Buying used Boxster is hard work

[etarasoff]

So, buying a used Boxster is turning out to be way harder than I thought it would be! Maybe I was just naive coming in.

I started my search targeting late model 986s. I started locally and expanded my search statewide (see my other post "Inspect my Ride") when it seemed like all the cars nearby had one or more of the following issues:

1) too many miles
2) excessive paints/dings/interior issues
3) fishy backgrounds
4) weird owners
5) nice condition, low miles, but asking price in high teens or low 20s for a 986 (a little too much IMO since I want to drive it not collect it)

In short order, I decided I would spend a little more to get a 987 since I like the style more (the front...although not the back) as well as the interior. They also seemed to not command as much of a premium as the late-model 986s taking into account age/miles/condition/features.

Yesterday, I saw a '05 Boxster nearby that looked and drove perfect. The owner had stacks of records since the car was new, although he himself had only owned the car a year. I ordered a PPI at Michael Stead Porsche in Walnut Creek which was done this morning. They still haven't emailed me the report (wtf?) but the service manager called me and said the brakes needed doing, tires needed doing (I could see the rears were near gone so no surprise), the top had some issue, but most alarmingly, they detected some kind of paint repair on the front using their paint thickness gauge. He even used the word "substandard" to describe the paint. He summed it up by saying that he wasn't saying that I shouldn't buy the car, but only if I got a "smoking deal." I'm curious to see the report but still bummed as this probably isn't the car for me. The owner is convinced it is all original.

Going to look at a black 2005 S tomorrow. Could be nice (fingers crossed) although black is not my top choice in color.

Is it supposed to be this hard?

I know...whine.

[fivepointnine]

most of the really nice cars you are going to find will probably have SOME paintwork, at least a front bumper re-spray. have you looked in the PNW? There are quite a few decent ones on craigslist now. In my opinion if you are paying under 15k for a 986 S it will probably have some issues.

[DenverSteve]

I have always found it very easy. I've bought a couple of 986's and haven't found it tough. Every state is different in regards to what is available. Possibly expand your search to a region rather than one state. There's no reason not to fly across the country and drive "the" one home.

[Steve Tinker]

Believe me, doing the hard yards now will be forgotten when you unearth the right car.
There are many, many owners who jumped in too quick and now suffer buyers remorse.....

You are in an enviable position with cash to buy the car YOU want - take your time and if it takes 6 months, so be it - you won't regret the wait once you get the right car home and driving on your favourite road to nowhere!!

[Ghostrider 310]

Finding integrity in car sales requires patience, even when you think you have it, once they cash your check you are moved to the back burner in favor of the next score.

[madmods]

hey man, RE the "I know...whine. " comment.

As soon as I see this attitude, 3 categories comes in my mind. Your best shot imo would be to find where do you fit in. In ref to a second-hand sport-car purchase of course.

1) You just need a personalized lift between point A & B (then burn the thing in a safe area e.g. Busy Supermarket Front Parking Lot!)

2) You need a "toy", something that you'll like even if it's $5,000-$10,000 that you need to put on to get it up to what the car really deserve. in this case a cool little roadster

3) You can't afford a luxury car however decide to have one anyway with hope it becomes an investment because of its well-regarded brand

(Hint: Can't be #1, nobody can burn a Boxster)

My quote is Porsche are not cheap, and in all honesty they need fixing "all the time" and some other time, modified. Careful there my friend and all the best to you

[Ghostrider 310]

Any brand nearing or exceeding the ten year old mark is going to require more repairs.

[madmods]

Originally Posted by Ghostrider 310

Any brand nearing or exceeding the ten year old mark is going to require more repairs.

Mate, you should see my mate's 997, cayenne and caymans lolllll

[Johnny Danger]

Originally Posted by etarasoff

So, buying a used Boxster is turning out to be way harder than I thought it would be! Maybe I was just naive coming in.

