What other cars did you consider before settling on 986 purchase?

[Jim Rockford]

Interested in seeing what everyone else was looking at?
Here's my list:

- E36 M3 (old car now but if I could find one low mileage at the right price I would strongly consider). It's got the box part in common with Boxster that's for sure. But BMW makes square look good somehow.

- E46 M3 (solid car but found it impossible to find one with low mileage despite it being newer than the E36. Not sure why but these things seem to all have high usage owners. And hopefully not offending anyone, but 99% of the owners of these look like total douches, so that was on the con list of ownership)

- First gen BMW M Coupe. Sensationally awkward, I love it for it's rarity and personally cannot get enough of the look of this car. Unfortunately in Canada the buying pool is almost non existent, and if you do find one it's going at a considerable premium to the M Roadster. It's nickname is the Clownshoe, and the main owner's meet is called Dorkfest. I dig everything about this car.

- 993 911. Appreciating like crazy, this was just not a reasonable value proposition. Might as well just buy a 981 with a few miles on it for the same price.

[78F350]

For me it was a very different journey. I had been restoring Honda Del Sols for several years: A great little targa-top, 2 seat variant of the Civic. Sold 4, scrapped a few. I had put a 2 liter engine in one and was going to build it up with a full aftermarket suspension, updated leather interior, fresh paint, etc. Budget around $5-6k to make it an "as-new condition", highly modified car.

Then I saw a Boxster. It was everything and more than what I was trying to build, also surprisingly affordable. In the end it was an easy choice.

[jb92563]

I needed a second car and wanted something sporty so I did a search for sporty cars under $15k and when I found out that a Porsche Boxster fit in that category I only started looking at Boxsters.

I had been looking at Fiero based kit car GT replica, but those are far too much work to look decent in the end.

I thought a Porsche was out of reach so I was pleasantly surprised.

[tomc88]

had Honda CRX transtop - actually I really enjoyed that car.
But was considering Mazda MX5!

since owning a porsche that just seems ridiculous,

If I had to stop owning a porsche, I'd struggle to think of an alternative now (in same price range). maybe audi TT since R8 out of my price range

[herve_g]

I only considered a Porsche, so I looked at:

- 964 C2
- 996
- 987
- 986

In the end, the 986 was a better deal than the 996/987 I saw around Montreal.

If only I had been able to find a 964 in my price range, I would probably have gone that way

[Pdwight]

I considered a 350 or a 370 Z Nissan . I know a guy who bought a new 370Z for his Daughter when she turned 16, had it almost 2 months before two of her friends took her car from a party and drove it off the interstate doing 125mph....rolled 3 times and only a few broken bones....impressive car. She later claimed they took it without her permission....but you know kids

[dijinn]

Was looking for a Honda S2k when a friend mentioned, "Why aren't you looking at a Boxster?" I laughed and said Porsches were way out of my price range, then he pulled up a few CL ads and it's all history now.

[Box4two]

Mercedes SLK as I was looking for a fun convertible daily driver for my summer commute into the city, but it seems the majority are automatic. I liked the Boxters, but thought they were out of my budget until I started looking seriously into them.
Very glad I went with the Box, I'm having a blast with it!

[Pdwight]

It's not the Buy in, it is feeding them that is expensive

But I have never regretted buying mine

[Timco]

Ferrari
Lambo
Maserati
Bugatti
Aston Martin

[Deserion]

I've wanted once since 1997 when I first saw an Arena Red/tan model while on vacation. At the time I was just amazed at how good it looked, parked there at the marina with the top down. I had been infatuated with 993s (and to a lesser extent, 964s, 944s, 928s, etc.) but this... damn.

Since then I had bought a few new cars that were as expensive as a nice used 986 at the time (almost $30k). But in 2010 I had an epiphany after seeing how little the prices were. "Why can't I get a Boxster?" So the hunt was on. My daily driver then was a 2007 Volkswagen Golf GTI - fun car, able to be utilitarian to an extent when necessary. Searched for a few months and found the one I have now, well under what the GTI had cost. The next year the GTI went away and the E320 came in to fill the daily duty. Over 33k miles later, I still love it.

[Joe B]

911 twin turbo, for about 2 minutes. Too expensive. From then on it was only a matter of which Boxster to get. I got a 2003 S peach !

[steved0x]

• S2000 - but I am too big and didn't fit comfortably in the seat.
• Miata - I actually bought one, a 95 for $2300, but then I gave it to my son.
• Nissan 350Z (or 370?) convertible - seemed too plastic-y for me.
• Oh I forgot I also drove a ragged out Toyota MR2 Spyder, the convertible top was rotten, the interior of the car was musty, and the check engine light came on during my test drive I will say it was a very nice driving car, and the cockpit felt very comfortable and familiar (I have driven Toyotas since the early 90's), and it had plenty of room for me. That thing has very tiny cargo space though, and the owners wanted major bigtime $$$ for it.

