Spec and discounts on 718 Boxster?

[acf69]

I will regret this, but it is time my rarely used X50 996T goes and gets replaced with something I will take out more regularly. I test drove a 718 today and felt even the 2.0 was pretty spritely, although I think I will end up buying an S model.

Re the spec what are people's thoughts on the following:

1) Is it worth paying £1,400 for the switchable exhaust? I know there has been a lot said about the exhaust note, does this make the right sort of difference?

2) Is it worth upgrading to the LED headlights?

3) I'm debating between Crayon and Graphite Blue - thoughts?

and finally any discounts being offered at the moment?

Thanks

[PhantomPH]

acf69 said:

I will regret this, but it is time my rarely used X50 996T goes and gets replaced with something I will take out more regularly. I test drove a 718 today and felt even the 2.0 was pretty spritely, although I think I will end up buying an S model.

Re the spec what are people's thoughts on the following:

1) Is it worth paying £1,400 for the switchable exhaust? I know there has been a lot said about the exhaust note, does this make the right sort of difference?

2) Is it worth upgrading to the LED headlights?

3) I'm debating between Crayon and Graphite Blue - thoughts?

and finally any discounts being offered at the moment?

Thanks

1) Entirely up to you as it's personal taste. I would, but then that's me. See if you can find an OPC that has a S with the exhaust and give it a listen.

2) Modern xenons are all the headlight I need. I'd be spending the option money elsewhere.

3) Mate, that's your choice! You think I should buy a black or blue jacket today?

As for discounts, I think you will be very lucky. See the other thread regarding the waiting list for either model. You may get a bit of wiggle if you buy a demonstrator (if they will sell you one), but your best bet is if you are using finance...then you can push for a good rate. Otherwise if you don't order one, the next guy will.

[bcr5784]

PhantomPH said:

1) Entirely up to you as it's personal taste. I would, but then that's me. See if you can find an OPC that has a S with the exhaust and give it a listen.

2) Modern xenons are all the headlight I need. I'd be spending the option money elsewhere.

3) Mate, that's your choice! You think I should buy a black or blue jacket today?

As for discounts, I think you will be very lucky. See the other thread regarding the waiting list for either model. You may get a bit of wiggle if you buy a demonstrator (if they will sell you one), but your best bet is if you are using finance...then you can push for a good rate. Otherwise if you don't order one, the next guy will.

+1 - but I would add that the sports exhaust will be noiser than the standard one, even in the "off" position - which may be an issue if you use the car for long journeys.

[andymc]

they may fancy retailling your x50? that could help

[acf69]

PhantomPH said:

1) Entirely up to you as it's personal taste. I would, but then that's me. See if you can find an OPC that has a S with the exhaust and give it a listen.

2) Modern xenons are all the headlight I need. I'd be spending the option money elsewhere.

3) Mate, that's your choice! You think I should buy a black or blue jacket today?

As for discounts, I think you will be very lucky. See the other thread regarding the waiting list for either model. You may get a bit of wiggle if you buy a demonstrator (if they will sell you one), but your best bet is if you are using finance...then you can push for a good rate. Otherwise if you don't order one, the next guy will.

Thanks for the reply, OPC has looked at my spec and said the Xenons with PDSL are more than enough. He's a fan of the sports exhaust from the point of view of it making some theatre to the drive. I hadn't realised that if you don't pick 2 zone climate you have to manually manage the AC (I'd assumed it was single zone as standard).

As for colour it was more the case I haven't seen any crayon cars so will do a search. I tend to buy safe colours, my wife said the Miami Blue demonstrator was too bright I'd like for a change pick a slightly different colour from black or grey

I can get a June build so should be available in time for our sort of summer

[PhantomPH]

acf69 said:

Thanks for the reply, OPC has looked at my spec and said the Xenons with PDSL are more than enough. He's a fan of the sports exhaust from the point of view of it making some theatre to the drive. I hadn't realised that if you don't pick 2 zone climate you have to manually manage the AC (I'd assumed it was single zone as standard).

