Doing Some Maths

[Hotcoles]

So, had my boxster for a few months now.

When I bought it there was a folder full of receipts for work done, plenty service history and all sorts of other things. I thought 'one day, I'll go through that and see what it's cost so far'.

Had a bit of spare time this week, so after putting the kids to bed I've been sifting through the receipts and to be honest, it's been a bit of an eye opener!

From new in June 2002, up until the end of 2012 (that's as far as I've got so far) and it's cost around £15k in service and maintenance. I'll go through the next 4 years soon but since I've had it, it's had another £3k, half of which was an ims and clutch replacement which was my choice. Just today it's had £200 on 2 new tyres and 4 wheel alignment. And just to add while I'm teetering on the edge of despair, there's a new knocking from the front which has only just started today!

Don't get me wrong, I love it, I can't wait for it to be spot on, or at least as good as it can be and I know it's 14 year old, but it's kind of depressing at the moment. Would be nice if they became a valuable classic overnight ?

Probably waffling a bit but it feels a bit like therapy writing this all down!

 

[Oggy172]

I bought mine with a fantastic history on May 31st last year, since then I've still spent around £3k on it!

[Boxob]

The average annual cost of £1.5k is not way off expectation particularly if it's a daily driver. My costs are less than that but at fewer that 3k miles p/a that's not surprising.

[cj225]

Mine hasn't got a massive amount of service history (long story), but from the receipts I do have, there's £6.5k+ of receipts between 2008 (71k) and 2014 (138k).

 

By the end of the year, I estimate I'll have spent enough to top that up to £10k.

[mickemo]

I have all receipts for my car since new (2004),  they totall in excess of £27.5K 

[Hotcoles]

10 minutes ago, mickemo said:

I have all receipts for my car since new (2004),  they totall in excess of £27.5K 

Wow! It must be love!

[mickemo]

LOL - thankfully most of that lot wasn't my hard earned 

[Hotcoles]

1 minute ago, mickemo said:

LOL - thankfully most of that lot wasn't my hard earned 

I won't ask!!

[Jason986S]

I haven't done the math on my receipt folder yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if it more than doubled what I paid for the car. 

[Mr96er]

I've done nearly 6k miles in 4.2months have not spent a grand or even close. I've sorted some service issues and mot'd it and even had a bespoke exhaust made and fitted (twice).

i think people can get carried away with spending when with a little investigation, bargains can be sourced sensibly. 

[ooid]

I think a careful spending on analysis would be useful to see how often some of these parts/areas needed change indeed? I might be wrong ofcourse but I think any porsche after 10 years old need some spending and maintenance but usually these parts or maintenance tend to live further, and does not need any replacement again (except tires and usual service schedules of course, oil change, spark plugs, brakes and etc...)

 

 

[PaulQ]

The older the car, the more it will cost to maintain, but its done most of it depreciation, so its horses for courses.

Problem with the vary early ones is keeping them nice without breaking the bank.

Only hard core enthusiasts will spend 1000's a year maintaining a car thats worth a few grand.

Its all about balance, and prioritising stuff that needs doing.

 

 

[Hotcoles]

All good points.

I have a list of things that need doing with tyres and alignment the most pressing at the time. Just felt a bit frustrated that literally seconds after having that job done, something else needed doing pretty much straight away.

As I say, it's 14 year old, it's going to need work doing which I'm happy to do/pay for, just wanted a bit of time between one thing and the next! Especially as I'm supposedly going on holiday in it on Thursday.

Right, this front end knock........?

[cj225]

1 hour ago, ooid said:

I think a careful spending on analysis would be useful to see how often some of these parts/areas needed change indeed? I might be wrong ofcourse but I think any porsche after 10 years old need some spending and maintenance but usually these parts or maintenance tend to live further, and does not need any replacement again (except tires and usual service schedules of course, oil change, spark plugs, brakes and etc...)

 

You'd have to factor in the "buy cheap buy twice" rule for cheap branded parts.

[Nobbie]

19 hours ago, Loz987 said:

I've done nearly 6k miles in 4.2months have not spent a grand or even close. I've sorted some service issues and mot'd it and even had a bespoke exhaust made and fitted (twice).

i think people can get carried away with spending when with a little investigation, bargains can be sourced sensibly. 

Yes,

if you hand your Boxster to an OPC and then get them to do 'whatever is needed' then you'll end up paying out a lot of money over the years. If time is precious to you, then this is worthwhile and saves you having to think about it too much. I'm tight, practical and have plenty of spare time, so my approach is to investigate the cheapest way to fix things. I've heard of it costing £700 to get the condensers changed on a Boxster, when with a bit of research and some spannering you could do it yourself for £150. With that disparity in maintenance costs, it's pretty clear that they don't have to cost a lot to keep on the road.

