Sure a 2.5L, got the same here (ROW).

According to the legend, mine miraculously made it to the 60k miles range recently and still running strong. In that case they must be quite good engines ;)

Sounds really good at high rpm, lightweight and all that. I'd say keep + install an aftermarket cat/pipes/muffler on it. Fun, loud & fast little thing for sure

Cool find

ps: sad to hear my boxster car worth $4,500 these days lolllll Makes me proud'er to drive a daily Passat

Official Porsche VIN and engine decoding at the end of the document (V-pages): http://www.porsche.com/all/media/pdf/originalparts/usa/986_USA_KATALOG.pdf

Regards, Markus