Porsche 718 Boxster Convertible (718) 2.0 2d Owner Review

(718) 2.0 2d
Porsche 718 Boxster driving

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In their own words

This is a 2017 plate, March purchase, 718 Boxster. It is my second Boxster, and here is the sad part, every negative, professional review you have read about this car's new Flat 4, 1988cc, turbo engine is true! But worse! It took me a matter of two hours, from new, to drive a couple of hundred miles, over different roads, including country lanes, A roads and the motorway, to realise that the engine is a poor cousin to the fantastic previous Flat 6, normally aspirated engines. I owned a Boxster with the award winning 2.7 manual, and that was an engine with grunt, torque and power, with brilliant low end performance, stunning mid range and breathtaking high end, too. It worked for the driver, with the car, and it could be heard doing so. It was Porsche and it was the car! This engine sounds like a VW Beetle when starting, and burbles like one in town. Only at around 3,000 when the turbo kicks in, does it lose the VW sound and then... it sounds like a Ford Focus, turbo! Its awful! It has the dreadful, disconnected turbo lag, surge and it seems to get confused when short shifting from second gear, for instance, with high revs, to top gear, where the revs drop right back, and the turbo seems to cut. It sounds awful, whether stating up, idling, at low speed or at high speed; so Flat 6 growl, rumble, or scream! I doubt the MPG figures, also, as the turbo uses up whatever the little engine makes up for in petrol consumption and I really do NOT buy the Porsche (VW Audi) stance on the reason for this radical, and detrimental engine downsize; emissions! Ha, ha.... oh yes, VW/Audi... that dreaded word again! This engine, supposedly, was put into the best selling Porsche sports car, to bring down the 'groups' emissions figures! Really???!!! Porsche, even with this car, make so few cars, that I suspect this is not really the real reason. The real reason? In 1996 the Boxster first took to the market, saving Porsche from bankruptcy, as the 911's were too expensive and only selling in tiny numbers. The car saved the company, subsidised the 911 and outsold the latter by hundreds of thousands. However, both cars shared the Flat 6 engines, and the Boxster was winning Best Sports Car Awards year after year, and, so too, latterly, the Cayman, being the coupé version and almost identical to look at as the 911. My guess is the Flat 4 was wheeled in, costing hundreds less per unit, but with the manufacturer increasing the cost of the car, and so the top car in the brand, the 911, would reign, with this engine alone! Its car politics and as such, the car lost, the driver has lost, and I think Porsche should wake up to fact and admit it has made a huge mistake. Mine? I am selling it!! And yes, with only 300 mils on the clock, and the biggest personal disappointment to me in 40 years of driving, and 35 years of car ownership! Its simply a car that looks the part, but lacks the talent!
  • How they rated it

  • Reliability: 5 out of 5 5.0
  • Meets Expectations: 2 out of 5 2.0
  • Overall Rating: 1 out of 5 1.0
  • A. Winterton doesn't recommend this car

About their car

  • Fuel type Petrol
  • When purchased March 2017
  • Condition when bought New
  • Current Mileage 1,000 miles
  • Average MPG 32 mpg