Who has the confidence to make a long....
 

trip in an older Boxster. I have a 2001 base with 40K miles and tend to do only short trips with it - either in the city or to the golf course. Latest problem is a burp of coolant fluid on the garage floor - will likely install a new reservoir cap this week. Fortunately when we go out of town we take the Camry and never give a thought to reliability.
Anybody feel like me?

I have a '98 base and I've taken several fairly long trips with her. Last summer I did a 2,000 mile loop through the midwest. This summer I have taken two trips from Ohio into New England. The Box had 15K on the odometer when I bought her four years ago and today she has 47K today. If she goes Tango Uniform on the road I plan to rent a car to get home, then take the pickup and a trailer to go get her. Meanwhile, I'm just going to enjoy topless motoring.

I bought mine in April, and have done a 400 mile day trip, a 1300 mile road trip, and another 2400 mile road trip. I carry a durametric, tools, and a few spare parts, because I don't trust it like I would a Japanese car. But I'm still going to DRIVE it ... I didn't buy it to look at.

No. I drove mine home from FL to MI without worry in April when I bought it. Since then I have driven it on several trips that were two to three hours one way. It's a 2000 with 59,000. Things will go wrong but I am confident in the car. I always look forward to getting it on the highway.

Since the rebuild I have total confidence and have a long trip through the PNW planned shortly.

I took a roadtrip to Wilkes-Barre area of PA from Waterloo, ON at the beginning of August. Had the GPS take us "shortest distance", so we drove primarily 2-lane roads on the way down. It was over 9 hours this way. No problems, roof down the entire drive down & back.

Oh, and the NASCAR race we went to see was great too...

No nervousness about the car, all maintenance is up to date. No point in being afraid something might break, otherwise, why own it? To leave it at home and take my bland boring Accord?

Mine, also a 2001 (65K miles), has taken me from Ohio to Massachusetts and, on several occasions, to NJ. And back, of course. :D

good touring car
 

My 2001s w/ 82k miles, from Philly to Birmingham when bought 14 mos ago, since then is vehicle of choice for trips from Bham to family homestead near Tallahassee (11 hrs round trip). Seats are comfy for me, like dropping top when weather permits and to keep me awake when tired, enjoy the handling, capability at speed helps avoid clusters of traffic with other unpredictable drivers. Was sold on this use when its handling & brakes let me dodge a late night deer that I am CERTAIN I would have hit if driving any of my other vehicles. Total on the road repairs so - one MAF the day I bought it. Fingers crossed, but I didn't buy it to practice waxing...

I love the waxing comment. I figure that if it is going to break, I might as well enjoy every second of driving before it happens. DOn't be a :chicken:, drive the car and enjoy it.

Drive it! If you sit and read forums, they are going to scare you. Most boxster owners never read any of this stuff, they are just out enjoying their car! I see all kinds of cars on the side of the road with the hood up. My sisters Honda just dumped its coolant and trashed the engine. Join AAA, and enjoy the ride! Keep it waxed though:D

My 2001 has 85 K on it. I go to Texas once a year with it, roughly 1800 mile round trip. Went to Myrtle Beach in Nov last year with it...another 2000 K trip. It gets tracked at least twice a year (more if I have the time) . It has never let me stranded. I wouldn't hesitate to take it anywhere, any time. It has been, without question, the most reliable car I've ever owned. :)

i live north of you. i'll take friday afternoon off and drive from hay river, northwest territories, to edmonton that afternoon (1100 kms). track day at stratotech the next day and drive home on sunday. before that i lived i ucluelet on vancouver island. 450 kms via mountain pass, ferry and rush hour traffic to mission raceway outside of vancouver and back on a weekend. that's why people race porsches more than ferraris - you can beat on them and they keep running.

1999 2k mile round trip every year. Car has 59k on it and the motor about 40k

Wow! A lot of you guys hardly drive your car!

