It’s an odd thing when buying a second hand car, especially when you’re a petrol head and you have spent many an hour scouring the ‘net for something that piques your fancy.
You may have read thousands of words of prose from your favourite writer, or watched clip after clip on YouTube on the icons of the ages. You’ll have a few ideas at your price point, and if you’re like me, those cars might be ten years old now. But you missed test driving them when they were new – you couldn’t afford them and I wasn’t brave enough to blag a drive. (Well once and I eventually bought that Elise but that’s a different story and I know that’s a non sequitur.)
So what to do? Most second hand sellers aren’t interested in letting you “have a go” to see if you’ll like it. I’m still not brave enough to waste a dealer’s time. So you make that decision largely based on what Catchpole, Harris, Bovingdon and the cast of EVO have said and hope that their years of expert driving translate into the hands of a decidedly average driver…
After twelve years of children some money freed up and I wanted a return to the Lotus Elise of my twenties. Turns out I’m 44… Disappointing. I test drove a 987 Porsche Boxster 2.7 for twenty minutes in Sydney traffic and bought it. I did feel sorry for the seller with the ten month old on his knee…
And despite the 20 minute test drive and the worries about IMS and valve scoring I seem to have made a good choice.
2006 means ESP and airbags and ABS and a roof that goes up at the press of a button. You know, stuff for 44 year olds. But also hydraulic steering and a car that hasn’t been softened over its lifetime yet. The tyres are well past their sell by date but on the dry roads of Australia this makes for amusing roundabout trickery.
The consistent complaint in reviews is the long gearing. Well yes, but truth is the car is nice enough to drive like a normal person in second and third in general duties and revving it out isn’t a too common occurrence, just for mechanical sympathy. That and the Police in Oz have no sense of humour. But the hard edged note over 4000rpm is rather lovely…
The brakes could have bit more top end bite for my liking but that’s just an excuse to upgrade, the gear shift isn’t as crisp as I’d like but that’s just an excuse for an upgrade, the exhaust note is lovely but I do wonder what a sports exhaust sounds like so that just an excuse for an upgrade…
The greatest thing about the car though – is that it’s enough. It’s light enough, it’s cheap enough and it’s fast enough. It still looks modern unlike the 986 and a good Porsche independent makes it ok to service – the Porsche tax in Australia is pretty severe though.
I can’t quite work out what I’d change it for, bang for buck it’s hard, I’d need 30-40k more for a 911, Evora or AMV8 which are different beasts but still theoretically in reach once the kids are a bit bigger. My wife would like me to get rid of the shed Prius and the Boxster and go to one car but four seats = hot hatch. Fast estates are few and far between here and a fast SUV (eg Macan S) is doable but hurts my soul. So I’ve decided if push comes to shove I’m getting an old Panamera before the death of the V8 is final…
Moral of the story – you don’t need too much money for a fun sports car, EVO can keep their journalistic integrity gong and Prius’ are indeed heinous vehicles…