High mileage 987s?
 

Hi all, in about a year or so I'll be in the market for a Porsche 987 Boxster. I currently drive a '98 Z3 roadster and I'm wanting to switch to something newer and the 987 seems perfect. The ones I'm looking at in my price range have anywhere from 75k to 100k on them. Is that considered high mileage on a Porsche? I've never owned a Porsche so I don't know what I should expect buying a Boxster in that mileage range (Especially maintenance costs since I am by no means a mechanic). It would also be my daily driver but I only drive about 10k miles a year. (Any Boxster daily drivers here?)
Since I am new to Porsche I'm learning all I can before I buy one.
Thanks for any help :D
Also, I'm sorry that I posted this in the 986 forum, I didn't really see a site like this for the 987.

No, that is not high mileage. My only suggestions would be a ppi and buy the best conditioned one for the money you have. Goes for all cars IMO. Oh, expensive to fix and or buy parts if needed. Probably want the list of what's been done too. Some things start to wear around 70k. Again like any car.
I'll stop rambling now.

Good luck.

Porsches are life-style vehicles and don't always accumulate a lot of miles as a garage queen or weekend vehicle. So in that regard, 75K mi + would be considered high miles on a 987. But Porsches are able to live as DD and live in the high mileage range. There are several members here who have 200K+ miles on their 986s. I have two 987Ss that share daily driver duty and they do just fine (even in winter with snow tires). The good thing about buying a high mileage 987 is the price discount will be tremendous, as Porsche purists will be less turned on by that aspect. Just remember this: the cheapest Porsche you buy may end up being the most expensive car you'll ever own (due to maintenance).

If you want to buy a higher mileage 987, be sure to purchase one that has detailed maintenance history. You'll need to know what's been done and not done. Some owners skip maintenance but all they're doing is passing that bill on to the next owner. Plus you'll need to be ready to fork over some cash for parts that will be typically wearing out due to age and mileage. And being new to Porsche, you will find Porsche parts are expensive. If you're not able to do any of the maintenance, your search should also include finding a good / trusted Indy mechanic in your area because you will not want to have the Porsche dealership do all the work (unless you're a trust fund baby). Porsches are fairly easy to work on when it comes to routine maintenance and there are plenty of DIY articles available, so you may want to consider doing some of the work yourself.

Planet-9 is a more 987 centric website, but this forum is welcoming to non-986 owners and has plenty of knowledge and stories that they're willing to pass along.

I'm definitly going to get a PPI, RMS, IMS, and the clutch are my main concerns. I have a pretty trusted indy that specializes in Porsche so I'm definitly not taking it to a dealer.
He quoted me $2,000 to replace the clutch in my Z3 and from what I've read that's not a whole lot cheaper than a Porsche so I'm definitly willing to pay a little more and drive a Boxster.
Aside from a water hose that busted twice and a new top and new brakes and oil changes my Z3 has been a tank the last 2 years, even with 120,000 on it and it being driven pretty hard. Would the Boxster's reliability be comparable to a BMW?

I can't compare to a BMW but I've owned 3 987Ss and all 3 have been some of the most reliable cars I've owned - I'm 57 and have owned a lot of cars. However the 2 I currently own are now entering that age and mileage zone where things might start happening. We'll see... $2K is about right for a clutch job on a Porsche.

Without turning this into an IMS thread, if you buy an 06-08 Boxster the IMS will be the newer, bigger design that is more reliable and doesn't need to be replaced. An 05 may or may not have the newer design as Porsche changed mid-yr in 05 to the new design. Some will argue if you're buying a 100K mi car the IMS will be worn out already even if it's the newer design. Some people have gotten 100K+ miles out of the old design. Something you need to consider, I'm not getting into that debate. If you read up on IMS, just remember the info is more on the older style (2001-2005) that fails at approx. a 10% rate vs the newer one that fails at approx. 1%. There are LOTS of threads on this topic but don't be frightened off by it. I follow the topic fairly close on P-9 and there hasn't been a confirmed IMS failure in years (there may have been 1 recently but the guy never came back to say for sure it was IMS). Not sure if some people jump on to stir the pot, but it's a rare occurrence in a 987.

One thing to keep in mind: Not all 987s can easily have their IMS changed without breaking the engine down. If memory serves, only some of the 05 models have an IMS that can be easily changed.

Tony

I did read that the 2005 model used the old IMS bearing and in 2006 they used one with a much lower failure rate. I've been keeping my eye on Auto trader and it seems like most of the models in my price range are 2005 models. I wonder if the IMS issue is the reason...

What model year are you looking at? 05 - can change IMS (but still a silly waste of money) 06 and newer - I don't think these can be changed. 09+ = no IMS at all.

05-07 model years. So you think the original IMS bearing is safe on the 05? I'm hoping to get at least 150k miles on the car before anything too bad happens.

Daily driver with limited mechanical skills? I am going to recommend a newer car with less mileage. There was a significant bump in reliability with the 2009-2012 cars and you can find nice ones for around $25k right now. That is a sweet spot in terms of value in a Porsche with minimum unscheduled maintenance issues. Pay a little more up front and probably a lot less during your ownership.

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/l-Used-2010-Porsche-Boxster-c22059

The money you spend doing an IMS on an 05 would probably find you an 06.....

Never is better when you are limited with your mechanical ability.