Ouch. Offerred $7,000 trade-in for my 2000 S
 

I bought my 2000 S last Christmas for $12k and enjoy it but I already have another sports car, a 2005 Corvette that I bought new and kept nice, so I thought about buying a Ford Focus and trading in the Boxster. Initially they offerred $5k then went up to $7k but no more. The car has 106k miles, Tip, factory HIDs, leather. Only average condition but everything works and runs perfectly. No leaks, cold AC. The used car manager said it's hard to sell a high mileage Boxster in central Arkansas. No dealers and only one independent shop that works on them.

On the other hand, the dealership used car manager said the Corvette market is strong and there'd be no problem getting $22k for my car. Actually I haven't been driving the Corvette very much since buying the Boxster. So maybe I'll keep the Porsche since I can't get any money for it. I was expecting to get close to $10k trade in on the Boxster. Maybe I paid too much for it at $12k.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ebuffed001.jpg

can't speak for the boxster market in arkansas, but $10k for 106k miles '00 S isn't bad as long as you have kept up the maintenance and have records, i'd think that would be fairly well priced.

IMO though, i'd get rid of the corvette. :dance:

You can do better selling it yourself and with that mileage, I would do it soon.

+1 Trading or selling a car to a dealer will never get you what you could get selling yourself. They have to make profit and then compete with you in selling the car again so they can never offer you what the car is worth.

$12k for a 2000S is a friking bargain, even with that mileage.

It frightens me to hear these stories . I have a "show" condition '02 S with only 18k original miles, and nigh on to 40K in mods. I shutter to think what a private sale would fetch for my vehicle, let alone a dealer . :(

I hate to hear about it too. But it's the same story with any non-special edition Porsche from any era. They dip, then hold, then rise if they survive. Riding the wave.

Now mods, those are sunk costs, you can't expect any return on those.

I tried to trade my 2003 E46 M3 6 speed with 35k miles to a BMW dealer last year for a CPO 40k car and they offered me 10k and couldn't understand why I walked out. They were asking 25 for another M3 with 60k miles on their lot and not in nearly as good shape. Trading with dealers is nigh impossible these days.

I hear this a lot and in a several cases have seen it. In general though when I look at the used Boxster market most don't have extensive modes. I said this before, but if I had camped out on this forum for a few months before buying mine I would have bought one from a member and been willing to pay extra for both the excellent maintenance and mods. The funny thing is the best prices on the internet are on the forums, I'm not sure why but maybe like me people want to see someone get their car that will appreciate it.

I know as I add more mods to mine it is a personal thing and won't mean much to a non-enthusiast.

10k sounds like a great price for Dale's car, I might be interested myself :). Keep the boxster!

If you still have the m3 and its for sale I'll give you $13k :D

I think most people see a modified car as a bigger risk to reliability and longevity. Who knows how ham-fisted the mods were in the first place and then if the mods were done well, how much do they affect the reliability of the car?

Just my 2 cents, but why would you expect to get close to what you paid for it at a dealer? They need to make a profit on whatever they give you for trade + work that may need to be done. If you need to sell, then do it privately and you should get close to retail.

As much as I loved my 2000 Boxster S, I thought about selling it before it got totaled last month. The insurance company got me almost what I paid for it two years ago at a Porsche dealer. No way I could have gotten that with a dealer or even a private sale. Doesn't make up for my physical pain though.

The irony of course is that the clunker market...
 

is very strong. The low end stuff was taken off the market for cash for clunkers so there is no supply and prices have risen considerably. There was a bidding frenzy for my mom's old Buick. Go figure....just another blind-side punch to the working class.

btw some have posted their boxster for sale here at the dealer trade in price (or slightly better) just so a member could get the deal instead of the dealer.

I've thought this through and through as well, which is why I don't ever plan on selling my 03 S that I stuffed the 3.8 into.

I have no plans to ever sell the Dangermobile either . However, after reading this thread I couldn't help but wonder how the depreciation factor has effected my vehicle as well .

$7k is low but not out of the range. I just bought a 2000 2.7l with 115k miles from a private party for $7500.00, so his price, considering he will only pay wholesale is reasonable, but not good. Sell it on your own. Theres always someone who will pay near what you are asking.

Lets start a new game. Everyone take your car to a dealer to see what kind of trade in value theyd give you. Now just make sure you give a false phone number so they can't call you every 5 minutes about coming back in

We should first create a legal defense fund in the event a member ax-murders a used car manager .

JD
p.s. Just in case, I recommend eating a box of Twinkies before you stop in at any dealership .

I'm planning on keeping the Boxster - I wasn't totally convinced I was doing the right thing even if I got the price I wanted. The Corvette costs me about $3,000 a year to own, even if I don't drive it much. There's $1,000 a year for insurance and probably $2,000 a year in depreciation. It's such a good car though. I've babied it since new and the GM engineering is good in the sense of being trustworthy and trouble free. Plus it's got so much power that it's thrilling in the way a Tip Boxster can never be.

So right now I guess I'm standing pat. I might trade the Corvette for a Volt or maybe even a Prius, possibly a Fiat 500 convertible but none of those cars are available right now.

I thought I'd picked up the Boxster near the bottom of its depreciation curve but apparently not. Well, the most I can loose is $12k, lol.

Haha I like how you have a name for yours too. A friend of mine coined "Monster Boxster," and it kinda stuck LOL

How much did the dealer offer you on a trade in for the Corvette? I'm guessing there are more Chevy buyers in Arkansas than Porsche.

