Hey Porsche Forum! I'm just a kid here and I'm looking for a car under $15,000. It has come to my attention that there are in fact a few Porsche Boxsters in Florida (I'm 5 minutes north of Daytona) within this price range!!

I figured this is the best place to come and ask this question. If i were to buy a car like this, would I be getting myself into trouble maintainence-wise? Do Boxsters have many small problems that end up costing an arm and a leg? I drive an Audi A4 right now and in the last two months I've had about $2000 in miantainence issues ( I have connections so it only costed me about $900 to deal with).

How much have you all spent on average doing unexpected fixes? esp. on a '97 or '98.

thank you very much for any type of response!

 

The early boxsters had some catastrophic engine failure problems, which would mean a new motor to the tune of about 12k or so. Other than that, you have the occasional rear main seal leak, which is 10 hours of labor, a $17 seal, and about a $500 clutch kit while you are in there. Oil seperator's also are a known issue, though I don't see too many of those. Oil fill tubes tend to crack and leak, about a $150 part, and the most frustrating hour of labor there is on a boxster. If you can find a good one though, they typically only need gas and oil, all in all, they are a very dependable car, though if one of the major issues hits you, you will fork over some serious cash quickly.

 

Oh, the early boxsters also had convertible top failures on occasion. Porsche's fix was to update every part in the top mechanism, which runs about $4k.

 

I think if I buy a Porsche at the price I plan to, I will be getting myself into trouble. Thanks for the help!

 

One thing to think about. For this money you can pick up a 944 or 968 in really first-class condition -- expect the best for that money. They are wonderful cars and easy to maintain if you just follow common sense.

 

That was my thought as well, you could find a very nice example of a low mileage 968 in the mid teens. They are very solid cars, and the chance of major repairs is much much less (just make sure to have the timing belt changed every 30k miles or so).