How/Where to find a 986
 

I look daily at Craiglist (various cities) and on Cars.com. I also look at AOLautos every once in a while. I check the "For Sale" threads here and on Rennlist. Any other options out there that I am missing? I am looking for a 2000-2003 S, triple black or Blue with Black interior (if it is just a killer deal) with as little options as possible. No PASM or Nav. I will not pay much over 10k, just don't want the payment. I would like to find one in the 60,000 to 100,000 mile range. As I will be replacing most of the suspension anyway.

Have you been watching eBay? You didn't mention that source.

Posting a wanted ad here will help, and you should probably do the same on Craigslist.

I'd also recommend you find someone with a dealer's license in your state and ask them to start looking for what you want at the auctions they frequent.

The $10k amount you're wanting to spend seems quite low to me, but you may be spot-on. Decent examples of the 2000-2003 S model years go for $15-18k from what I've seen, and can go into the low $20's for a pristine example.

BTW, few of the boxsters in these model years were ordered with navigation and they didn't have PSM at the time, but they did have traction control (I think).

I will leave my personal opinions to myself and just say I choose not to use ebay.

I am not posting an ad because I am not ready to buy right now. I have a 67 that I need to finish up and get sold. I know that 10k sounds low to most people but I have seen it happen to often; someone is always having to sell something for too little or just wants something else. You know how it goes. You are right on it with your 15k-18k. I am just hopping that they keep dropping and don't start comming back up for awhile. Although I need at least the local ecomony to come back up. Some of my pay is on commission and last year really sucked. I should look into getting a dealers license.

I've thought of getting a dealer's license myself. It's $1500 a year here in Texas and you have to prove you have 10 car lot spaces available for inventory or they won't issue the license. This isn't too hard if you pay a local dealer a small sum annually to vouch for you.

To make the $1500 a year worthwhile though, I'd have to get into the business of buying a couple of cars a year and selling them. It's lucrative though—I know guys who go to the auctions each week to buy cars for people who have approached them, selling them the cars for just blue book wholesale and pocketing the difference.

Best of luck finding a boxster for cheap! The last two years have been rough on my personal financial situation as well. I can't imagine others with older boxsters are thinking, "I can't afford to keep this car. I should sell it for whatever I can get out of it as soon as possible."

And that's where you come in, eh? :D

Maybe you will find a lot of duplicate ads but I am a fan of Autotrader.com. You can specify a search range, engine type, color, etc.

Best of luck,

ddb

Too late in the season to look for a convertible now, ads will come up right before spring time.

I have to disagree. I think that it is the perfect time of year to buy a boxster.

Perfect time to buy
 

and the trick is to find a motivated/desperate private seller.

I'm doubtful on the $10k though. I see '00s for $15-16 and '01s for $16-17 if they are an S. Maybe find a really high mileage base in the $10-12 range..or even lower. But S seems to hold value.

I bought with 6" of snow on the ground and from a seller who had a business reason to need to sell. I was waiting with cash and in no hurry because I wasn't going to drive it till warm weather so I could be aggressive in my looking but super cautious in my offers. I was able to knock $2-3k off the going prices for a car in that condition/miles/options and to insist it pass a rigid PPI.

Why not buy from someone who has a blown engine and put in your own engine ... with sweat equity, you could do that for ~$10k.

It's funny I am asking about this today and just a few minutes ago a guy comes in and buys a couple tires. What does he do for a living? He is a used car dealer. We had a good talk. He said "a couple years ago I bought a boxster that was smoking so bad you can't even believe it." I said "It was the AOS right." And he smiles real big and says "yeah; googled it...made alot of money on that one." I wonder if he found his info on this forum.

Randall, have you looked into getting a Wholesale Dealers Lic? Last time I looked, the requirements were not as stringent.

Norm

Hey you never know...
 

Bought the original urban legend for one crisp dollar at a sheriff auction. Under 8 inches of snow and a tarp. All I knew was it was a 2001 and there were four wheels.

Son of UL was bought on craigslist. Not quite so good a deal - but a familiar story. No need for the car, didn't want to store it, saw the 60K maintenance bills coming, would need new tires in the spring, etc., etc.,

Best deals I have seen are in Oct from personal owners before they put the car in storage.

For reference I looked at a nice 2001S that sold for 13.5K. 40K miles - but like most of this model year add in a new rear window.

Yelojkt, this is Sean (from Abilene with the '00 blue S)

Do you know about the one at Briggs in Manhattan? It's a '00S w/78k or so miles. It's probably not the right color for you but I know they've had it awhile. I've seen it going by through the store front window and it looks fairly clean.... I don't know... just a thought..

good luck
sean

Just went and checked to see if it was still there.... I think it sold! Sorry...

sean

I found mine on eBay, actually, but they also had a Craigslist listing for it. Did the deal all in person though, so no online services involved in the transaction. ;)