Wanted:1997 Boxter

[rx7partsman]

Im a newbie, my aunt has two 911's, a 1999 and a awd 2004 vert. I saved up and have about 16 thousand to spend, I have seen them out there for this price, so I know they DO exist. In pretty good condition from what I have seen. I have found a place to buy an extended warranty from... www.autowarranties.com They seem reputable and are members of the bbb. So if anyone has anything or knows of anything let me know!



Rich

[mrmickeymouse]

Be careful with your warranty, most stories I have read were bad relating to coverage.

Have a good "idependant shop" do a pre inspection.

leak down-

RMS check [oil leak]-

Check engine light operation [make sure all lights on your dash operate "CEL"]

Many other tests, but those being predominate.

One easy test is to ask for the last smog readings. They will tell a lot or if you are set on one car. Spend a few bucks and do a pre test.

A bad/ problem motor will smog with high numbers O2's or "cats" going bad; Close to failure.

Also ask what type of gas have they been running. If they are running Chevron it will be a healthier motor then normal gas. We have some bad type's of fuel in San Diego [Arco] which will make big fat rocks on your valves.

This information was passed to me from a smog guy I know.

Good luck -

Scott

[scubaguy10]

I'm a lawyer who works in a program that serves the legal needs of college students, so I do a lot of consumer law. I can state unequivicably that used car warranties are worthless. They either exclude all coverage that is really needed or they will simply refuse to honor the claim. Have the car looked over and then pay your money and take your choice.

I also agree, warranties are a complete waste of time as its always wear and tear as the small print has a way around everything.

well said scubaguy i have been saying this for year!

[rx7partsman]

all 1997 models!

1.) Yellow, 103k miles. Perfect condition leather interior, body is straight, no dings, dents, or major scratches. Tires are in good shape. Oil has been changed regularly, as well as a recent mass air flow sensor. Clutch grabs as it should, no problems with it sticking. Found no leaks of oil in the back of the car. The a/c blows cold, and it has a cd player. Asking price is $15,800. Thats my Fav.

2.)Red,84k miles. Another one in great shape. I dont have as many details on this one, only told that it has had no problems and regularly maintained. asking $16,000.

I like the yellow one, but should that mileage scare me off? he hasnt been able to sell it for 3 months now, i neeeeed this car, and i neeed it to last at least 50k without a motor or transmission blowing up lol.

Let me know guyz,

Rich

[mrmickeymouse]

Where are you and what type of climate will you drive it in.

Otherwords is this all around year vehicle.

Ref:
1. What options are with this vehicle. There are many CD players some single and some multi CD.

Don't worry about the mileage I have a 137,000 without engine problems.

I may be interested in the red one.

Scott

[scubaguy10]

I would be careful of any Boxster with more than 100,000 miles. Not to say they won't last, but the maintenance costs could get severe. By way of reference, I recently bought a 97 with 18,000 miles!! for $19,000, but it was a deal from a friend. Look hard, you'll find a good deal. There are a lot of them out there.

[Alienz]

There are a lot of cheap Boxsters out there. I like this one, it comes with the hard top too.

http://autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_id=168048118&dealer_id=1359578&car_year=1997&make=POR&distance=any&max_price=18000&model=BOXSTE&advcd_on=n&end_year=2005&min_price=&first_record=26&certified=n&address=13205&search_type=used&advanced=n&start_year=1981&=&color=&cardist=1092

[pilyo bxster]

97 sport touring package with 10K miles on it, the guy has 3 vehicles and move here in oregon so he doesn't drive it a lot cause of the rain so he sold it. I would look around or save few more thousand dollars and get a lower mileage. remember... car may be cheap but maintenance is not!

[RandallNeighbour]

Looked at the boxster from autotrader.

bought my 97 from a Miami dealer who said it was a FL car... NOT. It was all over the place and wound up at the Miami auto auction. Carfax verified title transfers, of which there were many.

