987.1 vs 987.2

[jim o'hara]

'll be in the market pretty soon, and whilst i would love to get into a .2 Boxster (or Cayman), i was wondering what the thoughts were in regards to value for money etc.

I've been looking at the lower tax 987.1 models, so 2.7 or some 3.2's (i think) 

Now i know the engine differences on the 987.2, but was wondering on peoples thoughts on wether the 987.2 is really worth the extra

as an example, a local guy too me picked up a 987.1 2.7 full OPC with 93k for £6,500 - heated seats, zenons and exceptional condition - i think that is a great price and whilst i can afford to go up to maybe c£10k, i doubt i could stretch to c£15k+ for a 987.2

so question is, is a 987.2 (2.9) at c£14/15k+THAT much better than say an early 987.1 at around the £8/£9k mark (boxster) & c£10/£11k (cayman)

bearing in mind my prices are 'ball park' figures 

appreciate your views 

thanks

jim

[box100]

A sub 225 (for the lower tax) 2.7 987.1 sounds like it might suit.

I believe they had the IMS sorted and didn’t suffer bore scoring.

It may be best not to be too specific and see what becomes available and buy on condition - but I agree the higher tax of some models would put me off.

 

[jim o'hara]

39 minutes ago, box100 said:

A sub 225 (for the lower tax) 2.7 987.1 sounds like it might suit.

I believe they had the IMS sorted and didn’t suffer bore scoring.

It may be best not to be too specific and see what becomes available and buy on condition - but I agree the higher tax of some models would put me off.

 

thanks, yes i agree, but really what i am asking is 'is the 987.2 worth the extra £££ over the 987.1?

[PaulQ]

13 minutes ago, jim o'hara said:

thanks, yes i agree, but really what i am asking is 'is the 987.2 worth the extra £££ over the 987.1?

Don't think anyone but you can decide this. 

I still have my 986 as I'm not sure that spending three or four times as much on a 987 is worth it. 

[jim o'hara]

1 minute ago, PaulQ said:

Don't think anyone but you can decide this. 

I still have my 986 as I'm not sure that spending three or four times as much on a 987 is worth it. 

im not asking for anyone to make a decision!

purely asking peoples opinion if it is worth the extra £££

[paulchamby]

Value for money = 987.1

[jim o'hara]

Just now, paulchamby said:

Value for money = 987.1

thanks Paul

[PaulQ]

20 minutes ago, jim o'hara said:

im not asking for anyone to make a decision!

purely asking peoples opinion if it is worth the extra £££

ok

[Greyanglia]

38 minutes ago, paulchamby said:

Value for money = 987.1

I agree and although no expert I've just spent a couple of months scouring the ads before buying mine. I walked away from three before buying as they didn't sound right. Consensus seems to be that subject to service history and condition, a late 987.1 2.7 is probably safest bet and best value for money. There will obviously be some exceptions to this.

No question a 987.2 should be a step up in quality and performance but it seems to come at some price hike in the market at the moment.

[jim o'hara]

1 minute ago, Greyanglia said:

I agree and although no expert I've just spent a couple of months scouring the ads before buying mine. I walked away from three before buying as they didn't sound right. Consensus seems to be that subject to service history and condition, a late 987.1 2.7 is probably safest bet and best value for money. There will obviously be some exceptions to this.

No question a 987.2 should be a step up in quality and performance but it seems to come at some price hike in the market at the moment.

excellent, many thanks for your response - can i ask what you managed to get in the end?

[EVO Chris]

1 hour ago, jim o'hara said:

thanks, yes i agree, but really what i am asking is 'is the 987.2 worth the extra £££ over the 987.1?

I was looking for a 13-15K ish 987.1 nearly 2 years back now which was a 2007-8 Boxster 987.1, preference was silver with low miles and a few extras, tax was an issue though it was in 500 bracket.

I went to 20k and bought the 987.2 for the very reason of discounting all the potential issues highlighted for the .1 cars, the .2 is a well sorted car with lessons learnt by Porsche for improvements, the 2.9 engine is a peach and reacts nicely to a few upgrades, PCM update with touch screen is good enough and phone connection was a must.

The car I found had the all the extras I was looking for so that swung it (heated crested seats, sports wheel with all the controls, phone connectivity, extended leather dash, white dials, cornering Xenon's etc, i did not want the adjustable suspension and exhaust due to more complexity.  I am really happy I paid the extra and went for the .2 but its personal choice and if you do find the right car you have to pay the monies..... I would chose a .2 over a .1 again if I had the choice to keep Porsche paranoia at bay.  

[box100]

1 hour ago, jim o'hara said:

thanks, yes i agree, but really what i am asking is 'is the 987.2 worth the extra £££ over the 987.1?

