PPI & Shake Down

"afca" (afca) 08/25/2016 at 21:04 • Filed to: boxster, 987, 987.2, porsche ownership, PPI

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On lift at indy shop

Let’s talk about the first week of owning a car.

After I spotted a Boxster with high potential on CarMax I had them ship it to my closest store. It got there Tuesday and I test drove it Wednesday. I also bought it after that short test drive. In a large part I felt comfortable buying the car right then without an inspection for a few reasons 1) it looked and drove great 2) they had a 5 day return policy and 30 day zero deductible warranty 3) I knew I could get it inspeceted at an indy the next day 4) I had a road trip planned for that weekend so I could have a several hundred mile test drive.

I woke up the next morning ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) and headed to work in my new ride. That first day I was terrified. I had just spent a huge amount of my cash and now I was driving it on the highway? What if I crashed it? What if the running costs were much higher than I estimated? What if it gets dirty? These thoughts quickly subsided as I began to enjoy the drive. It was a chilly early spring morning but I still had the top down and was experiencing my commute in an all new way. I got to the office, parked, and spent four hours pretending to work while actually checking the car every 30 minutes to be sure nobody had hit it. Come lunch time I drove to the indy shop and have then hook it up to their Durametric tool to check for codes and put it on their lift to check for leaks. I did not have time for a full inspection but was not particularly worried because I was about to drive it 300 miles and was confident I could find anything major in that time.

The trip from NC to GA to see my family began that Friday. The ride down was frankly uneventful; a testament to the fact that a Boxster has more than a little Grand Tourer in it. However my girlfriend was very happy to not be making the trip in my old Corolla; she put up with me talking about cars for years so I am glad she likes it. After a few days with my family we headed back to NC and that trip was a little more hair raising. A combination of holiday traffic and heavy rain made for a very tense trip. But again the car was more competent than I was clam and we arrived safely.

The following work day I went back to the indy shop for a second inspection after my road trip. This time we actually got into the engine bay and we found a small leak. Somehow oil was pooling on top of the cylinder head, it was a rather odd place since the only thing above it was the intake. So I had to make a decision, do I keep the car or return it that night? I of course kept it and got the leak taken care of under warranty but I will leave the warranty discussion for another post.

Nerd-Vol > afca 08/25/2016 at 22:29

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Congratulations!

afca > Nerd-Vol 08/26/2016 at 08:18

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Thanks! Looks like oppo is going to stick around so I figured I keep writing these :)

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > afca 08/26/2016 at 10:16

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Sweet... Buying a used German sports car with some remaining warranty definitely does give you a better feeling about the purchase. Mine had about 6 months of factory warranty left, and I caught a bad AC evaporator that would have cost me big time.