Right, well after picking the car up on Tuesday I've spent every minute I can driving and spending time with my new toy.
For those of you who don't know I've swapped in my Fiat Bravo 1.4 Tjet which after a few dodgy modifications was running about 180bhp, I've been saving since I bought the Bravo 2 and half years ago for something really good. I did have my heart set on a BMW 335i but just found it too refined and 'dull'. Not for me really but it was a good car.
Anyway on my quest to find what I was after I was led rather oddly to a Porsche Boxster S. Never really considered or knew anything about the Porsche range of cars generally because I always simply assumed it was firmly in the 'out of my league' area of cars.
The car I've gone for is an 07 (April 2007) Porsche Boxster S with the 3.4l engine developing 290bhp (or a tad more if you believe the internets). It's in some sort of gun metal grey with a black hood, sports leather seats and it's fair share of optional extras.
Howard was nice enough to give up his Saturday morning to take a few decent photos for me, so without further ado.
Paid for extras include xenon lights, sports leather seats, leather dashboard, wind deflector, 6CD changer, rear parking sensors, heated seats, automatic climate control, cruise control, short shift gearstick, auto wipers and dimming mirror, uprated hifi and a few other small things. All in all this would have set someone back a few pounds shy of £50k 4 years ago.
It's done 59k and still looks brand new, it had a small tiny stone chip near the rear arch which was sorted as part of the deal.
It drives like an absolute dream, so planted through the corners, enough grunt on the straights. The low down power means you can easily make good progress without going any higher than 2.5k. The first few times I drove it quickly I realised I was shifting up at about 5.5k just assuming I was near the limiter due to the speed I was doing. I find myself chickening out before the car does which is certainly a good thing. Gearing is quite tall and you can manage 75mph out of 2nd gear.
The car is a total dream to drive, with the hood up visability is a bit poor but that is to be expected in a sports car. I'm driving everywhere with the roof off and loving it, with the wind deflector you get just the right amount of cabin wind and even on the motorway at 80mph last night it was fine (although I wouldn't do it for a long trip).
Heated sports seats are brilliant and well worth the money, leather dash looks nice, 6CD changer and upgraded hifi - well I wouldn't know as I've not used either yet. Can't beat listning to that engine right behind you.
The running costs are pretty high, I've averaged 19.4mpg since picking it up, but a lot of this has been passanger rides with only 1 small motorway journey. To fill up was £77 of the 98RON stuff and that said it should cover me for 270 miles. I've done 120~ and the tank is half empty but that's cause I've spent most of today driving it pretty hard. Before today it was looking at getting 300~ to the tank. My old car did 30mpg no matter how hard or lightly you drove it so 20mpg I'd be thrilled with. I'm expecting it to cost a fair bit more but it's worth it. Tax is £460 but was included in the sale, it's had new tyres but I'm budgeting for a new set every year (which is about 8k for me) and they should cost about £1000.
Servicing is every 2 years/20k so it's just had it's 3rd service (2nd minor) which means the next one will be a major. Again this should come in just under £1000 but won't need to be done for 2 years due to my milage. I will have the fluids checked after a year and a few bits changed.
It's got an OPC warranty which pretty much covers everything bar tyres and brakes (rears are brand new, fronts were put on 12k ago) so apart from fuel and insurance I'm not expecting any major outgoings. I'll extend the warranty at a cost of about £800 plus £200 for the 111 inspection each yeah I keep it for piece of mind and wallet.
Insurance is £1200 through Elephant which I think is a cracking deal for someone my age (21). Private plate is going on it late this week or next but even with it showing it's age I've had people comment how good it looks. My girlfriends dad who knows a fair bit about cars was amazed when I said how much it had cost and had automatically assumed it "was £10k more".
Price; it was up for £22,900 without tax and I'm happy with the discount I got, with the extras I think it was worth the price I paid.
The whole process of buying was fine, some car dealers (BMW and Audi) treated me pretty badly and made me not want to buy a car from them. Porsche had no problems giving me the keys for a test drive, and second longer test drive a few days later. This might be a standard thing for most people but when you're looking at £20k cars at the age of 21 often the salesman will make things hard for you (probably to avoid timewasters).
