The 2010 Boxster is home

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The 2010 Boxster is home
SteveJ (2010 987 base, manual trans) - Wednesday, 8 May, 2013, at 1:39:35 pm

I posted last week that I was going to fly to Phoenix and pick up a base Boxster to drive home to Minneapolis. The car is home, and here are a couple of pictures:

I'll say a little bit about the purchase, the drive home, and my opinion of the Bose audio system.

First, the purchase went very well. A search on Autotrader will show that as of today, there are exactly 4 Boxsters for sale by private party for less than 45K with manual transmission in the entire country. One of those is this one. The ad is still up. I wanted this particular car because it has the power seat package with power adjustable lumbar support and driver memory. This is a very hard option to find on a base Boxster. I have some lower back issues, and I visit the chiropractor once a month right now. I just sold a Z3 which I was unable to drive for more than 45 minutes at a stretch because of my back problem. I am happy to report that I put in two twelve hour days of driving after a six hour stretch on the first day without any problems. The memory feature is nice because my wife will also be driving the car. She's an enthusiast who has always had sports cars and even won some autocross trophies in our 2000 Corvette. She was firm that we not even look at cars with PDK. The car was leased, and the seller who leases a new Boxster every three years decided to try to sell the car himself rather than just turn it in. Those interested might be on the lookout for a red 981 for sale by private party in Scottsdale in about three years.

The trip back was more interesting than I had counted on. There was rain mixed with snow in Kansas and Iowa. A few miles north of Wichita, at about 10:00 am, I noticed debris in the left lane and came up on a car that had hit the guard barrier on a short bridge. The Boxster steering is superb. I could tell as I crossed the bridge that there was no traction just by the steering feel. I think the other driver might have been going along with his cruise control on. Cruise control will actively throw you off the road if there is bad traction. I pulled over into a service area, thinking that the weather might improve. After an hour or so there was no perceptible change, so I called 511 for road info on my cell, and the conditions were reoprted as "normal seasonal driving". I continued on, and the temp gradually went up to 35 degrees so I began to relax a bit. I got to Iowa, and the temp began to drop. The first rest area advertised tourist info, so I pulled in. A fellow behind the desk said that there were just wet roads and no problems were expected. Roads were reported increasingly improving from 40 miles north. It was 4:00 pm and I wanted to keep going before it coooled down. I kept up a slow pace and stayed behind some trucks going about 50 mph. After a few miles, the temp dropped to 32 and I noticed about an inch of slush on the shoulder. I was concerned, and I actually passed some trucks that had pulled of the road due to some problem I didn't identify. Luckily, this only lasted about 10 miles and then the conditions quickly improved. No problems the rest of the way home. I have no complaints about the PS2's in marginal conditions.

I was prepared to be disappointed in the Bose audio after some reports here. I'm happy to report I very much like the system in my car. I went through a phase of real interest in audio in the 70's when digital audio was just coming in. I checked out the issue of "Audio" magazine every month for speaker reviews and listening tips. I ended up buying a couple of Yamaha NS1000M studio monitor speakers which I still enjoy. One of the things I listen for is clear understanding of lyrics especially in the case of CD's recorded digitally. I am very pleased with the Bose system, and think that those reporting problems should check out how systems sound in other new Boxsters. It's possible that Porsche made some running changes in the system. The build date on my car is 05/09. A loose speaker mounting or other loose door hardware could easily spoil the sound in a car.

I'm happy to be here, and have to say that tips I have picked up through years of lurking have been very helpful.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2013 01:48PM by SteveJ (2010 987 base, manual trans). (view changes)