New to me ride
 

Hi all, been a member for about six months and have not posted until now but have read alot and gained quite a bit of info from this site. Just wanted to pass along that I traded my 2000 Boxster for a 2001 S model tonight, went from Black on black(what a nightmare to keep clean) to a seal gray with Cinnamon Brown interior.

Traded for 5 grand with mileage being nearly the same and the S appearance wise in much better condition. I didn't notice till I got home and to my surprise...no floor mats :confused: anyone know where I can find a set of factory Cinnamon Brown floor mats :)

It was a fun hundred mile drive home even dodging a few snow flakes along the way, car is now tuck safely in a heated garage and from the sound of the weather reports it will be there for awhile :( Well back to the lurking mode.

CYA
dusty

Thats not a bad Idea, Maybe rather than selling my boxster in a couple years for a downpayment on a 996 or 997, i could sell and use that for a DP on a newer boxster "S" to have the power I so deperately want without giving up the awesome handling. I thank you!

BTW you can try Suncoastporsche.com and call there parts department and they can give them to you for a really good price.

wvav8tor-
congrats on the upgrade and sounds sweet - good color combo.

I'd forgo the OEM mats and just order some Llyods from Pelican Parts. I did for my '99 last year and they by far are a much better quality and match exactly. Plus, they don't slide around under foot while driving! You can tailor them to have contrast stitching, custom script etc. I think they run about $125 or so which I imagine is what you'd pay for OE ones.

On another note, have you joined PCA? I think it's $40/year or so and the Allgheny region (my region, I'm just north of you in Pittsbrugh, and I think the one you would be in too) has some fun events planned for 2007. You can easily pay for the membership in the 15% PCA discount you get on parts at most dealers. Besides, we need to boost the 986 contingency w/in the group.

Enjoy your new ride!!!

congrats man, please post some pics

PCA people are slow man, i dont know whats going on. i paid for my membership loong time ago, and contacted them last week, they still didnt process my membership info nor charged my credit card. i wanted to go to the 28th meet, but now i cant it looks like
weird

I thought I would upload some pixs of my new ride and thanks to cj_boxster, I found the OEM floor mats at Suncoastporsche.com. Also Burg Boxster, I pickup the new car in Pittsburgh...seems you were close by :D

Anyone had any sucess in installing a a reasonably priced subwoofer? No room that I can see in the cockpit, and the front and rear trunk areas are closed off, but I have been told by others that a big enough unit in the front stills does pretty well?

One more thing am I the only guy in his fifties here :confused: Seems like most everyone is younger.

Feeling really old
dusty

Nice color! Congrats!

Your not the oldest.
 

WVguy, I am 66 so you are not the youngest. Hence the signature,

986geezer

Have fun with your new S. :cheers:

Beautiful color combination! Wow, nice choice.

Gorgeous color combination! I looked for that combo when I was shopping for mine, but none were available at the time, or the ones that were, weren't very well kept. Strange........I bought my 01 in Pittsburgh also., in March 2005, from Tower Auto Sales. And NO.. you're not the only one here in his 50's: 56 here. OH.... and put some Dunlop Winter Sport tires (or whatever winter tire you like) on that puppy and drive it!!! It gets along great in the snow with the proper tires. I drive mine all winter without a second thought. Just hit the self serv car wash pretty often, make sure it's got a good coat of wax on it and completely detail it spring and fall (at least). Mine still looks new. You should drive it.

Bob

nice color combo man. had to post again after seeing the pics

sweeeeeeet ride! congrats!

Thanks all, and I'm glad I'm not the only ole guy here :) Bob O, very small world, I also pick this up at Tower auto sales. After seeing the place I was a bit hestant to do business there but after seeing the condition the car was in I just could not pass it up. I was out going over it in the garage again and I'm still impressed with its over all condition. The deal money wise was real close at $5000.00 but I left there taking the car as is and taking a chance that there was nothing major wrong
with it.

I did check for oil leaks while there and a good check at home and have found it to be dry as a bone. Front and rear pads appear almost new and tires look about 60/70% good.

As for driving it, it will get driven I just hate to take out in this kind of weather...WV State Road loves the liberial use of salt and I have a 4
wd truck for daily use. Beside I think when you do take out it makes all that much more fun :D

waiting for the sunshine
dusty

Dusty-

Color Combo looks great and you'll love the S advantages. I have an 02S seal gray/black, so yours will definitely have some snap sitting next to mine with the offsetting color interior.

I know you said Cinnamon Brown, but it looks Boxster Red in the pics. Could be the light in the garage playing games. Have you checked the build specs to verify?

We'll expect to see you at the Tail of the Dragon Run in May...

What do you fly? I see the av8tor in the name.

Jeff

wvav8tor-
Congrats and looks great - nice color combo.

