IMS: To Fix or Not to Fix? What are the costs?

[thstone]

I am a new Boxster owner (1999 base with 80K miles) and am interested in the financial tradeoff between:

(1) Cost to fix/update IMS

versus

(2) Doing nothing and possibly having IMS failure/rebuild costs

versus

(3) Simply replacing the car if the engine blows

What do you estimate the IMS fix along with the other updates to cost?

What does a used engine or rebuild really cost? Looks like anywhere from $8K for a used replacement to $18K for a super rebuild. Correct?

If the rebuild costs are really $15K+, aren't Boxsters with blown engines throwaways since a decent replacement car can now be had for the same price as the rebuild?

Thanks.