I started my search targeting late model 986s. I started locally and expanded my search statewide (see my other post "Inspect my Ride") when it seemed like all the cars nearby had one or more of the following issues:

1) too many miles
2) excessive paints/dings/interior issues
3) fishy backgrounds
4) weird owners
5) nice condition, low miles, but asking price in high teens or low 20s for a 986 (a little too much IMO since I want to drive it not collect it)

In short order, I decided I would spend a little more to get a 987 since I like the style more (the front...although not the back) as well as the interior. They also seemed to not command as much of a premium as the late-model 986s taking into account age/miles/condition/features.

Yesterday, I saw a '05 Boxster nearby that looked and drove perfect. The owner had stacks of records since the car was new, although he himself had only owned the car a year. I ordered a PPI at Michael Stead Porsche in Walnut Creek which was done this morning. They still haven't emailed me the report (wtf?) but the service manager called me and said the brakes needed doing, tires needed doing (I could see the rears were near gone so no surprise), the top had some issue, but most alarmingly, they detected some kind of paint repair on the front using their paint thickness gauge. He even used the word "substandard" to describe the paint. He summed it up by saying that he wasn't saying that I shouldn't buy the car, but only if I got a "smoking deal." I'm curious to see the report but still bummed as this probably isn't the car for me. The owner is convinced it is all original.

Going to look at a black 2005 S tomorrow. Could be nice (fingers crossed) although black is not my top choice in color.

Is it supposed to be this hard?

I know...whine.

Patience ... my friend . I'm sure that there are many low mileage boxsters in great condition out there . You just have to be patient while looking .

[ekam]

5) nice condition, low miles, but asking price in high teens or low 20s for a 986 (a little too much IMO since I want to drive it not collect it)

What's wrong with the price? Nobody said you can't drive a low mileage boxster.

[seningen]

Figure on 3K of work on the car and it can become a pretty darn good daily driver.

They have their issues -- but they are pretty well known.

Aside from the IMSR and occasional pourous block issues -- nothing is catastrophic.

brakes/tires/wp/top/aos/headlight switch/various micro switches are all typical issues

Heck of a car for the money. Drive it to work, over to the track, come home -- and still looks
good in the garage 12 years later.

M

[AndyA6]

Sure is not easy to find the right car, will take time! I waited for quiet a while myself.

The problem is that a lot of people really do not care about their cars!! Use and toss. And then there are the car sales people....... so much BS going on.

I got mine from the local dealership, I know them for almost 18 years and even they/he (specifically my friend in sales there) was digging for almost a year until the right car came up for the right price etc. I also got it CPO from Porsche which already paid off big time.

Good luck, be patient, get a PPI, well, you know!

Later,
Andy

[recycledsixtie]

Posters here all have good points. Patience is a theme among them. Another point mentioned is expensive to run. I bought my first Porsche in my 60's. I dont sit on pins and needles and worry if the thing is going to crap out. Because mine is a 2001 Boxster base and I expect things to eventually go wrong. Pay now or pay later or pay now and pay later. To me there is no free ride. However a PPI well done is a cheap way to screen out the ones that need work. Better still is take a knowledgeable friend to screen out the bad ones first.And then get a PPI done.
Weird sellers? You are right they are out there. But they are less weird if they can provide receipts for work done.

Car searching should be fun but I do find the negotiating for $$ amount quite stressful but with a PPI in hand and it has deficiences u can handle you can get $$$ off the asking price. Cheers!

[jbs986]

Originally Posted by Ghostrider 310

Any brand nearing or exceeding the ten year old mark is going to require more repairs.

+1, any car that is ten years old is going to need a little work, I bought my second Boxster in October of 2011, it is a 2002 Base Box. W/68K miles on the car,I paid only $9,000.00 the owner of the car had over $6,000.00 in repairs and all receipts to prove it, The car still will need about anotheir $1,000 to $1,500 to be prefect.

