100K on Boxster S to much?

[blue2000s]

Wow, these cars are loosing value fast.

No one can tell you which car to buy by looking at little pictures over the internet. You have to get into them and drive. Mileage is a terrible measure of the health and value of a car, so it doesn't tell you much. I'm personally leery of a cheap Porsche, especially an S for under $20k, but if you find a tight one that checks out, that's great.

[Lucky]

Good deals are out there.

My 00 S cost me $16.5k a year ago. It had 92k miles on the chassis and 23k on a new engine (a 2005 reman from Porsche). I drove a dozen cars before buying this one.

Some of the ones I drove had less than 25k miles and felt like crap -- tranny didn't shift well, suspension was tired, interior dirty and worn. The best feeling car (the one I bought) -- it was/is peppy, smooth shifting, and cosmetically near perfect -- had the most miles by far but it had been babied its whole time with the original owner.

Don't let high miles scare you... you may be surprised at how good a high mileage car can be and you can use those miles to negotiate a very fair price.

Good luck, be patient, and you are picking the perfect time to be in the market for a luxury item like a Boxster. With enough patience, the approaching winter, and further economic weakness, you should have no problem picking up a very nice S for around $15k.

[RandallNeighbour]

James, I bought a high mileage boxster four years ago and this summer, I had to replace all four wheel bearings, struts, and control arms... basically the whole suspension system on the car. It was almost $4,000 dollars in parts and labor, and I bought all the parts wholesale and had a shadetree mechanic do the labor to install it.

These cars may be shiny, but I wouldn't touch any of them with a ten foot pole.

Save more money and buy a Box S with 25-30k on it and you won't be forced to dump thousands of dollars into it every single year you own it.

I don't mind doing this on my car because I can't afford to trade it for a much newer one and don't want the garage to be boxster-less. But if I had to do it all over again, I would not have bought a $15k car and dumped $18k into it in the last 4 years fixing it up and getting it to run like a newer, lower mileage car.

I could have owned a very nice, low mileage and much newer car with a larger motor had I just waited a year or two.

There's no way around this rule of thumb when shopping for a preowned boxster: THE CHEAPEST PORSCHE YOU BUY WILL BE THE MOST EXPENSIVE CAR YOU WILL OWN.

[Brucelee]

Randall's experience is very right on.

When I was dealing, I stayed way away of any high mileage Porsche. The repair costs for things down below are ridiculous.

BTW-the Porsche folks consider the suspension items are wear and tear, in the same category as brake pads.

Funny!

[Spinnaker]

Bought a high milage 2000 S last year (98750 miles on it) in December.
There is a grain of truth in what everone has said. Got it for 16 thousand, but the last owner didn't keep it up. 6 grand in maintenance and repairs so far to get it up to snuff. Saw a low milage 2003 for 10k more at Barrier Porsche last year that would have been a better buy considering all the $$$$ I poured into the 2000 S so far. Would have been nice to get the glass rear window in the 2003.
Its been fun driving it, funny how everyone wants to go for a ride it now. See you on the streets of Seattle some time. Only 160 more miles till it hits 100K!