Porsche Boxter S

[Draigflag]

Saw this little Boxter for sale up the road, decided to take a look and ended up buying it. She's a 2005 model with 53000 on the clock, very clean and tidy indeed. Never been too excited by Porsche's in the past, but I like to try things I usually stay away from, I like surprising myself. Despite the fact that the engine is twice as large as the Peugeot's, they're almost matched on power. Two very different cars, the Peugeot drives as a modern hot hatch, smooth, refined, quiet and super sharp pinpoint accurate handling. The Boxter is more old skool, but still a fun car, and she makes a lovely sound. Power delivery is very different too, the turbocharged Peugeot gets a lot of low down grunt, with torque starting at just 1900 rpm, but the power band in the Porsche is much higher up the rev range, seems to pick up at 3500-4500 rpm and will rev nicely to 7000. Driving normally, I'm getting an indicated 30 ish mpg, driving for fun, I'll see low 20's. Looking forward to the spring when the roof can come off. Not taken many pictures yet, here's a couple.

[JockoT]

Nice car. Great MOT history. Personally, for looks, I prefer the Boxter to the 911.

[luv2spd]

The only thing this car is missing is a nice V-8 engine. I'm just kidding, nice car and congratulation on the purchase. I heard that maintenance on these cars are very expensive, but they are one of the best handling cars money can buy.

[LDB]

That's a very sharp looking car. Keep us posted.

[Draigflag]

Originally Posted by JockoT

Nice car. Great MOT history. Personally, for looks, I prefer the Boxter to the 911.

Thanks, yes I always check the MOT history when buying used cars, this car as far as I can tell has never failed, and never had any advisories either.

Originally Posted by luv2spd

The only thing this car is missing is a nice V-8 engine. I'm just kidding, nice car and congratulation on the purchase. I heard that maintenance on these cars are very expensive, but they are one of the best handling cars money can buy.

I'm going to try and keep the mileage down on this one and hopefully maintance costs too, the engines are very hard to work on, the previous owner changed the oil every year so I will do the same, even if its only done a few thousand miles.

Originally Posted by LDB

That's a very sharp looking car. Keep us posted.

Thanks, I'm pleased with it. Everyone in town is making a huge fuss. When I bought my Peugeot, no one batted an eyelid, my Porsche was half the price of the Peugeot and yet now I'm the talk of the town. Strange what a badge can do isn't it...

[LDB]

Hahahaha, yes. When I was in college in 1978 I had a 1975 Porsche 911S, guards red. Incredible car. A few guys liked it but mainly no comment. One week I had to take my dad's 1978 Corvette 25th anniversary pace car replica. Two girls found me in class or somewhere and asked for a ride. One girl just came up and got into the car while I was stopped at a light. It was an ok car but nothing compared to my 911. Girls liked it though.

[JockoT]

I had a mate who, back in the day, had a MGB Roadster. It was a babe magnet. He replaced it with a Lotus Cortina and his pulling power disappeared. It was as if he had grown a humph.

[Draigflag]

Yes a whole year has passed already. So thought I'd share my thoughts and costs for the boxster, seeming as I rarely post these days. Thanks to fuelly, its easy working out my annual figures. In total I've done just 3148 miles and spent £812.05 on fuel, giving me a cost per mile of 25.8 pence per mile in fuel. My road tax was £315 (its gone up slightly this year) and my insurance was £300. The MOT, which it passed with ease like the others, cost £50. I refuse to service the car after such little mileage, especially as the oil change intervals are 20,000 miles, I'll probably do it next year. I've had to replace the rear tyres, and repairs include x4 suspension springs, which is a common fault, I had 3 snap in the space of a month, and a rear anti roll bar link. Parts are pretty cheap. Repairs and the two tyres came in at £806. In total then, the car has set me back £2283 for the year, which doesn't seem too bad for a Porsche, but then when you consider the mileage, it's a tad pricey. On the flip side, a Porsche this age will hardly depreciate now, similar examples with double the mileage are not much cheaper than what I parted with.

Despite this, I've decided to keep the car at least until spring, when it would be a better time to sell. I know that as soon as the weather warms up, and we have a sunny day, I'll be dying to get the roof down and drive it again. But lingering at the back of my mind is the high running costs and repair bills which are a bit of a worry. I do enjoy the Porsche experience, it's a nice car to be seen in, and is great fun, the power, the noise and the response. But I still prefer my Peugeot in almost every aspect, that thing is the most underrated car I've ever driven, and I'm struggling to find anything that ticks as many boxes as that does. I plan on writing a comparison between the two, but for now, this short annual summary will have to do. Couple of pictures for you too. Thanks for reading folks.

[luv2spd]

The German cars are fun, but the maintenance is very high when they get older. You either loose money on depreciation when its new, or you buy a used one and lose money on maintenance.

Having a German car as a 2nd car is great, but daily driving them will cost a small fortune.

[Draigflag]

Yes I agree, I'm running this as a weekend car on a very tight budget. There's a part of me says I've owned one now, I've had fun, sell it and move on before somthing drastically goes wrong. But I am quite fond of it, I've just taxed and insured it today, and the MOT was done recently, so like I said, might just wait until spring. Unless I spot something else that takes my fancy...