POLL - Who is ON a warranty and who is OFF Warranty (risking it all)

[986FortyEight]

'98 Boxster 2.5 with 125,000 miles. Was my daily driver until last month. Now it's my fun car only.
Slight RMS leak and saving for a clutch-kit / lightweight flywheel before taking the tranny out.
No warranty. I do my work but have a great local indy in case of more complex work.
If the engine goes I will upgrade. The car is paid off and at this point it's all about upgrading and making it the best racing car I can afford! I am looking at what Raby does and I am very interested...

[brp987]

no warranty and did my own ppi.

'01S @30k mi. 5k mi were mine. Weekend touring car. Had to put on a rear wheel bearing, otherwise no probs. The rest of the car would have to be in very good condition to justify the cost of a swap. I've built air cooled 6's and would do some of the work on the box if it came to that.

[rick3000]

When I bought the car two years ago the dealer offered me a 3y/36k mile warranty on my '99 Boxster with 17k miles. I got the warranty for $3k. Initially it was worth it because the previous owner had let the car sit and the warranty covered the $1k vacuum leak and bent engine plate.
But lately the warranty has not been used, and the Boxster has been very reliable. When the warranty is up I will probably just put $3k in a saving account or CD for any future repairs, unless I can find something like a 10k/100k engine only warranty for about the same price.

[eVoMotion]

02S - 2nd owner. 35K miles. Bought from dealer with Porsche Certified Warranty for 2years.

So far I have paid for:
Passenger wheel bearing - $700
Coolant leak around the base of the bottle - $279

now it sounds like the driver's rear is making noise - another $700.

Warranty coverage to date - $0.00

[23109VC]

Originally Posted by eVoMotion

02S - 2nd owner. 35K miles. Bought from dealer with Porsche Certified Warranty for 2years.

So far I have paid for:
Passenger wheel bearing - $700
Coolant leak around the base of the bottle - $279

now it sounds like the driver's rear is making noise - another $700.

Warranty coverage to date - $0.00

that's one of the downsides to the certified warranty - it's NOT a bumper to bumper "everything is covered" warranty - some of these little items they won't pay for - so you do get coverage for the big ticket items - but on these cars it's the little stuff that nickel and dimes you to death.

i've been lucky so far. in 6 months of ownership i've "only" had two vacuum leaks and now a water pump leaking. each vacuum leak was about $200 in parts/labor to fix. the water pump is close to $600-700 at the independent....

i figure i'll eventually need a clutch... i'm at 75k miles. but my car is a weekend toy.

if/when I lose the motor - i'll decide if I want to keep the car long term or not. If I do - i'd likely do a 3.4 swap. as the car is a third/toy car - i could take my time until I felt comfortable blowing the funds on the motor swap.

you have to admit - it would be a real blast to have a 3.4L powerplant in this car.

the one thing i would consider is how much I culd sell the car for in it's damaged condition. then look at the cost of newer boxsters. given the recession, poor reslae, you might be able to find a newer 986S or 987S for a price that wouldn't be THAT much more than the cost of an $$ swap. ??? it would be MORE for the car, but how MUCH more? given that you'd be getting a newer car that will have all the other items newer - electrical, suspension, brakes, transmission, etc et cetc... you might be smarte to just get a newer boxster, sell the broken one, and eat any "loss"...

[Blue-S]

Mine is a 2000 "S" 6-speed with 65K miles and no warranty. I purchased it in January 2009 as a weekend/fun car. I do all my own maintenance, diagnosis and repairs.

Shortly after purchase, I installed a Pedro's front engine mount to replace the broken original. Just last Friday I replaced the leaking one-year-old Laso (German) water pump with a Porsche part from Sunset. Next up is a new Sachs stock clutch, Mobil synth trans fluid, IMS bearing check, maybe a RMS and an AOS replacement. If the engine were to suffer an internal failure, I would probably swap in a 3.4L as it would be fairly simple to do so.

I couldn't afford this car if I were paying someone else to fix it!