As for colour it was more the case I haven't seen any crayon cars so will do a search. I tend to buy safe colours, my wife said the Miami Blue demonstrator was too bright I'd like for a change pick a slightly different colour from black or grey

I can get a June build so should be available in time for our sort of summer

June build for an S? That's really good going - last I heard it was more like autumn for an S and up to a year for the 2.0. Not that I've paid much attention of late.

Be warned - the manual AC is the only thing I would change about my current car. It's a pain in the arse. Really cold until it's far too hot...if that makes sense?

I agree with your other half - Miami is too bright for me, too. My local OPC had a crayon Panamera in the showroom last time I was there and under the lights it was a very pale grey. It looked the nuts on the Panamera (very high spec one with black wheels) and would tempt me. But if you want something different from grey...

[JasonSteel]

acf69 said:

I haven't seen any crayon cars so will do a search.

take this with a very large pinch of salt. when i was looking to get a 718 i built my own configurator as the Porsche one is pretty poor. i've plugged the Crayon colour shown on the configurator and this is what came out. i can change the rims to any of the 20" ones so if you want to see a different combination let me know.

just to be clear - this is a render of a 3d model i put together so is only an artist's impression. the actual colour could be significantly different.

[acf69]

JasonSteel said:

take this with a very large pinch of salt. when i was looking to get a 718 i built my own configurator as the Porsche one is pretty poor. i've plugged the Crayon colour shown on the configurator and this is what came out. i can change the rims to any of the 20" ones so if you want to see a different combination let me know.

just to be clear - this is a render of a 3d model i put together so is only an artist's impression. the actual colour could be significantly different.

Here's me struggling to get the correct emoji to show and you wrote your own configurator!!!

I have picked the 20" Carrera S wheels painted in satin black - if you could put those on it would be great.

My first impression of this colour is pretty positive

[acf69]

andymc said:

they may fancy retailling your x50? that could help

My gut feel is it has been out of the Porsche dealer network for too long for them to really be interested in it, but I might ask as it makes a nice dent in the financing of the new car and would take some of the hassle away

[bcr5784]

JasonSteel said:

take this with a very large pinch of salt. when i was looking to get a 718 i built my own configurator as the Porsche one is pretty poor. i've plugged the Crayon colour shown on the configurator and this is what came out. i can change the rims to any of the 20" ones so if you want to see a different combination let me know.

just to be clear - this is a render of a 3d model i put together so is only an artist's impression. the actual colour could be significantly different.

I understand your concerns and I've no doubt your image is a step forward - but unless you have a properly calibrated monitor on your ( and his) PC, there will still be a huge amount of uncertainty - and that's ignoring lighting conditions, and any colour palette limitations in the transfer process. I have two monitors on my PC (albeit midrange rather than top end)- both calibrated - and you would not believe the difference. Some metallics are a real sod to represent reasonably over a range of lighting conditions.

The only real test is a physical example - and that may not be possible.

Edited by bcr5784 on Saturday 15th April 20:07

Edited by bcr5784 on Saturday 15th April 20:14

[JasonSteel]

bcr5784 said:

I understand your concerns and I've no doubt your image is a step forward - but unless you have a properly calibrated monitor on your ( and his) PC, there will still be a huge amount of uncertainty

oh absolutely, hence the double disclaimer. even with photos there are colour issues. for example a search for Miami Blue comes up with THIS, and clearly there are lots of variations of the same, real colour.

in addition to the problems you highlighted, there are other issues too, such as white balance, colour processing and so on, but the point is that any of the example Miami Blue photos will give you an idea of the overall effect, and that's all that's on offer here.

[JasonSteel]

acf69 said:

My first impression of this colour is pretty positive

if you didn't already know then by now i'm sure you do - the image is indicative only and you should see the real thing before committing.

acf69 said:

I have picked the 20" Carrera S wheels painted in satin black - if you could put those on it would be great.

no problem - i'll make the change and will post again when i'm at my workstation.

