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you will love the Boxster. I have driven my fair share of performance cars, and the Boxster is THE most fun car i have driven. Not the fastest, but the MOST FUN. Period.
my car, a 2000 base, with 18s, M030, and 75k miles still feels tight, runs VERY smoothly, and corners like it's on rails. Literally. you can't have more fun in a car for what you will pay for that car - period.
I also worried about IMS after reading all the stuff here and I said " go for it". you only live once. the odds of it happening are low. I too am a married guy with 3 kids, and this is a third toy car for me. I drive it to work on Friday... in about 20 min I"m hoping in it for lunch - can't wait!! - and like you, I really can't afford a 10-15k repair job... I can easily afford the car, but then another 15k just to fix it - no.
I have one GOOD car that is new/reliable that fits the whole family. New Acura MDX. I have an older, PAID off, reliable sedan I use as a DD. the box is for friday, weekends, date night, etc.
i figure in the UNLIKELY event that I suffered total failure - i'd just park it, cover it, and start saving for the 3.4L swap. it would suck, ut eventually i'd find a used 3.4L buy it, and find a mechanic who could swap it in for me and I'd just have to be patient. the end result would be one bad A$$ wicked boxster. i hope that never happens...but there would a silver lining to the cloud.... albeit it would be painful to have to cough up that money...
life is short. too short. if you are like me and you love cars - you WiLL get a substantial amount of pleasure from this car. i say the risk is worth it. but only you can say for sure what YOu are comforatable with.
extended warranties aren't cheap. i priced one for my car and with tax it would have been over $4000 for a 3 yr full warranty. even an "engine / drivetrain" only warranty was 3k+ - but my car has 75k miles. you might get a lower quote since your car has less miles - but not mch less. from what i saw, once the car was over 15k miles all the extended warranties were 2-3k+. IMHO not worth it. if you only drive the car 5-7k/year - you're paying a LOT for that peace of mind. and if it never happens - you wasted a lot of money.
take the risk, enjoy it. if you can wait a little and come up with more money to buy a CPO boxster - that might be a better idea, but it will cost more. if i could afford to blow $30k i'd be getting a newer one, but I wanted to be at or below 15k..so you have to bear some risk and get an older car.
good luck
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