Boxster...sod's law

[steve S owner]

Bought my 2.5 Boxster in May as a summer car and its been brilliant. Its never put a foot wrong! I replaced the two radiators as one was dribbling but other than that its needed nothing apart from plenty of wax, leather feed, wheel cleaner and loving care. I wasn't sure the 2.5 would be fast enough after reading some posts but you know what, its been great fun and its not so fast you cant give it a good work out on the road and still not be going silly speeds. Full Porsche service history on a 18 year old £4k car was good and helped swing my decision to this particular car. But summer is over and my work changes so I will be climbing back into my land rover and the Boxster has to be sold. I drove it out the drive, into the sun to take the photos for the advert and couldn't believe it when the roof refused to come down! It's been down every day almost with no trouble. I suspect a roof module after some investigation but am now thinking it doesn't want to go and maybe I can garage it over winter instead. But to those debating whether a £4 poverty engine Boxster can be any good I would urge you to drive one and not be put off.

[bgunn]

So, is it up for sale? I am in the market for a good 2.5 - I've seen some real tat over the last few days. Immaculate cars with clattering engines, tatty bodywork etc.

Agree that the 2.5 is plenty quick enough for fun - standard MX5 is hardly what you'd call 'quick', but no-one complains about those.

[DJMC]

Just bought a 981 2.7 PDK, collect next week. Having test driven a few I found the 2.7 plenty quick enough for a daily driver, and fun to wring the power out.

I think some who say it has to be an S or above have maybe come from more powerful models and can't cope with 0-60 over 5 seconds?

My Audi TTS feels quick to me, but then it's the quickest car I've owned, and that includes a '97 DB7 in 2003.

981 2.7 has similar power to the TTS, less torque, better handling, more fun, lovely noise (it has PSE & SC too!).

[m444ttb]

Having been in both a 986 3.2S and cmoose's old 2.5 I can honestly say the latter would do just fine for use on the road. It had enough power to be quick but not get you into huge trouble if you gave it some. Nice sounding engine too.

[Chris Type R]

bgunn said:

So, is it up for sale? I am in the market for a good 2.5 - I've seen some real tat over the last few days. Immaculate cars with clattering engines, tatty bodywork etc.

Agree that the 2.5 is plenty quick enough for fun - standard MX5 is hardly what you'd call 'quick', but no-one complains about those.

The MX5 does have the benefit of being lighter though - Wikipedia says MX-5 MK2 Curb weight 1,065 kg (2,348 lb) vs Boxster 987 Curb weight 3,130 lb (1,420 kg). Edit (I think that a 986 is 1280kgs). As ever it's hard to tell how accurate the information is.

Faster is certainly not the be all and end all of fun though. I had a MX-5 and moved on to a S2000. The MX-5 was certainly more chuckable on the road.

Edited by Chris Type R on Monday 26th October 12:12

[steve S owner]

I have had 2 MX5s and they were good fun. The Porsche though is different and although on paper they are comparable in actual fact I would not compare the two. It may be a question of driving or owning them to see what I mean. BGun I know what you mean about tatty examples. I looked at a few that the seller said were immaculate but their definition of immaculate must be very different to mine. Just had the dreaded discussion and she who must be obeyed is not up for garaging the Porsche over winter despite my arguments so yes it will be up for sale shortly. Not going to go into details in the discussion section as I don't think that's right but I will post an ad in the For Sale section at some point.

Edited by steve S owner on Monday 26th October 17:09

[steve S owner]

Well just to update the second-hand control module I tried made no difference at all so conceding defeat I popped it over to a place called Performance Porsche just down the road at Brighouse. I was very pleasantly surprised I have to say when it was diagnosed as a faulty switch in the latch which they replaced by the end of the day it went for £40. As it was cheaper then expected I also got them to re-spray one of the door mirror backs where the lacquer was starting to peel. Nice to find a good garage.

[Ozzie Osmond]

steve S owner said:

I was very pleasantly surprised I have to say when it was diagnosed as a faulty switch in the latch which they replaced by the end of the day it went for £40.

Yes, in my experience that's the most common cause of electric roof glitches. Roof failure seems daunting but usually isn't.

[tr7v8]

I have just gone the other way from a 3.2S 986 to a 2.0 Sport Mk3.5 MX5.
The main issue with the Boxster is that it was too quick to have fun with. A brief overtaking session in 3rd normally saw 3 figures coming up. Aside from mine being a Tip it didn't feel agile at at all.
The MX5 is far more fun, feels lighter, more agile & in real terms not much slower.
According to Parkers The Pork is 1335 & the MX5 convertible coupe is 1095kg so a big difference.

[steve S owner]

The battle is still on to get her indoors to agree to me keeping it garaged over winter. I know that come the spring I will want another!

[Huskyman]

I remember test driving a 2.5 Boxster when my dad was doing a deal on a new stock 3.2S, and I felt that having driven both cars the 2.5 with the smaller wheels (the 3.2S had the 18" sport design wheels...) the 2.5 seemed to flow better and handle more sweetly, and i fell in love with the 2.5 flat-six's sweetness and eagerness to rev. Oddly on the test drive I felt as if I was going about 10mph quicker than I was. Lovely car

[DRH986]

tr7v8 said:

I have just gone the other way from a 3.2S 986 to a 2.0 Sport Mk3.5 MX5.
The main issue with the Boxster is that it was too quick to have fun with. A brief overtaking session in 3rd normally saw 3 figures coming up. Aside from mine being a Tip it didn't feel agile at at all.
The MX5 is far more fun, feels lighter, more agile & in real terms not much slower.
According to Parkers The Pork is 1335 & the MX5 convertible coupe is 1095kg so a big difference.

My Son had an MX5 a few years ago and I have to say that 90% of the time it was more fun than my 986S or Cayman S for the reasons you state. Much lighter, more direct and you can get much closer to the car's limits in everyday driving.

[steve S owner]

Yes I can relate to that. All the reviews rave about the MX5 handling whereas I did not find its limits were high but it was predictable and fun and very easy to get the back end out. The Boxster gives pleasure in a different way with the quality of the car but the key thing for me being the characteristic engine note and feel.

[steve S owner]

just to update her indoors has not been persuaded to agree that we hang on to the car until Spring and so reluctantly its now up for sale in the classified section.

[bgunn]

Good luck selling, looks like a lovely car. I'd probably have seriously considered that had I not just bought a '99 2.7!

[steve S owner]

Thanks it is a nice one I know. I have had a bit of interest already including the usual scamming so-and-so wanting to pay by paypal and have someone else collect it for him because he is on a military base and cant get off. Do people really fall for that kind of con?

[jamesogt]

Garage it. Its a 4 grand keeper. You will struggle to find another. Just convince her long term it is the better plan so you don't go buy a 10k one next yaer