2008 Porsche Boxster Reviews

Ewan Kennedy reviews the Porsche Boxster and Cayman from 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 as a used buy.

The Porsche Boxster and Cayman are pure mid-engined sports machines, meaning the engine is installed just behind the cabin, unlike the the engine in the Porsche 911 that’s fitted behind the back wheels.A mid-engine layout gives exceptionally good weight distribution and therefore the best in chassis balance and higher cornering speeds than the 911.Interestingly, the Boxster and Cayman share quite a few of their front-end components with the Porsche 911. At the rear they are quite different machine visually, though there’s still a family resemblance.Porsche Boxster is sold only as a convertible, Cayman is a fixed hardtop coupe and didn’t go on sale till 2006, nine years after its open-top brother.Boxster’s roof is one of the simplest in the business, note the clever way the roof acts as its own cover when it’s powered open. It can be left open even if the weather is threatening as it can easily be powered closed at a red traffic light. You can usually avoid the embarrassment of having to wait for roof closure to be complete after the lights turn green.Both models are brilliant machines that cry out to be pushed hard and fast. Their naturally-aspirated engines are wonderfully responsive, the gearbox is a delight to use, road grip is very high and the feel through the steering wheel and the seat of the pants is magnificent.It takes a lot of provocation to get the tail out of line, and if it does start to slide the cars remains controllable - up to a point, that is. As with all full-on sports cars with mid-mounted engines, if the tail gets out too far you'll need quick reflexes to correct it.An advanced driving course is recommended if you really want to get the best from your Porsche. These days electronics aids can save you from over-reaching; they can be detuned should you wish to make your own decisions, particularly for track days.Unlike the 911, these Porsches are strictly two-seaters. The seats are supportive and comfortable and shoulder room is plentiful, with the two occupants well insulated from buffeting with the roof down.A real bonus of the mid-engined layout is that Boxster and Cayman are surprisingly practical for sportscars, with luggage compartments front and rear, this can almost be used as a daily driver by a one or two-person household.The Boxster arrived in Australia in January 1997. It received minor upgrades in October 1999, August 2001 and August 2002, then a major upgrading in February 2005. The latter, tagged the 987 series, replaced the previous 986 models.This was upgraded again in November 2006, November 2007 and March 2009. An all-new Boxster came out in June 2012, followed by a new Cayman 12 months later.The Boxster was initially criticised for being down on power, mainly due to its smallish 2.5-litre, flat-six engine. That problem was solved in 1999 when a bigger 2.7-litre unit was installed.Even better news was the shoehorning of an optional 3.2-litre engine into the models called the Boxster S and Cayman S. This was increased to 3387 cc in 2006 and to 3436 cc in 2009, with the standard Boxster going up to 2.9 litres in 2009.These superb Porsche engines, even the smallest ones, really come alive above 4000 rpm, their tone initially hardening, then rising to a wonderfully metallic howl as it goes through 5000 rpm. Get the top down whenever you can and hold on to the lower gears just for the sheer pleasure of listening to it.There were major changes to the Boxster engine in 2009. Though the flat-six engines still capacities of 2.9 or 3.4 litres, they featured a direct injection fuel system.This was complemented by numerous other changes. Power was increased, and even more importantly peak torque remained constant over large parts of the rev band. Unlike the older powerplants, that needed 4000 revs to come on song, the newer units really begin to buzz from not much over 3000 rpm.Powerful ventilated brake discs are installed. If you think going from a standstill to 100km/h in under six seconds in the bigger engined models feels sensational, just wait until you experience 100 to zero in less than three seconds. That really makes your eyes bulge and gives a most satisfying feeling of security.Boxster initially used either a five-speed or six-speed manual gearbox or a five-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission. From the 2009 upgrade a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox was installed.Porsche is long established in Australia. The dealer network isn’t huge, but it’s well organised and we seldom hear complaints about parts or service availability. Prices aren’t cheap, but neither are they outrageous for what you get.Insurance ratings are generally moderate for what is, after all, a prestige sports car aimed at those who like to drive hard and fast.A Porsche Boxster that’s always been serviced and repaired by an official dealer is relatively common and we feel it's the one to aim for. You probably be asked to pay more because of its history. And may we suggest you keep up the servicing to make your car a sound investmentWHAT TO LOOK FORHard driving is what the Boxster and Cayman are built for - butt too much can decrease their lives. Look for severe tyre wear, heavy brake dust buildup and repairs to the body. Rust is very unusual and almost certainly means the car has been badly repaired after a crash.These cars are well engineered and solidly built and unless poorly repaired after a crash should last well. If you suspect collision repairs it’s wise to have it professionally inspected.Check the interior for signs of mistreatment. Look under the floor mats for signs of dampness caused by a Boxster being caught out in the rain. The engine should start easily, idle smoothly virtually from the moment it kicks over and have throttle response that’s all-but instantaneous.Heavy operation of the clutch is likely to mean it’s due for an overhaul. Not a complex job, but there are no cheap repairs on a Porsche. The gearbox should be light and easy to use, with no noises at any time, even during the fastest of gearchanges.Be sure the brakes pull the car up cleanly without one wheel locking ahead of the others. If ABS is installed feel for a pulse through the brake pedal under hard braking.CAR BUYING TIPMost sports cars are only driven gently - sad but true - however it’s a fact of life they probably make a better used-car buy. 

