Hello Oppos (or is that Obbos now?) Like many of you, I engage in unnecessary car shopping and since selling my BRZ last year for the S3, have been longing for the best of both worlds – a great DD like the S3 and something small and sporty. Since I already have the S3 and, while it’s awesome, I need the small and sporty back in my life. I also haven’t had a convertible since I sold my NC Miata.
I’ve been very casually looking for an amazing deal of something like a S2000 to fall in my lap without too much luck. Cheap ones are usually hot messes and even decent ones are pretty pricey. I’ve always had a thing for Porsches and out of nowhere an opportunity at a very high mileage Boxster has fallen into my lap. The car is a 2007 S, which gives it the bigger engine, brakes and improved suspension. The vintage means its engine has the revised IMS bearing, with a miniscule failure rate. The 200k miles on its clock sort of indicate that it would’ve already failed, if it was going to, I think. The car is owned by a friend of one of my cousins that lives over 500 miles away, and is the second owner. It has always been garaged, driven primarily on rural highways (hence the mileage), maintained by an Indy and, in pictures, looks to be in really good condition given the miles. Clutch has been replaced once, new tires, new plugs/wires and new battery and they’re selling to buy a new Porsche and need the garage space. Asking price is $10k.
Casual searching finds a couple other high mileage 987.1s for about $13k with 50k fewer miles and just under $10k with 10k miles less, so price seems at least somewhat in line. KBB says it should be closer to 9k and Edmunds says it’s on the money.
All that aside, how dumb of an idea is this? The seller seems very transparent about its past, has all the maintenance documents and the car appears to have been well taken care of. That said, it’s still a 200k mile Porsche. To me, IMS isn’t a worry as much as the synchros going bad in the transmission or the cylinders being scored, both of which could have repairs that would come close to exceeding the value of the car. Before even making an offer, I’d arrange a PPI at a local shop or P-car dealer to check for those items as well as metal shavings in the filter (sorry again, Tripper), but all the other things I’m not considering worry me a bit more. What are they? What items will be more impacted by mileage than by age? Here’s my list:
- Water pump (these have plastic impellers that don’t last forever)
- Wheel bearings
- Steering components
- CV joints/boots
- Transmission synchros
- Cylinder scoring
The last two would be the non-starters for me, of course.
In a perfect world, if everything comes back okay for the major components in the PPI, what would you offer? For the mileage and with the lurking thought in the back of my mind that the motor and/or transmission will eventually pop or need to be rebuilt and at that point its value would be as a roller at maybe $3-4k. With that in mind, I think my top dollar would be somewhere in the $8000-8500 range and it would be paid for in cash. I’m located somewhat close to about three good independent shops and do have a local Porsche dealer if I needed anything.
What do you guys think? Should I even bother pursuing?