My good bud is looking at a couple of boxsters, both are low miles the '97 asking is $16K and the '99 is $19k (99 has 33000 kms, less than 20K miles).

I kind of remember reading of a engine and wiring issue on some early cars also how hard/spendy are these cars to maintain. He does like to tinker/fix cars himself but he's got a bad ticker and I wouldn't want to see him flat line.

He owns a Miata so he already has a matching purse

From what I remember reading lately.
The engine issue is both the RMS and the cylinder liners.

Both issues show up prior to 50k miles.
Both issues could be in those two lower mileage cars.
I was told to buy them with over 50k miles to be sure that either the issues were fixed or not there at all.

The leaking RMS will be there no matter what...its a case issue.
The cylinders liners moving will happen prior to 50k miles (so I am told) and that is the one to watch for and be scared about.
Its a new motor to fix that...no rebuild once the case gets hammered.

No idea on elec...they all have elec issues...just part of the deal I guess.

Jake is all over the motor issues so ask him or go to his forum.
He have loads of details on what is happening with that.

Rich

Purchased my '97 boxster with 43,000 miles. That was important since the early boxsters had a problem with the casting of their blocks. So it's important to get one with over 40K miles, because the engine tends to let loose sometime under 25K if there is going to be a problem. Another problem with the '97 and one I experienced is the coolant tank leaking. I've had to replace it and the water pump...

Mack

The cylinder liner issue would have shown up by now in most cases. It was a small number of the production that got the cylinder liner problem and enough have shown up to make it likely that most have reared their ugly head.

RMS leaks were also a problem. Look for signs of oil leak or an engine that is too clean. Because of the configuration, these engines seldom see light. pop the bonnet and look. It should be dusty if the seller didn't order a clean up of the RMS mess...

The plastic rear window WILL need replacement about every 5 years. In USD that means about $6-7 Hundred. There have been glass alternatives, but last I heard they were pulling away at the edges a short while after install. And no, you cannot put the later top on the earlier car. I know one guy who has not had problems but he keeps his top up all the time. Probably not the solution you would choose.

Some of the parts are incredibly cheap. The wheel bearings are reportedly the same as the 914! The rear control arm is aluminum and cost about $100 when I discovered some ham-handed fool had used it as a jacking point. So, if you are willing to work on them yourself they can be reasonable to maintain.

Watch for defered maintainance! These cars were relatively cheap to get in to in the first place but dealer maintainance will always be very expensive so some owners just let it slide. Insist on records...

The base model can seem very anemic power wise after a very short time. I strongly recommend the S model but understand the attractive price of the base model can make it hard to resist.

Stay away from the '99 cars.. We have seen the worst engine failures from the '99 cars due to the issues that were created when the casting plant went down for several months in 99, forcing blocks to be used that had "known issues" that were "repaired".

Most 97s don't have liners, so they don't have D chunk failures nearly as serious.

The Boxster engine is my latest developmental platform, see what we are doing for reliability and performance at www.flat6innovations.com

There you'll find lots of detailed pics and etc..