Discussion about a Boxster being an "investment"

[Giller]

Lots of people using the 914 as a benchmark to say the 986 will eventually go up. Can someone explain the logic there? Just cause one car has SLIGHTLY gone up (still eons away from being a 'collector' - how does that in any way affect the Boxster?
Totally different car.....totally different mindset and most importantly - they only made around what, 100,000 914 whereas the Boxster has been produced in the 100s of thousands and still going.

One can never say never, but seriously....the Boxster is not a classic. No one cool has ever died in it. It's still viewed as a hairdressers car. It doesn't have the cachet of a real sports car. We all know the comments around "Couldn't afford a real Porsche".

So relax, drive it and enjoy. Who cares what others think. No way this car ever becomes a 'classic' and an investment.

Sure, it might retain SOME value and depreciation will level off - but that's very different from appreciating and growing in value.

[Luv2Box]

Originally Posted by Giller

Lots of people using the 914 as a benchmark to say the 986 will eventually go up. Can someone explain the logic there? Just cause one car has SLIGHTLY gone up (still eons away from being a 'collector' - how does that in any way affect the Boxster?
Totally different car.....totally different mindset and most importantly - they only made around what, 100,000 914 whereas the Boxster has been produced in the 100s of thousands and still going.

One can never say never, but seriously....the Boxster is not a classic. No one cool has ever died in it. It's still viewed as a hairdressers car. It doesn't have the cachet of a real sports car. We all know the comments around "Couldn't afford a real Porsche".

So relax, drive it and enjoy. Who cares what others think. No way this car ever becomes a 'classic' and an investment.

Sure, it might retain SOME value and depreciation will level off - but that's very different from appreciating and growing in value.

Hate being the one to break this to you but according to Porsche the '97-04 986 is a Classic.
Porsche Classic - Information about your Porsche vintage car - Porsche Cars North America
One can argue all they want over the validity but to Porsche they are and that's all that counts to the owners.

[Giller]

Originally Posted by Luv2Box

Hate being the one to break this to you but according to Porsche the '97-04 986 is a Classic.
Porsche Classic - Information about your Porsche vintage car - Porsche Cars North America
One can argue all they want over the validity but to Porsche they are and that's all that counts to the owners.

Hate to break it to you....but a 'classic' is not a 'collectible'. Classic simply refers to the time it's been around and designates the brand will continue to produce parts. Has nothing to do with value or an Investment.

So even to Porsche - they are not a Collectible.

[Luv2Box]

Originally Posted by Giller

Hate to break it to you....but a 'classic' is not a 'collectible'. Classic simply refers to the time it's been around and designates the brand will continue to produce parts. Has nothing to do with value or an Investment.

So even to Porsche - they are not a Collectible.

Wasn't saying it was a collectible or an investment, I was referring to this statement of yours.
" No way this car ever becomes a 'classic' and an investment."

[Giller]

Originally Posted by Luv2Box

Wasn't saying it was a collectible or an investment, I was referring to this statement of yours.
" No way this car ever becomes a 'classic' and an investment."

Gotcha....my mistake. I misspoke when I used the term Classic earlier on.

[papasmurf]

Will the boxster ever skyrocket in price like the aircooled 911's have recently? Probably not, but there will come a point where prices will level off and cars in good shape with good mileage may start to rise in value. 944's were at one time one of the most common porsches on the road and we are already starting to see a slight uptick in prices over the past few years for good examples and the same goes for many 70- 80's model cars that were regarded as just "old cars" (early M3's and 3 series, z cars, camaro/TA's, etc.) a few years ago. You just have to wait for enough of them to be written off over the years and the generation that grew up wanting to own one as a kid to have the disposable income and the desire to regain a piece of their childhood. I think if you are wanting to see a 2-3x increase in your investment, you are going to be disappointed, but there will be a point where the values start to rise, even if ever so slowly. As far as buying a roller and putting a Raby engine in it...You would have 20k in a car people would not likely pay over 10k for. The Raby engine is probably great, but no one is going to pay the premium for it. Lastly, not to sound like a jerk, but is there really a demand for honda accord wagons? Is it the japanese nomad?

[78F350]

So my question is, do you guys think the 986 would be a good car to do what I have done to my other cars? Pick up a roller for around $2500, focus the money on making the engine reliable (seriously considering a rebuilt and upgraded 2.9L from a company like Raby). Can you see a 986 with all of the engine issues resolved, everything works, and is well-taken care of selling for around $20K in the next 5-7 years? I can see that happening.

Your thoughts?

As a hobby I have bought, worked on, and sold cars. Lots of Hondas: Del Sols, CR-Vs, CRX, Civic, and a couple V6 Accords. My goal has been to have it pay for itself. With the Hondas, I learned a lot and made enough to collect some tools and still come out a few hundred to a thousand dollars ahead on each sold or parted & scrapped car.

I now have four Boxsters and a parts car. The parts car provided me with a decent 2.7L engine, and already paid for itself in other parts sold and reused. The four driving Boxsters are currently worth about what I have spent on them considering maintenance, repair, and administrative costs. I can expect to spend $1,500 a year on (mostly) DIY maintenance on each car every year. In the 5-7 year time frame that is $7,500 to $10,500 each. My chances of selling for a profit do not look good.

The other day as I walked out of my house and saw three (covered) in the driveway and one in the garage I thought, "If I sold all of these, I could buy a really nice car!" Then I climbed in, put the top down and went for a drive through the twistys.

[lkchris]

Originally Posted by Giller

... and most importantly - they only made around what, 100,000 914 whereas the Boxster has been produced in the 100s of thousands and still going.

Well, you may be interested in these North America sales figures from Wikipedia ...

2003
911 9,935
Boxster 6,432
Cayenne 13,661

2004
911 10,227
Boxster 3,728
Cayenne 19,134

2005
911 10,653
Boxster 8,327
Cayenne 14, 524

Don't care much about Cayennes, but still today Porsche continues to sell more 911s than Cayman/Boxster combined.

Bottom line is I wouldn't reference the "large quantities" of Boxsters so loudly.

But, given that the 911 has outsold the Boxster, the more popular model may indeed hold its value better in the long run.

Nobody in the real world calls the Boxster a hairdressers' car and in fact it's without question a really real Porsche. Sharing components with the 911 is better than sharing a whole platform or an engine with a VW/Audi I think.

I'd easily wager Boxsters will hold more value than an SLK Mercedes or a BMW Z, as it's the Porsche experience and feel that neither of those has. Neither of those has anything like the charisma, and of course anything Oriental is a writeoff and hardly worth mentioning. As I write this, qualityporscheparts on eBay has a 2004 4.5 l Turbo Cayman V8 and a 2000 Boxster S engine, both with over 100K miles and both priced at $3K.

Yes, lots of Boxsters will likely go away due to "expensive parts," but this is false economy IMHO. It's an expensive, low volume car, and from Germany where nothing's cheap ... and the pricing seems fairly realistic given the real world economic facts. How can you realistically expect anything different? Parts prices have zero relationship to used car lot prices in any event ... but lots of guys with stars in their eyes may think so.

And hey, they have six cylinders and you can't get that anymore.