 

[cj225]

23 minutes ago, Nobbie said:

Yes,

if you hand your Boxster to an OPC and then get them to do 'whatever is needed' then you'll end up paying out a lot of money over the years. If time is precious to you, then this is worthwhile and saves you having to think about it too much. I'm tight, practical and have plenty of spare time, so my approach is to investigate the cheapest way to fix things. I've heard of it costing £700 to get the condensers changed on a Boxster, when with a bit of research and some spannering you could do it yourself for £150. With that disparity in maintenance costs, it's pretty clear that they don't have to cost a lot to keep on the road.

 

 

+1 

Also depends on your attitude.  Some people leave things to last minute to get changed.  MOTs are only the minimum safe standard, and a passed MOT is no reflection on condition really.  I could have driven mine without changing anything, as the EML wasn't on and it ran fine.   I chose to change parts that were/are above MOT standard, but below mine.

[bagss2]

My car came with FSH including £11.6k's worth of bills from the PO alone, over his 2.5-year tenure. However I've still amassed c. £2k's worth of parts ready to be fitted in the Autumn...

It seems it can easily be a slippery slope!!  

 

Cheers, Baggers.

[Hotcoles]

How do people view the x point checks that garages do?

I took mine to Revolution so they can have a good look at it and tell me what needs doing. I look at this and then prioritise accordingly: leaking rear shocks get done before changing wipers for example (slightly extreme but both found on my car) and so on. 

I like the fact that a good garage who knows their stuff have given it the once over. 

[cj225]

6 minutes ago, Hotcoles said:

How do people view the x point checks that garages do?

I took mine to Revolution so they can have a good look at it and tell me what needs doing. I look at this and then prioritise accordingly: leaking rear shocks get done before changing wipers for example (slightly extreme but both found on my car) and so on. 

I like the fact that a good garage who knows their stuff have given it the once over. 

 

Depends on who has done the checks, I guess.

 

It wouldn't be uncommon for a place to do an over zealous check - not to expect the business perhaps, but if they were in cahoots with sales, it can sometimes be used to push someone to a new motor.

[Boxster-Al]

On 11 August 2016 at 9:39 PM, mickemo said:

I have all receipts for my car since new (2004),  they totall in excess of £27.5K 

I can beat this figure! When I had done 100k miles in my 2002 986S which I have bad since 2005 I totalled up all the servicing/repair bills, and it came to £30k. That equates to 30p per mile. No wonder one of my TIPEC friends nicked named my car Trigger's Broom. I've done a further 23k miles since (now at 151k) so the costs will be well over £30k now. My car isn't typical, with one particular bill being for a new engine after the IMS failed which cost £8500. Then there was the gearbox rebuild which cost £3500 as they also did the flywheel, lunch and one of the radiators at the same time.

I have kept the car because after the new engine at 71000 miles the car owed me a lot and it seemed sensible to get my money's worth out of it. Then I realised that I don,t like more modern cars with their electric steering and extra refinement that dulls the driving experience, so I will try to keep my first Porsche forever. To be honest what else could I get for similar money that drives as well and doesn't depreciate. I'm even about to spend £1500 on some light weight wheels for it.

[Boxob]

On 13/08/2016 at 9:36 AM, Boxster-Al said:

Then there was the gearbox rebuild which cost £3500 as they also did the flywheel, lunch and one of the radiators at the same time.

That must have been one hell of a lunch

[Menoporsche]

No such thing as a free lunch, clearly  

[antjrice]

I had my Boxster 2.7 for 16 months and in the first year spent on average £131 per month on servicing and maintenance - more than any other car i've owned up to that point by some margin. However i've had my 996 C4S for 19 months and spend on average £328 per month on servicing and maintenance.

Whilst keeping this as low as possible would be preferable, these cost are kind of the point of what makes the marque prestige for me. There's a lot of cheaper and maybe even prettier fast cars out there, but I doubt they've every been a poster on someone's wall, due to the exclusivity this factor contributes toward (that, and the nice biscuits at the OPC.....)

 

[mikefocke]

'01S bought at 32k miles, sold at 68k miles 6 years later. Once I had spent $3k on a 90k service, tires, an alignment and new brakes all of which I knew it needed because of the PPI, I probably spent less than $1k over the next 5 years. Then I replaced the battery with an AGM just because I wanted to and new tires because of age. So my expenses were less than $100 per month.  What was expensive was depreciation which went from $28k when I bought to $13.5k when I sold.

A '99 which cost $2k a year in maintenance but which didn't depreciate would have been a better deal at today's prices for the early Boxsters.