catastrophic failure?????
 

being a boxster owner for a month, i was wondering if any statistics were/are avail to denote how many catastrophic engine failures have occured. prior to purchasing my vehicle it seemed as though they (boxsters) were touted as being reliable to very reliable by the usual sources. it seems that many new owners have this concern following purchase. additionally, is there any one year or engine configuration that is superior in terms of reliability? can this engine the 2.5 liter in particular be expected to last 100k? i would love to drop some additional cash into the car but balk at the chance because of concerns....thanks

Did you browse through the Sticky thread at the top of this section?

Poll: RMS and Engine problem questionaire

There is some useful, owner perspective info in there.

Most of the cars with mfg. defective motors self destructed before 20k miles. A lot of guys here have over 100k. Mine just rolled over 70k and runs like new, does not burn oil, does not leak oil. I see 150k to be very likely on this car.

The only real data that could be compiled on a warranty claims basis would be by Porsche.

Good luck with that.

Otherwise, I think we still live in the land of anecdote on this one.

The bad years are the 97s and 98s with the 2.5s. The 2.7s and 3.2s that had issues developed those issues within 20k. If you find one for sale with over 30k I'd say you're pretty safe that you have an example without defects. From there, you are simply looking at normal engine wear (which can be lessened or increased depending upon the type of use and the degree of maintenance performed). 100k and up is not uncommon for these cars.

Patrick