Maybe I'm spoiled living in California where we drive a lot to get around, but I would expect a >12 year old Boxster to have 80k+ miles by now. Even that would be conservative.
I say drive it a lot ,get it serviced regularly , always be on the lookout for weird sounds and behaviors, but don't be afraid to redline it when possible and drive the car like it was intended.

From my experience with stored Porsches is that a majority of my problems arise when I start driving them after long periods of storage.

I have had it a year and a half now and drive year round with snow tires in the winter. I don't wax it and I don't baby it. I do one out of town trip a year. It is my DD

I will be leaving on Monday the 10th of September for a 6,000 mile "success tour" across the USA and Canada in a 99 Boxster test vehicle with a Flat 6 Innovations engine equipped with the IMS Solution. We are so confident in the engine and the IMS Solution that we aren't taking any spare parts or tools. The engine has lived through pure hell to include over 400 dyno runs in one week testing oils, idling for over 200 hours straight and hot lapping it on the track over and over again.

Here is the proposed route.. Heading to Edmonton AB Canada to instruct an M96 engine school, then heading back!
http://forums.aircooledtechnology.co...9&d=1345994380

when is that school - i would like to be there!

I have done at least ten 700+ mile road trips. My Boxster has never left me stranded, only one time did the engine ever die on me and it immediately restarted and drove 30 miles home, and then I had the clutch replaced. She is my DD, rain, shine, or blizzard.

I can't speak for everyone, but my Boxster is very reliable, completely stock with the original engine, IMS, RMS.

This year I've taken two trips to San Diego from the Bay Area one to South Lake Tahoe, and one to LA , which I believe is about 3500 miles. Not to mention I drive my 98 Box an hour round trip to work at least 3 days a week. I've got a bit less than 80k miles.

When it blows up it'll be a good excuse to get a different color. :)

September 15th-16th. Its sold out.

2001 base - for 3 years straight, i've taken twice yearly 3000 mile (RT) road trips to dallas. have also done 1 trip to colorado, 3 trips to the tail of the dragon (1100 miles RT), 1 trip to Canada (1000 miles RT), a couple of trips to Ohio, several "day trips" (anywhere from 3-8 hours of driving)... no plans to dial it back.

next year i plan to make the drive from DC to California and back...

sure i've had issues on some of them, but nothing that has ever made me regret taking the boxster or make me reconsider a next trip.

I agree !!! AAA membership and title in glove box for quick trade and then back on the road !!!

Two years ago a fellow was passing nearby the shop on a cross country trip in a 2006 Boxster.. It suffered an IMSB failure and he called us for a diagnostic. We diagnosed it and gave him some options, but he was done with the car. He said "pay me whats owed on the car and I am done".. Thats what we did. He bought a Honda and went on down the road.

Road Trip
 

http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/29853-road-trip-7.html

I would not hesitate to do it again, right now with over 232,000 miles on the Jägermobile.

Thanks for the link! Looked like a great trip! Love the Traverse City area!

I bought my '01 S in May. Flew out to Chico, CA and drove home to Milwaukee. 2200 miles in 3 days.

My 01 has been on many 1000+ mile trips.

You Cheeseheads are stealing all our low rust Porsches!

My 99 has 177,000mi right now and I take it to Vegas, 750mi round trip, about 3-4 times a year. I've driven it to Yosemite a few times, 800+ mi, including this upcoming winter. I've never been stranded. Next year I'm planning on heading up to Seattle, 2000+mi trip.

I just drove 325 miles from LA to Monterey, raced for 3 days at Laguna Seca (100+ miles per day mostly at or near redline), and drove back home.

All without a single worry that the Boxster wouldn't make it. My car is rock solid in terms of reliability.

recycledsixtie as long as your car is well maintained go for it - it's not old and tired.

I drove my '58 190SL from Vancouver Island to S. Cal twice , One of the local guys
drove his '65 Sunbeam Alpine to Newfoundland competed in the Newfoundland
Targa and drove it back to Vancouver. Lots of people drive their classic cars across
N.America every year so don't worry about your 2001.

