Hey Neal, I think it's awesome that you are thinking of buying a new-to-you boxster! I was actually a second year medical student when I got mine and am now a PGY1. I daily drive the snot out of it, minimum 60 miles roundtrip a day. In total, I've racked up 60K miles (now at 120K) in 3 years (and that's on the low side compared to some members here!!). I was shopping for a 986/987 and ended up with an '03 that I found from an independent dealer off of craigslist. Yes, I wasn't car smart, and yes, I knew this would be a risky move, but I did some research and heavily researched PPIs and a trustworthy shop to do it. I'll try to give you my 2 cents based on my experiences of being a medical student shopping for car that others will say is unnecessary lol.
1) I was very lucky that most of my rotations were in the same city that I did my didactic years in, with the exception of 4th year "aways". This meant that I had the luxury of finding an apartment complex with a private garage. Now, I lived in West Texas at that time which means that Porsche knowledgeable shops are far and few (nonexistent for me within a 300 miles radius, no joke). I had never even done a filter change on a car prior to buying my boxster but I was an engineer prior to medical school and I like working with my hands. Which leads us to my second point:
2) 986forums and Pelican Parts. Remember these two sites and use them. Heck, peruse them often since something posted in the past may be useful to you in the future. I have gone from only knowing how to put gas and washer fluid in a car to doing things like brakes, rotors, suspension work, oil changes, fluid flushes, bulb changes, alternator and AOS replacements, and even learned to hardwire things like a dash cam, all from these two sites (and some google-ing). And experienced members can and will do far more things like entire engine swaps. Problems will creep up on your car, even if you get a 2009-10 boxster. The how-to guides and the members' knowledge is incredibly valuable. Especially since dealerships, while your car may have cost $10-20K, will charge you at the $60K+ level. As I mentioned before, I had garage space which was very useful for me being able to not only do my own maintenance but also fix things that prevent the car from running. This brings us to my third point:
3) If you plan on doing any of your own work, you will either need to have space or find space. Sometimes, a project may take more than one day, either due to a part that got broken or sheer frustration (I'm looking at you, alternator lol) in which case you will need the space at least overnight. You mentioned you will be at different clinic sites in (what I assume is) your 3rd and 4th years. This also means you need to be physically at the hospital or clinic, meaning you need to ensure you have alternate transport available. In medical school, I was lucky to have financed a beater car for an incredible deal so the one time I did get stranded back then I had the car towed to my apartment and could use the other car to go to work. Now that I only have the boxster, I either bum a ride from the wife (who has her own residency to attend to) or use Uber. I have been stranded by my car twice (once for the alternator giving out in the Middle of Literally Nowhere, Texas and the second time for an AOS that blew a smoke bomb all over the interstate), both of which would at the dealer have cost me $1.7k and $750 to get fixed, not even counting towing from West Texas region to Dallas (I fixed these myself for $400 and $100, respectively, not counting tools that I have collected over the years as I did different projects). Regardless, this is definitely something to keep in mind.
4) Like you, I picked up the car hundreds of miles from home. This required placing a small deposit to hold the car, finding a shop that would do the PPI that I could trust, negotiating a price, and then driving her home. Here I should note that I paid the car in cash so I was fortunate that any money I would have spent in monthly payments went straight into a checking account solely for parts and tools. Anyway, I was early in my second year and luckily the block I was on did not require attendance in class (we were fortunate that lectures at that time were also video recorded so I could speed them up to 2x and study on my own). You will also need to figure out things like this. And, if you are currently studying for Step 1, I would HIGHLY recommend putting this off until after the exam. You don't want to sacrifice a high score that could set you up for life for car shopping.
Sorry if this seems like a giant run on sentence. I'm just putting my thoughts into a semi-cohesive post. I'm almost done with a 30+ hour shift (and no, no one in the surgical world cares about resident 80hr per week limits hahaha....hah.... :'( ...). so this may come off with some grammatical errors and/or ramblings of a mad man. If you have any questions regarding shopping for the car, feel free to PM me. Good luck with school, happy hunting, and we hope to see you around on here!
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