This is the new Boxster. We will all call it the “981”, because that is its marketing-designated “engineering project name”. It’s supposed to have a little more power, a little more room, a little less weight, and a little more oomph on the window sticker…
Most of what we are seeing on the web bears the marks of hasty translation, but so far we are hearing about a 265hp 2.7L base engine and a 315hp “S” mill. The manual transmission stays with six forward speeds: the PDK will have seven.
Weight has supposedly been reduced by eighty pounds, while pricing will be up to $2,000 above current levels. For reference, the current Boxster is currently priced at $48,100, while the “S” is $58,600. If the current cars are anything to go by, look for the new Boxsters to be pleasant, responsive cars with faultless brakes, fragile interiors, and dicey electronics.
We will have more information as soon as we “borrow” it from websites with a cozy Porsche relationship it is available.
Hi Jack, it was my impression that the Boxster, at least in its original form, was an “entry level” Porsche… So, why the constant price increases? And wasn’t “keeping the cost down” one of the reasons that many Boxsters were built in Finland? Or has Porsche given up on the idea of entry level cars? My reason for mentioning this: you say in your article that Boxsters have “fragile interiors” and “dicey electronics”, qualities that we might forgive on a $13,000 car, but should certainly be unacceptable in a $48,000 (or more) vehicle!
The new 911 is $82,500 in deliberately-crippled non-“S” form, so $48,000 is still pretty cheap by contrast — and it’s about what a Porsche 944 cost in the old days, once you adjust for inflation.
Production line capacity, rather than cost, was supposedly responsible for Finnish production. I doubt it was any cheaper to build cars in Finland than it is in Germany.
I personally believe that Porsche could deliver a simpler, more reliable, more user-serviceable vehicle at this same price point. Doing so would recognize the fact that, in the pre-watercooled era, Porsches often had thirty-year lifespans in light service. My aircooled 993 is about to celebrate its eighteenth birthday and 90,000th mile and it really doesn’t show much wear. I would cheerfully pay $48,000, or $82,500, for a vehicle of equal quality, and I don’t care if it has a video screen in the center stack or not. Porsches are supposed to outlast fads, not fall victim to them.
Correct me if i’m wrong, but didn’t Finland forgo adopting the Euro?
I’d say it’s more expensive to build a car here in Finland than in Germany due to our higher taxes. And we have been using the Euro since 2002.
@Garak
Ok, thanks for the clarification. I couldn’t remember off hand what countries didn’t use the Euro.
Must be the production capacity then. Isn’t that almost sacrilegious, not building a Porsche in Germany?
But I suppose, they build Volvos in Belgium…so…
Thank you, Jack, for stating that so succinctly… As you may have read in my previous posts, my son owned a Boxster… which is why I hesitate to buy ANY Porsche (since his had one of the “exploding IMS bearing” motors). I retired this past November, and though the IDEA of a Porsche appeals to me, the reality– expensive repairs, lack of reliability, snobby dealerships, snooty Porsche-club-old-guys wearing gold chains who won’t drive their cars fast– puts me off from ever buying ANY Porsche product. I mean, at least BMW owners are friendly! (especially the guys in Portland, OR). As for “affordable” Porsches: the 914 (yeah, I know: it wasn’t a “real” Porsche) sold for an inflation adjusted price of $25,161 and the 1977 Porsche (nee Audi) 924 has an inflation adjusted price of $35,073… truly “entry level” in every meaning of the word… of course, building an “affordable” Porsche would mean, basically, re-badging a VW or Audi vehicle! But then, it wouldn’t be the first time Porsche had done this (“Anything we put a Porsche badge on… is a Porsche”– response to owner who sued Porsche AG for selling him an Audi-built 924).
Did they keep the “Where Will You Be When The Engine Eats Itself” surprise?
that interior and those dials is where i want to be.
“Porsches are supposed to outlast fads, not fall victim to them.”
Those days are LONG gone for the auto industry in general.
I love these stories. It’s like, ‘well, Greece, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy, et. al are about to suffer significant economic collapse’, the boys in Stuttgart say, ‘fuck the Rest von Europa, sie uns, sie zu retten, wollen wir dafür bezahlen auf diese Weise zu erwarten, sind wir sicher, dass mindestens die Chinesen kaufen.’
With that said, if I had the disposable income (which it seems, few do these days OUTSIDE of China or India), i’d buy one.
Sidebar: my father bought a new 928 in the late 70s, it ended up being such a lemon he ended up trading it in for an AMC Eagle SX/4 in ’82 (i’m sure he was sick of having to push it out of snowbanks in MN winters as well).
“… and I don’t care if it has a video screen in the center stack or not. Porsches are supposed to outlast fads, not fall victim to them.”
The new boxer-engined Toyobaru 86 is much closer to this ideal than any current Porsche.
The taillights are a bit overdone. I have zero interest in convertibles, so I’ll just mention that the paint color shown is pretty awful, and the interior color is … different. At least they continue to offer a real manual transmission.
Always check for the photo captioning of Mr. Baruth.
Shouldn’t a Porsche have more horsepower than a Hyundai Sonata?
And Coxsters are very nice $35k cars. Porsche just charge $50-60k for them.
