still don't get why Boxsters drop in value so fast

[986_inquiry]

This car gets tons of looks, tons of "nice car!", is a blast to drive, is fast (yes, even the 2.5 is fast), reasonable gas mileage (20mpg over last 10,000 miles with manual), two trunks offer more storage than most convertibles, yet it's worth about the same as a 1990 corvette or a 1990 944

No one would look twice at either of those cars, they're both much older, yet they're worth the same?

I just don't get it

Actually... I guess it's not just our Boxsters as this 1999 911 that sold for 13k and this 2003 (newer body, bigger engine) 911 that sold for 18k proves

so i guess it's not just us. Huh. Well, if this keeps up at least it means I can afford to be a Porsche owner for life

[Steve Tinker]

You are opening up a big can of worms with your question...

In the UK, you can pick up an early Boxster for less than 5,000 UK pounds ($US7,000) while here in Australia the cheapest (private) listing is a 1997 180,000 km Boxster @ $US19,000 + tax and the least expensive 996 Carrera is $US38,000 + tax.
So who's the lucky ones - certainly not us here in Oz.

I think the poor current world economy, the hundreds of thousands of Boxsters and 996 Carreras manufactured and (more significantly) the perceived unreliabilityof the M96/97 engines has to add to their fall from grace.
I'm not totally convinced though that the poor reliability is completely warranted, but when Porsche traded their reputation of (expensive) high build quality for cheaper mass production fiscal survival , they attracted a totally different buyer to the Porsche brand. The new purchasers wanted to buy into the badge and performance & expected Japanese reliability too - all without being saddled with the attached high Porsche running costs.
And as the used cars got cheaper, so did the second hand buyer. We have seen hundreds of threads from new owners bemoaning the fact that water pumps, rads, oil, servicing, etc, etc, costs so much for their sub $10,000 Porsche bargain.
As with many things, the initial cost of a Porsche is relatively easy to absorb, but the running costs are another issue altogether....
Add all these negatives together and you soon realise why the 986 / 996 cars are cheaper than their ealier counterparts - even though if you get a good one, they are a far better drive than their older relatives.

Just be thankfull that they are so cheap - the bargain of the century for many of us !!!

[Idaho Red Rocket 3]

Just today I said to my wife we are enjoying our $63K (new) car we purchased 10 years old for $14K with only 48K miles on it. We have enjoyed it so much the last year and a half it now has 70K miles on it. Still going strong.

[ekam]

Cars depreciate. Same reason why girls gets old, not that there's anything wrong with that.

[cbbepop]

I can't believe that 2003 sold for 18k LOL
The mileage is too high for me...yeah I know, a high mileage car, if well taken care, suggests its probably gonna go strong but to most ppl the mileage is something that really depreciates a car. Most layman will think its "over the hill"

[stephen wilson]

I think Boxster depreciation is quite normal. The rule of thumb I've always heard is that a new car halves in value every 5 years.

[Perfectlap]

Boxsters don't have it so bad when it comes to losing value. If you were following prices closely when the credit bubble finally exploded about 5 years ago and had the misfortune of owning a Carrera still under warranty in those days, taking a $30K-$40K bath in a single year was not at all uncommon. That's enough of a loss to buy a Boxster S outright. The Caymans and Boxsters didn't take nearly that badly a pounding because they weren't so over-priced beyond what the cash market was willing to pay once all the loans dissapeared for all but the best applicants

Today with a 991 Carrera S priced into the nosebleeds if we were to see a similar financial collapse repeated those buyers would take an even bigger bath. Think $60K in a single year. Porsche may think it's six figure car but those holding cash don't agree. They'd probably go for a Ferrari or Bentley and cross that off their bucket list before putting that kind of dough into a Porsche.

A second-hand Boxster is good value because its not priced that high into the sky to begin with. Granted you are still paying a huge premium over similar cars on laptimes from the U.S. and Japan. What the Boxsters have going against them is that it's an impractical car at a time that everyone and their sister wants a stupid SUV to bust up the roads and encourage people to drive fast (who don't know how) in cars not designed to do anything of the sort. At least the Carrera has the false appearance of having room for more than two passengers so it's not as problematic for someone who thinks their buying a Lotus Elise when they look at a Boxster. A girl once described my car as a "toy car". People have better things to do with their money these days largely because they don't have any.

p.s.
Regarding your comment about a second hand Boxster being "worth" as much as a 944. When I visit my Porsche mechanic I can be sure of usually seeing two things:
old tires against the back wall and a 944 needing work. What it costs to buy a Porsche is not what it costs to run a Porsche. Which makes the Boxster one of the best Porsche values you can buy on performance and reliability. Problem is Porsches are not the greatest values in the sports car market and its getting worse.

