PCA SDR

My friend is contemplating the purchase of a 1998 Porsche Boxster. It has 145K miles on it and the airbag light is on.

Any known issues with this model year?

Any recommendations for a good Pre-Purchase Inspection mechanic in the San Diego area?

Not sure, but I think Dieters and BlackForest have been mentioned somewhere on this forum as good shops

As a general rule, ANY car with an obvious problem that the previous owner didn't care enough to fix is a deal breaker. It shows they did not care for the car, so run and you will be better off in the long run. '98 Boxsters are cheap and there are some perfect examples out there. Wait, pay a little more now, and be MUCH happier in the long run.

Ryan over at RSR is good. He checked out my '99 Boxster, and he's located in El Cajon. If you need his contact details, PM me.

Thanks,

Anyone with a Durametric program or a factory OBD computer can query the Airbag ECU and find out why the Airbag light is on, but a very common reason is that the connector underneath one of the seats (which includes the seatbelt buckle sensor connection) was disconnected and the ignition key was activated. Or somebody was repairing one of the doors and didn't reconnect the side airbag (maybe a warning sign of collision repair). Not hard to diagnose the cause and clear.

In general, there are a lot of early Boxsters available, so your friend should take the time to find the newest, lower mileage car that fits his budget (but beware of early cars with less than 40k miles; they might still have a gremlin lurking; a car with at least 40k should have all the nagging leak issues weeded out). So due to the large supply, he can afford to be picky, including the body and interior condition. If he's focusing on a '97-'99 2.5L, he should focus on getting a '99 and should have plenty of choices at or below $10k (potentially with way less than 145k miles). A good sign of a well cared for car would be service records showing the previous owner changed the oil closer to every 5k miles, instead of the factory recommended 15k miles. Carfax is also a way to get some sense of a car's history (not perfect or comprehensive, but some data is better than no data).

Spending a lot of time looking at a prospective car (including a Pre-Purchase Inspection) is important, because key parts for these cars (especially the engine and transmission) are still very expensive compared to the value of the car, and the labor rates to repair these cars are not trivial. A lot of the other stuff (like interior parts) can be purchased used from wrecking yards and/or eBay, but you have to be diligent and patient.

I have a 98 and it has been a great car for 5 yrs. 145k miles means likely freeway commuter but still pretty long in the tooth though. With so many miles I would like to see a complete service log for the car and regular 5k oil changes. A car under 100k miles would be a lot more attractive to me. There is a SDR member selling a 99 in the classifieds now. I don't know him or the car but it's worth a look:
1999 Boxster NEW PRICE! Ocean Blue, Graphite Gray, Manual, 80K miles. Garaged, non-smoker kit. New engine at 28K miles. $ 9,800 BOXSTER SPEC DONOR? (619) 226-7690
kbennett@colsa.com

Thanks all! I will pass the info along to him. He has been looking for a while and I think what really atracted him to this one is the price, which I think is somewhere below 6k.

Mark

That Boxster looks like it is already at a shop. Ad says 5500 without fixing it and 7500 if they fix it. Lots of little red flags like airbag light, no radio. Points to someone poking around under dash or an electrical problem previous owner is willing to walk away from. Pay close attention to oil leaks-they can be expensive to repair (RMS, Valve covers, Air/oil separator)