It is very disheartening checking new posts

[mikefocke]

because you are frequenting a forum where people are fanatical about cars and this one car in particular and are particularly knowledgeable. One failure may be being posted by the same person on different forums where he uses different screen-handles. And few post about their cars when their aren't problems or when they are just out driving them. Were you to know the same amount about any car, you would see they all have weaknesses.

I had to take a 120 mile trip the other day in a driving rain that was only going to get worse as the day wore on. And I absolutely had to be there. I had the choice of a Honda, and Acura and a Boxster. All with about the same age (9-10 years) and mileage (~50k) and all with fresh tires on them. I chose the Boxster. It has also been the cheapest to maintain.

[SeanZ4]

ElementAI, I also had a '90 miata about 20 years ago. It was a great car at the time. Since then I've had 3 Z3s, a Z4 and I decided a year and a half ago to buy a used 2000S Box w/38k miles. I went through all the same anxiety that you are. I weighed the pros and cons and still decided it was worth it to experience the ownership. Like everyone else states, they are more expensive in some areas to maintain. However, I've always heard that japanese car parts can be stupid-high priced also. Especially body parts. Read Mike Fockes website. That's what I did 2 years ago. It helped me make my decision. In the time I've owned mine I haven't put that many miles on it. It's a third car for us. The only problem I've had was that I had to replace the rad. cap a couple of weeks ago and my clutch is squeaky sometimes. That's about it. Have a PPI done and it will give you a great piece of mind.

good luck
sean

[davemon]

I believe that there is a subset of Boxster owners that are unlike any other car owning sector. That we have not only reduced the known catastrophic failures to about 3, we also have identified the trouble rate by year and even found a new and superior bearing to resolve 1 of those 3 problems. I'll admit I cannot afford a 911 or at least not with good conscience, but even if I could, I still know the Boxster is what I want. I initially thought I was going to buy the less expensive (both in terms of price tag and maintenance) S2000 for all the reasons people buy Hondas realizing it was a compromise bc I really wanted the Boxster performance. Frequenting these forums, Pedros Garage, mikefocke's site, LN engineering etc made me much more comfortable buying my used '04 986.

Because of these resources I know everything that may go wrong with this car, I'll be getting the ISMR soon that would have resolved about 1/2 or more of my worries. I can deal with the minor components crapping out, in exchange for a superior driving experience. What would be devestating is a grenaded 2.7L before I get significant return on investment (or is this a divestment, ha). As long as I can get some decent miles clocked on the 2.7L, I'll be extremely happy. One day the 2.7 will die and I only hope enough time has elapsed since my initial purchase that I can rationalize dumping more $ to get a (Raby) bigger HP replacement and get a second and more torquey life out of ole Boxy. Besides isn't gaining HP a good consolation for an engine biting the dust?

[CenterIsl]

I'm paying attention to this issue as well - really hoping for some objective statistics. Clearly the resale prices on 986 / 996 cars (and even 987 / 997) have suffered because of this issue, which I benefited from when I bought my car a year ago. And I'd love to truly believe that this is a non-issue. Poking around, I have come up with (in ascending sample order):

1) my mechanic (Squires in Bellevue) has seen one IMS failure ever, and they have worked on many (more than a hundred?) Boxsters, obviously all out of warranty.

2) MSN Autos has 629 user reviews (just checking 986s) and just 3 reported engine failures that I could find:
(year) (reviews)
1997 - 42
1998 - 32
1999 - 74 - "lost an engine", "blown engine"
2000 - 113 - "(heard about blown engines)"
2001 - 180
2002 - 103 - "engine failure (timing chain broke)"
2003 - 56
2004 - 29

3) Consumer Reports Reliability History for all Boxsters "Engine Major" compared to "average":
2000 - Better
2001 - Much Better
2002 - Much Worse
2003 - Average
2004 - (not enough data)
2005 - Worse
2006 - Better
2007 - Average
2008 - Much Better

4) Porsche's use of the IMS design for 12 years and hundreds of thousands of M96 motors. Sure, they revised the bearing - but they revise almost everything in these cars. Offhand, I think there were as many cupholder revisions as IMS revisions in that period. We all know that Porsche is the only one who knows what the true failure rate is, but think about it - do you really think they would have continued to build IMS engines for more than a decade if they really experienced a...10% failure rate? Beancounters or engineers, these guys have kept meticulous records for half a century and - IMHO - their slowness to move away from the IMS design is perhaps the biggest telling factor in just how significant this problem is.