Hi there!
 

Greetings from Finland!
Thought I'd introduce myself and my new toy...

I have previously owned a '84 944, '86 944, '86 944 Turbo, '77 911 Carrera 3.0 and a '82 911SC.
This time around I was actually shopping for a '87-89 911 Carrera 3.2 G50, but there weren't any good examples for sale locally and exporting these machines is quite expensive, so that wasn't an option...

So I moved a head and set my eye on the Boxster. Again the local availability was rather poor, so I decided to export one myself. I flew over to Stuttgart, Germany, had a look at my first option, a '97 model silver with black leather full options, hardtop, new tires, 1 elderly doctor owner, low mileage (53kkm's = 33kmiles)... sounded a bit too good to be true. Well in flesh the paint was quite badly scratched, the interior was far from perfect and the big service was missed by 13kkm's = 8kmiles. The seller refused to come down on the price so I walked away and headed for my next choice. It was a '97 model silver car with full Boxster read leather and reasonable options (AAC, heated seats, Porsche CDR-21 with sound package, wind deflector & 17" wheels). It had 2 previous owners in Germany, 70kkm's = 44kmiles with a complete OPC service book. The car was on sale at an official Porsche Zentrum in Siegen, Germany, so the car came with a 12 month used car guarantee. The car was in nice condition for its age so I decided to buy it. The only thing I'm not too happy with is the rear plastic window and yes I've read the threads and I sincerely hope I can find a shop that can just replace the window...

So here's a few pictures :)

For some reason the images don't seem to stick to the message ... one minute they are fine and the next minute they are gone...

Anyway, here's a link to my Fotki...
http://public.fotki.com/Audifin/porsche_boxster/

What I great looking car!! How does it compare to your previous Porsches? Are you happy with it?

Yes I'm quite happy with it, thanks for asking :)
(I just need to get the plastic rear window fixed...)

To how does it compare to my previous Porsches, I hate to admit it its more like a normally aspirated 944 than a 911... The gears and clutch work like in any modern car and the performance is rather moderate (although it goes easily and smoothly 220 km/h on the Autobahn with the soft top up)...

An old 911 is more rugged and noisy and you really have to drive the car. Compared to an older 911 the Boxster is like an easy Sunday walk in the park, but that's what I was looking for... I'll be using the Boxster as a daily commuter, so I didn't want to struggle with the gears in rush hour traffic ;) and the convertible top is a huge plus in the summer :D

I just wish it had rear seats, so the whole family could enjoy it :rolleyes: Well I guess we need to upgrade the Audi TTQC to a 4-wheel drive 911 :D

haha... I know what you mean. We are on our 3rd Audi TTQ and although it would be criminal to try and squeeze a human in the back of one, it's nice to have the extra space to throw things on hey?

The Audi is much more spacious than the Boxster, but I still just love driving my Boxster. It's a much more "raw" experience. I'd love to hop into an older 911 for a day :P

Once again, congrats on your new beast!!!

Funny that we have the same combo, Boxster and TTQ!
The TT is actually a great family car! The rear seat is just right for our 3 year old daughter... we actually had an Audi A4 Avant Turbo Quattro before the TT, but my wife complained that it was too big ;) And the Quattro is an absolute necessity here up north in the winter, that's why I've started to look for the possibility of swapping the TT for a 964, 993 or even 996 Carrera4... the only thing is that especially the 993 and 996 cost a small fortune over here and the 964's are beginning to be a bit old... I'll let the Boxster sleep during the coming winter but next winter I plan to use it, so I've already started to source a reasonably priced used hardtop :) I just wish my Boxster had traction control...

Your right, the Boxster is more raw than the TT. Although the slightly tuned TT with about 270hp can run circles on the standard 2.5 Boxster there is still that sport car feeling with the Boxster that is lacking from the Audi. You can't beat the whistling sound of the watercooled boxer engine. It aint as raw as the aircooled boxer, but its definitely a sound of a sports car ;) I like the sound so much, I don't really have any use for the radio & sound package ;)

I too bought a 97 just a few months ago, and have had great fun buying update and upgrade stuff for it!

If you don't have rear speakers, figure out how to buy a box and the speakers used and install them. Amazing sound increase. Also, the shift knob out of a 2002 is far nicer than the bulbous one that came with our cars. It took me 45 seconds to replace mine and it makes driving the car feel different, believe it or not!