Denigrators of the Porsche Boxster S will be inclined to ask how the big Beetle goes.They refer to the fact Germany's Ferdinand Porsche designed the original Volkswagen, or “people's car,” for Hitler before moving on to less controversial pastures, postwar, when Porsche cars became noticeable on German autobahns.It is true the first Porsche cars looked very much like a tarted-up VW Beetle and both the Boxsters and 911s still display their genetic base in their looks.But the Boxster S is to a VW Beetle as an FA-18 is to a Cessna 150.The S is a bit of a worry for a road tester. At the redline, 7000rpm, in third gear with three more to go, it is going fast enough to get you an instant off-the-road dangerous driving ticket. And it sticks to the road, even in the wet, like a limpet on a rock.In other words if you want to find its limits, or anything near them, you will have to take it on to a racetrack or find a deserted road out the back of Nerang. As if you were on a racetrack. There are any number of cars in similar vein but the Porsche Boxster S, with its transverse engine situated just behind you, howls to be let loose. In fact it howls when it is let loose and you get all that induction noise and exhaust beat in your ear.And the moment you get in, the game is given away by the optional sports wheel.Here is a device used solely for its original purpose, to steer the car. There are no stereo controls, no cruise controls, no shift paddles. Just a steering wheel.Then the placement of the pedals also tells a story. The accelerator is set high enough off the floor for easy heel-and-toeing as you come, post haste, into a corner with the ball of the foot on the brake pedal and the heel on the accelerator.But that is not to say this car is purely a racetrack machine. The variable induction manifold combined with the variable valve timing and lift means at low revs, 1200rpm or so, the flat-six is still very tractable. It pulls well, almost irrespective of the gear selected, and unless you have redlined it a couple of times you have no idea just what a snarling tiger resides behind your shoulder.The seats reinforce the impression of a performance car. As one passenger said, you feel like you're going fast just sitting in the stationary car with backside only millimetres from the ground and stiff bolsters planting you firmly in the middle of the seat.Porsche clearly had in mind lithe, agile, youthful, contortionists rather than fat old geezers when they designed the car. Seatbelts can be almost impossible to find without dislocating the spine, and sliding down into the driver's seat with the top up is a far easier proposition than squeezing in with it down.The soft top flies in the face of trendier hard top convertibles but it works well. Release the locking lever above the rear vision mirror and, providing you are not doing more than 50km/h, the top comes up or goes down in about 20 seconds with a touch of the button in the central divider. And it is the massive, low-profile run-flat tyres that generate the vast majority of the cabin noise rather than any wind noise coming from, or through, the soft top. The Boxster S gains from the fact it was designed as a convertible and the body was suitably stiff right from the start rather than ending up as a reinforced chassis chasing torsional stiffness.Turbulence in the cabin, with the top down, is almost negligible thanks to a reasonably high windscreen, low seats and a glass partition between the built-in roll bars.Brakes, at first, are less than impressive. A fair amount of pedal pressure is needed but as speeds and use increases they come into their own. The clutch pedal is on the heavy rather than light side but, given the power and torque being transmitted, that is hardly surprising.Dash is mainly analogue apart from some digital displays including a handy large size readout of current speed which is hard to determine from the smallish speedo which reads up to 300km/h.Dominating the dash is a large analogue rev counter. Once again, given the nature of the beast, it's not unexpected.Cabin is black soft plastic dash and carpets with black leather seats, and aluminium bits and bobs. Pedals are alloy-faced, gear lever knob is large and solid, and the six-speed gearbox can only be described as a delight to use.The steering is power assisted