Need your advice!

[richardda]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Best of luck to you in finding your Boxster! Get a Pre purchase inspection and if I were you, I'd get a 4 wheel laser alignment too, just to insure you don't buy a car with subframe damage, which is hard to determine with a PPI at a Porsche dealership. These things should cost you about $350 in total. Money well spent as any of the repairs I mentioned above will cost at least this much.

Let us know what you find.

All good advice that has been posted here; I just want to add that you should check the price of the PPI from your local dealer, as I think it varies from dealer to dealer. When I bought my '99 Boxster (from a private party), I took it to the local Porsche dealer (Woodhouse, in Omaha) for the PPI. They did the complete PPI for $100, and told me that they would apply the price of the PPI towards the bill if I bought the car and brought it back and had them do the work. That's what I did, and they honored the offer.

Doug

[KevinH1990]

What I'm hearing is "Calm down, look at a lot of cars, pay for a PPI and laser alignment, and choose a Porsche certified car with a warranty. Once you own the car, be prepared because repairs are expensive."

Sounds like good advice. If I may be so bold, I'm wondering which is the best price guide. I've checked KBB, NADA and Consumer Reports. I know for my current car (94 Miata M Edition) that those guides are not entirely accurate. The one person I know who owns a Boxster used the Consumer Report Guide and was happy with his deal. Because I'm new to this forum, is it considered bad form to ask others for their opinons about the price of a particular car?

Of course, I realize that I will be playing in a different league if I move from a Miata to a Boxster. An eight-year old Miata with 17,000 miles and a new engine would be snatched up very quickly at about half its original MSRP. It seems that a Boxster with that mileage and history is considered a risk.

[Perfectlap]

yeah those used Boxster prices vary widely.
I had a 1994 Miata as well. LOTS of mods sold it for $7,000 with 110,000 miles.
The Boxster is the only car I would have given up the Miata for. I debated giving up the miata for an S2000 for several years but never took the bait. Once I saw the Boxster up close at an autocross I didn't think it over much longer. A "best pure sports car in the world" episode on Top Gear tipped the Boxster as the best.
About a week later I bought my S.
Seeing Tiff slide the car around while laughing was all I needed to see that the Boxster was natural progression for a roadster die hard.

I frequently checked Ebay to see where the Buy it now prices were for a particular year and mileage. They were often below the private seller blue book value yet the cars still didn't sell. More of "real world" barometer me thinks.
I also watched the bids and the prices bidders seemed willing to pay.
A good deal on Ebay doesn't last too long.

p.s.
I see your in Virgina. Porsche sells allot of lease returns at auction in Manheim,PA.
Too many for the dealerships to take on for used car sale. Make a friend with a bidder who has a dealer auction license and you could save thousands.

[Hoosier]

I'm new to this forum and here is pic of my 2000. I bought it used years ago and it has 59K miles on it now. Standard maintenance, tires, no other $ in it. I gotta knock on wood...oh yea - I don't let teenagers drive it... I wouldn't trade the drives around the lake in it nothing. By the way, I was at Porsche dealership today and coulda got $20k trade in value for a new one but thought why... 2000 are nice but I wish it had a cupholder

[denverpete]

Originally Posted by KevinH1990

What I'm hearing is "Calm down, look at a lot of cars, pay for a PPI and laser alignment, and choose a Porsche certified car with a warranty. Once you own the car, be prepared because repairs are expensive."

...because I'm new to this forum, is it considered bad form to ask others for their opinons about the price of a particular car?

Of course, I realize that I will be playing in a different league if I move from a Miata to a Boxster. An eight-year old Miata with 17,000 miles and a new engine would be snatched up very quickly at about half its original MSRP. It seems that a Boxster with that mileage and history is considered a risk.

No - it's not bad form to ask others for their opinions about the price of a particular car.... We live for it!

A similar Boxster would be less than 1/2 of its MSRP. However, you're not going to find a certified Boxster with a replaced engine (at least I don't think it's possible).

Just take your time and do your homework and you'll find a great vehicle.