By request, here is my review and write-up of the latest Porsche Boxster.

Porsche introduced the ubiquitous Boxster in 1997 as their answer to the also-new BMW Z3 2-seat roadster, 2-seat folding hardtop Mercedes SLK roadster, and the 2+2 Audi TT hardtop ( later convertible as well ). The new Boxster, like the Z3, was an instant hit, and 1997 came to be known in the auto press as the " Year of the Germans ", as the Japanese had by then, for several reasons, dropped their more expensive sports cars from the American market, leaving only smaller, entry-level models such as the Mazda Miata and Honda Del Sol.

The Boxster, however, was just what Porsche, with its reputation for high prices, needed at the time. Porsche originally was targeting a base price of under $40,000, but ended up with a base price in the mid-40's ( minus the inevitable dealer mark-ups ).

The car quickly turned out to be the best-selling new Porsche in history, with LONG waiting lines at Porsche dealerships. A second Boxster assembly plant was opened in Finland later in the year and STILL did not even come close to meeting worldwide demand... long waits persisted. A friend of mine, who owns a restaurant I often eat at, ordered a new silver Boxster in March of 1997.

He finally took delivery in April of 1998...a 13 month wait. The car was already one model-year old by then, with first-year depreciation, when they first handed the keys to him. But he still has it, and loves it, and still drives it back-and-forth to the restaurant, in good weather, every day for work....he has an old 944 beater and his wife's front-drive Odyssey minivan that he uses when the weather isn't so good.

The Boxster, today, remarkably, has not risen significantly in its factory price in the last 10 years..base models still start in the mid-40's. And, in fact, due to the much different supply-and-demand situation today than 9-10 years ago and the cars readily in stock, you can probably purchase a new Boxster today for the same or less money than back them......and get more car, with the advances of the last 10 years. And the slightly more expensive ($1000) Cayman hardtop model, with the same engine, and the much more expensive Boxster S and Cayman S models, with larger engines and more equipment, have been added in the meantime for those who don't want the base roadster version.

The Boxster, over the years, has developed a reputation as one of the ideal sports cars, with excellent roadability and handling. Even stodgy Consumer Reports, never particularly wild about sports cars, rates it very highly, although early versions had some reliability problems, particularly with the folding-top mechanisms ( probably one more reason for the hardtop Cayman's introduction, along with the obviously more-rigid structure).

So... as currently Porsche's lowest-priced production car, the obvious question is: Does the Boxster provide more driving fun and value, per dollar, as lower-priced two-seat roadsters, some of which start at half of the Boxster's price, such as the Mazda Miata, Honda S2000, and GM twins Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky? That, of course, is one of the main reasons for this review and write-up... read on.

Model Reviewed: 2007 Porsche Boxster

Base Price: $45,600

Major Options:

Preferred Package: $1990

Porsche Wind Stop: $375

Destination: $795

Price as reviewed: $48,760

Drivetrain: RWD, Mid-engine, 2.7L horizontally-opposed flat-six, 245 HP @ 6500 RPM, torque 201 ft.lbs. @ 4600 RPM, 5-speed manual transmission.

Exterior Color: Guards Red
Interior: Standard Black Leather


PLUSSES:

Superlative Brakes.

Go-Kart handling.

Music-to-your-Ears Exhaust note

Top-Notch Paint Job.

Rigid body Structure for a Convertible.

Adequate Space Inside for Moderately Tall Drivers.

High-quality Leather Seats.

Good Trunk Space for a Small Sports Car.

Well-Designed Fabric Power-Folding Top.

Tilt-and-Telescope Steering Wheel.

Rock-of-Gibraltar Solid Clutch and Shifter.

Wide Choice of Exterior and Interior Colors and packages.

Well-Placed Tachometer.

Reasonably Good Stereo.

Generally Well-Done Hardware Inside and Out.


MINUSES:

Questionable Dollar Value.

Harsh, Noisy Ride.

Not a Car for Long Trips.

Not Much Torque at LOW RPM's and in Higher Gears.

No Engine Hood or Engine Access at all From Above.

Rather Awkward Markings for the Speedometer.

Unconventional, Left-Hand Ignition.

Less-than-ideal shoulder belts.

EXPENSIVE Parts and Service.

High Insurance Premiums.

Seats in Base Model Only Partly Power-adjustable.

Too Many Confusing, Look-Alike Dash and Console Buttons, Even in Non-NAV Version.