but heavy and is not keen to self-centre after full-lock turns.While it is heavy, this becomes reassuring as speeds increase.The most annoying thing about the S was the Porsche sound system with Bose speakers. The system has intelligent volume control. It is supposed to lift the volume as cabin noise increases and lower it as speed and noise decreases.But it could not make up its mind, often boosting volume as the car came to a halt at traffic lights.Driver and passenger are surrounded by airbags (head, side, thorax and front).In keeping with the best German tradition you can virtually double the price of your Boxster with an all-encompassing list of options, not least of which is ceramic disc brakes and fully electric seats.Comfort is a bit subjective in this car. Rough roads will give you a rough ride and those 40 per cent profile run flats are as unforgiving as a spurned wife.But then who buys a Porsche Boxster S for comfort? Performance is what it is about and that's what the S delivers.The price of a standard Boxster S is $134,600.Options fitted to the Test Car were:19-inch Carrera Sport alloy wheels $6340; aluminium finish for gear knob and handbrake $2790; Bose high-end sound system $1990; metallic paint $1890; sports seats $1690; Porsche Park Assist $1090.Price as tested: $150,390.   PORSCHE BOXSTER SPrice: $150,390 (as tested)Engine: A masterpiece. Tractable and with good torque down low and a delight to hear when at 7000rpm.Transmission: Clutch is a little on the heavy side but manageable and six-speed box is a slick changer.Economy: Not its strong point but it can be driven with conservation in mind. Flog it and you'll pay at the bowserHandling: Exemplary. A little understeer or oversteer can be provoked even with the PSM system in an overseer role but it corners tenaciously even when the surface is wet.Safety: It has all the electronic whizz-bangs such as ABS and stability control as well as airbags all over the shop.Ride: Harsh and unforgiving but that's the other side of the excellent handling coin.Brakes: The harder they are worked the better they like it.Value: Two-year-old standard S models sell for about $115,000 so retained value appears to be reasonable.Body: Soft-top convertible, two-door, two-seat roadster; aluminium hardtop available as an option.Engine: 3387cc flat six-cylinder aluminium engine with four overhead camshafts; four valves a cylinder; variable valve timing and lift, switching intake manifold; electronic engine management for ignition and fuel injection; sequential multipoint fuel injection, bore x stroke (mm): 96 x 78; compression 11.1:1Power: 217kW @ 6250 rpm.Torque: 340Nm @ 4400-6000rpm.Fuel: 64 litres, PULP 98 octane, city 15.3L/100km, rural 7.8L/100km; combined 10.6L/100km (claimed); 11.8L/100km (as tested).Transmission: six-speed manual.Suspension: Front and rear axle with spring struts (optimised by Porsche) with spring strut-guided wheels suspended independently on track control and longitudinal arms; spring struts with inner damper; twin-sleeve gas pressure dampers.Brakes: Twin-circuit brake system with one circuit on the front; one circuit on the rear wheels; four-piston aluminium monobloc brake calipers; cross-drilled, inner-vented brake discs measuring 318mm x 28 mm (front) 299 x 24 mm (rear).Safety: Porsche Stability Management including ABS, EBD etc.Wheels and tyres: front 8J x 19, 235/40 ZR 19, rear 9 J x 19 265/40 ZR 19.Weight: 1355kg.Dimensions (mm): 4329 (l) 1801 (w) 1292 (h) 2415 (w'base).Top speed: 272km/h 0-100km/h 5.4sec; 0-160km/h 11.8sec.CO2 emissions: 254g/km.Verdict:For: Exhilarating performance, tenacious handling.Against: Insuring it, getting in and out.Boxster history1996 The first Boxster (986) was built in late 1996 as a 1997 model, the first year they were sold. It had a naturally aspirated 2.5-litre flat six-cylinder engine producing 150kW.2000 The first Boxster S appeared with a 3.2-litre engine.2005 A restyled Boxster (987) appears.2007 Boxster and Boxster S get new powerplants originally used in the Cayman series. Boxster engine out to 2.7 litres and S engine grows to 3.4 litres. Engine powering the S now produces 220kW.The Porsche Boxster name derives from its “box”er engine, an engine in which the pistons travel horizontally rather than vertically and road”ster,” the name given to a two-door convertible.