[papasmurf]

pretty much any early 90's porsche is a rare car as the 944 was being phased into the 968 (which didn't sell any better) and the 964 model 911 was expensive and receiving mixed reactions from the public. Boxsters are much more common than any of those cars so the market it somewhat saturated and the demand is low. Corvette's (for reasons I cannot fathom) have ridiculously high resale values I assume because it is one of the few american sports cars available besides the viper.
The build quality is poor, they squeak, rattle, and for being such large cars, have absolutely no interior room (C4's especially) but there is something about them that attracts buyers. I am not convinced the IMS issues have done as much damage to the resale value of the boxster as some think as most buyers really do not do much research when purchasing a car and the IMS issue is really only well known among enthusiasts and current owners.

[986_inquiry]

Originally Posted by papasmurf

pretty much any early 90's porsche is a rare car as the 944 was being phased into the 968 (which didn't sell any better) and the 964 model 911 was expensive and receiving mixed reactions from the public. Boxsters are much more common than any of those cars so the market it somewhat saturated and the demand is low. Corvette's (for reasons I cannot fathom) have ridiculously high resale values I assume because it is one of the few american sports cars available besides the viper.
The build quality is poor, they squeak, rattle, and for being such large cars, have absolutely no interior room (C4's especially) but there is something about them that attracts buyers. I am not convinced the IMS issues have done as much damage to the resale value of the boxster as some think as most buyers really do not do much research when purchasing a car and the IMS issue is really only well known among enthusiasts and current owners.

I agree, few people know about IMS unless they've done research.

I think the corvette high resale thing has to do with.... a different class of people. Children grow up wanting one of two vehicles: an exotic like lambo, ferrari, porsche, etc or american, which is basically the corvette for the past 50 years.

They get older and that carries over, so they see the used corvette car they dreamed about since high school now selling for less than the price of a new Focus and they run out and buy it, not realizing how ****************ty a car it really is since they're in dreamland and nothing can pull them out of it

I have a feeling if a poll was done a lot of people in southern states would probably want a corvette over a porsche, and on the east and west cost they would probably want a porsche over a corvette. It's a different cultural.

[Perfectlap]

sorry but the Corvette is NOT a ****************ty car. It is a fixture at every track and autocross event across the country. I don't think I've ever attended one such event where I didn't see at least a couple of them. In fact, I would venture to say that as a % of its owners, there are more Corvette owners who actually know how to drive their cars, as in they've received on track instruction, than there are Porsche owners who can say same.
When you go to the LeMans race in France the locals line up just to see it and its a proven winner in sports car racing. Also, It is a car with legit racing cred in BOTH sprint and endurance racing

[papasmurf]

are great cars for the money and are very competitive and track ready straight from the dealer and have an extensive and growing racing pedigree. The prior models like the original poster illustrated (C4) are not that great of cars and do not have the racing pedigree like the later models. Whether or not the owners know how to drive the car on a track is somewhat irrelevant to the original discussion but that may be the case. Most of the corvette owners I see are 50-60 year old men that do not seem to drive them that aggressively, but then the same could be said for most porsche owners.

[pothole]

The main answer is simple and comes in two parts:

1. They built a lot of Boxsters
2. The broad trend is towards fuel efficiency / low emissions

Number one is the most critical factor. Number two is less important in the US, hence values have held up slightly better there.

The end.

[peterbrown77]

I took a quick look at cars.com, and looked at a 2000 Carrera and a 2000 Boxster. MSRPs were, respectively, $71,000 and $41,400. Current retail $22,000 and $10,600. So the Carrera is selling for 31% of original list and the Boxster at 26% of original list. Carreras hold 15% better resale value. I guess that's for the cachet.

As Ezra Dyer wrote a few months ago in Automobile magazine, you can get a 12 year old high-end $70,000 car for Hyundai prices. Except when you go to get it serviced, it's still $70,000 car.

[Perfectlap]

^

Automobile magazine (Boxster cover) has an even better line that will definitely affect this resale question when it comes to convertible vs convertible:

Our loaded Boxster S still cost some $36K less than a comparably equipped 911 Cabriolet...the difference in performance between the 315 HP Boxster and the 350 HP Carrera is marginal and the cheaper car offers advantages...For a start, the engines make the same beautiful noise and combine telepathic throttle response with linear power delivery. Both cars can be mated to one of the best automatic gearboxes. The 911 doesnt' turn in quiet as rapidly as the Boxster, is trickier when you choose to deactivate all the electronic safety aids and not quiet as firmly planted in a straight line. In other words, the Boxster S is the more grown up, more complete car.

[san rensho]

Lets see, around 400,000 Boxsters made, so there is just a huge glut of these cars around. Its not rare, so value goes down.

If you think Boxsters depreciate, I bought an 11 year old Saab 9000, which sold for $43k new, for $3000. The car was in great shape, 8 out of 10, inside and out. 11 Year old Boxsters are worth $10k-14k, so they aren't holding up that poorly.