It’s not really a black and white question, but my recommendation was based on my view it could be better value.

I prefer the headlights of the 987.1 but that’s just personal preference.

[EVO Chris]

Here is a pic of my .2.

 

[jim o'hara]

10 minutes ago, EVO Chris said:

I was looking for a 13-15K ish 987.1 nearly 2 years back now which was a 2007-8 Boxster 987.1, preference was silver with low miles and a few extras, tax was an issue though it was in 500 bracket.

I went to 20k and bought the 987.2 for the very reason of discounting all the potential issues highlighted for the .1 cars, the .2 is a well sorted car with lessons learnt by Porsche for improvements, the 2.9 engine is a peach and reacts nicely to a few upgrades, PCM update with touch screen is good enough and phone connection was a must.

The car I found had the all the extras I was looking for so that swung it (heated crested seats, sports wheel with all the controls, phone connectivity, extended leather dash, white dials, cornering Xenon's etc, i did not want the adjustable suspension and exhaust due to more complexity.  I am really happy I paid the extra and went for the .2 but its personal choice and if you do find the right car you have to pay the monies..... I would chose a .2 over a .1 again if I had the choice to keep Porsche paranoia at bay.  

thanks Chris for your comments, appreciated - love the picture, it is a peach 

[Nobbie]

I was initially going to buy a 987.2, but bought a 2.5 986 on a whim off here. I’m fairly unsentimental and so when something serious goes wrong I will scrap it. With this in mind I have had plenty of time to consider my options and have decided a low tax 987.1 with the bigger IMS bearing is the sweet spot for value. Mine’s a weekend car, so think it’s a waste tying up more cash to get into a 987.2.

When I considered a 987.2 it was a 6 year old car and unlikely to need much other than routine maintenance, now they are up to 11 years old and just as likely to land you with a big bill as a 987.1 as some running reports on here confirm, crossover pipes, gear cables etc. There are many more 987.1 to choose from, so easier to find one that has been well looked after. With the bigger bearing, the IMS is really no more an issue than any other bearing failure on the engine.

[jim o'hara]

17 minutes ago, Nobbie said:

I was initially going to buy a 987.2, but bought a 2.5 986 on a whim off here. I’m fairly unsentimental and so when something serious goes wrong I will scrap it. With this in mind I have had plenty of time to consider my options and have decided a low tax 987.1 with the bigger IMS bearing is the sweet spot for value. Mine’s a weekend car, so think it’s a waste tying up more cash to get into a 987.2.

When I considered a 987.2 it was a 6 year old car and unlikely to need much other than routine maintenance, now they are up to 11 years old and just as likely to land you with a big bill as a 987.1 as some running reports on here confirm, crossover pipes, gear cables etc. There are many more 987.1 to choose from, so easier to find one that has been well looked after. With the bigger bearing, the IMS is really no more an issue than any other bearing failure on the engine.

thanks Nobbie, i think you're right on the large bills tbh  as both models now getting to that age - thanks for your comments, greatly appreciated - not in great rush tbh, but probably a good time to pick one up coming into winter

 

[Mattman42]

I started looking at a 986, but preferred the headlights of the 987 so started looking at the 987.1 - they had a more traditional "Porsche" look to the car

This was an exciting purchase for me and a box to be ticked owning a Porsche so the 2.7 was never going to really tick the box as i knew more powerful cars were out there - there is nothing wrong with a 2.7 and its the logical choice for peace of mind, but if i was going to buy my first Porsche, i wanted an S.

After reading the many horror stories of potential engine woes, i also decided it wasn't for me - i didn't want to dull the experience worrying what 'might' happen ('might' be the operative word here as you only tend to find the negative stories online, not the positive ones) - I also didn't want to pay £550/yr road tax for something i may be doing 5-7k a year in - it makes no rational sense, but i refuse to pay that additional tax to the government.

The other consideration for me was that it needed to be an auto for my wife to drive, again the tiptronic in the 987.1 is fine, but the PDK is better 

So i upped my budget to a 987.2 because i wanted the best Boxster i could afford at the time and its been great - as others have said above, engine issues aren't a worry, the cabin is just a little bit more up to date, and while the PCM won't compete with up to date apps, it gets you there and i personally hate add on tat on my dashboard. The look and the spec also sold it to me, it had all the bits i wanted, the extended leather and hardbacked sports crested seats made it feel more 'special' and the dealer i purchased from was very good and helpful - all added up to a good buying experience. 

No one can say buying a newer/more expensive car is the right or wrong choice - yes a 987.1 is good value for money, but a 986 is even better - there is no rational reason to buy something newer, but if we didn't, there would be nothing on the 2nd hand market for us to buy.

