Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossimo
Hello all,
I’m new to the forum. Initially looking for information to determine which early model Boxster I should consider. My biggest factor is price, but know that low price may mean I need to layout for common maintenance items or potentially neglect. That’s okay within reason as I am handy and actually want something with a little work needed to keep initial cost down. Car with a story or history doesn’t scare me. This will be a weekend car primarily. Manual preferred as I want to enjoy it without worrying about using it as a daily driver in rush hour. Keeping my eye out, not in a rush, waiting for the right deal/car. Max budget would be 6-7k. But those would need to be perfect and need nothing major. Let me know if you see something, in the mean time, I will thank you all in advance for the knowledge I will be soaking up while I wait to officially join the Porsche family.
Regards
M
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Hi Mossimo, welcome!
I am new myself, but spent quite a bit of time looking before i pulled the trigger a couple of months ago.
I do not know if seasonal differences in price matter in AZ as they do here in NY and also consider I don't know much about the market there in general as you read the rest.
I think you will be hard pressed to find anything other than a 986 for your price range although a 987.1 is possible, but i don't think it would be much more than a roller for that price.
986 S's start around 9-10k where i am and go up to about 15 (but that is for a super nice one). I was on a similar brain wave shopping for mine, not minding some mods / work, but overall I wanted a reasonably solid car. I ended up getting my 01 S with 50k miles for 10.5$ albeit with the knowledge it had been modded (but not mods I was opposed to), and had no service history (lots of ppl care a lot about this). I did end-up replacing the AOS within 2 weeks but to be fair I do not think the previous owner knew it was failing, it seemed to happen suddenly. Overall I was very pleased though, the body is a 8/10, no dents just really minor surface scratches (going to get a nice detail in the spring), and the carfax had no impacts at all. The mods were tastefully done (fabspeed headers / exhaust) and good quality.
986 base cars I could find running for 5k ish and drove some. They were more work than i wanted. One i found out had a tree fall on it, another had mods that were not great (one thing to look out for on these cars in drone in the exhaust, the low quality ones sound horrible, at least to my ear). They were all high (i know, not for the age) mileage as well 100k +. You could tell driving them too.
I started where you are. Thinking 5-7k weekend toy that would be fun to turn a wrench on, what I found (at least for me) is that I was only going to be turning wrenches on them and the end cost would likely be more than I wanted to spend on a meh car. After searching for some time, I finally changed my approach, went for the 10-12k$ s market (goal was under 65k mileage, which are surprisingly easy to find here) and very happy I did. I still intend to (and have already) turned a wrench on the car, but I know when i get and turn the key and everything just works that it was worth it.
Good luck with your search! Check in and let us know how it turns out!
-Brian