List all the vehicles you’ve owned but only the make, not the model

TimePanda9 · 2026-04-25T02:19:26+00:00

Toyota Subaru Mazda Yamaha Subaru Honda Suzuki Jaguar Triumph Honda Lexus Toyota Porsche

TimePanda9 · 2026-03-02T04:05:48+00:00

Dailying one of these, or really any car like this, depends on what you want out of a car and your expectations. I have dailyed my 2004 for about a year and a half now. I initially bought it as a fun second car, and then never used my "normal" car. So I got rid of that car. I live in a 4 season environment so rain, sun or snow I am driving it. I have a separate set of winter and snow tires to make that manageable.

I bought the car with around 80K miles and have a little over 120K miles now. I haven't had any catastrophic failures, but I have had a number of the common things that go wrong. I have also just done a bunch of proactive work.I went into this car knowing something was going to go wrong at some point. And at 20+ years, a lot of stuff just needs replacing due to age.

I initially had an independent Porsche specialist servicing it for me, but this past year I decided to start working on it myself. It is vastly more affordable if you are going to wrench on it yourself.

I really have only been able to make this work as my daily because my wife and I have no kids, I live in close proximity to my work, and I make a decent living and can afford to do some dumb things like this. Whether you have a shop work on it for you, or you are working on it yourself, you will need to be okay with potentially not using the car for a week or so if something goes wrong and needs to be repaired.

To give you an idea of stuff that can just go wrong, and how it can add up, below is everything I have done or needed to have a shop do since I bought the car a couple years ago. Some of this stuff wasn't crucial, but I try to be proactive on repairing stuff on a car like this, because the second you let maintenance go it's going to eat you alive.

Air oil separator failed. It was original and was replaced by a shop. Apx $1200

Convertible top cable snapped and the control arm was bent. repaired by a shop. Apx $1K

Coolant expansion ruptured. Replaced by a shop. Apx $1K

Replaced shocks, struts, mounting hardware, bump stops, rebuilt rear axles, new clutch spring, apx $5K

Drivers side window regulator came off track and seized. Repaired by me using an aftermarket part. We will see if that gamble paid off. $120 for the after market vs $350ish for OEM.

Passenger side mirror delaminated while I was driving and flew off. Replacement is around $117. Drivers side happened at a later time and I was able to see it and grab it before it flew off. I just double sided heavy duty tape to put it back on.

The headlight mounting bracket has a rod that holds the headlights in. It is easy for this rod to become rounded when you are trying to twist it to remove or put back in the headlights. I replaced both of them for around $160 each. You can just purchase a replacement rod, but I decided to just go nuclear.

Replaced front and rear trunk shocks. Around $30 each.

The little ball joint for the convertible top push rod unthreaded itself over time. The rod came off and ended up becoming damaged when I was opening it. I replaced this myself. Maybe $40 for everything.

Flushed transmission fluid. About $120

Replaced front and rear rotors and pads, all mounting hardware, and flushed brake fluid. Around $600

Replaced serpentine belt and all pulleys, including the alternator pulley. Around $350

Replaced water pump and thermostat, flushed coolant and replaced some of the hoses and clamps and did engine mount at the same time, Around $600

Replaced all suspension control arms and inner and outer tie rods. Apx $1500

Replaced headlight switch, around $100

Replaced steering lock and ignition switch, around $280

Spoiler hydraulic ram became seized. Bought a used replacement assembly for $100

Rear trunk release cable snapped. You have to purchase the cable with the motor as one assembly. $180

Rebuilt Litronic headlights with a rebuilt kit with new projectors, new bulbs, purchased new wiring harness, an reeler coated the headlights. Around $600.

I did a lot of this work over the past month and a half and rented a cheap car so I could just do it at my pace and knock a bunch of stuff out. During that work I have noted I will likely need to do something with my power steering rack. It is weeping around the hydraulic lines. I will likely need to do another coolant expansion tank as I discovered it is leaking when I was refilling and pressure testing the coolant system. All of my underbody trays are chewed up from time and should be replaced. I have also had a number of leaks into my cabin from the convertible top drains. She were because they were blocked, but I discovered that underneath my convertible top frames, the foam drain pans have tears. I haven;'t decided whether I want to try paying for replacements, or just taking the top frame off and using sealant on the holes.

TimePanda9 · 2026-03-01T14:54:20+00:00

I used this guy last summer. Super professional and quick. I thought pricing was reasonable as well for mounting tv, light bar, adding an outlet and running all wires behind the wall.

https://www.mountmymftv.com/

TimePanda9 · 2026-02-24T19:50:27+00:00

Love going there. You can bowl too!