The first impression of this car, as you walk up to it, is that of the general Porsche non-Cayenne family. The hood, front end, and headlights are all quite similiar to its Cayman, Carrera, and 911 siblings, although the rear end, mainly due to the mid-mounted rather than rear-mounted engine and folding top, is somewhat different. The exterior paint job is truly first-rate ( mine was fire-engine Guard Red ) and rivals that of Lexus, as does the baby-butt smoothness and quality of the sheet metal. There are two trunks, as with other mid-engine cars... one up front and the other one in back behind the engine. Both offer, and especially combined, a pretty good amount of cargo space for a car of this type... certainly much better than the mid-engined Toyota MR2. The exhaust pipe is unusual for sports cars in that it is one large oval under the center of the rear bumper rather than the more common twin pipes, but produces a pleasant exhaust note.....more on this later. The exterior hardware, as expected from Porsche, is also first-rate, with none of the appalling cheapness you find on, say, a Dodge Neon.

OK... get in. The car, of course, sits quite low to the ground, like most pure sports cars, but was not particularly difficult to get in or out of....I've seen lots worse. Once inside, the door shuts with a fairly solid sound and feel for a convertible, but the shoulder belt, which is anchored to the side of the body behind the drivers' door, tended to ride high up on my neck, and was not particularly easy to adjust.

The interior on my test car was rather Spartan, especially for the almost $49,000 list price, but there is an excellent choice of interior colors...far more than in most cars.....and various wood, carbon-fiber, and aluminum interior packages are available as options.

There is enough room for my 6' 2", 275-lb. frame, though... the top up, with the seat adjusted all the way down, gives room for my ubiquitous baseball cap. Many of the interior fittings, especially the seats, leather upholstery, shift lever, air vent hardware, and glove box, appeared to be of very high quality. But the designers could have done a better job, even in this non-NAV version, with the stereo and climate-control buttons... they are of rather cheap plastic, are clusted more or less together around the center of the dash, and are too similar in look and feel.

The steering column has both a tilt and telescope feature, and, for my big legs, needed to be all the way up and partly out, but curiously, had no power adjustments... another omission in an almost-50K car. The primary instruments were generally well-placed. The large, well-marked black and silver tachometer, in typical Porsche fashion, took center stage, right behind the steering wheel. The similarly-colored speedometer to the left of it, however, I thought, was rather oddly marked, in MPH-readings every 25 MPH instead of the more usual 10 or 20, making it rather difficult to tell your speed at a glance. A digital MPH readout, under the tach right behind the wheel in front of you, helps some, but can be confused with the similar odometer and trip odometer digits.

The seats are well-made, hold you in place in spite of rather low side bolstering, are sturdily constructed, and have an extremely durable-feeling leather covering them, but are a little stiff in the cushion for my tastes....you feel like you are sitting on a leather-covered park bench with no padding. This, of course, accentuates the stiffness of the car's ride... more on this in a minute. In the base-level Boxster, the rake adjustment is power and the rest of the controls are manual... upmarket Boxsters and optional packages come with all-power seats.

The standard power-folding top, like the manually-operating one in the Miata, is easy and foolproof. Just snap a large oval release in the center of the windshield header, hit a button on the console, and both side windows drop partway down and the top, quickly and efficiently, folds back over your head into the compartment behind the seats over the engine.....probably the reason why there is no conventional engine cover / hood. The whole operation takes only 10 to 15 seconds, and the top seals itself down... no need to boot it.

OK...this car, as a classic driver's car, was meant to drive, so let's hit the road. Start it up with the Porsche-tradition left-hand ignition ( not one of my favorites ) and the 245 HP flat-six lets its presence be known, even at idle, with less than Lexus-level quietness. Let the oil pressure come up, work the solidly-built but easy-to-use clutch and shifter ( one of the car's best features ), and off you go. The engine does not have exactly stump-pulling torque at low RPM's but does get out of its own way as RPM's build....you feel a moderate shove in the back as the revs climb. The clutch and shifter, as mentioned, are both well-done, and have a solid, made-of-granite feel, yet are easy and simple to use. The linkage, though, is a little notchy, and you can go from third to second instead of fourth if you shift too sloppy. Another curiosity, though in an almost $50,000 car is only 5 gears in the base model Boxster... you have to buy the substantially more expensive ( $55,000-$60,000 ) Boxster S model to get the sixth gear, along with the more powerful 295 HP six.

