Thinking of buying a 99 Boxster

[CenterIsl]

monsterrider? What's attracting you to this particular car? Is it the sub-$10K price? If that's it, then you may be disappointed. There are numerous stories about "cheap" Boxsters ending up costing more than "good" Boxsters.

And there are lots of boxsters out there, most with more power than this one (which you've already identified as a potential shortcoming). Your history of the car sounds reasonable, but you're still going to need a good pre-purchase inspection to have any assurance that there aren't any looming problems. And even with that, there are obviously no guarantees.

As for value, I'll say it seems reasonable given the current conditions (economy down, summer convertibles up). But you're going to know your local market better than anyone else - and you're going to have a better idea of how hard it will be to get rid of it if you change your mind (as a rule, Tiptronics are slow to sell).

Also, you didn't mention any options. A completely base boxster is rare, and every car has _some_ options. These options might affect the used car price by as much as 10% (or 20% if there's a hardtop), but would be rather expensive to add after the purchase.

You didn't say how many other boxsters you've looked at, so I'm going to assume you haven't looked at many. In that case, I'd say go look at a few more and then circle back to this particular car. It will be a lot clearer then.