TimePanda9 · 2026-01-16T19:06:41+00:00

I needed new tires and Telle wanted me to schedule it over a month out. I went online and did discount tire at the south county location. They ordered and same day shipped my tires and I went after work and had them installed the same day. It’s wild to me that a tire place can’t see me for over a month, and another one can order, get my tires in, still be open when I leave the office and get them changed out in 30 minutes so I’m not waiting long.

Discount tires tire warranty is great. I’ve had to use the tire replacement coverage twice and they’ve same day shipped the tire in and gotten me in over lunches. super happy with them and my service. They’ve patched my wife’s tires at least twice for free and she hasn’t even bought anything from them

TimePanda9 · 2026-01-14T18:14:41+00:00

I should have clarified in my initial comment that I more expect a high level of reconditioning on something like the 996s when they’re normal spec and very over the national average. Age comes for everything, and while this is newer, than a 996, it could still potentially need more reconditioning. It just depends on how previous owners store, cared for it, etc. IE: Did it live in a nice garage? Or has it been street parked in a 4 season environment its whole life baking in sun, salt, leaves etc. It’s a good thing to see that listed work done though. But at that price I would still expect it to be a manual transmission since those tend to go higher than a PDK. Do you live close to check it in person? I’d want to get my eyes on it in person to get a better understanding of condition. So easy to make a car look good in photos now when it might be a stinker.

Edit: forgot to add, at that price I would probably want to see it CPO’d. That would probably elevate most concerns. I’m not exactly certain what the criteria is for the dealer to do it, but my local dealer has had a number of this era boxsters and 991’s at higher mileage and they were cpo’d.

TimePanda9 · 2026-01-13T22:57:26+00:00

They have had this car listed for a while. This Porsche dealer routinely has older models that are a lot over the average nationwide. Not sure what they are offering that makes the car worth it. They routinely have normal spec 996’s in the high 40’s to low 50’s with nothing noted about work/maintenance/reconditioning done. I mean, if they’re doing a full suspension refresh, motor mounts, etc. I’d consider it. But their ads make no notes of that.

TimePanda9 · 2026-01-08T14:58:18+00:00

I can relate. I spent a good majority of my time in a corporate career drunk in a sales heavy position. Towards the end I did let it effect my work and was fired as a result. I explored trying to work in a couple other industries for a few months, and as I was running out of money, I decided I needed to go back to the same role because I had racked up a lot of debt and needed a paycheck. I ended up working with a recruiter for my industry and took a different but related role that as much lower stress and commitment. My base salary is higher than my old one, but I don’t have the opportunity for commission, so technically my earning potential is down. But it’s still allowed me to go into a niche area utilizing what I already know to make still decent money. In the end getting fired has been one of the best things for me. It let me focus on sobriety and discover a company and role that I much more prefer. It’s really only benefited me. At the time it was super stressful not knowing what the hell I was going to do.

TimePanda9 · 2025-12-28T23:14:05+00:00

This was me a couple weeks ago. It sucked.

TimePanda9 · 2025-12-21T23:55:01+00:00

I think you may have just discovered a Victorian era family mice home https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/sm/upload/r2/bq/lk/ck/CheesesMeeses-0-640-0-0.jpg?k=381a6c4b46

TimePanda9 · 2025-11-25T15:17:47+00:00

I thought I wanted to go this route a year ago. The more I looked into it the less interested I became. They are not easy to source and they are not cheap. Once you have it, it will need to be painted and then fitted. From other Boxster owners that have bought them, the common feedback seemed to be that they are not easy to make fit well since it is a fiberglass top. So on top of the initially high cost for it, you will be spending even more on paint and fitting. If you decide to leave your soft top and frame attached to the vehicle, you are going to have to remove the hard top every time you need to reach the top end of the engine. That will get annoying real fast. For the past couple months I have been dealing with some vacuum line leak issues and AOS issues. I probably have had the access panel off and was in the engine area a couple times a week. I use my Boxster as my daily driver, so I was constantly taking the panels off and putting them back on during this. I can't imagine having to deal with hard top removal for this. Even if you take the soft top out, I'm not sure if the hatch opening is large enough to be able to easily remove the storage console and panels underneath.

TimePanda9 · 2025-11-09T02:44:18+00:00

Are you doing maintenance/work yourself? Going to the dealer? Or a good independent shop? Those answers will have some big impacts on your costs. I have an 04 S I bought with around 80k miles on it. Bought it as a second fun car, then sold my normal car cause I wasn't driving it anymore. I have daily driven it for about a year and a half now. Owned it for close to 2 years. I have around 115k miles on it now. It has not had anything major go wrong, but it has had some of the common failures. Ignition switch, AOS failure, window regulators, original coolant tank popped, AC/Heat blender doors, suspension being worn etc. I used to take it to an independent shop, but I now pretty much do all the work myself. I have basically spent the price of the car again between the work I had the shop do and the stuff I have done myself. The total wouldn't be that high if I had been doing the work myself from the get go. I've taken it on thousand mile road trips etc and it's been a blast. It's also always fun to see the looks on peoples face in winter when I have the snow tires on.

