Good Indie in the South West (Devon)??

[theysellcoke]

Hi all,

First post here, I am looking to buy a Boxster in the next few weeks/months. Ideally I'm after a seal grey 2003 'S', with approx 40,000 miles on it (Hopefully this mileage should take care of the IMS failures I read about & a 2003/04 to get the glass rear screen). But there are a couple of things I still haven't found answers for:

* Is there a good independant specialist for servicing in the South Devon area? (I'm in Torquay). I do have friends in Reading, so it wouldn't be difficult to pop a car up to Northway Porsche for servicing - would that be a better option?

* I'm really after a manual, but what is the tiptronic like to use? Are the changes jerky? Does it only change gear when you push the button up or down? I imagine it's just an autobox that you can overide.

Thanks in advance,

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[RH944]

Welcome to the Forum. People have mentioned an Indie in the Sidmouth area as quite good. No doubt someone from that region will be along with recommendations. I'm visiting Devon this week so will try to find out from a couple of locals.

[JasonGibson]

My friend had a boxster and hates spending any money.
He used OPC in Exeter and thought they were reasonable

[theysellcoke]

Thanks for the replies, The guy near Sidmouth sounds good & I'll get in touch with the OPC at Exeter & see what their costs are p/h. I'm used to BMW charging approx £90+vat p/h, so hopefully the OPC won't be much different.

Cheers,

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[Brett928S2]

Thanks for the replies, The guy near Sidmouth sounds good & I'll get in touch with the OPC at Exeter & see what their costs are p/h. I'm used to BMW charging approx £90+vat p/h, so hopefully the OPC won't be much different.

Cheers,

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Hi

The OPC labour rate is NATIONAL at £120 PLUS VAT per hour.....

A lot of them were doing a "we will match Indie prices for jobs" but Porsche AG has ordered them to stop that

You may get a lower labout rate if you ask them for "Older Porsches"

All the best Brett

[Graham Waller]

First and foremost - welcome to the forum. I hope you find the car you are looking for, and I'm absolutely sure you will get many hours of pleasure from it.

I have a 1999, 2.5 Boxster Tip S, and here's my two penn'orth.

There are 5 major gear ratios which the car is able to detect intelligently from your driving style, so if you race it a lot it will raise the ratios to suit. Therefore, a sedate driver (like me ) will always seem to start from standing in second gear, whereas a racer (not like me ), the car will drop in to first.

The Tip is effectively a semi-automatic box. You can drive in full auto (which I tend to do most times), and you can drive in full manual - no clutch - using the toggle switches on the steering wheel (either side - doesn't matter). I also find dropping in to manual is useful when you want to accelerate away without "kicking down", which can sometimes be too aggressive.

Insofar as changes in Tip mode - the car is a little ropey when cold, but once warmed through (2-3 miles max), is a smooth as my bum

Hope this helps

[theysellcoke]

Hi Graham,

Thanks for the info on the tiptronic box, being able to change with the buttons on the steering wheel without the autbox interfering sounds ok, that's what I wanted to know really. My main concern is that sometimes I have to drive 550 miles (Currently slumming it in a BMW 730i (autobox) at the moment) & the manual box is a pain for that if you get stuck in in traffic. But with the tiptronic I could get the best of both worlds, autobox for the motorway & complete manual for the fun stuff. No IMS issues either with the tiptronic.

Looks like I'll have to find a tiptronic to road test before making a decision then, could end up being the way forward for me.

Cheers,

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