My point is this, If you buy a Boxster for the right price and do as much of the work yourself, A used Boxster is the best used sports-car you can get for your money,their is no otheir sports-car out there right now that you can buy this cheep.

Also finding a Boxster that has it's front bumper,resprayed is pretty common, these cars have a plastic coating on the front bumper that doe's and will begin to peel off in time.

Good luck with your search.

[NoGaBiker]

Might I suggest, OP, joining PCA and you will start getting both Panarama and your local club's newsletter. Ours in Atlanta always has several cars for sale in back. And Panorama has dozens of Boxsters. These cars tend to be owned by serial Porsche owners who love and baby their cars and obsess over getting everything fixed immediately when they notice anything. They often clay the paint and wax with Zymol, treat and condition the leather, park in a garage with a cloth cover over the car, etc. When you find this car, you will be glad to pay a few grand more for it than the one with issues.

If you were to look at my 2004 986SE with 39k miles, I don't believe you'd find a single problem to complain about. Well, the only problem is I'm not selling it!

[recycledsixtie]

Originally Posted by nogabiker

might i suggest, op, joining pca and you will start getting both panarama and your local club's newsletter. Ours in atlanta always has several cars for sale in back. And panorama has dozens of boxsters. These cars tend to be owned by serial porsche owners who love and baby their cars and obsess over getting everything fixed immediately when they notice anything. They often clay the paint and wax with zymol, treat and condition the leather, park in a garage with a cloth cover over the car, etc. When you find this car, you will be glad to pay a few grand more for it than the one with issues.

If you were to look at my 2004 986se with 39k miles, i don't believe you'd find a single problem to complain about. Well, the only problem is i'm not selling it!

well said

[Perfectlap]

If you're not sold on black, I would postpone. Plenty of supply of 987s out there.

Black car is great for a weekend car but after having lived with one for 6 years I would not do that again. I'm far too fastidious and nit picky about my hobby car. The other thing I hated was that blemishes and unavoidable pebble impact from highway driving seem to magnify on that color. Matching black paint if you wanted to do some annual touch ups was also a PITA, requiring 2nd attempts by the paint shop. Sometime it wasn't the color but the fact that the booth allowed some minute particles to stick to the paint before it dried. In other words you have to have really good paint $hop. Or you could clear bra the whole front end. Also expensive.

My next car will be white or silver again. door graphics look great on both.

[WhipE350]

If I were buying again I'd camp on this site until a member sells. Great cars are offered here and usually they already have $1000s put into them so you don't have to. I see some of the prices and all that has been done and realize I overpaid buying elsewhere for a car that didn't have all sorts of preventative maintenance or nice mods.

I will say I got lucky the ONLY thing that has been expensive on my car is all the stuff I did to it for fun and to make it as new as possible. Looking at all the repair records from the previous owner my car had very few. Now the ones that were done were expensive because he didn't do them himself.

When I was looking 18 months ago I came across a lot of bad cars, the good ones got snatched up fast.

[etarasoff]

OK, maybe it wasn't so hard. Got the PPI report on the car I was interested in (finally...and after repeated calls...horrible service from the dealer doing it).

They reported the tires (which I already knew about) and brake pads being 30/90. Everything else checked out.

Oddly, the paint issue mentioned the day before was not on the report at all. So I called them back and was like WTF? The service manager said he said the tech said it looked line the front had been repainted but couldn't know for sure since the thickness gauge doesn't work on plastic (bumper) or hood (aluminum). I insisted on getting some more detail and so he went to the tech to get it. Tech basically said it looked like there might be someting going on but the front fenders and the rest of the car were all factory spec. So, I went to look at the car again today and on closer inspection I could see some touch ups on the bumper and a little on the end of the hood for rock chips. Looked like some basic touch ups and conditioning to make it look better.

Long story short...bought the car! On the drive home, the car put a huge smile on my face. The most fun I've had from a car in years.

Pictures tomorrow!

[WhipE350]

Well congrat! Enjoy the new ride!