Mike Nisbet
New member
In answer to the "Do I buy a £10k Boxster S???" Here's my experience.
I'm a serial Porsche owner but had never found the Boxster particularly appealing being of the opinion that it was a bit of a hairdressers car and not a car for a real Porsche enthusiast who'd had several 911's and has become a bit of a trackie and even ventured into some Classic racing in 2.7RS Replica.
I came back from the Autotrack days at Spa last June with a bit of a notion for Speed Yellow..... Two of the guys who had travelled out with our convoy from Scotland had yellow cars and several others appeared making a stunning sight on track and in Spa town itself.
Now in my defence I had a bit of a significant birthday on the horizon. In July a Speed Yellow Boxster S appeared at an East End garage here in glorious Glasgow.......must be a tale about it at that price I thought.......and went on holiday with the family........came back and car still for sale so.......went for a look.
The car was Speed Yellow but GREEN... having been left under lime trees by the previous owner for several weeks before asking his friend in the local garage to sell it for him, not realising that car prep in the East End means putting tyre black on the tyres....there wasn't much air in them....however they were nearly new N rated continentals and the discs and pads looked recent as well so....I went for a test drive and was very surprised to find the car felt solid and rattle free, the engine pulled strongly and burbled sweetly at high revs, but the clincher was when the chap gave me a folder with all the cars service history from Porshe and independants.....and a previous owner was the assistant RO in the region, an ex copper to boot!!
Now this was one of these situation where you think to yourself "if I don't do this I'm going to regret it" time to make an offer on the basis of a check over from a local Independant George Morrison in Rutherglen and...........unbelievably aside from showing signs that it hadn't been used for quite a while...800miles in a year..he could barely fault the car. No issues with the RMS, its done 70k...An oil and brake service, coil packs and spark plugs and a front ball joint to be replaced, Porchapart do a reconditioned one.........it was a done deal.
It took me three days to get the car properly cleand using the lovely zymol products and getting the hood fabric reconditioned.....but the more I cleaned the better the car looked.....not exactly silk purse from sows ear but you get the picture.
I can report that the last seven months of ownership have been quite an eyeopener with the wee car, for a start it's the first Porsche that my wife actually likes to be driven in........but only with the roof off as it's definately the best way to enjoy. It is very tractable and will happily trundle to and from work, but on the open road is everything you'd expect of a sportscar and a Porsche, fast comfortable but fun and rewarding in the twisties. I've had to have the rear plastic screen replaced as one day doing the Boxster chop meant my hand going straight through splitting the plastic oops that was expensive and the interior door membranes failing allowing water in during torrential rain, so they've been replaced too.
So if your buying at this price look for history, check the obvious, tyres brakes and bodywork, talk to previous owners, and get the car checked by someone whose used to working on them and can spot the common faults.
Oh and despite what my teenage sons say I haven't yet got a sticker on the rear which says "This car has no haidressing products left in it overnight."
I'm a serial Porsche owner but had never found the Boxster particularly appealing being of the opinion that it was a bit of a hairdressers car and not a car for a real Porsche enthusiast who'd had several 911's and has become a bit of a trackie and even ventured into some Classic racing in 2.7RS Replica.
I came back from the Autotrack days at Spa last June with a bit of a notion for Speed Yellow..... Two of the guys who had travelled out with our convoy from Scotland had yellow cars and several others appeared making a stunning sight on track and in Spa town itself.
Now in my defence I had a bit of a significant birthday on the horizon. In July a Speed Yellow Boxster S appeared at an East End garage here in glorious Glasgow.......must be a tale about it at that price I thought.......and went on holiday with the family........came back and car still for sale so.......went for a look.
The car was Speed Yellow but GREEN... having been left under lime trees by the previous owner for several weeks before asking his friend in the local garage to sell it for him, not realising that car prep in the East End means putting tyre black on the tyres....there wasn't much air in them....however they were nearly new N rated continentals and the discs and pads looked recent as well so....I went for a test drive and was very surprised to find the car felt solid and rattle free, the engine pulled strongly and burbled sweetly at high revs, but the clincher was when the chap gave me a folder with all the cars service history from Porshe and independants.....and a previous owner was the assistant RO in the region, an ex copper to boot!!
Now this was one of these situation where you think to yourself "if I don't do this I'm going to regret it" time to make an offer on the basis of a check over from a local Independant George Morrison in Rutherglen and...........unbelievably aside from showing signs that it hadn't been used for quite a while...800miles in a year..he could barely fault the car. No issues with the RMS, its done 70k...An oil and brake service, coil packs and spark plugs and a front ball joint to be replaced, Porchapart do a reconditioned one.........it was a done deal.
It took me three days to get the car properly cleand using the lovely zymol products and getting the hood fabric reconditioned.....but the more I cleaned the better the car looked.....not exactly silk purse from sows ear but you get the picture.
I can report that the last seven months of ownership have been quite an eyeopener with the wee car, for a start it's the first Porsche that my wife actually likes to be driven in........but only with the roof off as it's definately the best way to enjoy. It is very tractable and will happily trundle to and from work, but on the open road is everything you'd expect of a sportscar and a Porsche, fast comfortable but fun and rewarding in the twisties. I've had to have the rear plastic screen replaced as one day doing the Boxster chop meant my hand going straight through splitting the plastic oops that was expensive and the interior door membranes failing allowing water in during torrential rain, so they've been replaced too.
So if your buying at this price look for history, check the obvious, tyres brakes and bodywork, talk to previous owners, and get the car checked by someone whose used to working on them and can spot the common faults.
Oh and despite what my teenage sons say I haven't yet got a sticker on the rear which says "This car has no haidressing products left in it overnight."
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