The BaT thread for the cars we won't buy, but kinda wish we would

[JST]

Originally Posted by John V

Yep. I'm honestly surprised the M96/M97 cars haven't completely tanked in value at this point - their pricing is really not that different from the 9A1 cars.

Don't get me wrong, all 987s are great cars, but given how cheap the .2 cars are, why would you pick an early one?

Later ones are a lot rarer, primarily. And this is personal preference but I like the way the earlier ones look better. But yes, if I were buying now I would buy a 9A1 car.

[John V]

They're more rare, yes, but every time I open one of the major car-selling platforms there are tons of .2 cars for sale. If you're picky on colors and options, yeah, the earlier cars are easier to find. But that's always the case with low-volume cars.

[FC]

Originally Posted by John V

They're more rare, yes, but every time I open one of the major car-selling platforms there are tons of .2 cars for sale. If you're picky on colors and options, yeah, the earlier cars are easier to find. But that's always the case with low-volume cars.

I have not seen that for MT cars. And when I find good ones they are surprisingly pricey.

[JST]

Originally Posted by John V

They're more rare, yes, but every time I open one of the major car-selling platforms there are tons of .2 cars for sale. If you're picky on colors and options, yeah, the earlier cars are easier to find. But that's always the case with low-volume cars.

Maybe? But it's striking how few show up on BaT. They've auctioned about 180 Boxsters since 2015, and on quick review I found two 2010 non-S 987.2s and a bunch of 2011 Spyders, but I could not find a single 987.2S on the site.

https://bringatrailer.com/porsche/boxster/

[John V]

Blame that on BAT. They pick and choose what they want to list

I'm honestly surprised they've listed that many vanilla (non-Spyder) Boxsters.

[JST]

Originally Posted by John V

Blame that on BAT. They pick and choose what they want to list

I'm honestly surprised they've listed that many vanilla (non-Spyder) Boxsters.

Sure. But why would they have a systemic bias against 987.2Ss? I mean, maybe there's a whole bunch of people trying to list them on BaT and BaT is turning them away in favor of 987.1Ss for some reason, but...why?

It could be that the 987.2S cars are desirable and rare enough that they get sold quickly on other sites. I honestly don't know. But it doesn't make sense to me that BaT would be artificially turning those cars away while regularly listing every other generation of Boxster.

I can't vouch for their accuracy, but here are some purported sales numbers I found:

2005 7,846
2006 4,503
2007 3,622
2008 2,982
2009 1,909
2010 2,177
2011 1,900
2012 2,894

So, there were 18,953 987.1s, and between 6 and 7000 987.2s (2009-2011 is under 6000, and some of the 2012s were 987.2s).

Which makes sense, since the 987.2 came out right when the financial crisis was peaking. I remember when shopping for cars in early 2010 that you could get screaming deals on new ones and there were brand new 987.1s on the lot that still hadn't sold.

[John V]

I don't claim to understand BaT's logic. They tend to like either really low-mileage stuff, or old (older than any 987 at least) "time capsule" stuff even if it's not low-mileage, or special editions / rare cars. They've also been known to reject listings for specific cars if they already have enough examples of those cars currently listed or in the queue. Regardless my point was it's surprising to me that they sell ANY vanilla Boxsters, because they don't fit the demographic that is on that site (i.e. someone willing to over-pay for a car.)

Maybe it's that the 987.2s get traded back in more often? It seems like most of the listings I see are for dealers, compared to more private-party sales for the .1 cars. Who knows. Certainly the lower sales numbers for the .2s play a part but I can say that when I (admittedly half-heartedly) listed my car, I got precisely zero bites on it.

[JST]

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...uring-tribute/

Someone spent all this money making a 525 look like an M5 and didn’t do jack about the engine.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s an M50, right? Probably the original engine? Or could it be an S50 head on an M52 2.8 block? But...why would you do that?

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by JST

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...uring-tribute/

Someone spent all this money making a 525 look like an M5 and didn’t do jack about the engine.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s an M50, right? Probably the original engine? Or could it be an S50 head on an M52 2.8 block? But...why would you do that?

Considering I spent a summer in 1992 working on the M50 engine line in Munich, that does look like an M50 with the plastic engine cover changed out...

The dipstick position matches the E34 M50 spot (the E36 is further towards the back of car). I spent most of my time there at the last station on the line, and installed the dipstick as part of my work -- so I think I qualify as an expert when it comes to M50 dipsticks

[SARAFIL]

Originally Posted by JST

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...uring-tribute/

Someone spent all this money making a 525 look like an M5 and didn’t do jack about the engine.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s an M50, right? Probably the original engine? Or could it be an S50 head on an M52 2.8 block? But...why would you do that?

Yea, beautiful car and obviously looks like some major $$ invested, too bad they didn’t touch under the hood.