What is your next car up from a Boxster?

[roadracer311]

I bought this last March. It's a 1995 F355 Spider. Had 124 miles on it at the time. Has about 1,700 miles on it now. It took 2nd in class at Concorso Italiano last Friday in Monterey.

I'm keeping the Boxster though.

[roadracer311]

Oh, and I wrench on motorcycles for a living, so I plan to do all of my own work on it, including the engine-out service which is done every 5 years or 30k miles (not every 6k miles!)

[CVstarBoxster]

I've always loved Ferraris, but I'd go with the Audi R8; it's more practical, and probably more exclusive right now since most people haven't caught up to it yet.

[chris97boxster]

Buy a 2nd boxster......drop a 3.8 in it. ....twin turbo it. ....19 inch wheels. .....we all know it will take the abuse. ...drive it.... I like the idea of TT's in a boxster.....pseudo carrera GT......besides didn't someone say something along the lines. ...in regard to Porsche "those who drive one. ...know". I do. ....I'm sure you all do too

[roadracer311]

Yeah, it depends on what you want to do. If you wanted to drive it a lot an R8 or a Gallardo would be a good choice. Heck even an air cooled 911 twin turbo would be good.

I'm planning to drive my Ferrari 5k miles a year. I'd say the average Ferrari gets driven less than 2k miles per year. They cost about $1 to $2 per mile to drive (a little more if you include depreciation). I'll bet an R8 or Gallardo would be more like $0.50 a mile.

The Ferrarri is a different experience. It's scary to own, scary to drive (because I'm always a little worried I'm going to scratch one of the wheels that cost $2,300 each... though the tire shop already did that for me yesterday). Or worse, I'm worried that the motor will fail, since a top-end rebuild is $20k.

I can't put my finger on it, but Ferraris are different to drive.

In the long run, I describe it to my friends like this: The Ferrari is like a hot/difficult girl I would date. The Porsche is like a girl I would marry.

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by roadracer311

In the long run, I describe it to my friends like this: The Ferrari is like a hot/difficult girl I would date. The Porsche is like a girl I would marry.

Well put... I kept my Boxster and "stepped up" last year to something more expensive. I very strongly considered the Ferrari F355 and the Maserati Coupe. In the end it was those $20K engine rebuilds, $2K+ wheels, expensive exhaust headers, expensive brakes rotors, expensive shocks, etc, etc, etc that pushed me away from the Italian cars. I'm more of a "mate for life" type of guy, I needed a car that I could "marry" that would be there for me (long term), work well, with few headaches or bills that require a home equity loan to pay off. I bought an '03 Carrera 4S.



Funny thing though is that I then replaced my Honduh beater car with a '72 Porsche 914. This thing has really just grabbed my heart. It's not great, but it's just got so much character and is so fun to drive. Plus I LOVE working on this car. The engine is hard to access, but there's not one $%^@!#* computer or CPU in the whole damn car. This is what I drive to work each day and the damn thing just keeps growing on me.



Kirk