranty!


If you wait until October when convertible prices go wayyyyyyy down, you can find yourself a 2001 Boxster S with a CPO extended Porsche warranty for the same price I paid mine last year.

[mikes_box]

Good luck with your decision. Both are great cars but the possibility of my boxster engine going at anytime worried me enough to sell the car, well so did the leaking RMS that was gonna cost me another 3k to repair with a new clutch. Plus a new engine for a boxster will cost you close to 15k which could actually buy you a new running boxster or for sakes a used rx-8. Since selling the car, I bought a Nismo 350z but wasn't too happy with it either. It was nice but the car is HEAVY that's why it needs all the HP. Plus as you said its kinda of racerish especially with the nismo exhaust. First day I got it some kid in a EVO tried to race. Ended up getting rid of that after 3 months. Missed the convertible so I looked at the s2000 but that 4 cylinder car was too noisy since you had to get in the higher rpm's to hit torque. I went ahead a bought a BMW Z3 with a 2.8L engine. Its a nice little convertible but it doesn't handle like the porsche but it actually has more torque at a lower rpm than the base boxsters. A suspension upgrade would help that. Have you ever looked into the "M" z3 coupe or roadsters? Those cars will eat the boxster and boxster "s" maybe even a base 911... The M's have 345hp. The BMW's seem to be a nice alternative to the boxster in terms of being a convertible and fun to drive as well as status and speed. Good Luck. Hoped that helped....