Boxster 2.7 Hire Car Opinion
Discussion
I thought I'd start a thread in here about the Boxster I've got as a hire car at the minute, to share my thoughts on it and to compare them with owners and other people who've tried them.
I've got a 2006 Boxster for the next few weeks at least as a hire car as someone smashed into the back of my VX220, that's what I guess it'll be comapred with although I have driven a 996GT3 on track plus all manner of other nice bits of kit...
As far as I'm aware it's a 2.7 with 19" alloys, metalic paint and the active rear spoiler (I think?)
http://www.muncher.org.uk/porsche
I didn't really know what to expect from it to be honest, I'm well aware of how capable the Boxster is but was also worried how good the cheapest new Porsche would actually be....
I've found reasonably good fun to drive, reasonably quick, certainly no slouch but not as fast as my VX. It's far too quiet for my liking, especially coming from a modified VX. It really needs some kind of sports exhaust, there's some hints of the engine purring but you can quite easily trundle about without anyone hearing you coming.
The brakes are very, good but I'd be interested to see how they stand up to some serious abuse.
Whilst the suspension is soft enough to ride over bumps and make quick work of bad roads, which my VX would struggle due to the Nitron shocks, there isn't a vast amount of feedback it's too soft for me personally. It's also quite floaty at speed, as if undulations and surface changes in the road are just wiped out, it rides over them and heads for the horizon.
The steering has a very quick rack, but does lack feel, to the extent that so far I don't think there's much more steering feel than the 07 Passat, come to think of it the Passat has a better weight of steering, just a fraction more.
The seats are pretty comfortable, whilst not being overly sporty, slightly lacking in lateral support. The driving position is good but you lack visibilty at the front of the car, as if the dash is too high considering an ideal seating position. It's returning about 20mpg for my kind of average driving, dipping lower than that when I want to have some fun.
Build quality is average, whilst there are plenty of nice styling touches and it does feel like a Porsche, interior trim and materials let the car down, too much plastic and again £17k VAG cars will put it to shame, there are some occasional odd mechanical noises, such as when the clutch disengages sometimes.
The steering wheel is far, far too big especially considering how power assisted the steering is, the roof works well and the car looks nice, if a little girly...
I like the colour and may have the VX done in the same colour...
If the average person was to ask me what's it like, I'd say it's a stunning piece of kit, good fun to drive and in its class it's the best car bar none.
However, it's just not sharp enough for me to consider buying one, the entire driving experience is far too easy and distant. It's easy to drive it fast, over the same roads I'd have had a dry mouth afterwards and really have to concentrate. I'd sure this requires concentration but you'd really have to be pushing it very, very hard to require serious sweaty-palmed driver input.
It does what it says on the tin extremely well, nice for a quiet drive home from work with the roof down, but it strikes me as a car for relaxing in rather than outright thrills. The Boxster S with PASM may be slightly different so I wouldn't mind trying one.
I've got a 2006 Boxster for the next few weeks at least as a hire car as someone smashed into the back of my VX220, that's what I guess it'll be comapred with although I have driven a 996GT3 on track plus all manner of other nice bits of kit...
As far as I'm aware it's a 2.7 with 19" alloys, metalic paint and the active rear spoiler (I think?)
http://www.muncher.org.uk/porsche
I didn't really know what to expect from it to be honest, I'm well aware of how capable the Boxster is but was also worried how good the cheapest new Porsche would actually be....
I've found reasonably good fun to drive, reasonably quick, certainly no slouch but not as fast as my VX. It's far too quiet for my liking, especially coming from a modified VX. It really needs some kind of sports exhaust, there's some hints of the engine purring but you can quite easily trundle about without anyone hearing you coming.
The brakes are very, good but I'd be interested to see how they stand up to some serious abuse.
Whilst the suspension is soft enough to ride over bumps and make quick work of bad roads, which my VX would struggle due to the Nitron shocks, there isn't a vast amount of feedback it's too soft for me personally. It's also quite floaty at speed, as if undulations and surface changes in the road are just wiped out, it rides over them and heads for the horizon.