What the carfax did not tell me was that the engine had been replaced, as well as the front bumper.

Have a local mechanic who knows Porsches look it over before you buy it.

[Brucelee]

Be very careful when buying. For your own protection, YOU MUST have the car pre-inspected by a reputable Porsche dealer. The reason, the cost of repairs, which can be very very expensive.

Of course, they need to check for accidents, frame damage and any oil leaks etc.

All of these are deadly to anyone living on a budget.

BTW- a boxster for sale in the teens is worth just that.

Beware of the lure of low price, this is not an economy car.

Good luck

[Subanez]

Okay, here's a horror story for you, urging you to be careful. Most people on this board have heard this story before, but here goes:

In June, I saw a 2000 Boxster with 50K miles on it for sale on Ebay, complete with traction control and 18 inch wheels. It was for sale for $22,000, and looked to be a pretty good deal.

I hired a guy down in Texas to look over the car for me, a third party business that does only that. He looked the car over, gave it a "120 point" inspection, and said that the car looked great, ran well, and all that jazz. I was psyched.

Since I'm in the Air Force and was one week away from a 2 month tour in Africa, I asked if the car could be delivered when I got back from Africa in August of this year. The seller said "sure" and that was that. I left for Tunisia thinking that the Boxster would be home waiting for me when I got there.

Oh boy.

While I was in Africa, the email from the seller became scarce if non-existant, and it was all I could do to let him know that I wanted reassurance that the car was still in good shape, and that we were still on for an August delivery. I bougtht the car from Texas, and I lived in New York at the time.

I get back from Africa, and there's no car in sight. So I tried to call this dealership, and got no answer. I sent a few emails. No reply. One week later, and still no Boxster, meanwhile my check for $22,000 had been cashed two months prior.

So I call the local Texas police. They tell me to call the FBI. I call lawyers. I called Ebay. Nobody could help me, really. So finally, after doing some investigation work, I called a dealership that MAPQUEST said was across the street from where I bought the car.

The gist of the conversation:

Me:"Hi there, I'm curious if you can tell me any information about the dealership across the street, C+L Motors."

Guy at dealership: "C+L Motors? Man, they had a huge raid about a month ago, the police came and took all the cars, and they've been out of business ever since, nobody ever goes over there...why do you ask?"

You can imagine my near heart-failure.

So I find out that they bought my porsche (as well as about 40 other cars) from an auction on borrowed money, but never paid the auction people the money once they had the cars! And to make matters worse, they never paid back the money that they borrowed to buy the cars from the auction! So they owed double the money on cars that they never should have owned, including the Boxster that they "sold" to me.

Deep Breath.

So about a week after THAT, I get a call from a car carrier, saying he had a porsche on the back with my name on it, and wondering when I could meet him on the highway to pick it up.

I thought that my problems had been solved! Hooray, the car was in NY afterall!

Except that the dealer never paid for the shipping like we had agreed on, and I couldn't just pay $750 up front right then.

Except that the engine almost didn't start, and ran so poorly that I had to have it towed to the dealership, where they did $3,000 worth of repairs to get it running and to pass inspection.

Except that there was infinite more body damage and dings and scratched than the pictures I had seen 3 months prior.

And now for the kicker: Except that there was no title or legal documents of any sort with the car.

Back to the lawyers and the police...after another month of legal battles, I finally won the right to the title, since I was a "good faith purchaser" and bought the vehicle without knowing that it was a part of illegal operations and a lawsuit, and it was almost 4 months after I bought the car that I could drive it with my plates on it, with the title in my name.

Even now, though, there's some problems with the car...I just got a lexis nexus report, stating that there have been over 15 warranty maintenance issues in the last 3 years...and there was an $8K accident that was never reported to the police, explaining why it seemed to me like the doors, bonnet and boot were all replaced and repainted (and poorly, at that).