No sane person would trade in an enthusiast car. Trade ins are for lazy rich people, busy rich people or not very savvy car buyers. In the old days a private sale used to be a hassle since you had to do things in person or over the phone.
But now with the internet and middlemen who use the internet there really is no excuse. You can sell a car online as is, have it shipped and get the cash all without even leaving the house.

Also, as far as Boxster pricing if you check out the market values in the back of Excellence Magazine you will see that prices have GONE UP since the credit markets froze up in 2009 after the stock market crash. In other words if you bought a Boxster in 2009 you timed it perfectly. People are holding onto their enthusiast cars longer and putting off new toy purchases which is shrinking suppy. When you look closely the number of well maintained Boxsters is not as plentiful as you would think. You might score a Boxster chief only to find out it needs $2K for shocks; $2K clutch, RMS, IMS upgrade; $1K in tires, rotors, pad; and another $100 in random things like AOS, O2 sensors, catalytic converter, etc.

There is no such thing as a cheap Boxster.

I know you're about smack in the middle of the state or so, but prior to my seeing that I was gonna say go see what they offer you for it in Oklahoma. Even then, I'm with others in seeing what you can get for it privately from someone who actually desires the car and is willing to pay what it's still worth. Maybe list it online and see if anyone in AR or the surrounding states is willing to come and take it off your hands for what you're looking to get.

I have to agree with you that, after having driven an '09 Vette convertible in March, you kinda get back in the Boxster and wonder why nothing's happening when you stomp the accelerator...of course we're not talking about what happens when you turn the steering wheel on either one, that'd be a different story, lol. :D

If I had your stable (workin on it :rolleyes: ), and your dillemma, I'd probably end up parting with the Boxster, and privately at that. This way you can go and knock out half the price on a focus, or just about the whole thing on the big-kid-go-kart (Fiat 500), which I'm sure you'd find fun in its own little ways and still be quite efficient. That's just my $.02...maybe more like $.25 based on length, but good luck with whatever you decide, though I'm sure you'll make the call that you're happiest with.
:cheers:

Reality Check:

You need to think of the Boxster more in terms of the 944 and 928 so far as the used market is concerned.

The Market doesn't like your Boxster as well as you do. They are generally viewed as unreliable, expensive to maintain, and underpowered... then there's that Chick Car thing.

That's not to say they're right, but that's the general view.

Porsche also made waay too many of them, putting the car in a Buyer's Market, not a Seller's.

Add in the factor that you need to find the right individual buyer for your car. This won't be easy, and you'll endure lots of low-ballers and bottom-dwellers along the way which is discouraging. But, if you have the time, you will find the right guy - just don't be in a hurry to sell. That's the key.

Cheers!

^ I don't think i've ever once read a Porsche article in either a U.S. or British magazine that would categorize a Boxster along the lines of a 944 or 928 on reliablity.
If the experts on Porsches feel this way then I'm not sure why a buyer would buy into that flawed notion. There's one thing I'm guaranteed to see in my Porsche specialists shop every time I visit: a 944 needing work. And unlike a few 928 owners I've known, I've yet to meet a Boxster owner who said they sold it because the mainteance was eating them alive.

Granted, Boxster as far as buyers do illicit caution from prospective buyers. But that's more to do with Porsche's checkered reputation than the Boxster itself.
As matter of fact, Consumer Reports ranked the 2000-2002 Boxster highly on reliablitiy when I was in the market for my Boxster back in 2005. Don't think much has changed since then on Boxster reliability. I think the average 1st time Boxster buyer these days is a lot more informed than the average 1st time Carrera buyer was 15-20 years ago. Serious buyers know these are as reliable as they come as far as Porsche goes. It's not like they think they're going to do better on repair costs with an old 911, 944 or 968.

The thing working against Boxsters isn't just the checkered Porsche history, it's also the fact that it is just a two seater. At least with a 911 you can sorta get two little kids in the rear so that wifey is somewhat appeased. The car is very impractical for anyone with a family. That's going to cut down the possible buyers and explains why so many middle-aged guys are allowed by wifey to splurge on a Carrera.

Part of the reason I love my Boxster is because it is a two seater. The wife's Pilot can carry all the family for that stuff. My kids fight like crazy so having only one of them at a time is bliss. Or just having the wife in the passenger seat with the kids left at home is nice too. Lately my favorite passenger has been my surfboard, riding with the top down to the beach and back.

Face it boys and girls the market for toys has gone down considerably since the global financial crisis.

Bass boats, ski boats, planes, sports cars, campers, 4 wheelers, riding lawnmowers, motorcycles, tractors, RVs, race cars, yachts and sailboats are all in great supply at historically low prices.

The only thing I would not try to buy now is a used hybrid or an electric car.

This can be perceived as good or bad. It all depends on which side of the transaction you are on.

I think that the possibility of picking up a used GT3 and a 35' sailboat for the price of a new 911 is not a bad thing. The key is that you have to USE what you buy and not trade three times to find what you thought you wanted the first time.

This is a market for buyers who keep stuff for the usable life of the item, not for traders or speculators.

This is the time to fill out your collection and build value for later.

Bass boats, ski boats, planes, sports cars, campers, 4 wheelers, riding lawnmowers, motorcycles, tractors, RVs, race cars, yachts and sailboats are all in great supply at historically low prices.

Phew, I didn't see whiskey and cheap women mentioned anywhere in there . :)

"cheap women" is an oxymoron. :)

Don't let Jane hear you say that !