Any questions, fire away!
tl:dr - It's good.
For those of you who don't know I've swapped in my Fiat Bravo 1.4 Tjet which after a few dodgy modifications was running about 180bhp, I've been saving since I bought the Bravo 2 and half years ago for something really good. I did have my heart set on a BMW 335i but just found it too refined and 'dull'. Not for me really but it was a good car.
Anyway on my quest to find what I was after I was led rather oddly to a Porsche Boxster S. Never really considered or knew anything about the Porsche range of cars generally because I always simply assumed it was firmly in the 'out of my league' area of cars.
The car I've gone for is an 07 (April 2007) Porsche Boxster S with the 3.4l engine developing 290bhp (or a tad more if you believe the internets). It's in some sort of gun metal grey with a black hood, sports leather seats and it's fair share of optional extras.
Howard was nice enough to give up his Saturday morning to take a few decent photos for me, so without further ado.
Paid for extras include xenon lights, sports leather seats, leather dashboard, wind deflector, 6CD changer, rear parking sensors, heated seats, automatic climate control, cruise control, short shift gearstick, auto wipers and dimming mirror, uprated hifi and a few other small things. All in all this would have set someone back a few pounds shy of £50k 4 years ago.
It's done 59k and still looks brand new, it had a small tiny stone chip near the rear arch which was sorted as part of the deal.
It drives like an absolute dream, so planted through the corners, enough grunt on the straights. The low down power means you can easily make good progress without going any higher than 2.5k. The first few times I drove it quickly I realised I was shifting up at about 5.5k just assuming I was near the limiter due to the speed I was doing. I find myself chickening out before the car does which is certainly a good thing. Gearing is quite tall and you can manage 75mph out of 2nd gear.
The car is a total dream to drive, with the hood up visability is a bit poor but that is to be expected in a sports car. I'm driving everywhere with the roof off and loving it, with the wind deflector you get just the right amount of cabin wind and even on the motorway at 80mph last night it was fine (although I wouldn't do it for a long trip).
Heated sports seats are brilliant and well worth the money, leather dash looks nice, 6CD changer and upgraded hifi - well I wouldn't know as I've not used either yet. Can't beat listning to that engine right behind you.
The running costs are pretty high, I've averaged 19.4mpg since picking it up, but a lot of this has been passanger rides with only 1 small motorway journey. To fill up was £77 of the 98RON stuff and that said it should cover me for 270 miles. I've done 120~ and the tank is half empty but that's cause I've spent most of today driving it pretty hard. Before today it was looking at getting 300~ to the tank. My old car did 30mpg no matter how hard or lightly you drove it so 20mpg I'd be thrilled with. I'm expecting it to cost a fair bit more but it's worth it. Tax is £460 but was included in the sale, it's had new tyres but I'm budgeting for a new set every year (which is about 8k for me) and they should cost about £1000.
Servicing is every 2 years/20k so it's just had it's 3rd service (2nd minor) which means the next one will be a major. Again this should come in just under £1000 but won't need to be done for 2 years due to my milage. I will have the fluids checked after a year and a few bits changed.
It's got an OPC warranty which pretty much covers everything bar tyres and brakes (rears are brand new, fronts were put on 12k ago) so apart from fuel and insurance I'm not expecting any major outgoings. I'll extend the warranty at a cost of about £800 plus £200 for the 111 inspection each yeah I keep it for piece of mind and wallet.
Insurance is £1200 through Elephant which I think is a cracking deal for someone my age (21). Private plate is going on it late this week or next but even with it showing it's age I've had people comment how good it looks. My girlfriends dad who knows a fair bit about cars was amazed when I said how much it had cost and had automatically assumed it "was £10k more".
Price; it was up for £22,900 without tax and I'm happy with the discount I got, with the extras I think it was worth the price I paid.
The whole process of buying was fine, some car dealers (BMW and Audi) treated me pretty badly and made me not want to buy a car from them. Porsche had no problems giving me the keys for a test drive, and second longer test drive a few days later. This might be a standard thing for most people but when you're looking at £20k cars at the age of 21 often the salesman will make things hard for you (probably to avoid timewasters).
Any questions, fire away!
tl:dr - It's good.
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