Warranty or 'Certified'.......

[wetsuff]

The salesmen will present you with a gift basket of all sorts of things you get with a certified (I even saw the salesmen's training flip chart..) but, from my perspective, it boils down to the addition of 2yrs extra warranty - up to 100K. Most of the other items seem like the policy riders for a metorite that crashes thru the roof into your dishwasher.

I don't think I've seen any 98's Certified, so they could have probably made it 200,000mi with no impact on anyone - Porsche included.

The question I'd like you to ponder, because of my limited mental resources, is: Is it better to go for a Certified 01, or simply buy an 02 with mileage in the 20k's where the warranty will still have 1+ yr?
....assuming, you'd probably never max out either mileage ceilings..

As an aside, it appears that the Cert. program is a way for Porsche to throw a bone to their dealers and still dump a lot of cars in the open dealer market. I don't know the car business, but I can't think that the dealers would be willing to take all the lease returns... Thoughts?

Jim
Salisbury MD

...my wife wants Seal Gray if you see one.

800 825 1245 (weekdays)

[Ronzi]

I agree with your conclusion that Porsche dealers don't necessarily want lease return cars. I think most of them have too much mileage to make them attractive to a dealer. In my experience they only want low mileage ultra-clean cars for which they can charge a premium.
I expect that most of the lease cars go from the leasing companies into the wholesale and auction markets, and end up in the hands of non-Porsche dealers.
Not sure what to say about the Certification program, other than that it seems to be an attempt to make prospective purchasers feel a little better about the premium dollars a Porsche dealer expects to get for a used Boxster, and to lessen fears of major $$$ if something breaks. The Boxster bears the cross of being the cheapest product in the lineup, but fixing one isn't much less expensive than the models costing twice as much.

[tomatjs]

I'd go for the certified for a peace of mind, otherwise, look for cars from your nearest Boxster club or PCA. Most of these owners are likely to have well taken care of their cars.