Do options hold value?
 

I see people post about looking at cars, but rarely provide how they are optioned.
Usually year, model and price.
Don't options add value to a used car?

Not always; back in the day, one of the most expensive Boxster option's was the factory cell phone setup, now you couldn't give it away....... Things change with time.

Options help a car sell faster. But the costs are rarely recouped by the seller.

Now, sure, an "S" model will sell for a premium vs a base.

But Full Leather, for example, a +$2,500 option, may only bring an additional couple hundred bucks over a like-like car.

As for MODS, they can be even worse, for recouping costs, and may even command a lower selling price.

Back when the 986 was built, the number of options was somewhat limited compared to the multitude offered on a 2014 model. Also, as JFP points out, many of those options have little value 10-15 years later. Even the options that are useful and might set one car apart from another (like traction control) may not significantly affect the value (several hundred, not several thousand).

The best option any Boxster can have is FUN. It is one of those value added options and the price is just the price of the car, gas and upkeep. Get what you want in your car. Buy it used and enjoy it like a normal car. Keep her well maintained but don't sweat the paint and all the other crap we tend to get anal about. Let you wife, kids, neighbors, and friends drive it too.

I laugh when I see a 1998 advertised for sale over $15K and no test drives allowed. Get real. Get insurance. The resale is what ever somebody will give you when you are ready to sell. Enjoy it (IE: drive it) while you own it. Don't let it be a garage queen.

I'd say three options on the 986 Boxsters that likely hold some value would be:

-Porsche Sport Exhaust
-Factory Hardtop
-Speedster Humps (maybe)

Someone out there will always pay extra for a mean exhaust sound, especially when it is factory original. As for the hardtop and humps, the fact that they are easily removable and separately sellable helps keep interest in these options. I don't know that they'll add too much to the resale of a 986 though.

I wont suggest numbers since I'm currently selling my 986 with a hardtop and humps. I'll let the market set that added value. ;)

The hard top may be worth more sold separately then bundled with the car. The difference is that a person who is looking for a hard top is looking for a hard top and may be willing to pay more if the color and condition are right.

A person looking to buy a Boxster may or may not be looking to buy a car with a hard top. Some people don't like them. It may depend on where you live. Here in Virginia, they are nice to have for about 4 months out of the year. In Florida or Southern California they may be viewed as an item that is just taking up space.

If you do a price estimate on KBB or one of the other pricing sites, I don't think a hard top increases the value as much a you would expect from a separate sale.

I like my hard top. However, since I installed my 04 top and frame with a glass window, headliner and defroster, it is not as necessary in the winter as it was before.

I'm not even sure they offer hard tops with the 981s.

I've added quite a few mods to my car - mostly items bought second hand. I like having them, but I doubt they will increase the selling price of the car.

I wouldn't pay a dime more for any of those options and would view the humps and hard top as just taking up space in my garage. The exhaust option would be a red flag as I would assume the car had been tracked regularly. The only options that mattered to me in my purchase where heated seats, 6 speed manual and of course the "S" model. Wind stop and PSM were nice-to-have's. Of course I wouldn't really pay more for those options, just wouldn't buy a car that didn't have them. Low miles made much more of a difference in what I was willing to pay.

If any of you want to sell me your hardtop and/or factory sport exhaust let me know.

Having said that I expect to get little to nothing for those items unless I'd sell them separately. All the other options are of little to no value to me. All I care about in determining value is if it is a base or S and what transmission it has. Personally I would never buy a car with a tiptronic and believe the market dictates a lower value for tiptronic equipped cars.

Ordinarily no they don't. But when it comes to Porsche, the word "option" takes on a new meaning. Porsche charge you for everything.
Things that would be standard are no longer. Before you know it you just added enough in options to buy a Mini Cooper.