The ride, on rough surfaces, with the car's low stance, lack of suspension travel, firm underpinnings, and low-profile tires, is too stiff and noisy for my tastes, but that is to be more or less expected in a car of this type. And, while the car is indeed noisy, not all of the noise is bad.....the exhaust has a great sound as revs build. Much has been written in the auto press about the Porsche exhaust notes, and the engineers apparently spend a lot of time tuning the mufflers just so. Still, IMO, this is not a car to cruise in all day long on the Interstates... the stiff ride, up-and-down nose bobbing characteristics of mid and rear-engine cars, high noise level, and darty steering will likely wear you out after a few hours or so.

Take this car out on a twisty road, however, and like most sports cars, the Boxster is right at home. The right-now steering, with most of the weight behind you and not over the front wheels, responds with almost Go-Kart quickness, with a close but not-quite-BMW level of road feel and telepathy. The handling and response of this car, in tight curves, is so neutral and responsive that unless you do something really nuts, it is difficult to get in any serious trouble.....especially with the standard stability system that allows quick race-car like response but will help prevent you from swapping ends like with older rear-engine Porsches. This, without question, is a true drivers' car, and perhaps would be even better if a way could be found to attach a BMW-designed steering system to it.

The brakes are as good if not better than the handling. Though my test car came with black-painted calipers instead of the red ones found in some other Porsches, I'm told by the salespeople that all Porsches with metal ( as opposed to ceramic ) rotors come with Brembo brakes, even though this is not mentioned in the literature. The pedal, in the Porsche tradition, was as firm as could be, with virtually no sponginess; the response was immediate, even, smooth, and powerful. If a deer or other obstacle appears in front of you at any moderate speed, you stand a good chance of stopping in time... or a good chance, if necessary, of quickly steering around it with the car's superb handling.


So... the verdict. Is this car worth what it costs, and is it a value compared to its less-expensive competition? I'll get to that now.

While the handling, brakes, power-top, transmission, body/paint, seat leather quality, color/interior choice, and some of the hardware on this car generally impress me, compared to less-expensive 2-seat roadsters like the Miata, S2000, and Solstice/Sky, this car does not, IMO, present a particularly good value per dollar spent. This is anything BUT a cheap car... even as the base-model American-market Porsche, its base price still starts over $45,000....and my car, with only minimal options, still listed pretty close to $50,000. And that 50K still does not buy you all-power seats, power tilt/telescope steering controls, or any optional interior packages to dress up the rather Spartan trim. Nor does it buy you a sixth gear for the manual transmission. Nor does it buy you an engine that will really scoot you at low-RPM's, although the power, as stated earlier, does come on some as revs build. Nor does it even buy you a simple engine hood that you can open to look at the engine...you open the rear trunk, pull out a small trapdoor, and check the oil and coolant through extended caps. Anything else requires putting the car up on a rack.

For the price of this car, you can buy two non-turbo Miatas, two Solstices without dealer markups, one and a half S2000's, and almost two Skys. That's a big price difference for a car that basically does the same thing. Granted, the Boxster has superb brakes and handling, but those much less expensive cars have brakes and underpinnings that do the job almost as well. The Boxster, Miata, and S2000, all three, IMO, have better build quality than the Solstice or Sky. The Miata and S2000 are likely to be the most reliable of the group, then the Boxster, then the GM cars... in that order.

However, to be fair, although you are obviously paying, at least to some extent, for the the panache of the Porsche nameplate, some of the Boxster's high cost ( and that of other Porsches ) is, of course, beyond the company's control. Porsches are built by German and Scandanavian workers in plants where they get extremely high wages and benefits, have many things paid for them, take long vacations, and have short workweeks, even by our own American UAW standards. This, and the high cost of some of the materials used in these cars, such as the quality paint, sheet metal, and leather, of course, makes them rather expensive to produce. And, also to be fair, unlike a lot of other vehicles, base-model Boxster prices, as already mentioned, have stayed pretty flat over the years, and have not risen much. But still, this is a competitive and dog-eat-dog auto market today, with enormous competition, and Porsche, though they make superb sports cars, IMO does not make vehicles that are cost-effective from a competitive point of view. They stay in business, like BMW and Mercedes, mainly from the panache of the nameplate, while other manufacturers offer competitive vehicles at lower prices.