So...a dream Boxster that seemed perfect to me, even having it checked out, ended up being a disaster which I am still recovering from. There's still an issue with what could be the Idle Air Control Valve, and it is time for the 60K service, all of which I have to wait until after Christmas to solve, since I've spent roughly $7,000 on maintenance since I had the car in my possession in late August. That's more than $2,000 per month so far that I've owned it. Oh, and the top needs to be replaced, and is temporarily fixed right now with Duct Tape. Real classy.


All this isn't meant to scare you off, its only meant to urge you PLEASE to do the research necessary, even more than you think is required. Sometimes a great deal is too good to be true, as I found out. And remember: carfax doesn't tell you nearly everything. Find a friend with Lexis Nexus ( a lawyer probably), and get it CHECKED OUT BY PORSCHE CERTIFIED MECHANICS.

Okay, enough of my ranting and raving...good luck, and let us know how it goes!

-Kevin

[Lux]

Mileage over 100K can certainly be considered "high". But I would also be wary of cars with very low mileage too. I've seen cars that weren't driven very often develop problems (sometimes a lot of problems).

Personally, I would rather buy a car that was driven around 10K miles a year with an impeccable service history. That way, any issues that would come up either have already been taken care of or you will spot it when you get an inspection.

Usually from 0 miles to 20K miles is where a lot of warranty work would be done (if necessary). If you get a low mileage car out of warranty, guess who's going to foot the bill?

Just my $0.02...

[Automon]

I have a 1997 Black Box with Hard top 18" turbo wheels new rear rubber short throw shift GHL exhaust (sounds mean) everything works well taken car of never seen snow. The car is in heated storage for the winter I would like $19,000 or less without the hard top and exhaust let me know
Automon
bboyd@cniinc.cc

[RandallNeighbour]

Rich, I'd consider buying automon's car well before I'd deal with a stranger. We seem to have a good online community here and while it's surely not like dealing with a good friend, it's better than dealing with total strangers!

Now Kevin mentioned something about an nexus lexis report... which I should have done with my 97 as it would have forced me to say not just no, but HELL NO to the seller. These reports can be pulled by lawyers if I'm not mistaken and the subscription to the service is hefty, so expect to pay a bit to get one from a subscriber.

But it's worth it.

[wetstuff]

My Son-in-Law (isn't there always ONE lawyer in every American family...) who's in a rather large firm in Miami said in Dec 04 that Lex-Nex can't crack thru most state's privacy laws. I was interested in a NJ based car.

In the not-so-old days in Maryland, a civilian could order up a mailing list of all the 1978 AUDI Fox stationwagon owners; no longer.

I'd be interested in perhaps knowing an entry route into Lex-Nex if there's new information.

Jim

[Brucelee]

I would be VERY SURPRISED if you are able to purschase a 97 box for the price you quoted and have the car be in very good condition. The market simply does not value cherry 97s that low.

It can happen but unlikely.

What you can get for that price are:

trashed

Salvage title

No service work done

Frame Damage

Over 100K miles

Models out of favor, ie, color, options, 16" wheels

Cars with major expenses hidden and waiting to be fixed.

Think about it, why would YOU sell a cherry Box for this kind of money.

Caveat Emptor, let the buyer beware.

[YellowJacket]

I agree. $16k is a little extreme. I recently bought a 97 w/ 36k miles for $24k. I'm not saying I got the best deal in the world, but it did come with a 2 year 100k warranty from Porsche. The car is in great condition, but even so, I had to have $400 of work done in the first month of ownership (luckily covered by the warranty). I cannot imagine what kind of condition a Boxster would have to be in to be $8k cheaper than the one I bought!!!

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by YellowJacket

I cannot imagine what kind of condition a Boxster would have to be in to be $8k cheaper than the one I bought!!!

It can get QUITE ugly!

check this one out.

lets see £13,875 works out at around $27,000 for this boxster and many like it.

http://www.qualitysalvage.net/viewcar.asp?CarID=570


bruceless whats your view on this price, the car is a V reg which is year 1999 or 2000