Every year we do a 2,000 mile road trip with our '99 Boxster , 118,000 klms

My 13 yr old is as reliable as our Lexus. I would not hesitate to trust it and I do drive 4-5hrs away often. The only problem with long trips is tight suspension and racing seats won't pass the minimum wife comfort threshold. :o

3700 miles. Nothing beats doing a road trip with a drop top.

http://986forum.com/forums/show-tell-gallery/35312-slayed-dragon.html

All cars break down. My philosophy is, if I own it, I'm going to drive it. If it gets to the point where I don't trust it, I'm going to get rid of it and start driving something else.

Besides, the joy of top down motoring offsets any worries. :cheers:

2001 base, 100,000 km - 62k miles

It is a "Roadster" ! Take it on every road trip you can.

Our '98 went on regular 2000 to 3000 mile trips even when it had 130,000 miles on it. Our 2K S also goes on 2000 to 3000 mile trips at the drop of a hat. Give me 3 days off and I take the wife and I anywhere on the west coast.

We have had these cars on many different trips to Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, 4 Corners, Monument Valley, Brice, Zion, Canyon Lands, Route 66, Moab, Arches, Colorado Springs, Denver, South Park, Steamboat Springs, Dinosaur, Salt Lake City, Bonneville Salt Flats, Promontory Point, Los Angeles, Death Valley, Bay Area, Golden Gate Bridge, Redwoods, Lake Tahoe, Reno, Sierra Nevada Mts. Mt Shasta, Oregon Coast, Crater Lake, Portland, Mt St Hellens, Mt Rainier, Seattle, Grand Coolie Dam, Grand Teton Dam, Glacier Park, Priest Lake, McCall, Craters of the Moon. And she runs just fine. Yesterday we took her on a 400 mile road trip through the Idaho Mountains.

This kind of sounds like a Johnny Cash song.

These trips were mostly taken at the spur of the moment with nothing more than a quick fluid and tire air pressure check. The car is always ready for a road trip. And on these trips the only tools are the ones that came with the car in the spare tire pouch and a set of snow chains.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01/1531346696198.jpghttp://986forum.com/forums/uploads01/4581346696408.jpg

I've driven my 2003 S (started with about 20k on the clock) from Maine to Wisconsin and back and from Maine to South Carolina and back a couple of times. Great gas mileage, no problems except I am big and the car is small so at the end of a long trip I am ready to park it for a while. And sunburn...

I'm at 90,000 miles and I do 3-4 hour trips each way about twice a month. The only problem I ever had was a flat tire.

Gonna drive from Indy to Utah in a month for a wedding.....have 100% faith in the box to get me there and back with no issues.

I bought my 2000 S last May with 90k on body, 25k on motor, freshly rebuilt gearbox. I put a few weeks of daily driving on her, did the brakes and oil, checked what I could and then started a 10,000 roadtrip across the USA and Canada.

My problems were:

water pump seized a few hours into the trip (fixed on roadside with walmart-sourced tools and NAPA pump)

Bubbled tire somewhere in British Columbia, fixed in Washington state

parking break microswitch stopped working and prevented top from going down -- removed and cleaned, works fine since

top cable rod broke in san francisco, operated on one rod until the fall, used my arm to bring top up evenly

wheel bearing started squeaking on Vancouver Island, sort of ignored this until I got home and fixed myself with SIR Tool B90 extractor

front brakes started grinding, again in BC! This went away, mostly, on it's own although the rotors warped a bit. Replaced discs / fluid / pads myself this spring

I am considering blowing out of town again soon for another 1500 miles now that I've done the clutch/IMS. I'll bring some small tools, and my wallet!

These are awesome driving cars, but I don't see how anybody can call them reliable. The only reason the list above didn't ruin a great road trip is that the owner knows his way around a set of wrenches.

If you want reliable, buy Japanese.