What does the future look like for the 986?
 

I see the original Boxster losing the stigma of being a hairdresser or soccer mom car, and becoming the car that the cool guys at track days are in.

As the M96 engines continue to crap out on regular Boxster owners, more and more will either be scrapped or end up in the hands of track rats, enthusiasts and other DIY types. The general public just won't spend the money needed to keep such a complex car with such low current value going.

The enthusiasts will swap in a high HP motor (base model), or rebuild the flat 6 bigger (S model), making the Boxster a real weapon. Unmolested Boxsters will become very rare due to the inherent limitations of the unmodified M96 often leading to its early demise.

What do you see as the future of the 986?

regards,

Silber

Long term, I see the future for the 986 being rather bright. With Porsche announcing that all Boxster and Cayman's going totally electric in a couple of years, with prices projected in the six-figure range, the internal combustion versions that were well maintained and had issues like the IMS properly corrected are going to become more desirable to enthusiasts. Cars with completely updated engines like those from Raby will probably accrue value even quicker. "Frankenstein" cars that use engines from other years, or even other brands, will not do as well, as they typically are harder to work on and maintain, making them more expensive to own, and often less reliable.

Wow, this really sounds like a shoot yourself in the foot move for Porsche. I see very little crossover happening between people that have 100+K to spend, want a Boxster or Cayman, and want an electric car.

Manufacturers are falling over themselves bringing electric cars to market, they don’t seem to really care if the people don’t want them. I guess if they are legislated as mandatory we won’t have a choice, other than to preserve existing internal combustion cars.

Silber

Manufacturers, particularly those in Europe, clearly see the electric wave coming their way, and are all scrambling to get ahead of it.

People seem to forget that two cars: the Boxster and the Cayenne were desperation moves to try and prevent Porsche bankruptcy in the late 1990's. The Boxster was considered to be an "entry level" car to try and rescue Porsche's financial decline and were priced accordingly. The current crop of 4-cylinder Boxster's are getting hard to find for less than near $100K, which puts them out of reach for the market they were designed to attract. A recent visit to a dealer to pick up some parts found a show room floor with nothing on it priced less than $135,000, and even one 911 variant knocking on the door of $300,000. Porsche, like all European manufacturers are going to be required to have a certain percentage of zero emissions vehicles in their line up in the very near future, and as they do not want to cannibalize their very profitable 911 market, they are converting the Boxster line to all electric.

Car companies only make drastic changes for two reasons: Either they are required to by legislation, or as a desperation move to prevent them from failing.

Prices for well cared for 986s are up sharply over the past 2 years. I don't see that trend changing. In part that's because prices for just about any rare/sports/collectable car are up sharply (996 anyone?). So the 986 is still a bargain. Take mine, for example. Three years ago I paid $13k for a pristine speed yellow S with 25k on the odometer. I've put about $6k into it for deferred maintenance and replacement IMSB. Now with 33k miles. A very similar car recently sold on BAT for $30k (plus BAT's fee on top). Even figuring in the somewhat inflated BAT prices, that's a hefty rise in value. I doubt I'd give mine up for $30k because what would I replace it with?

Prices for any car have been up for the past 2 years and it will continue for at least another year and then start to go back down & stabilize to about what they were prior to pandemic.

I think you’re definitely right in the case of most cars, there’s not much difference between all the various economy cars and SUVs. When The new supply gets full again prices on those used will definitely go down.

I think vintage Porsches is going to be a bit of a different story, with them ditching gas for electric on their lowest price models, and even those being over 100,000 I think there will be an increased demand for older Porsche vehicles that people can afford, basically Porsche has pulled out of the affordable IC Sportscar market, there will not be any new supply of that particular combination to pull from.

Regards,

Silber

I sure as hell enjoy the sound of my Boxster S when I stomp on it. My friend has an E-Golf with a whopping range of 150 KMs...sounds like a sewing machine.

When I looked under the hood it looked like something from a 60's sci-fi movie set up.

Um, no thank you.

