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Originally Posted by glitch77
Is owning a Porsche (2001 Boxster S) something that is too expensive to be my primary car? I see lots of posts about having this and that replace, this overhauled, that changed, at seemingly low mileage.
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I believe a Porsche is best used as a daily driver.
This will be long, but hopefully it will help.
Porsche is a high performance, wonderfully engineered machine. They are made to be driven, and driven hard, not garaged for once-a-month drives on perfect days. There's nothing wrong with that if it's your preference, but that's not what they are made for. As they sit, rubber and plastic hardens and nasty chemical reactions occure inside the engine and that's what causes most low mileage repairs. As they sit the electrical connections corrode more easily too causing most of the electrical problems. If you go to forums with the older models you can see this. The lower mileage ones generally have more problems and require more catch-up. That won't be as much of a difference with the relatively young Boxster you are looking at.
Basically, for a DIY guy, the Boxster is a wonderful, fairly inexpensive car to work on. Very easy to access most things and several forums to get answers to any questions you may have. With Sunset Porsche having Porsche parts at great prices (about the same as your average american car part which is amazing), it's not that bad.
Here's everything that has been done to our 2000 model. We got it at 21K miles and these are approximate DIY prices (I'm quoting the high side of the cost if I'm not exactly sure). We're at 65K miles right now.
Maintenance:
1) Brakes (rotors all around, pads, sensors & fluid change) $450. I get 30K miles from the pads and 60K miles from the front rotors & still have the original rotors at 65K miles. YMMV.
2) Oil change (9.5 quarts Mobil 1 & filter filament) $60 every 15K miles.
3) 30K mile service (Oil w/ filter, air filter, cabin filter, spark plugs) $100
4) 60K mile service (Oil w/ filter, air filter, cabin filter, spark plugs, fuel filter, differential/gear box oil & serpentine belt) $175
5) Tires (Kumho Ecsta ASX on rear and Ecsta 712 front) $600 full set installed. I typically get ~30K miles front, 50K miles rear. YMMV
Repairs:
1) Ignition switch (got the part at Autozone). $32
2) Replace coolant reservoir (this is the first "repair" we've had and it was just a few weeks ago) $200 w/ cooling system hoses.
3) Replace serpentine belt idler rollers (3 of them should be replaced by 60K miles to beat the bearing/roller wear). $150
There are no plug wires to replace. Each plug has a separate coil on it with a single connection so you just replace a coil if it goes out. They're ~$55 each coil if one goes bad. I have not needed to replace one yet.
The oil filter is a filament change. You have to take off the plastic canister, replace the insides and put it back together. Uses a standard 74mm-14 flute socket you can get at most auto parts stores. The filters are all OEM Mahle brand you can get for good prices.
The tools are all metric. A good array of regular allen wrenches, allen sockets & 6 point metric sockets can do most things. The differential drain requires a special 16mm 12 point inverted (triple-square) with a hole in it. The manuals call torque out in Nm most of the time so it's handy to have a clicking torque wrench that can measure Nm or a converter for Ft Lbs.
Good diagnostics tools are a multi-meter, OBD II scanner (preferably one that can do more than just read the code) & mechanic's stethoscope.
Hope it helps!
