Upgrade 986 or buy 987?

[johnsimion]

Originally Posted by dascar

In the spring, I plan on either selling my 02 Boxster S (Speed Yellow, 33k miles) and getting an 07-08 987 Boxster S (Speed Yellow, of course - budget of around $26k) OR spend $6k in upgrades on my car such as new turbo front bumper, side valances and perhaps an exhaust mod. What do you guys think? Is newer better? More HP, real glass window vs. plastic, a tad more interior room plus all new dashboard, sexier body and it already has the cool front bumper with big air intakes as well as non-fried egg headlights. However, I could save myself $5k or so by keeping my car and have a pretty unique 986.

Your car looks really good and it only has 33K miles. No offense intended, but your car is nevertheless highly depreciated versus a 987. You'd be money ahead to put in the LN Engineering upgrade to the IMS and put on a new convertible top with glass window, and then drive it for a very long time. You will get your money's worth in the form of very low cost driving, but you also won't be losing very much more depreciation. Comparatively speaking the 987 is going to depreciate like crazy. Personally I wouldn't go for all the other mods because you won't see any return on your investment, but if you really like them, you are still far better off financially to do the mods you like and keep the car. You could lose $6000 in depreciation in just a year or two on a 987, not to mention the much bigger original outlay.

Of course the 987 has a lot more power, so you could figure it will go 0-60 a second or two faster. IMHO not worth the extra cost. Same rationale why a Miata is such a popular sports car: Like your car now, a Miata is relatively cheap and you can drive it at 10/10s and enjoy the heck out of it for a low cost. If you have 320 hp, you simply can't drive at 10/10 except on a track. Don't believe me, tomorrow go for a drive and ask yourself how often you could actually take advantage of another 100 hp due to cops and traffic. Around here, I love to take my 08 Cayman around freeway on-ramps ... and have to watch out lest I rear-end some slowpoke!