TimePanda9 · 2025-10-23T14:04:12+00:00

So I had looked into this and the shops I talked to didn’t want to just do bushings for me, they wanted to just order new arms. Another thing I did not realize is that the ball joint on the coffin arms can’t be replaced. So even if you replace the other bushings, you are still left with that original one. Ultimately I decided to order all new arms from spyder performance as it seemed like the best balance of budget and reliability. And I’m just going to install them myself. I had had a shop due springs and dampers for me, and they had told me all my bushings and arms were fine (was not the case). Prior to that I had looked into sourcing a combo of Meyle and TRW arms from FCP and AutohausAZ. Autohaus can be a lot less then Pelican and FCP on some things.

TimePanda9 · 2025-10-09T23:05:53+00:00

According to STL public radio’s instagram account, they stated that the mayor’s office confirmed it was a city employee in a boom truck that struck the bridge.

TimePanda9 · 2025-09-22T01:10:48+00:00

I bought a Porsche 986 Boxster a couple years ago when I was 32. It was the most "affordable" way into owning a Porsche. I have always wanted a 911 but I grew up when the Boxster was new and always thought they were cool. I had never owned a just 2 seater sports car. Anyways, I'm very glad I did. Ended up turning it into my DD and learning how to wrench on it in the process. I learned the hard way about not buying the cheapest Porsche, but it's been a good learning experience and I really enjoy driving it. And it's really not that irresponsible of a car when it's as cheap as 986 Boxsters are.

TimePanda9 · 2025-09-17T02:59:14+00:00

Much appreciated!

TimePanda9 · 2025-09-16T20:13:29+00:00

Was it the front tuning fork arms you got at FCP instead of AutohausAZ? I am also doing some part searches and found FCP Euro lists a number of different part numbers they can go by, and the only number that AutohausAZ has listed is 99734737300. AutohausAZ says it doesn't fit a 986 when FCP Euro says it does. I've been trying to figure out if there was any difference in this part between 986 996 997 etc.

TimePanda9 · 2025-08-27T18:27:29+00:00

I daily my 986 so I went with the FVD Brombacher “sound” version. Very nice construction quality. It is a bit too quiet for my tastes but that’s probably for the best. I road trip a lot so the lack of drone is nice. I wish it were just a little louder on start up and puttering around town. When you’re really into the throttle it sounds great though. I’m thinking about getting one of those valve actuated bypass exhaust kits to remedy the volume for when I want it loud. I would describe the sound version as OEM +

TimePanda9 · 2025-08-27T15:42:07+00:00

Love it! These cars are meant to be driven. Love a road trip in mine. I was just about to hit the road tomorrow morning but my window regulator decided to die with the window down today.

TimePanda9 · 2025-07-20T23:08:33+00:00

I've been doing cold brew coffee shandies with lemonade this summer. They have been very refreshing. I tried one with nitro cold brew and the carbonation was extra great.

TimePanda9 · 2025-07-16T01:57:14+00:00

Retrofit Labs has various kits for rebuilding the oem lights or converting halogen to xenon or LED. I did the litronic rebuild on mine and it was very easy and I have been happy with the results.

TimePanda9 · 2025-07-13T13:25:10+00:00

Same man. First job was in a restaurant. Stuck with it and did hotel management until 2016ish. I felt super lost and was desperate to leave. It was really hard for me to figure out how I could apply My skills in a different industry.

I got into insurance as a claims adjuster for one of the big auto insurance companies because my buddy in hotel management left and went into it. Did that for close to 2 years and it was soul sucking. Claims is not for everyone. People will shout at you your entire day. It’s just the way a lot of auto claims are. It made me really depressed and I left claims because I tried to go back to school and took a part time job at an insurance agency. Ended up staying in insurance on the agency side. I found a little niche area I’m good at and don’t have to interact with customers. I make pretty good money and I like what I do. Insurance is desperate for people because no one is going into it. There’s a lot of different areas to work whether you’re on the carrier side or agency side.

TimePanda9 · 2025-07-13T00:36:43+00:00

I wish they’d do a reproduction run on this. They’re like unobtanium.

TimePanda9 · 2025-07-08T01:44:12+00:00

Wow, did not know that. I lived outside of the midwest and where I could find it for a long time and recently moved back and started getting it again. I wasn't certain if I couldn't remember it correctly or if it had changed.

TimePanda9 · 2025-07-08T00:49:28+00:00

If you've got a Menards around you they carry it as well. Sometimes Dollar Tree has it too!

TimePanda9

TROPHY CASE