The steering has a very quick rack, but does lack feel, to the extent that so far I don't think there's much more steering feel than the 07 Passat, come to think of it the Passat has a better weight of steering, just a fraction more.
The seats are pretty comfortable, whilst not being overly sporty, slightly lacking in lateral support. The driving position is good but you lack visibilty at the front of the car, as if the dash is too high considering an ideal seating position. It's returning about 20mpg for my kind of average driving, dipping lower than that when I want to have some fun.
Build quality is average, whilst there are plenty of nice styling touches and it does feel like a Porsche, interior trim and materials let the car down, too much plastic and again £17k VAG cars will put it to shame, there are some occasional odd mechanical noises, such as when the clutch disengages sometimes.
The steering wheel is far, far too big especially considering how power assisted the steering is, the roof works well and the car looks nice, if a little girly...
I like the colour and may have the VX done in the same colour...
If the average person was to ask me what's it like, I'd say it's a stunning piece of kit, good fun to drive and in its class it's the best car bar none.
However, it's just not sharp enough for me to consider buying one, the entire driving experience is far too easy and distant. It's easy to drive it fast, over the same roads I'd have had a dry mouth afterwards and really have to concentrate. I'd sure this requires concentration but you'd really have to be pushing it very, very hard to require serious sweaty-palmed driver input.
It does what it says on the tin extremely well, nice for a quiet drive home from work with the roof down, but it strikes me as a car for relaxing in rather than outright thrills. The Boxster S with PASM may be slightly different so I wouldn't mind trying one.
ps - That may come across as quite negative but it's just what I would want personally from the car. It's still a comparatively excellent car to drive.
I'm sure Porsche could have made a fantastic car for me, at the same price but chose not to. Instead they made me save up for a GT3 RS!
I'm sure Porsche could have made a fantastic car for me, at the same price but chose not to. Instead they made me save up for a GT3 RS!
Coming from a VX220 i would of thought your opinion on build quality would be higher than average for the Porsche. Our 987 is screwed together lovely no rattles or squeaks the same could not be said for the VX220 i tried before buying my Boxster which was about as useable everyday as shaving my face with a stanley knife. Boxster 2.7 is quicker than a 2.2 N/A VX220 standard.
Edited by TOENHEEL on Thursday 21st June 08:59
TOENHEEL said:
Coming from a VX220 i would of thought your opinion on build quality would be higher than average for the Porsche. Our 987 is screwed together lovely no rattles or squeaks the same could not be said for the VX220 i tried before buying my Boxster which was about as useable everyday as shaving my face with a stanley knife. Boxster 2.7 is quicker than a 2.2 N/A VX220 standard.
Oh the build quality is far greater than the VX, they're not even comparable. I was just expecting some nicer materials from the Porsche considering the cost.I think that they are pretty different cars you are comparing there. The VX is great (drove a Turbo around Bedford and was great fun!) but that is a car aimed squarely at fun blasts and track days whereas the Box is more about a sports car that can be comfortable on the road and competent on the track. I don't know but i would guess that there is not much in it in terms of acceleration/speed but the VX will feel much faster due to being lower and noisier etc. IMO of course!
Edited by Thorny on Thursday 21st June 09:06
The VX220 although better put together than an Elise still has a Kit-car feel about it to be fair IMO, from feeling every groove in the road to the odd squeek & rattle coming from all areas of the car. I would agree that it handles and goes quicker upto say 130 to a Boxster but the boxster in my opinion build quality wise is far superior - no contest in my opinion. As for the GT3, i looked at one at my local OPC over the weekend and that is closer to a VX220 interior wise than a leather clad boxster is. I assume it may also have that rawness when on the move but having never driven a GT3 i couldnt possibly comment.
