ONE GLANCE AT THE TITLE, Porsche Boxster: The Practically Free Sportscar, and the world becomes a sunnier place. The possibility comes to mind of leaving the book out for your ever-loving life partner to absorb those key words and newly appreciate your immense good sense.
The Practically Free Sportscar! I ordered a copy immediately. Not with any hope of fooling Lynda, though, for she already has made her conclusions based on our series of old cars, but out of curiosity, how could author Robert McGowan possibly make a case for his fanciful notion.
The answer was in my hands in three days because Amazon prints this book to order locally, in this case in Bolton, Ontario, at a cost of $21.77. The price is less for Kindle or download.
McGowan is a Scot, a Glaswegian. Surely, we could count on him to provide a careful accounting respectful of each and every pound sterling.
The man does not fudge his figures. Scanning the book you come upon maintenance costs such as water-pump failure, parts and labour at a reputable independent garage, total 700 pounds sterling ($1,230 in our currency).
For annual up-keep, he advises budgeting 1,500 pounds ($2,635). A clutch and new IMS or RMS 1,500 pounds ($2,635), he asserts. Engine rebuilds total 5,000 to 10,000 pounds ($8,800 to $17,600).
But here’s the catch. While all this checks out as close to reality, the figures don’t add up to “practically free” no matter how you torque the totals.
Turning to the chapter “You Can Afford Your Dream Porsche” for explanation, the answer turns out to be that McGowan is more a philosopher by nature than chartered accountant.
Money spent on a Porsche, he asserts, needs to be assessed in terms of improvement in quality of life. “Not only is your dream Porsche affordable but it’s cheap motoring compared to other ‘normal’ cars,” he writes. “If you buy the right car at the right price, the odds of getting your money back come resale are highly stacked in your favour.
“Buy yourself a nice used Porsche instead of a brand-new, white-goods Euro box (hatchback) and you will be saving a large wedge of cash in the process.
“This, my friends, is partly why Porsches can be practically free motoring.”
So, money saved by avoiding the staggering depreciation of the first two years’ ownership of a car bought new can cover the maintenance and repair of a Boxster bought used. Dubious, but that’s at the core of the author’s rationale.
The same reasoning supported McGowan’s first book, Porsche 911: The Practically Free Supercar, and can be expected to reappear in his upcoming book, Porsche 911: The Practically Free Type 996. As McGowan eventually covers the entire model range, he may end up turning a profit on his Porsche ownership, not just nearly breaking even.
Anyhow, credit McGowan for plenty of good Boxster-specific information. Newbies shopping for their first Boxster will consider his book helpful, veteran owners will chew on its provocative conclusions.
The best-value Boxster? McGowan names the 2005 987 — congratulations SIG Boxster ‘05 drivers Kevin Curry and Francis D’Oliveira — while reviewing the generations of our car year by year, listing significant changes and, in some cases, problem areas.
Investment potential? McGowan opines our cars will never appreciate as have the air-cooled Porsches of the 20th century, except for the 2010 Spyder. Too many made.
Potential engine problems? Read pages 152 through 174, closing with a brief description of the 2013 US class action lawsuit pertaining to IMS failures, models in 2001 to 2005.
Engines affected by bore scoring? They include mine, the 3.4-litre engine of 2007 and 2008, but McGowan eases the scare with a bit of canny Scot humour, “Statistics on the likelihood of a car either having or acquiring scored bores vary between one to five percent, but I am always wary of statistics, especially since 47.2 percent of statistics are made up on the spot.”
The book concludes with 21 how-to projects over the final 52 pages, such as fitting a steering wheel, installing a deep-sump kit. They read like condensed versions of Wayne Dempsey’s 101 Projects for Your Porsche Boxster, but overall McGowan’s book demonstrates far more personality than your average Porsche publication. The uniquely Scottish point of view is ever-present.
Nothing Wayne Dempsey has written is comparable to McGowan’s evocation of life in Scotland. There’s the celebratory drive in his own 987 S past Loch Lomond to Glencoe, site of the massacre of Clan MacDonald, and random gems such as his description of Glasgow, “The city was once announced as Europe’s murder capital, but also voted the UK’s friendliest city — in the same week.”
In conclusion, good read, good value, in fact practically free at the price! </>