I see you have the M490 (or M680) sound package which includes door speakers (bass only due to filter in amp). One thing you'll notice (especially w/ the top down) is the Boxsters sound system is weak [read anemic]. The weakness is primarily due to the crappy OEM speakers (mostly Nokia junk) they put in and not necessarily due to a lack of power (unless you plan on setting off car alarms as you pass by). A lot of people have modified their systems (including myself) very easily. Others have gone more extensive and put in a complete new set up. The primary issue w/ the system is clarity and a lack of sound separation - due to the crappy paper cone speakers and no rear speakers to create surround. You'll see what I mean as you dig into the system

Anyhow, I did the following upgrades to mine and it has changed the system entirely - such I now find it really enjoyable. Here are the most common mod's (with my spec's) in order of effectiveness and cost for each (total $500):
- added PNP rear speakers (in shelf under/behind rollbar) $224
- swapped in a 996 6x40W amp (to replace stock 4x40W to power the rears) $75
- changed dash speakers to Infinity Reference 4" coaxials $70
- changed door speakers to Infinity Kappa 6.75" (still bass only, but you can now hear and feel it's presence) $130

My editorial on each (along w/ install dificulty rating 1 easy - 10 hardest):
-REARS Adding rears really helps move the sound stage to where you ears are in the car as opposed to it being front heavy. Before doing this, I always found myself leaning forward to hear the radio. Some people are underwhelmed by them and I can see why. They do need powered by an amp (thus my 996 6x40 swap in) and not the head unit in order to match power from the rest of the system. They can also be powered by the h/u (for most model years) but the h/u's output is only 18W. By no means are will these blow you away, but the are much akin to surround sound speakers in a home theater set up. (intall rating 2.5)

- 6x40W AMP swap - used to power the above rears equal to the rest of the system. Big improvement over powering them off the h/u (only 18W). You may not need to do this b/c at some point Porsche put in a 6x40W amp in all boxsters regardless of having rear speakers or not. (install rating 1)

- DASH - Huge improvement to the overall clarity of the music. The stock speakers are paper cones and offer no clarity. With the coaxials, I now get good separation of mids and highs. A # of people have used MB Quartz for this application but others have commented they are too 'bright'. I'm quite please w/ the infintys I put in. (intall rating 1.5 - very very easy but you do have to modify the existing speaker bracket)

-DOORS - This one took some patience but really is not difficult once you resort to the fact that no matter what you need to create the baffle. I experimented time and again trying to find a good 5.25" speaker to put in the existing 'tuned port' enclosure. Problem is, 5.25" speakers really can't hit low frequencies. I tried 3 different sets and none sounded better than OEM (some actually worse). Finally I admitted defeat and made a custom baffle and added 6.75". WOW, huge improvement! I can actually hear bass in my car now - top up or down. The key here is to match the 2 Ohm resistance (from the OEMs), use speakers w/ a freq. range below 50-55K Hz, RMS power rating from 2W up, and getting efficient ones w/ a sensitivity of at least 91 dB. Thus the Infinitys I used fit the bill perfectly. I don't recall the exact spec's but I think they are 45K Hz, 2Ohm, 2-60RMS and 95dB. Your OEM amp has a filter built in that only allows low freq's to go to the speakers. For me the install difficulty was 5-6; only b/c I made so many different attempts at doing it. For you or anyone else, I'd say probably 2.5-3 b/c another boxtser owner outlined the steps and then I created a template for making a custom baffle. (install rating 2.5-3)

I know this sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't. Rears took about 2.5 - 3 hours, dash 2 hours and doors should be about 3 including cutting the template/baffles. Best thing... everything still looks stock but sounds great!

As for your question about a sub - there are a few options. One is to add a self powered compact sub under the dash on the passenger side firing down into the footwell. A lot of people have done this and said it's good. The other is to have a custom box created to house a 10 or 12" sub and placed it either on the kick panel or floor boards of the passenger side footwell. I didn't want to take space away from the passenger footwell unless absolutely necessary and decided to make that the last addition. However, now that I upgraded the door speakers, I have found it is not necessary at all to add a sub. YMMV.

Having said all this, check out these two guides on the Boxster Wiki Web for upgrading the sound system. The first is an overall review of how to upgrade the entire system and the second is a template I made for the door baffles.

http://boxster.wikia.com/images/b/b6/Boxster_speakers_update_article.pdf

http://boxster.wikia.com/images/b/bf/Door_Baffle_Template.pdf

A # of people think the solution is to immediately replace the amp or the head unit. All that results in is more powerful crappy sound. Seriously, the first and primary issue is the crappy speakers. Good luck and send me a PM w/ any questions.

Good luck and enjoy your new ride!

PS - sorry about being so lengthy but wanted to impart as much as I could to you in one shot.

Dusty: It IS a small world isn't it. I had the same trepidations when I went to their place. But, like you, after seeing the car, and the other inventory they had, the deal was sealed. Hope you have as good of luck as I've had with mine!

Bob

I really feel bad for a lot of you guys up north that can't drive your cars in the winter (or choose not to). It's almost a foreign concept to me... My (recently new-to-me) Boxster is my daily driver. Last week (when it was wet and freezing) was a little harrowing... but usually conditions are never bad enough not to drive.

Year round on summer tires... that's the way it should be!

Glad you ended up with a car you really like! That's what matters the most.

Dusty, do yourself a favor and don't buy the same color mats as your carpet. They'll get very dirty very fast, and that's why they weren't in the car when you bought it. Black mat would look great in your car.

Just my 2¢ worth!

Amen to that ! I've spent most of my life in warm climates ( Florida, San Diego, Alabama ) and after 12 years in Chicago I'm sick of winter ! I now have two vehicles sitting in the garage ( Harley and Porsche ) that I can't drive. Enjoy your top down days down there, for all us poor Yankees stuck in the snow :mad:

Nick