I agree with JFP...these cars will be sought after.:cheers:

As I am not financially investing into cars...I will keep my 986 running as long as possible, no matter of the costs. The 986 is an All-time classic, imo.
On the other hand, the 983 platform will turn fully electric in 2024. +400HP with +400km range and possibly an updated 900V solution --> 80% recharging in less than 10minutes, 2 motors with 4 wheel drive capability...etc....
My next new Porsche will be electric, no doubt. Only classic Porsche's are driven by hand and yourself, raw so to say...all the latest generations of PORSCHE cars are technically so advanced and assisted, that switching from a combustion engine to an e-motor is no big deal, tbh.
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1632575914.jpg

So ALL electric means no more manual shifter?!?!?..... yuck! I guess I'm "old fashioned" and I enjoy shifting, makes me feel like I'm REALLY driving/operating.

The only plus as I see it would be (perhaps) a bit less maintenance costs....but otherwise, they'll lose me as a customer.

They made almost 200k 986's, but due to the cost of maintaining them properly, I agree with everyone else, well maintained 986's will do very well longterm. It also doesn't hurt that they are fantastic handling convertible sports cars.

I also think the design of the 986 is superior to later models, which will make the 986 more attractive to collectors over time. The 986 is the model most in keeping with the original 550 Spyder design inspiration. :cheers:

As an 81 year old Boxter owner and having been involved with interesting cars for most of my life I think all sports cars go through a life cycle of depreciation and appreciation you only need to look at the prices for cars from the 50's and 60's now to confirm this,

I have had my 986 for 5 years now and I think it has improved in value to the extent that I would get a return of what I have spent lncluding Ln engineering DOF ims solution. I am not selling, will go to one my sons I expect.

Actually, I'm lookng forward to performance EVs. It will be nice never having to worry about changing the oil and the rest of the routine maintainence on the internal combustion engine, which, BTW, is an over 100-year-old technology. I don't want to be one of those horse-and-buggy people when automobiles were in their infancy.

Yes, the sound of a well-tuned motor is nice, but I won't mind giving it up for all I'd be gaining. The performance of electric motors is much better than IC engines, especially on the low end. There's a reason why locomotives are diesel-electric.

The only thing holding me back right now is charge time. Once they figure out how to get a full charge in around the same time it takes to fill the tank, I'll be all in!

I think EV's are the coming thing too, I agree about the range and the price, will improve over time. we have family in Adelaide 800 kms away so the fuel efficiency of th Boxster is appreciated.

Would buy an old cheap EV for runs to th shops if such a thing existed.

We'll be keeping our Boxster for life barring a car ending collision of course. It was made the month and year we got married and really is the perfect Florida car. The plan is to run the 2.5 until it dies or we're ready to invest in a new motor in the 3.6-3.8 range. So, in that respect, I guess the value doesn't really mean much to us. Like Alan, my hope is it finds its way into the hands of one of the kids some day.

I suspect they'll be quite similar to the 944 in which beat cars will trend to $0, mint cars will rise handsomely but not exponentially, and nicely maintained drivers will have a slow, positive price trend.

IMO the 986 in particular has crossed the bottom of the "old used car" mark and is trending up as a nice classic Porsche. Light, MR, NA flat six will be at least somewhat desirable until there's no more gas stations. If it truly is the end of the line, and I could, I'd grab a manual GTS 4.0 or GT4 and stuff it away. That's something that would moonshot.

I'm quite looking forward to enthusiast EV cars. We've gone from curiosities and glorified golf carts to high-end fashion trinkets to legit mainstream competitors pretty quickly. When the niche and enthusiast models come, it'll definitely be different, but it's not going to suck.

I'm most looking forward to the EV equivalent of the Golf GTI myself.

I think this may be a reasonable way to look at it.

You have to remember that pricing is only what people are willing to pay for something. With used sports cars, that usually boils down to performance and legacy. Unfortunately the 986 is lacking in both. The legend here is an economic one - the greatest triumph of these cars is saving Porsche from bankruptcy as JFP said. Mechanically, the m96 and 01a transmissions are not special and even avoidable. Performance is not awful, but it's something that is appreciated by a few people and is only a shade of what Porsche is/was actually capable of.

Prices on everything right now are up. That's not a reflection of future trends though, that's just current economic climate imo. I may be wrong, but who knows. There may be some models of the gas powered boxster that are worth mint in 30 years, but I truly think that enthusiasts will crave this last generation, not the 986 or 987, or the turbo 4s. (True for 996 and 997 also, except the turbo. The mezger engines are legendary, which is why they will always be valuable, but that's a different discussion)

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Took the words out of my mouth!