Bloody boxster falling apart

[blinkwatt]

Originally Posted by Grizzly

Let's see... The car's had zero problems in 25,000 miles, but you're whining like a little girl, threatening to sell it and attempting to save others from a similar fate by pointing them in the direction of other marques? Do I have this right so far?

The 240z? Fun car...until it was a week old and had to be junked because the body rusted off of it.

This is far too ridiculous to continue. Sell the car. I'll miss you.

Please come to understand Jim's(MNBoxster) standpoint. He has driven and raced more cars then anyone of us probably,so he has his reasons for his actions. Jim has helped me to understand my Boxster,and cars in generally more then anyone else has,and I havent even met him in person. I can tell you that he KNOWS HIS STUFF, and doesnt B.S. us.
Ant, let me give you my opinoin. I have a 99 with almost 55k on it. I wouldnt take back 1 mile that I have put on it. It was my first car I bought,so I will always be biased towards it no matter what anyone says. I have gone through a Mass Air Flow Sensor($230) which was the previous owners fault,ran a dirty K & N air filter for too long. Granted it can be ALOT to maintain but that can be minimized with learning how to D.I.Y. I have changed my air filter,oil filter,oil,brake pads,serpentine belt,cabin filter all for $220,the stealership charges $180 for oil change,go figure. There is ALOT that you can do to make the car practical to maintain and troubleshot if any problems arise. Just make sure you have a credit card in case something brakes on it in the middle of no where. As always we are here to help and guide,so let us know if you have any questions we wont sugar coat our answers.

[ohioboxster]

This is a great thread. I love the differences in peoples opinions. My opinion like anyone really cares goes something like this. The Boxster is fun to drive although under powered. It has maintenence issues for sure and Im just thankful that Im pretty freakin good with a set of wrenches. Two weeks after I bought it I was working on it, lol. The frustrating part for me is comming from GM to Porsche half the hp and twice the maintence. Then again where I live there are 10 million Vettes and T/A's and very few Porsches. My LS-1 T/A ran 12's in the Quarter and I could beat the hell out of it and it just didnt break. Be thankful there are people and web sites with common interests so when you have a problem you have a great knowledge base. Hell, I couldnt get my key out and knew in an hour what was wrong with it and where to buy the part cheap. I guess in closing my feeling is that if you dont have mechanical skills or a little extra cash for repairs then dont buy a Boxster. I know people that have paid $700.00 for brake jobs that you could do yourself for 100 bucks so keep in mind the guys paying 250.00 for oil changes and 1000.00 for belt, oil etc could take an afternoon and save a ton of money. Im done Just my .02

[prOk]

It's really strange to read what goes on here.. To listen to people on this board you'd think every boxster on the planet was falling apart at the seams. The majority of people talking with such fear are owners of 5-7 year old cars.. Seriously, if you were looking at a Honda Civic you'd probably not even consider a 7 year old one because of maintanance and pure age of the vehicle as you know damn well when you bought it things like brakes, tires, belts, tune ups, pumps etc are very likely to need work soon. You make that choice to take the chance on an older car and save some money and drive a porsche, don't expect an older porsche to be any more or less reliable than a similar age Ford. And, never forget that a Porsche is not a Miata, never will be, so put things in real perspective. It's unfair to compare a car that is relatively low performance with units built in the millions to a car that is the exact opposite and expect they both have the same wear and tear patterns.

The RMS thing is an issue, but it is also a very small percentage of the overall boxster market (only those that experience it scream about it). I know a number of people that own boxsters and none of them has even heard of the problem,much less had it. Reading here, you'd think every bloody one is just exploding on sight.

Things like needing basic maintenance like new belts, alignments and such after 5-7 years.. it's unreal that people drive vehicles of any kind and don't think they need basic maintenance like that when they age. Even Yugos needed that kind of upkeep over the course of 7 years.

And, like any make, oddball things happen. My Audi A4 and VW Jetta both had power window issues. Over the course of 3 years on 2 brand new cars I had 7 fail. Strange things with cars is a fact of life, could happen to anything and anyone.

The one person talking so badly about wanting to sell his car for fear of it falling apart as if it's a pile of junk after a long time praising it here and in all reality experiencing *no* issues just kills me Admittedly with all that knowledge i'm surprised you of all people are falling for the hype.

Anyway, enough ranting

[Brucelee]

My take on this issue in brief:

The issues that were raised in the original post were all pretty normal wear items for a 7 yr old car. I have a 99 328I that I just bought and just normal maint items were more than what was listed in the original post.

Second, I get Jim's concerns and issues. I DO think that the Porsche engineers have clearly ignored making the Boxster as robust as I think it should be given the price of the car. The RMS, intermediate shaft issue etc, are clearly not acceptable, esp when they have been going on for 9 yrs or so.

Hey, we are not talking about a $15K throw away car, we are talking about a 60K Porsche.

Having said all that, we do have to remember that most folks here who post are going to be chatting about problems, and there are many others who are out simply driving the car.

My one wish is that the Porsche engineers (maybe all German engineers) would start to focus on reliability and simplicity. That is actually what Porsche did in the early days. It seems that all we get out of Germany these days is more gadgets that will most certainly break and be expensive.

One of the things I like about the late model Corvettes is that the car keeps getting better but not much more complex.

IMHO!

[eslai]

What a fantastic ******************** fest! So when does the line between "too much maintenance" and "it's okay because it's a $150,000 exotic" get crossed?

Someone help me out here--I'm not sure I've seen too many sports cars that WEREN'T a pain in the ass for ownership, especially in recent years.

[Ronzi]

"My one wish is that the Porsche engineers (maybe all German engineers) would start to focus on reliability and simplicity. That is actually what Porsche did in the early days."

???
The 356 motor wasn't so bad, I guess, but the 547 (4 cam 4cyl, mid to late '50s) was one of the most fiendishly complicated motors ever put into a (mostly race) car. Even the early 1500 and 1600 cc Super engines had a Hirth roller bearing crankshaft with a jillion tiny ball bearings in it. Then you get to the '65 911, with a two piece crankcase, six individual cylinders, six individual cylinder heads, and a total of about three times as many parts as a "normal" engine.
Simplicity, not so much, even in the early days.
Reliability? Generally yes, in spite of the complexity.

I do, however, agree with the general premise that Porsche needs to focus more on reliability.
Simplicity? Maybe a nice idea, but look at how many posts complain about not being able to hook an Ipod, or some kind of Bluetooth contraption into their Boxster. People seem to expect everything in every car.