Well in my opinion and to be honest its took me a while to realise but the Boxster is more an all rounder..its comfortable, quick enough, could be at home on a trackday, very practical for a roadster having 2 boots and the fuel economy i get from my 2.7 is tremendous. Its a great all rounder. The VX220 is a great track car no doubt about it just a completely different car.
Wanta996 said:
The VX220 although better put together than an Elise still has a Kit-car feel about it to be fair IMO, from feeling every groove in the road to the odd squeek & rattle coming from all areas of the car. I would agree that it handles and goes quicker upto say 130 to a Boxster but the boxster in my opinion build quality wise is far superior - no contest in my opinion. As for the GT3, i looked at one at my local OPC over the weekend and that is closer to a VX220 interior wise than a leather clad boxster is. I assume it may also have that rawness when on the move but having never driven a GT3 i couldnt possibly comment.
2.7 is a bit quicker than a N/A VX to 100 mph 15secs for a 986 and 14.5secs for a 987 VX is quoted at 17secs.Muncher said:
TOENHEEL said:
Boxster 2.7 is quicker than a 2.2 N/A VX220 standard.
Boxster 0-60 is 6.1VX220 2.2 0-60 is 5.6
Boxster 0-100 is 15.1 seconds (tested by Autocar)
VX220 2.2 0-100 is 14.6 seconds (tested by Evo)
Oh yeah, they're completely different cars, the Boxster is way more practical and the girlfriend prefers it! It's entirely possible that at some point I'd want to lose some of the rawness and need something more usable on a daily basis so I'm just looking at it from that point of view.
Apologies Toeheel - I was speaking about the VX220 Turbo as with regards to price & comparison with a Boxster although the standard VX220 would give a 2.7 Boxtser a run for its money.
Muncher - The Cayman S seems to be the Elise/Exige/VX220 "slayer" as Autocars best handling/track day issue have shown SO i think thats the car to go for if a Porsche is on your radar. In Speed Yellow.
Edited by Wanta996 on Thursday 21st June 09:21
Muncher - The Cayman S seems to be the Elise/Exige/VX220 "slayer" as Autocars best handling/track day issue have shown SO i think thats the car to go for if a Porsche is on your radar. In Speed Yellow.
Edited by Wanta996 on Thursday 21st June 09:25
Just looking at Autocars stats. They claim that a 986 10 yr old 2.5 Boxster does 0-100 in 15.2. My 986 2.7 228bhp is considerably nippier than an old 2.5 so theres no way a 240bhp 987 is only 0.1 secs quicker to a 100. For a track car the VX would be something i would definetly think about. I went out in a Turbo with a guy called Mark from newcastle Vauxhall wicked little car!
Muncher,
The performance seemed flat, to me. There was a quite noticable step when it came on-cam at around 6000 rpm, above which it took off fairly briskly, but below this it really was a disappointment. (Low-rev torque was non-existent, and I stalled it a number of times as a result.) You needed to rev it quite hard to make progress, but it did make resonable progress when you wanted it to. Performance compared with my S2? Certainly comparable, but I wouldn't like to call which would be quicker down a country lane. (I'd like to think my S2 would be, a notion confirmed by several other Porsche owners, but I'm not sure enough to be confident.)
HOWEVER, the thing that really disappointed me was the 'over-controlled' feel of it all. It handled well, but the PSM was quite obviously in charge. You could throw it into a corner, give it some mid-bend throttle and the tyres would step out a smidge, before the PSM backed off the ignition and applied the relevant inside rear wheel brakes to bring everything back in line again, nice and safe. It also always seemed that the engine power output was carefully moderated by the PSM to ensure that nothing too wild took place. (Yes, you could turn the PSM off, but I never dared - it wasn't my car!)
Right with you on the build quality. The cabin was much cheaper than I expected. My 944 put it to shame. (Have you looked at the storage cubbyholes behind the seats? The plastic finish on them is shocking!)
However, I quite liked the seats. They were one of the best bits of the interior for me.
Hood - liked the soft-top thing on a sunny day! (Never had one before!)
