After a week of thinking and looking I believe my wife and I are back in the Boxster ranks, but it was not as easy as I thought. Since I was looking for a used car for my wife, initially our only requirement was that it had to be a PDK, but as we started looking in earnest, a few more things got added to the list of "needs" - bi-xenons, power seats with memory (my wife and I have very differernt driving positions, and it would be a pain to change the seats and mirrors manually every time we switch drivers), and PCM. Still pretty easy, right? Well, if you add that we did not want a silver or gray car because my Carrera is Seal Gray and it's just not fun to have two cars of the same or similar color, and that we did not want black because it is too difficult to take care of here in the California desert, you realize that we have eliminated about 80% of the cars out there. Long story short, we could not find a used car that fit.
After some more thinking, we decided to order a new car, just the way we wanted it. Cream white, cocoa top, tan interior, with the options mentioned above plus heated seats. Simple, no? Off to the dealer we go, checkbook in hand, ready to place an order. No go, Sir, you cannot order a car right now. The 2012 production has ended, and we do not yet have any allocations for 2013. The earliest that we expect to begin taking orders for the 2013's is late December or more likely January, for delivery in April or May. I do not know if the story is correct, or if the salesman was betting that in our disapointment we would settle for the red car outside that my wife did not like, or the new Carrara White one in the showroom without bi-xenons or power seats. Long story short, we did not order a car.
The visit did have one benefit: my wife liked the Carrara White/Tan combination, so when we got back home I did a Google search for 2012 Boxsters, in white. In the third or fourth page, a car popped up: white with tan interior, PDK, bi-xenons, power seats, heated and ventilated seats, PCM, black top. Not quite perfect, but close enough. But the listing was old, and when I checked the dealer's inventory through the Porsche website, that particular car was not mentioned. Depressed, I went to bed, thinking that this Boxster was not to be.
The next morning the wife said why don't you call the dealer anyway, there is nothing to lose. So I called, and lo and behold, the car was still available. A few more bells and whistles than we were looking for, including Bose, sport chrono plus (no less, two sport buttons!!), XM radio, deviating carpets, climate control, and other odds and ends.
That car is no longer available. We are flying off tonight to go pick it up. Then, 1500 miles to get it back to California.
More later.