[acf69]

JasonSteel said:

no problem - i'll make the change and will post again when i'm at my workstation.

Understood and thanks

[JasonSteel]

here you go, with Satin Black rims:

[acf69]

JasonSteel said:

here you go, with Satin Black rims:

thank you

[JasonSteel]

bcr5784 said:

unless you have a properly calibrated monitor

monitor calibration is useful but it's not the be all end all that some make it out to be. the fact that you have 2 calibrated monitors that display very different outputs says a lot, and i know a lot of users that 'calibrate' everything and are constantly running into colour issues. in theory, calibration is supposed to ensure that devices display the same, so the fact that they don't usually implies there's something wrong. and even if all monitors were perfectly calibrated, the different gamma response of devices vs the human eye makes things look very different anyway (e.g. in bright sunlight photos will show very dark shadows and bright - often blown - highlights. the human eye balances these huge differences differently).

personally, i have a decent, calibrated IPS monitor that serves me well and the output is very similar to my Dell XPS laptop with wide gamut screen (in colour managed applications) and some tablets such as the Hudl2 and a friend's iPad. for me that's good enough.

even viewing the real thing in different light changes the look of the material (Agate Grey for example looks very different - sometimes brown - in different light), so naturally one render isn't going to be representative of what to expect. but then when i was looking into the 718 i had many environments set up for these reasons. at the time there were very few 718 Caymans in showrooms, so virtual was the only way. it's likely the same situation now with Crayon.

for comparison, here are a selection of colours. not fit for making definitive choices but they give a good idea of what to expect. and in any case for me doing it this way was way more fun than using the standard configurator

[acf69]

The top right I assume is Miami blue and looks very close in colour to the car they have in Guildford OPC. Carmine Red also looks pretty good (on my monitor)

[Ollie1977]

To the OP.

On your second point re lights, beware the standard xenons are only 35w bulbs rather than the standard 55w you get in other cars. So depending on your driving environment, it might be a wise upgrade to pdsl. I've had the same dilemma (there is lots of stuff about this on plant9 and here). Worse still you currently can't upgrade the current bulbs and I've read it's a bumper off job if you wish to change them in the future if/when the option is available. But for me nothing worse when you're driving down a country lane is the dark (and if a daily driver, its probably 50% of the year) and your lights stop you enjoying a car because the beams not bright enough. So for me it's now a must have. Oh and along the exhaust, because of the drama, but think this is something you must try yourself.

Hope that helps.

[JasonSteel]

acf69 said:

The top right I assume is Miami blue and looks very close in colour to the car they have in Guildford OPC. Carmine Red also looks pretty good (on my monitor)

that's right. colours are Sapphire Blue, Miami Blue, Lava Orange, and Carmine Red.

[acf69]

Ollie1977 said:

To the OP.

On your second point re lights, beware the standard xenons are only 35w bulbs rather than the standard 55w you get in other cars. So depending on your driving environment, it might be a wise upgrade to pdsl. I've had the same dilemma (there is lots of stuff about this on plant9 and here). Worse still you currently can't upgrade the current bulbs and I've read it's a bumper off job if you wish to change them in the future if/when the option is available. But for me nothing worse when you're driving down a country lane is the dark (and if a daily driver, its probably 50% of the year) and your lights stop you enjoying a car because the beams not bright enough. So for me it's now a must have. Oh and along the exhaust, because of the drama, but think this is something you must try yourself.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, that is very helpful re the Xenons. I was planning to get the PDSL upgraded Xenons, but I'm still in two minds re the LED's although a further £800 to the bill would be good to avoid. I'm pretty set on the sports exhaust now as all feedback has been positive.

I will alternate this car with the more practical Range Rover Sport my wife is insisting we keep as it comes in handy for picking up Christmas trees once a year I am hoping the split of driving will be more even than the current 5% in one, 95% in the other car.