It struck me overall as a car that was made to appear to be a sports car, and to be capable of being driven fast by someone who had no notion of how to drive, but if you pushed it beyond it's limits it would just nanny you back into line. It's a mid-engined car, and they are renowned for breaking away very nastily when the limit is breached, therefore I can understand why Porsche need to take care, but I feel they over-did it by some margin. (I would add that I am not that great a driver, but perhaps it's my ignorance that makes me think I could have handled something more involving, whereas I would actually have binned it in seconds.) However, it was enjoyably brisk and involving, as well as being a very pretty car and an excellent pose. I can understand why people would buy them - buying into the 'Porsche' brand and image, and it's very definately an object of desire to the general population.
Two other things to add. 1. Noise. It sounded FANTASTIC at full chat. 2. Fuel economy. It chewed it's way through juice like it was going out of fashion when used in London traffic. Oh, and I was constantly paranoid about it being vandalised (or worse).
Would I own one? No, given the price of them. Price aside, I thought it was an excellent car.
Did I enjoy it? A lot. Good fun, and particularly good to try out a modern car (I only ever own old cars!)
Hope you enjoy it while you have it, and that your VX220 is either repaired or you get a settlement soon.
Oli.
Edited to remove vehicle reg. details at Steve Greensmith's request - apologies Steve.
- 56*** - You went through Steve Greensmith then! I gave that car back to him last week; he must do good business through PH ... If the disposable camera is still in the glovebox then it's mine - care to post it back to me? (I seem to remember that it was a Fuji one.)
The performance seemed flat, to me. There was a quite noticable step when it came on-cam at around 6000 rpm, above which it took off fairly briskly, but below this it really was a disappointment. (Low-rev torque was non-existent, and I stalled it a number of times as a result.) You needed to rev it quite hard to make progress, but it did make resonable progress when you wanted it to. Performance compared with my S2? Certainly comparable, but I wouldn't like to call which would be quicker down a country lane. (I'd like to think my S2 would be, a notion confirmed by several other Porsche owners, but I'm not sure enough to be confident.)
HOWEVER, the thing that really disappointed me was the 'over-controlled' feel of it all. It handled well, but the PSM was quite obviously in charge. You could throw it into a corner, give it some mid-bend throttle and the tyres would step out a smidge, before the PSM backed off the ignition and applied the relevant inside rear wheel brakes to bring everything back in line again, nice and safe. It also always seemed that the engine power output was carefully moderated by the PSM to ensure that nothing too wild took place. (Yes, you could turn the PSM off, but I never dared - it wasn't my car!)
Right with you on the build quality. The cabin was much cheaper than I expected. My 944 put it to shame. (Have you looked at the storage cubbyholes behind the seats? The plastic finish on them is shocking!)
However, I quite liked the seats. They were one of the best bits of the interior for me.
Hood - liked the soft-top thing on a sunny day! (Never had one before!)
It struck me overall as a car that was made to appear to be a sports car, and to be capable of being driven fast by someone who had no notion of how to drive, but if you pushed it beyond it's limits it would just nanny you back into line. It's a mid-engined car, and they are renowned for breaking away very nastily when the limit is breached, therefore I can understand why Porsche need to take care, but I feel they over-did it by some margin. (I would add that I am not that great a driver, but perhaps it's my ignorance that makes me think I could have handled something more involving, whereas I would actually have binned it in seconds.) However, it was enjoyably brisk and involving, as well as being a very pretty car and an excellent pose. I can understand why people would buy them - buying into the 'Porsche' brand and image, and it's very definately an object of desire to the general population.
Two other things to add. 1. Noise. It sounded FANTASTIC at full chat. 2. Fuel economy. It chewed it's way through juice like it was going out of fashion when used in London traffic. Oh, and I was constantly paranoid about it being vandalised (or worse).
Would I own one? No, given the price of them. Price aside, I thought it was an excellent car.
Did I enjoy it? A lot. Good fun, and particularly good to try out a modern car (I only ever own old cars!)
