Longtime lurker, and I finally got myself a Boxster a couple of weeks ago. Seal grey/black 2001 S, with all the options I wanted (6MT, full leather, Litronics, heated seats, Sport package, etc.)
This forum and others were indispensable in educating me on what to look for, what to expect and what to insist on. I'm posting to say hello and to provide for future lurkers some anecdotal evidence of how one must be prepared for the worst-case scenario in buying any 15 year old, somewhat exotic car.
Reading up on the forums was invaluable, both in telling me what to look for and preparing me for the fact that any old Boxster could require a big infusion of cash anytime. It was for that reason that I decided to look for a 986, rather than a 987. Both have the potential for unpredictable major failures, and both were going to be old enough to be due for some measure of age-related maintenance at this point. The cheap buy-in on a 986 meant that I could deal with even major repairs right off the bat. And it's a damn good thing I went in prepared for that.
I had been looking for a while, and had almost settled on an '00 S over in Atlanta. Just as I was making arrangements to go over, a dealer 20 miles from me came up with the car I ended up buying. I'm the third owner, and there wasn't much history with the car (except the carfax showed that the 12-year previous owner had accumulated about 3k per year like clockwork). 70k miles on the car.
I don't have any particular mechanical skill or education, but I've worked on my own cars over the years and am comfortable crawling around under one when needed. This one was nice; bone-dry underneath, all accessories functioning, top in good shape and watertight, no noises. The dealer had done an oil change when the car was traded in, but had not changed other fluids. It was obvious that no part of the suspension was recent, so I went in expecting to deal with that in the near term.
No PPI, so I was willing to pay what would work for me, even if the car had a major failure the next day. The fact that this dealer was very eager to unload an old Porsche in trade for a 2010 Lexus (it's a Toyota dealer in a country town) made the deal very appealing by the time we beat up the numbers a bit. So I jumped, and the following week or so of driving the car and getting to tinker a bit (installing rear speakers and replacing the rest, giving the car a good 2-stage polish, and replacing a few minor interior parts that had deteriorated) gave me an opportunity to really appreciate the car.
Then, after about a week, a big puddle of chocolate milkshake in the garage after a long drive. Had I bought this car at any previous point in my life (when the appeal of cheap Porsches overrode my knowledge that they're never cheap for long), this would have been a head-in-hands moment. I took it to a shop I've used in the past for other German-made follies, because I have always seen lots of 986 and 996s on the lifts there. They called that day to say that it was a cracked head. I could let them tear into it, or I could look into remanufactured engines. Knowing that fixing the head would be a bit silly if it wasn't done as part of a full rebuild, I decided that the simplest solution would be to get an engine.
I did a lot of research and found only a few places that could provide comprehensively rebuilt engines, rather than receiving and rebuilding mine (and requiring my household to work with one car for a few weeks). I settled on Vertex Automotive after having a detailed conversation with them about what I was getting, their warranty and the details of how and when we would get the thing up to SC.
So here I sit, with the engine being delivered today and installed this week. I'm still happy I bought the car, and I'm actually kind of relieved to be getting this out of the way. Am I going to end up with a $20k 2001 Boxster? Yep. Am I going to be happier with it than I would have with most any other $20k car? Yep.
I'm not sure if I'm adding anything to the conversation on this board by posting my experience (at what turns out to be great length), but I thought it might be helpful for other lurkers to get a realistic story of why we have to be prepared when we buy any older car, especially one that can be particularly expensive. There was no way to predict that the head would crack shortly after purchase (although one of you more knowledgeable folks might correct me on that), but it's not an uncommon failure for these cars. Same for some other pricey faults that could arise. So I'm glad that when I saw that really nice 987.2 that fit the budget (if one considers all available cash to devote to a car purchase the budget), I reminded myself that it would still be an expensive-to-repair, out-of-warranty car.
The second reason to post this is to start a place for me to give some updates on the Vertex engine. When researching them, I found a lot of debates about their 'eternal IMS fix,' most of which seemed to focus more on the reasons not to be a guinea pig for something new when there are well-established manufacturers with lots of bearings in circulation. I really didn't find much in the way of reports from owners of their engines, so I'd like to return and make a record of my experience with this engine (good or bad, but hopefully good) over time for the benefit of anyone else looking.
In any case, thanks to all of you for taking the time to report your experiences and add your technical knowledge to the board; I'm looking forward to being a part of the community where there's anything I can offer. Also, here's a pretty bad photo of my car.
