Originally Posted by Drphil (Post 286260)

fyi- last month i bought a 2000 boxster S with about $12,000 of options, 6 speed manual 60,000 miles- very very clean with not even one door ding. a few stone chips which will be the case on all of them.
I paid $12k. i looked at a lot of cars and the 97's were priced from 9-10k with options, so i think you can get a better deal. - but dont buy anything without a PPI!!
have someone in the area that is on this board or Rennlist, etc go look at it for you if you pursue. - there is another member that lost $30,000 in a scam bought a car that was not the sellers! did not verify i.d. and ownership and paid cash, now cash is gone.

good luck-
Phil

Originally Posted by Overdrive (Post 286270)

I feel the price is a bit high, though the car does look excellent for its age (interior in particular). That said, pictures can do amazing things, so don't buy it sight unseen.

Here's what I noticed at a quick glance:

- Yes it's a Tiptronic, and I'm in the camp of sports cars needing to be manuals, but that's strictly personal preference, not a ding. My reason for pointing this out is concern that the car doesn't get put through its paces (high rev acceleration, cruising at high revs, etc.), and these aren't really meant to be babied cars. It's already lived a fairly long life mileage-wise, but cruising at low revs has been highly suspected to cause problems for this engine. If you do buy it, be sure to drive it hard once you warm it up.

- Anyone else notice the mesh screens going on up front for the radiators? I really really hope those aren't screwed into place or something terrible like that. Don't like the look and it would be a shame if those got screwed into an otherwise well-looking bumper. See if they have the original parts on hand and find out how those are held in place. Also makes me wonder what else may have been done in places we can't readily see (makes a PPI more important).

- Speaking of things that have been changed: There are 18" twist wheels on it, which look great, but...you need to ask the seller to check the placard in the driver's door jamb and get the build date for the car (will be in the format of month/year, i.e. 10/97 for Oct. 1997.). If it was built in 1996 or early 1997, you can be assured that it falls into that category of 97s that can be stressed by 18" wheels. If it was built in late '97 it may have the updates that were made for the 98 model year onward and be safe, though there's no guarantee of that.

EDIT: Wait a sec, am I going crazy here? I thought you had already made a purschae, js/sj...?