But what are hats and sunscreen for?Besides most of today's roadsters can get their fabric or folding metal lids up at the push of a button within half a minute. These are Carsguide's favourites: Affordable fun Mazda MX-5 Price: from $42,870Engine: 2L/4-cylinder; 118kW/188NmEconomy: 8.5L/100kmTransmission: 6-speed manual or autoIf there was an annual award in this category it would reside perpetually in Mazda's trophy cabinet. The original MX-5 reinvented the classic Brit roadster adding such novel notions as performance and reliability.The third generation retains the 1989 model's exhilarating dynamics and sheer fluidity. If you don't find pleasure in the way an MX-5 drives you've probably ceased breathing.Purists might decry such modern innovations as air-con, power steering, ESP, a folding composite roof and (egad!) an auto transmission, but it hasn't been 1957 for some time now. Still others would rather it went quicker, but they're missing the point.The MX-5 is the affordable roadster. Track marqueLotus Elise SPrice: $69,990Engine: 1.8L/4-cylinder; 100kW/172NmEconomy: 8.3L/100kmTransmission: 5-speed manualThe salient figure here is 860 that's the number of kgs the entry-level Lotus weighs, or about 500 less than a Toyota Corolla whose engine this spartan roadster uses to get from standing to 100km/h in 6.1 seconds.While it's absolutely one for the enthusiast - or the fanatic - even if you've not the least wish to drive something so uncompromised (though a good deal more civilised than the Exige) you should at least be driven in a Lotus once. It'll open your eyes. Wide.At its best at track speeds, where the Lotus's wonderfully unassisted steering comes into its own and where it doesn't matter that it takes ages to assemble to roof, you can smilingly drive one every day. But beware barging SUVs. Zed's not dead Nissan 350Z RoadsterPrice: $73,990Engine: 3.5L/V6; 230kW/358NmEconomy: 12L/100kmTransmission: 6-speed manual or 5-speed autoThe Roadster version of the still outstanding 350Z gives very little away to the coupe model and while the same-priced auto is a cog short of the manual's six, it's easy to live with in city traffic.Though we've yet to try the Roadster with the substantially new the faster V6 that causes the bonnet to bulge so priapically, our recent week in the revised Coupe suggests that it too will be more of an already good thing.It's almost impossible to believe that same company is responsible for the Tiida ... Gay tidingsAudi TT Roadster V6 quattroPrice: $92,900Engine: 3.2L/v6; 184kW/320NmEconomy: 9.6L/100kmTransmission: 6-speed DSGLike the coupe, the lighter front-wheel-drive with the GTI's turbo four pot is a better bet most of the time than the heftier all-wheel-drive, though it's not really a sports car there'll be moments when you'll love yourself for the latter's extra go and grip.Dispensing with the coupe's comedy back seat, there's ample room behind when with the fabric roof's folded. Some find the ride a bit terse; I don't but would still take the optional magnetic suspension.With performance and handling that are both entertaining and accessible while wrapped in such an aesthetically bell-ringing package, the TT is fairly loveable. If only ...Porsche Boxster SPrice: from $135,100Engine: 3.4L/6-cylinder; 217kW/340NmEconomy: 10.4 or 11L/100kmTransmission: 6-speed manual or 5-speed autoIn our rare idle moments hereabouts, certain of us scan the classifieds trying rather pathetically to convince ourselves that a used Boxster is almost within our reach. Almost. Well, maybe one day ...That's the problem with spending any amount of time in a Boxster, particularly, the top whack S. There's nothing wrong with it, you see. Well, maybe the ride on bigger tyres is just a bit savage, but so what when all else is perfect. It even sounds wonderful.At it's worst, the Boxster will make you hate yourself for not being a better driver. So sublimely intuitive is the handling, so poised and balanced does it feel even in extremis, it almost always feels capable of more. Even if you're not. Two plus twosAffordability aside, floating the open top proposition can founder on the fatal shores of practicality. Society frowns upon selling one's children, though surely financing a Boxster should be cause for sympathy.Still, Volkswagen's Eos (from $49,990) cabriolet/coupe comes is a practical, stylish and - with the drivetrain of the Golf GTI - tolerably rapid 2+2. It retains adequate bootage with the sophisticated folding metal lid, which can be configured five different way, folded down. Uniquely there's also a diesel option (from $48K), so you needn't use much juice.And there are further options afoot.With BMW's glorious twin-turbo 3-litre petrol six, the 135i cabriolet (due in June) will be by far the sharpest 2+2. Audi's A3 cabrio, likely to feature the 1.8-litre TFSI, follows in July.And if fortune smiles upon you to the tune of $1.19 there's the sensuous land yacht that is Rolls-Royce's Drophead coupe. Plenty of room in the back for the kids in this baby.