I want to daily a boxster

[Jgkram]

It depends on your primary purpose for the car and like previously stated, your budget. If you are looking for a daily driver go with the best condition car you can find, Base or S. Not a tremendous difference between the two in either price or performance and as a true daily the base will get slightly better gas mileage and the gearing is taller making it a little easier to drive in town traffic if you are a city dweller. If you are going to track or do a lot of performance driving then the nod may go slightly towards an S. Your call.

At the end of the day, for me, it would be condition, condition, condition regardless of model.

[robdelorenzo]

Does anyone here have experience with using a ceramic bearing for the IMS?

[seningen]

Originally Posted by robdelorenzo

Does anyone here have experience with using a ceramic bearing for the IMS?

I have owned 7 different M96 cars that I have installed various styles of the
LN engineering IMS replacement. While I do not own any of them any longer,
I am unaware of any of them having issues. The longest owned one had a 3 bearing replacement, which was the first of its kind. I put ~50,000 miles on that car and sold it 4-5 years ago.

Mike

[78F350]

Welcome to the forum. I'm just a little to the west of you in Ok and I have bought five 1999 Boxsters two of which I still have. Good cars to daily. My daughter daily drives one that is over 140k miles and the one that I sort-of daily drive is getting close to 90k miles. I have an '04 S and a 2001 Base that are regular drivers too.

Seningen made a good list of common flaws, but I disagree with his advice to skip the '99s. All years of 986 have some weak points with the engine and ANY 20 year old car is going to carry some risk as a daily driver.
I tend to shy away from 2000 S models because of cracked heads that I've read about on the forum. My 2001 had an engine failure from a broken rod bolt when I bought it. The 2003 and 2004 cars have the highest incidence of IMS failure and it is very hard to find replacement engines for them.

Scared yet? IMHO these problems are nothing more to worry about than the common flaws with any car brand. Personally, I'd rather work on a Porsche 986 than a more recent Chevy or Chrysler. With some care, the cost to maintain is probably the same or better with the 986.

For pricing and market within range of Springdale, take a look at the Dallas Craigslist: https://dallas.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=boxster&sort=rel
I don't see many in your immediate area and when I do, they seem a little overpriced. TUL and OKC usually have a few for sale on Craigslist.

Great advice here: https://sites.google.com/site/mikefocke2/mikesporscheboxsterwebpages and Mike still frequents the forum.

My advice: The model year and base or S does not matter too much for a daily driver. At about 20 years old, what matters is how the car was cared for and maintained over the years.