Scared new Boxster owner

[rick3000]

I think it was Jake Raby who mentioned that he had only seen one Spec Boxster have an engine failure, and all the other failures he has seen where cars that where driven lightly and/or stored a lot. The key thing here is that driving your car is good for it!

[stateofidleness]

Originally Posted by Lordblood

Every engine has a chance of dying right? The truth is, people don't come online and tell everyone that their engine is living, they only report things if they go wrong. From the thousands of Boxsters around the country, only a few vehicles have faced engine failure.

Just get out there and enjoy, if you are feeling too paranoid then I perhaps it's best to go Japanese, perhaps an S2000?

I was thinkin' more along the lines of Z06

[Nineteen89]

Important thing to remember is 12k is nothing compared to the original price the car was when new, just because the overall worth of the car has lowered 75% doesn't mean the cost of maintenance did so to, and with keeping that in mind I'm straying away from a possible Porshe purchase until I have the money to maintain it properly, I can't afford the gamble on a DD, which the box would have been for me... I need to think more realistically, right now I'm just a broke college kid with Porsche fantasies, I'll wait till after college.

[stephen wilson]

Driving hard didn't make the alternator or coolant tank fail, so have fun and drive it how you want to!

[JackG]

Originally Posted by stateofidleness

Just bought my 2000 base from dealership less than 2 months ago with 42k miles and so far:

cracked coolant reservoir - $1200 dealer fix
alternator - $400
alternator bracket - $770

picking it up tomorrow from the shop and bidding that car adieu.

The next owner will appreciate you working out all the bugs.

Hey, you bought a 9 year old car with 42k on the clock. That's less than 5k miles a year! Cars don't like to sit. Now that it's being driven, some things are going to need to be fixed. Once you work through the list, you'll have a nice, reliable car. Besides, it may be cheaper to keep and fix it than to trade it in right now. You'll lose a bunch.

[fastorange]

Greetings all, I am new to the board. Two months ago i bought a 2002 base with 30K miles for $14 grand. I live in Bismarck, ND, where it was -40 degrees actual temp last night. Needless to say, I won't be driving the Box anytime soon. I was able to put a couple hundred miles on it before storing it, and so far I love it. My take is this, all of the fun cars I have owned have had potential issues. My last car was a BMW M coupe, which everyone on the forums were afraid that the rear subframe was going to rip itself loose from the car. My car before that was a 85 Carrera, which had it own set of fearful issues. I have had over 35 cars, and 13 motorcycles. If you look hard enough ( forums are great for this), you will find people that have had problems, and love to spread fear. If you can't take it, don't buy the car. Sports and muscle cars by nature are going to be less reliable, because they are more high-strung, closer to the edge. If you want reliabilty, by a super-boring, vanilla Honda civic or Toyota camry. The tradeoff to reliability is a less exiting ride. I personally got lucky and found my car for a very resonable price. If the car grenades, I am still not out much. There are cars out there that are a fair tradoff price vs. risk, you just gotta find them. I personally plan on driving the hell out of my car, and maintaining it properly. I even bought this "risky" car, and the nearest dealership is 200 miles away. Life's too short to worry about what "might" happen. If you can't take the heat, get outta the kitchen.....sorry for the rant, I just get sick of reading all the doom and gloom.....

[ekam]