Used Car of the Day: 2004 Porsche Boxster S 500

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Today's UCOTD isn't a project like yesterday's ride. It's a nearly 20-year-old 2004 Porsche Boxster S 500 that looks to be in pretty decent shape.


It's number 1,842 of 1,953 units made -- only 500 of which made it to our shores. So it's a pretty rare bird, yet the price tag is just $14,900. This car has an automatic transmission and Cocoa Brown interior.

The owner says it's been well-maintained and drives/runs well. The A/C works and so does the convertible top.

The mileage is 168,000 and this Texas-based car once lived in California.

Click here to check it out.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

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  • The Oracle The Oracle on Oct 24, 2023

    This is a proper clunker from Stuttgart

  • Tassos Tassos on Oct 26, 2023

    For sports cars, and legendary ones too, Porsches have proven surprisingly reliable.


    The Boxster is a ton of fun to drive, and actually a real man can fit and stretch in it, while only a dwarf (or should I say, Little Person) would fit in your lame, girlie Miata.


    It's on my list, but if TIM chose this specimen, there must be multiple things wrong with it (price, modifications, and old age to name a few).


    I do have it in my not-so-short list, but I will pick one Myself when the time comes.

  • TheMrFreeze So basically no manual transmissions in US cars after 2029.I just raised one finger in the general direction of NHTSB's main office. Guess which finger it is!
  • TheMrFreeze Wife drives a Fiat 500 Turbo 5-speed (135hp vs. 160 in the Abarth), it's a lot of fun to drive and hasn't given us any headaches. Maintenance on it is not as bad as you'd think for such a cramped engine compartment...Fiat did put some thought into it in that regard. Back seat is...cramped...but the front is surprisingly roomy for what it is.I honestly wouldn't mind having one myself, but yeah, gotta have a manual trans.
  • Bkojote Tesla's in a death spiral right now. The closest analog would be Motorola circa 2007.The formula is the exact same. -Vocal CEO who came in and took credit for the foundation their predecessor while cutting said efforts behind successful projects.-A heavy reliance on price/margin cuts and heavy subsidies to keep existing stock moving. The RAZR became a $99 phone after starting out as a $399 phone, the same way a Model 3 is now a $25k car.-Increasing focus on BS projects over shipping something working and functional to distract shareholders from the failures of current products. Replace "iTunes Phone" (remember that?) with "Cybertruck" and when that's a dud focus on "Java-Linux" the same way they're now focusing "Robotaxis".-Increasingly cut away investment in quality-of-ownership things. Like Motorola, Tesla's cut cut cut away their development, engineering, and support teams. If you ever had the misfortune of using a Motorola Q you're familiar with just how miserable Tesla Autopilot is these days.-Ship less and less completed products as a preview of something new. Time and time again at CES/Trade Shows Motorola was showing half-working 'concept' devices. The Cybertruck was announced 5 years ago yet functionally is missing most of its features- and the ones it has don't work. And I mean basic stuff- the AWD logic is embarrassingly primitive. A lot of Tesla hyperbole focuses on either he's a 4D-chess playing genius visionary or all of Tesla's being propped up by gov't mandates. But the reality is this company hasn't delivered any meaningful product evolution in the better half of this past decade.
  • Pig_Iron Stellantis is looking for excuses to close plants. Shawn Fain just gave them one. 🐹
  • SCE to AUX Unresolved safety issues are a good reason to strike.
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