Introduction and a few ?s ..

[jreissenweber1]

 

As an introduction to the forum ..

 

I am 71 and have been an avid car enthusiast all of my life, growing up in Detroit and having worked for Ford Motor Company for 20 years.  I have been lucky enough to have owned several classic Mustangs, 3 Corvettes including a '72 454, a 67 Alpha and a Fiat 124 and have driven McLaren Mustangs, Shelby Mustangs and a '64 Shelby Cobra.  For the past 25 years my driving has been rather a mundane split between a jeep and a 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid.

 

I am currently going thru some intense theropy for PTSD (Vietnam) and have decided to 'live' once more and want to buy Porsche Boxster and recapture the thrill and enjoyment of driving.

 

I have been researching for the past several months (including test driving) and am approaching actual purchase time.

 

I have a few questions I'd like to throw out to the forum to help point me in my final search.

 

Reliability IS an issue as although it will be a 2nd car, I plan on taking several extended road trips to include even California to the East Coast and back.

 

I started off looking at ~2000 986s and quickly found I preferred the S (3.2 litre) model (I am old - not dead).  It seems to me that cost (including purchase price plus required repairs/upgrades including IMS) is roughly $15K depending upon miles.

 

I then drove a 2008 rs60 spyder for a couple of hours - what a beast! I would never have thought of buying anything but a manual .. but .. and the PASM and the Sport Exhaust were thrilling ... and I felt the car was abit (perhaps more than abit) too much for what I could handle at my now reduced reflexes and reactions. So I drove a 2010 2.9 litre with PDK .. and it has the overhead airbag ..

 

and now after some extensive research it seems if I look hard enough low $20K can fetch one although I probably will have to go out of California to get one - question is will it pass CA smog?

 

So that is where I find myself today .. 

only to add that I do live in San Francisco with no garage so it will have to be parked on the street - possible solutions a hard top and/or alarmed car cover.

 

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

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[deilenberger]

Having recently shopped for, and purchased a 53rd childhood vehicle (I have a list somewhere of the cars I've owned in 73 years.. and motorcycles and boats - it's never too late to have a happy childhood..) I think you're pretty much on the money. I purchased a '09 Boxster "Base" with PDK (and a number of other performance options the last owner had added) with about 54k miles on it, for $21k. Needed new tires - which I'd factored into the dickering. Other than tires - it's in excellent condition.  I actually preferred the base model for 2 reasons (1) It rev's more. The transmission tuning lets the engine rev more than the 3.2L engine ones, and I like hearing engines sing (2) no direct injection. Don't need the problems with carbon'd up valves or high-pressure-fuel-pumps. Have that on my '11 Cayenne turbo and really not a big fan of it.  Plus the S models go for about $4-5k more.  Had to be an '09 or newer - didn't need potential engine problems of the earlier ones and I wanted PDK (live in a summer tourist area - NJ shore - and driving becomes a stop/go proposition for 2 summer months.. stick is no fun, and I have nothing at all to prove in that regard.)

BTW - not sure what you mean by "overhead airbag" - the Boxster has 4 airbags. One in steering wheel, one in dash in front of passenger, and one each in the doors. I don't think there was a difference in 2010..

 

It is a great fun car.  The turning ability of it is amazing, yet it's stable at speed. Engine sings, PDK does it's thing and it's delightful with the top down.  Rear visibility is iffy with the top up, but a backup camera I added took care of that (has an aftermarket radio/cd/dvd/ipod/aux/mp3/GPS in it.. which has a backup camera input.)

 

Live while you're alive..  oh - it might be possible to do a coast-2-coast drive in it, but it is a rather "firm" ride, might become tiresome after days of lots of hours/miles. I've done that drive about 15 times now, 4 times by motorcycle. Couldn't do it with the Boxster - wife and luggage wouldn't fit.  The Cayenne turbo has done a number of those trips through.

Edited October 30, 2019 by deilenberger