Planning for the future. How to sell my car?
 

Well as you may know, I have AFE Intake, Top Speed Test Pipes and Catback Exhaust, Eibach lowering springs (1 inch), smoked amber and euro corner lights, RSS Underdrive Pulley, and the rest is stock.

When I try to sell my car, should I sell it in stock form, or leave the aftermarket parts and smoked tint on? What would be easier or better? It certainly feels and sounds faster with all these parts on, and it looks more updated with no amber.

So how is it with Boxsters? More value with mods, or more value stock?

I have a goal in life to own all of my favorite cars at least once in my life. The Boxster was one of those cars. I had it for 2 years now and maybe I will keep it for another year-It is not an easy car to let go. That engine sound is so addicting.

Other attainable cars I want to own before getting old and settling down on a newer, more practical, permanent car:

MKII GTI Rallye
RX-7 FD
993 Carrera
Cayman S or R (987)
1970's-80' Classic 911
RS4
MX-5 NC or upcoming ND
Mazdaspeed Protege
63-67 Corvette
05 WRX STI
NSX

I wish I can win the lottery so I can have them all.

As with most add-ons you likely won't get your money out of them when you sell, and a Boxster newbie won't notice the difference except for perhaps the sound.

I would restore the car to stock except for the muffler and sell the add-on goodies to us folks on the forum ;)

Dibs on the RSS Underdrive Pulley if it will fit on a 2001 "S" !

What year/model is it? Pictures?

Call me traditional, so the more stock the car the more appealing it is to me. The more boy racer look the more I head in the other direction. Lowered? That is not for me as I need snow clearance. Tinted windows? Umm...too shady. Would get apprehended by police more. The more add ons I perceive it as harder to sell unless you get really lucky and find the right buyer. Poster above is spot on - remove the add ons and sell them on the forum:)

I like your list.
 

Good choice on the RX-7. I had an FD when I lived in Japan. It is the only car I've driven which was more fun than the Boxster.

My co-worker has one. He is the original owner. he autox'ed it for 10 years or so and won many SCCA competitions over the years. And my childhood friend just sold his M3 and bought an FD, which was recently featured on some website into lowered/stanced cars as well as the yearly Canibeat car show. He won't let me drive it. :(

However, I only plan to own one for maybe 2 years. I know nothing about rotary engines and I don't want to constantly worry about needing to replace the engine at any moment.

To the others, My car is a 2000 2.7L 5 SPD MT.

Stock when I bought it:
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6109/6...0940b0e515.jpg
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6126/6...b9636cc722.jpg
Current:
Wheels are plastidipped black, but I can take it all off and switch it back to silver within 25 minutes.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8003/7...6d3608fd_z.jpg
Lowered 1 inch look:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7216/7...ec3048ca72.jpg
exhaust
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7094/7...9905baa556.jpg
current tail light tint colors:
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6137/5...d6d6329360.jpg

Since you haven;t gone too far with the mod's, I'd recommend returning the car to completely stock and sell the aftermarket parts piece by piece. I know that this will be a lot more effort and a PITA, but most used Boxster buyers are Porsche newbies and they think that any car with mod's will be a "project" nightmare and will stay away. Once returned to stock, you can advertise the car as completely original, which is what most buyers want to hear.

You know..all your modifications are tastefull in my opinion..I know they wouldn't have detered me had I been looking. (infact I probably would have chose your car over the one I bought)
I say run an add with the modifications on..if you don't get much feed back over a week or two, peel off your plasti-dip coating on the rims and return it to stock. Swapping out the springs is a pain in the ass, the cost of labour to re & re (or even the time in doing it yourself) not to mention a full re-allignment. Not sure it's worth the effort or cost..doubtfull you would sell the car for that much more money if any?
I'm sure the potential buyer would appreciate the box of "stock" parts with the sale, let him or her decide what to do with them after they buy the car! Just my opinion though..

+1 58c, I don't see any downsides & agree you haven't done anything too extreme here -- I'm thinking you can save some effort when you sell.

Most Porsche owners never go near a track/autocross and not many do much modding so it might turn off the average the buyer who isn't sure if they'll like how a modified car rides/sounds. Aftermarket parts, in my experience, will only fetch some value if they are a well known name. Well known as in known to be expensive.

your lowering springs might be an issue in that it will be too expensive to return to stock to make it worth doing for you. Perhaps a younger type buyer might be interested in a lowered car but I think it will put off most 2nd hand Porsche buyers based on polls that seemt to indicate that the average Boxster owner is well into his 40's and not intending to autox/de.

definitely remove the plasti dip. That never photographs well.

Or post as is and offer to return to stock. Or try to sell as is and if you get no takers return to stock and relist...donno just a thought :)

I bought my 986 because it had the mods I would do myself. I save a lot of time and money buying a modded Boxster.

The 911guys aren't afraid of well done mods and I think hard core Porsche guys are always messin with performance and appearance of their cars. It's unusual to make money selling any used Porsche, especially a Boxster, they have made a lot of these cars.

For example, my 1979SC has a low mile 3.2 motronic. Maybe someone looking for a numbers matching SC wouldn't touch it but that is the kind of mod that can make you pee your pants :-0

I agree 100% with you tsunamiboy...
Lets face it, these cars are a dime a dozen now and with prices in and around the $10,000 mark there is a new "type" of buyer with the potential to own these cars. Just look at the age thread in this forum, a good chuck of these guys are in their 20's.. When I was in my 20's the best I could hope for was a 944!

My 2 cents...a well maintained stock Porsche. This tells the buyer it is an original car with a maintenance history which helps in selling the car. When I was looking I knew I did not what one with mods. It tells me that owner was more interested in performance and tracking the car. Which means potential issues in the future. Good luck.

Interesting. It seems the feedback is 50/50.

I plan to sell it for the same price with or without mods so I guess I will give that option to the potential buyer. I would probably list it without the plasti-dip.

AFE Intake takes 25 minutes to revert to stock.
Front lip comes off easy in 5 minutes or less.
I can put the stock exhaust system and mid pipes with cats back on within 4 hours.
Switching out the euro lights for the amber ones would take 3 minutes.
Taking the tail light and headlight tint off would probably take an hour.
I don't have the know how to do the springs so I would try to sell it with them on.
The labor was $600 for those springs and other suspension components. They installed new front CV Joints w/bushings as well as new front top strut mount bushings at the same time during the installation.


Most of it is very easy and straight foward to revert to stock.

I wouldn't bother with switching out springs or lights. But the exhaust, intake, lip and such I would take off to sell on here.

I put myself through colledgee buying, fixing up and selling cars. I spent alot of time REMOVING mods & and taking them back to stock.

THink of it this way, car companies spend zillions trying to peg exactly what the AVERAGE consumer wants. You want to appeal to the largest market possible. Your mods are niche you and a few dozen people want an only a very few of whom happen to be actually looking for a car.

Wanna sell? keep it stock and clean, very few people have your exact taste. Zillions have the sensibilities Porshe nailed and put together in there stock package.

Regards, PK

Well stated, and good on you for getting yourself through college. Sure makes it a little easier getting to those 8:00 AM classes and labs! Knowing full well it was your dime and sweat equity.:)

Project where are you in Philly ?

NE Philly right by Franklin Mills Mall.