For some reason the Boxster was just... "it".

[Giller]

Wanted a convertible for summer driving - looked at:
- mustang
- BMW Z4
- Audi A4 Cabriolet (could not find a TT anywhere local)
- VW Bug
- could not find a miata anywhere local either

Nothing I looked at though got me excited. Then discovered a slightly older Boxster is in my price range! Yes, more expensive to maintain and older than I would have preferred, I'll roll the dice and enjoy driving a real drivers car!

As a child of the 80's - grew up loving Magnums Ferrari. Every since learning he was supposed to have a Porsche originally, that made Porsche cool too. If it's good enough for Magnum, it's good enough for me!

[jsceash]

I had test driven a Honda S2000, Nissan 360Z, Porsche Boxster and S, and a Cayman. I had a 2002, Corvette which I sold two years prior. Some what like a boat owner the best days with the Corvette were the day purchased and the day sold. I'm a very good mechanic but electrical, electronic problems in cars are hard to deal with, and the Corvette was none stop electronic problems

[RedTele58]

I had a few Audi tt cars catch my attention, but having driven Porsches for almost 30 years, it was an easy decision. Once I got serious about them, it became an addiction. 5 Boxsters later, I'm always looking for another. And, I seriously like the Generation 1 986 over the other, newer cars. They just seem to be more a drivers car.

Rick

[thstone]

996 or 997.

The only real Porsche is a 911, right? At least that is what I had heard and what I believed at the time.

Then I drove a 986 and realized that it was more of a true sports car than the 996/997. It was also a lot cheaper so I could use the price difference to fund enough track days to learn to drive well.

All of that went prefectly to plan... except I got addicted.

[Perfectlap]

This was actually the first car I ever financed. I always paid cash for everything and still do but the rates were attractive. I got a good loan. But I still had a hard time justifying a great deal of money in a sports car when so many excellent cars could be had second hand in the $20-40K range.

Back then no one had any real interest in bidding up the prices of air-cooled Porsches so they were plenty of excellent examples to be had. By this point I'd seen and driven a ton of Porsches either through friends or with the local autocross clubs. the Boxster was not my first choice of Porsche simply because it ended up being the very last Porsche model I'd ever driven. Visually I thought the 996 was fantastic but it struck me a bit 'loose', the C4 seemed too heavy/pushy, the Cab looked weird to me, the Turbo was down the road proposition when depreciation set in some more and the bullet proof engine was still tight, GT3 Mk1 was still too steep for the budget. I was most impressed with the E46 M3, then the Honda S2000, STi, EVO, a Mazdaspeed Miata, Lotus Elise (a bit of hike on the budget but worth it I figured), third gen RX7, BMW M Coupe and on the vintage front I considered (for a second) a BMW 2002 and a 964 (would probably have bought an RS if I had made the mistake of actually driving one), Z4 and I don't remember if I'd drive a JCW Mini then yet but it's still high on my list.

Then I watched an episode of 5th Gear where they crowned the Boxster the best sports car. Something about former F1 driver Tiff N. sliding it all over while laughing all the way that won me over. I started looking for one that day. A few days later my car shows up on Ebay from an Acura dealer 10 minutes away, still sitting in the showroom with barely 9K miles. There was a super clean yellow 996 up the road for sale by a private owner for only $10K more, but I'd already driven a C2. I never made it to see the 996, the Boxster S was perfect. No need to spend anymore money this car does everything.

[flaps10]

I'm sort of in line with the OP. I've owned an E36 (325iS) and an e46 (328 coupe) and an e46 sedan (330i). All were outstanding cars, with the E36 the best drivers car - less refined but lighter and easier to drive fast. I had always wanted an M3 version of either of the first two.

I've owned two Miatas (both great cars).

This time around my woman was trying to get me off of my motorcycles (not going to happen, but I did sell two in order to swing the boxster).

I did have my heart set on a 996 for a while. The affordable ones were tiptronic (I still have use of both legs and do not have a vagina, so no tiptronic for me) or they had some seriously bad color choices. Or both.

Decided to give the S model a drive. Fell in love and made it happen.

[BrokenLinkage]

996 C4s / cab
Maserati spyder
Miata
Honda S2K
TR6 fully restored
Mercedes SLK

For various reasons, the boxster trumped them all.
After 3 yrs of enjoying it, think I made the right choice. (Despite my first cel 2 days ago. Think I may need an aos.)