At the end of the day Porsche make out like bandits over-charging for everything at the buyer's expense. The worst of these are the ad nauseum number of 'special edition' Porsches that lack the most important element of a truly special Porsche: a limited production engine.
They just give you the same 'street engine' as the other models, lard up the build sheet with every possible option and after a year that car is selling for less than a 2 or 3 year old GT3 RS and way less than the really limited RS like the 4.0.

All Porches with mass produced engines will drop in value like a lead balloon now matter how many options they have as soon as the market finds itself short of credit/lending or the economy and stock market hit the brakes. It's a the reality brake check of the Porsche premium.
Case in point in 2009 we saw some 996 Carreras drop nearly $30K in a single year. Meanwhile the Boxsters/Caymans didn't drop as severely because they weren't priced so high to begin with.

This is true, making the optional Tiptronic auto trans probably the most expensive option. $3100+ to buy new & then subtract about 10% from the resale price vs manual Box.

^ and subtract some more once that automatic trans is out of warranty.

Not really and this is where an educated buyer can get more for their money. Learn what options were available and then buy the loaded one! As Perfectlap says, Porsche charges extra for what others don't. I was parked beside a new 911 the other day and realized that the doctor who owned it payed over $100000 and it had a vinyl dash! (I don't because the original owner paid $ 4100 extra for full, supple leather!) I mean I actually felt sorry for her- $100 g's and leather's extra! Come on Porsche, er a VW/ Audi et al greed will be your downfall.

^ I'm always amazed at how many second hand 996 Turbos I see on Autotrader with the base shift knob, no gauge rings, empty cubby, etc. Total bare bones interior.

Then I see the polar opposite. A Turbo with full carbon interior which added more to the sticker than what I paid for my first car.
10 years later the second hand market adds like $200 for that upgrade.

Regarding the options, the 993 I just bought came with full leather interior, Limited Slip, Factory Short Shifter, M030 Sport Package, and Sunroof. While I likely wont be appreciating the LSD during my daily usage, I'll certainly be appreciating the other four 'options' on a daily basis.

Did the presence of any one of these options make or brake the decision to purchase? No, but they certainly wont detract from my enjoyment of the vehicle. Ultimately it was the basic model and mileage that had the most defining factor in the price of the 19-yearold car.

Options makes for a buyers market used. Not all suspecting buyers are familiar with the good options. My car came with sports chrono. What does that mean? Nice stop watch on the dash but it also came with the sport button. Knowing what I know now, move that up on the list but just like all the other stuff, not paying sticker for it on the used market. Heated seats, and wind stop maybe the only option on a used car worth paying to the right car.

10 year old cd changer or navigation.....not paying more for that. But hope it comes with the sport button.

I'm planning to keep my car for a while, so I've added a few items that make the car more pleasant. I'm not too concerned about getting the money back out of the modifications. I wouldn't do anything to make the car unsellable.

However, it is mystifying why my daughter's 2006 Honda Civic (admittedly a fairly well optioned EX model) came with variable intermittent wipers (which I added to my Boxster) and a decent sound system (which cost me several hundred dollars to achieve in my Boxster.) Although I bought both cars used, the sticker on my car was about $50,000 and my daughter's was about $19,000.

The other mystery is the behavior of the person who bought my car new. He splurged on colored wheel crests ($185), but couldn't find the coin for heated seats which probably cost $400.

I believe it's fairly easy to break down Porsche buyers into 2 categories.
Those that buy for the looks or those that buy for the driving performance.
Sure some split those attributes evenly but when 2001 996TT base MSRP was $114,000 few can afford to have it all.

EX is short for: top of the line in Honda speak. At 1 time EX was fully loaded & you choose the option of manual or auto trans & your choice of maybe 6 colors.
Heated seat option debuted industry wide in 2001. Some luxury cars may have had them before then but I don't think Porsche did. If your car was bought new from dealer stock it was equipped with whatever options the dealer thought would result in the quickest sale & max profit$$$.

The car had blank spaces in the center console for the seat heater switches, so they were available in the 2000 model year.

You are probably correct that the first owner bought a car configured by the dealer right off the lot.