The price seems right. Find someone to answer your shake question (the PPI mechanic, perhaps) and give you an estimate to fix it, then take that out of the purchase price. It's hard to answer such a question over the internet. Could be as benign as flatspotted tires that have been sitting on the seller's lot for a while. (Does the shaking frequency change with speed?)

Alignment should have been done by the seller, anyway, so have it done before the purchase and see if the shaking goes away.

Hope this helps.

Z.

I have a spare 2cents... after I saw this comment: ".. especially for a base Boxster. My sense is that folks are less likely to abuse a base model than the more performance-oriented S."

I spent a lot of time looking for a very expensive Box-S that came back in off lease. My theory was that a person who could afford $60k - could afford to take care of it, had a garage, etc.

It turns out he was a Doc in the Jersey burbs, only put 15k on it over his 3yr lease. The only negative was some wheel rash which I took care of myself. I'd be more afraid of a car that some guy may be over-reaching to make the payments on.

...we all have theories, eh?

j i m
jims-garage.com

Good point. Along the same lines, one would need to push a base Box more to get the same level of performance as a leisurely pushed S. So all in, I don't think there's much of an argument either way, but if one must be made, I would tend to go for an S likely being in better shape than a base, on average.

Z.

If the car is only 7 on on a 1 to 10 scale I would pass. There are some real cream puffs out there. I would also try for a S model with 18" wheels and HID (Litronic) lights. Those options are very expenisve to put on the car after you buy. Better to get them on the car before you pull the trigger. It may take a little longer to find everything you want in the car but there are enough Boxsters out there to be very picky and still get a good price.

The important thing is to make sure that any car with more than 40K miles has had all its major maintenance done. A car that is out of alignment and has a shaky steering wheel is not the end of the world but its a red flag that the owner is not on top of the car, particularly when preparing to sell it.