To own or to not own a 2001 Porsche Boxster S - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

sd_boxster · 07-25-2009, 07:09 PM

Depends on how handy you are with a wrench and what you plan to do with the car.

If you're going to track the car, you may be buying a set or more of tires a year. My "cheap" Yokohamas were $700. An oil change for a Boxster, with 10-ish quarts of Mobil 1, will set you back close to $100 for materials.

You'll be due for your 60K service in less than a year (assuming 1K miles/month), which can cost between $800 and $1K (or more).

It's very, very possible that you'll have no trouble at all - I don't want to sound all doom-and-gloom. On the other hand, if things DO go wrong, they can get spendy in a hurry. Personally, I waited to buy a Porsche until I knew I could afford either to put $10K into a new motor or just walk away if something really awful happens to it that Porsche won't fix (or happens after my two-year CPO warranty expires).

Frodo · 07-25-2009, 09:53 PM

I've got a 2001 S with about that many miles on her. Love it.

Got it 3 years ago. Only maintenance (other than oil changes, filters, visual inspections, etc.) so far: alternator rebuild, which me and the shop manual (plus some good info on this site) managed to stumble through without resorting to spending the big bucks at the shop/dealership.

Dave928 · 07-25-2009, 10:43 PM

just under 40k on my 01 S. i'll do the 45k oil change myself and i don't expect any large repair costs until the 60k service. insurance isn't too bad...

just do it...

sd_boxster · 07-25-2009, 11:35 PM

As far as insurance goes - mine went down significantly when I sold my '05 Hyundai Tiburon and bought my '03 Boxster.

E Kaplan · 07-26-2009, 04:19 AM

First, in this economy, I think you can probably do better than $20,000 for a 2001. Look on ebaymotors and autotrader at the numbers. You should probably not pay more than $18,000 for the car.

There you go! $2000 plus put away for repairs.

While you will read about what can go wrong on these forums, most of us have not have alot of problems with our Boxsters. I have a 2000 and over the past 1.5 years have put about 15,000 miles on her. No problems at all. Insurance was not more expensive than any other car.

Enjoy. These are great cars.

E Kaplan · 07-26-2009, 04:43 AM

Bren:
Check out the classifieds on this forum. There is a 2000S from Kevintari. Beautiful car, many options, including radio and lithtronics and appears to have been well maintained. He was asking $16,900 and has dropped the price. Also, 60,000 service completed.

vath2001 · 07-26-2009, 05:04 AM

DON'T DO IT!

Its Satan's ride, forged from the very bowels of Hades! It will eat up you weekends, washing and waxing. You'll have to deal with people commenting "Nice ride/car". The looks, the stares, the cornering at 50 mph. The tight suspension, the low rumble of the throttle, the top down suntan.... the Hottie sitting next to you. : )

But if your into that type of stuff, its only money.

mikefocke · 08-11-2009, 11:14 AM

I own a '01 S, second Boxster, 56K miles. Over 4 years of ownership, it has never left me stranded and has cost $15 a month in unscheduled maintenance. You can do a lot of the maintenance yourself...and I'm no mechanic. There are lots of do it yourself guides to the typical things you do. No way does a oil change cost $100...not of you shop the parts right.

Can it be more expensive than a normal car...you bet. Blow an engine and you can see some serious costs. But 3 weeks ago I had to change an Oxygen sensor in my Honda CRV and my Porsche on the same day. The Porsche part (bought OEM and mail order) was well less than half the Honda part bought the same way. And the labor was the same at my local tire shop...no need to go to a Porsche specialist for something as simple as this.

And I value my well cared for car with good but not the best options set at $16.5k in today's market so you can do lots better than that $20k and have some cash left over for any needed repairs. Do do a PPI.

For much more on this...follow the link

http://mike.focke.googlepages.com/mikesporscheboxsterwebpages

Darkhamr · 08-12-2009, 07:10 PM

Just keep a little repair fund aside. Most don't have any problems, but some such as myself have quite a few. I bought my '02S two years ago with 45k miles and I've put somewhere between $7k-$9k in repairs during those two years. It sucks, but I'd still never get rid of it except to buy another one...maybe.