Hope you enjoy it while you have it, and that your VX220 is either repaired or you get a settlement soon.
Oli.
Edited to remove vehicle reg. details at Steve Greensmith's request - apologies Steve.
Edited by zcacogp on Friday 29th June 14:50
Oli, I don't think there is a camera in the glovebox, I'll check.
I agree you on pretty much all of that, though I thought the sound is a bit of a dissapointment, I guess I'm used to something a LOT louder. Yes, the seats dertainly are comfy, I can't say I noticed much about the plastic in the cubby hole behind the seats, I guess it's because having any kind of storage in the cabin is a novelty with me! It's certainly agile, but it's a bit like driving an Elise with boxing gloves on, you know everything is going ok when pushing and always feel in absolute control though I think that's more down to the car than driver perhaps.
I agree you on pretty much all of that, though I thought the sound is a bit of a dissapointment, I guess I'm used to something a LOT louder. Yes, the seats dertainly are comfy, I can't say I noticed much about the plastic in the cubby hole behind the seats, I guess it's because having any kind of storage in the cabin is a novelty with me! It's certainly agile, but it's a bit like driving an Elise with boxing gloves on, you know everything is going ok when pushing and always feel in absolute control though I think that's more down to the car than driver perhaps.
Muncher said:
Oli, I don't think there is a camera in the glovebox, I'll check.
I agree you on pretty much all of that, though I thought the sound is a bit of a dissapointment, I guess I'm used to something a LOT louder. Yes, the seats dertainly are comfy, I can't say I noticed much about the plastic in the cubby hole behind the seats, I guess it's because having any kind of storage in the cabin is a novelty with me! It's certainly agile, but it's a bit like driving an Elise with boxing gloves on, you know everything is going ok when pushing and always feel in absolute control though I think that's more down to the car than driver perhaps.
Camera - have a look, but don't sweat it. (I notice that someone has removed the Tower Hamlets parking permit from the windscreen as well!) I agree you on pretty much all of that, though I thought the sound is a bit of a dissapointment, I guess I'm used to something a LOT louder. Yes, the seats dertainly are comfy, I can't say I noticed much about the plastic in the cubby hole behind the seats, I guess it's because having any kind of storage in the cabin is a novelty with me! It's certainly agile, but it's a bit like driving an Elise with boxing gloves on, you know everything is going ok when pushing and always feel in absolute control though I think that's more down to the car than driver perhaps.
Sound is disappointment if you want loud, but in terms of the noise itself - I liked it. At low-speed driving it is VERY quiet, although when you gave it some welly it did get louder.
'Agile' is a good word to describe it. As is the notion that everything is under control. Given the figures, I suspect that with the PSM turned off and a slightly damp road you should be able to lose control quite spectecularly, but that's an experiment I will only dream of!
Two other things I remember. It was VERY short geared - motorway driving would be miserable with it. I did about 60 miles on the M11 in it, and it really surprised me how madly it took to this. The other thing that the interior was kicked into a cocked hat by the interior of the car I am currently borrowing - 2007 Polo. Really. (Those cubbyholes behind the seats - look at the sliding doors. I swear they were Tescos bags in a former life.)
Enjoy the car. I did. (Although I was glad to give it back - see 'paranoia'.)
Oli.
Everything you said about the car reminded my why I got the Boxster S
Faster.
Helped by the six speed box. Brakes even better and fade free even with hard track use.
Sadly it also reminded me why many Boxster owners shell out 4-6K on interior trim options! Mine's a "full leather" which does improve the cabin ambiance somewhat.
Porsche charge extra for what other manufacturers consider standard items!
Faster.
Helped by the six speed box. Brakes even better and fade free even with hard track use. Sadly it also reminded me why many Boxster owners shell out 4-6K on interior trim options! Mine's a "full leather" which does improve the cabin ambiance somewhat.
Porsche charge extra for what other manufacturers consider standard items!
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