Service costs and reliability

[cleverclover]

Hi all,

Hoping you can help, I'm strongly considering buying a Boxster S, 3.2 - 55 plate. Having never owned a porsche before, what advice do you guys have with regard to servicing costs?

Plus the likelihood of what can go wrong? I'm planning on using it for commuting as well as social and domestic use.

Any advice, would be great.

kindest regards

andy

 

[browser]

To Be honest if you look on the official uk porsche site,you will get the servicing costs listed, you will usually benefit from discounts from some main dealers if you belong to PCGB at certain times of the year, if you are buying privately without a warranty then get Porsche dealer to carry out 111 point check and consider buying a warranty total about £1200 with inspection for peace of mind, 987's as well built and to my mind not a big problem, allow if commuting £1,000 pa for servicing,which is not yearly but on a by annual basis so depends on mileage, the cost I have allowed/ shown represents total expected service costs and things like plug changes every four years or mileage run and also a by annual brake fluid change, hopefully also disc/brake pads as these are costly and need looking at depending on use, again costs are on line at main dealer, if your into DIY then you can save a lot more,club is also worthwhile and you can meet like minded people.. good luck John ... PS consider a 2.7 if you are commuting a lot as cost differential.depreciation might be needed to considered,remember the more you pay the more you lose.and the car market is dog pxx for the forseable future.

 

[Black80XSA]

Official service costs can be found here.. http://www.porsche.com/filestore.aspx/default.pdf?pool=uk&type=download&id=porscheservice-servicepricing-type987&lang=none&filetype=default

you have to be very careful when looking at the costs - every 2 years is brake fluid change so that has to be added on if you go on time rather than mileage to hit the service intervals. Same at 4 years old, you need to add spark plugs as well as brake fluid. A lot of OPCs have other add ons such as air con services at £100-£300 which are anything from clearing the front rads of leaves to a gas recharge and deodorising canister for the interior. Nice money earners. Its easy to run up a £1300 bill at a major service without anything major being tackled !!
Brake prices are ludicrous from the OPC - £1394 for a set of discs and pads, the parts will set you back about £450 from parts specialists. Any well trained service person should be able to do a full set of discs and pads in under 3 hours with the car up on the ramps, so even at £130/hour labour rate they are ripping you off.

Major service at an indepenedent specialist with brake fluid, oil n filter, auxiliary belt and spark plug changes should be under £600.

Tyres - S uses 18s or optional 19s - You will be looking at about £200-230 for a front tyre, £230-250 for a rear; add £50 per corner if you use the OPC rather than a trusted tyre depot.


What goes wrong - well the rear main seals can still leak on 55 plate cars, notr a huge problem but annoying and £500 to fix if not covered on warrany; the intermediate shaft can go too which is complete engine rebuild or replacement although pretty rare occurence (but an expensive one if it does, think £12k for a replacment engine from Porsche).

 

[cleverclover]

Thats brilliant, thanks very much for all your advice.


Andy

 

[Rob Edwards]

Hello Andy

Just my penneth'worth having owned 2 boxsters before my 911 - both were used as an everyday vehicle and were extremely reliable and practical in everyday running. The servicing costs were reasonable (nothing went wrong with them) and when you compare with the likes of other 'exotica' the running costs are a positive bargain (one reason I went for a 911 over an Aston Vantage is the porker costs approx half that of the aston to service).

Get an inspection done, as mentioned before and a decent warranty of some kind (the porsche one is pretty good and helps maintain 'goodwill' from Porsche if anything goes wrong) and you can't go far wrong. Check roof works fine, no judder from brakes/wheels, the air con works well and the engine pulls smoothly and cleanly from startup. Occasionally boxsters may suffer from the odd small puff of smoke when they have been standing a while, especially on an incline, but this is rare and nothing to worry about - if the smoke continues after startup then that's different. Rear Main Seal leakage (RMS) will be picked up in a competent inspection, but unless it's serious, even that is really a minor niggle.
There are plenty folk out there offering inspections, look in the back of GT Porsche/ 911 & Porsche World etc magazines for names - don't use a generic AA/RAC inspection as these are specialist cars that require specialist knowledge on what to look for.

They are well built and reliable machines in my experience, and this, coupled with superb handling and performance makes them one of the ultimate all round sports cars in my humble opinion (and no, I don't work for Porsche[])

Enjoy your Porsche (and don't forget to join PCGB[])!
Rob

 

[cleverclover]

Hi rob and everyone,

Thanks for the advice, having spent some looking around and i think the Boxster is best for me. I have looked at Cayman's but cant get over that they are essentially identical to Boxster, bar the body shell - of course.

I like the idea of trying a Boxster with a view to maybe owning a 911 later on, and getting as much advice and research with servicing issues.

there is something about a Porsche, and have really enjoyed everyones responses.

much appreciated, thank you

Andy