And this the 3rd generation car? That looks exactly like the first two. Does the motor explode after 30000 miles on these as well?
And I like Porsche’s. I just wish they had realistic pricing.
Cool stories, bro. Perhaps horsepower isn’t everything.
They are priced realistically. If they weren’t, no one would buy them. Yet there are plenty of people buying new ones so that people like myself can pick up lightly used 2-year-old examples. I think their pricing strategy is working exactly the way they want it to.
I may be way out to lunch here (i’m somewhere between 750 1n 1,000 ml of some kind of strong blonde winter beer from finland), but that looks a LOT like a MR-Spyder:
http://www.carsforsale411.com/images/models/MR-S.jpg
I totally agree with you, Jack.
Has anybody else noticed that the rubber seals on German cars disintegrate and turn into goo after about 7 years? As far as I can tell this does not happen nearly as fast on Japanese or American cars.
The rubber ring around the headlight on my 04 Cayenne fell apart and turned to black goo. The dealer wants $75 for what is essentially a black rubber band. And the plastic base under the headlight assembly broke as I removed it to replace the turn lamp. German cars these days are throwaway devices built to last about 5 years.
I think German cars are trying to be at the forefront of green-ness, with recycled and recyclable components, especially the plastics. I think durability is taking a hit as a result. Some of the plastic bits on my Cayman feel like they’re made from recycled milk jugs or the equivalent, and plastic tabs will break off if I’m not really careful when replacing bulbs, etc. We’re subjected to a lot of crap in pursuit of being environmentally-friendly. It’s the biggest boondoggle of the century.
+10
Greenbeanism, the God for the 21st century progressive too sophisticated for the commoner’s God.
There’s no environmental gain too small and no price too inconvenient, ineffective and uncomfortable for their immediate neighbors to pay for it – while ignoring the rampaging bull elephant in the room of three billion people in the developing world.
Yep. This is the reason that the plastic BMW cooling system in the E36, E46, and E90 disintegrates at around 60-80k miles. YMMV.
Well the recycled-milk-jug park benches at my local park have been exposed to abuse and UV rays every day for more than a decade and are holding up just fine.
Don’t blame “green-ness”. Blame corporate acceptance of products with poor long-term durability.
Absolutely I’m going to blame green-ness. Recycled milk jugs might make good park benches (although ugly), but they don’t make good car parts.
Yawn. A whopping 40hp more than my S2000, undoubtedly more lard, and a lot more money…
I can only imagine what a $17K hop-up budget would do for a Miata: it would eat this pos-ster for breakfast.
It would be very fast and an awful daily driver.
yeah but at the end of the day you’re driving a Honda or a Mazda
people buy a Porsche because they want a Porsche… even a 4 cyl. Porsche
And at the end of the day, driving a Honda or Mazda sports car means you won’t be slaughtered by the repairs if you keep it beyond the warranty period.
Easy solution: put Porsche Boxster badges and nameplates on your S2000 and paint it silver… the majority of folks won’t know the difference!
I heard someplace that Porsche was going to go with a 4-cylinder mill with the Boxster in addition to the flat six.
This is the new Boxster. We will all call it the “981″, because that is its marketing-designated “engineering project name”. It’s supposed to have a little more power, a little more room, a little less weight, and a little more oomph on the window sticker…
…and hopefully taken a lot of the ass out of the self-destructing mechanicals.
Most importantly, it is the latest steer in the Porsche stable to be branded with big letters reading “P O R S C H E” on the rear, lest someone driving behind it mistake it for a Jeep or something.
Yeah I thought the big P O R S C H E letters on the back of all the new models was a bit unnecessary as well… but I guess it does hark back to the early 911’s, which all had the same thing.
God this car is hot. I honestly think I’d rather drive this than a Ferrari, not that you can get a Ferrari for 50 grand mind you.
You can buy used Ferraris all day long for under $50,000. I found 30 listed under $50K within 500 miles of my northwest Ga town.
I make no claims for cost to maintain, but, let’s face it, which gives you more prestige bang for your buck when someone asks you what you drive – Porsche or Ferrari?
All new Porsches are great.
New Boxster looks like a Carrera GT.
The taillights are a bit overdone. I have zero interest in convertibles,
Nice who cares
look for the new Boxsters to be pleasant, responsive cars with faultless brakes, fragile interiors, and dicey electronics.
OK Great I’ll look forward to that, when they all break in a few years and this claim is proven, then, when everyone knows that even less time + thought was put into this car than before. Great insider information
The Boxster/Cayman is such a great *idea* for a car. I really want a mid-engine, 350-450 horsepower, 2800 lb car with great handling. I just wish it could be made by a different company.
It’s such a shame that Honda is going hybrid supercar for the new NSX.
The Cayman and the Boxster are the last “true” Porsche’s I used to love when I was a kid.
I feel the 911 has grown (and grown up) too much, is almost a GT car now (993 was the last good one IMHO). Panamera is plain ugly, is just a very fast limousine. And don’t get me started with the SUV. They may be fast and they may be competent, but the soul is sold somehow.
As for the “Cockster”:
I could do without the central LCD thing, but the rest looks very good. Simple yet elegant and modern lines, practical enough to drive every day. Moreover, it looks like a lot of fun. Which is what a sports car should be all about.