Big_Tex

Yep, another thread looking for purchase advice, hope you don't mind. Current Cayenne and former Panamera owner, so I know the brand but I do not know the sports cars.

2003 Boxster S, original owner since 2003, drives tight and smooth, no real damage noticable, roof operation is smooth. 60k miles, matches Carfax. Interior is very nice. So, questions:

1. He has never had the vehicle serviced. Just regular oil changes. Really. Thoughts?
2. Clutch is "strong", takes a manly push. Worked just fine, shifts were smooth. Should these things have a heavy clutch?
3. Reverse was a bit of challenge first time. Technique of new guy, or worrisome?

Thanks for the help.

elgy

There is a link to a spreadsheet of the maintenance schedule in post #6 of this thread.
https://rennlist.com/forums/boxster-...0-boxster.html
Have a look at the list, there is a lot of stuff beyond oil changes, much is inspection of various components, which should be done, but there are items that should be changed like brake fluid, coolant, accessory drive belt etc.
The clutch should not be heavy, changing the clutch has reduced the pressure needed on my cars, although I don't quite understand why. I do lubricated some of the components before reassembly.
In my 2000 S I have to give the shift lever a good whack to get it to move far enough to the left to engage reverse.

Bush Pilot

I've found the idea of "only oil changes" done very common when buying used cars. And that IS the important one. I wouldn't let it deter me from buying the car. It's not a show stopper in my opinion. But I would bring the maintenance schedule with me to try to argue the price down. A heavy clutch is subjective so not sure what to say about that other than clutches aren't that expensive and doing that would give you an opportunity to swap the IMS bearing which should be done on this car. Plan on replacing all the fluids, motor mount, AOS, plugs, ac recharge, air filter, cabin filter, belt, water pump. All that stuff adds up if you take it to a shop so it should be used to argue the price down. If the owner gets offended it's time to walk away. Some people don't want to face reality and get emotional when selling something. If you're set on the car and the seller gets mad you can walk away. You walking away may make the seller face reality but he's mad at you at that point. That's when your friend shows up and argues the same points and maybe the seller doesn't get mad and then sells the car for a fair price....to you behind the scenes. My philosophy when selling something is that any offer is a good offer; something is better than nothing. That gets the conversation started.

Hasdrubal

I took a test drive in an S model a few years ago and was surprised how heavy the clutch was. Found some forum talk about a clutch assist spring that can fail and make the pedal very heavy- but didn't drive any other cars until buying an 01 base, which has a pretty average clutch force. Makes me wonder, if either the clutch assist spring is bad or the S has a significantly increased pedal force over the non S.

Anyone with more experience have a thought on that? I'm not likely to go looking at any more cars, but still kind of curious.

RL911

At 60k, I think plugs should be addressed, brakes, coolant change, filters, etc. take a look at the cabin filter in the front of the car to see if it’s been changed. That’s an indicator if someone one has been looking after it. Then there’s the IMS bearing, depending on you feel about. The clutch on my 03 and 04 are super smooth, brand new by previous owners, feel very light, almost can’t tell sometimes you’ve changed gears.

fazm

I rented a 2002 986 Base for a week before I took the plunge and bought my 986 S on BaT. The clutch on my car is noticably heavier than on the rental. I've gotten used to it, however, and engagement is clean and crisp.

papasmurf

If the car is in good shape and seems to run well, I would have no problems purchasing even without the service schedule assuming the price was very fair. The dealer costs are simply too much for what is done most of the time and if the owner did not live close to an area with an import/euro specialist it may have been difficult to have had the car serviced by an independent that wanted to work on the car even though alot of normal shops could handle the basics. Oil changes and in particular, oil changes at less than the 15k factory interval would be a good starting point. Having the brake fluid flushed is not a terribly big deal and I would not reject the car if it was still on the original pads/rotors as part of the wear is dependent on how it was driven. The air and cabin filters are cheap and easy to replace yourself and a lot of the service checklist is just visual inspection at the lower mileages. The drive belt takes just a few minutes to replace and is cheap and it doesn't necessarily break at 60k either. The clutch IMO is heavy on my ('00 base) boxster compared to every other manual car I have driven apart from very large trucks/diesels.

Stephen44

I agree..I have a bad left knee and tried driving three or four 3.2s 2003-4 era. I do a lot of town driving and I just knew it was too heavy for me so I ended up buying the tiptonic couldn't be more happy

mikefocke

While I was working, it was my eleven and a half months a year commuter in tough traffic and I too had a TIP in both my Boxsters. For serious snow I had a 4WD.