Yes the car has needed maintenance, its approaching 10years old now, all cars need maintenance if you use them, whether its a 30k car or a 120k car, whether its a Porsche or a Ford - just the bills are a bit higher

I know none of the above stands up to any logical argument, but for my first Porsche, the car has really ticked the boxes and more.

[PaulQ]

2 minutes ago, Mattman42 said:

No one can say buying a newer/more expensive car is the right or wrong choice - yes a 987.1 is good value for money, but a 986 is even better - there is no rational reason to buy something newer, but if we didn't, there would be nothing on the 2nd hand market for us to buy.

This. 

[droptop]

I started off looking at 986's as I couldn't believe how much car you could get for your money. After doing some more research I found out that I could actually afford a low mileage 987.1 which was a bit of a no brainer seeing as I actually prefer the look of it over the older model. I could have pushed the budget for a higher mileage 987.2 but I needed to draw the line at some point. For me, I could get similar looks but for less money and keep some cash in the bank just in case things go wrong.

[rowbos]

3 hours ago, jim o'hara said:

thanks, yes i agree, but really what i am asking is 'is the 987.2 worth the extra £££ over the 987.1?

That depends what you are looking for...

It was to me.  My 987.2 was three times the value I had in my 987.1 at the time.  For that I gained a much fresher, more solid feeling vehicle.  Far fewer miles on the clock, 7 years newer, PDK, PSE, and lots of other options.

[Mattman42]

6 minutes ago, rowbos said:

That depends what you are looking for...

It was to me.  My 987.2 was three times the value I had in my 987.1 at the time.  For that I gained a much fresher, more solid feeling vehicle.  Far fewer miles on the clock, 7 years newer, PDK, PSE, and lots of other options.

so the answer is YES

 

[Menoporsche]

The words "worth" and "value" are totally subjective. The question is illogical, Captain.

[½cwt]

9 minutes ago, Menoporsche said:

The words "worth" and "value" are totally subjective. The question is illogical, Captain.

As is buying a 2 seat sports car both illogical and irrational.  Buy what makes you happy for the amount you spent, nothing worse for the ownership experience than regretting how much you spent!

[Greyanglia]

2 hours ago, jim o'hara said:

excellent, many thanks for your response - can i ask what you managed to get in the end?

Sure. It's a 2008 2.7 with 62k. Extras were PCM 2.1 with Bose, 18'' S alloys. Unmolested apart from a rather quaint ViseeO Bluetooth interface which is 10 years old, extremely clunky to use but surprisingly works well for phone calls only. I'm lost in a world of Dension vs full Alpine/Pioneer/Sony replacement. In the meantime I went up into the loft and retrieved a random handful of cd's to load up the multiplayer. Feel like I've gone back to the future 😀

[jim o'hara]

1 hour ago, Mattman42 said:

I started looking at a 986, but preferred the headlights of the 987 so started looking at the 987.1 - they had a more traditional "Porsche" look to the car

This was an exciting purchase for me and a box to be ticked owning a Porsche so the 2.7 was never going to really tick the box as i knew more powerful cars were out there - there is nothing wrong with a 2.7 and its the logical choice for peace of mind, but if i was going to buy my first Porsche, i wanted an S.

After reading the many horror stories of potential engine woes, i also decided it wasn't for me - i didn't want to dull the experience worrying what 'might' happen ('might' be the operative word here as you only tend to find the negative stories online, not the positive ones) - I also didn't want to pay £550/yr road tax for something i may be doing 5-7k a year in - it makes no rational sense, but i refuse to pay that additional tax to the government.

The other consideration for me was that it needed to be an auto for my wife to drive, again the tiptronic in the 987.1 is fine, but the PDK is better 

So i upped my budget to a 987.2 because i wanted the best Boxster i could afford at the time and its been great - as others have said above, engine issues aren't a worry, the cabin is just a little bit more up to date, and while the PCM won't compete with up to date apps, it gets you there and i personally hate add on tat on my dashboard. The look and the spec also sold it to me, it had all the bits i wanted, the extended leather and hardbacked sports crested seats made it feel more 'special' and the dealer i purchased from was very good and helpful - all added up to a good buying experience. 

No one can say buying a newer/more expensive car is the right or wrong choice - yes a 987.1 is good value for money, but a 986 is even better - there is no rational reason to buy something newer, but if we didn't, there would be nothing on the 2nd hand market for us to buy.

Yes the car has needed maintenance, its approaching 10years old now, all cars need maintenance if you use them, whether its a 30k car or a 120k car, whether its a Porsche or a Ford - just the bills are a bit higher

I know none of the above stands up to any logical argument, but for my first Porsche, the car has really ticked the boxes and more.

thanks matt, everything makes sense on what you say