When you were a child, did you ever dream of hitting the road in something a little more exotic than what your parents drove? Something with a row-your-own gearbox, the simplicity of two seats, and a fabric roof that lowers to grant you a view of a billion stars? You aren’t the only one. Even automakers dream of sports car nirvana, and Porsche is keeping the faith with the 2024 Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition, the latest in a long line of mid-engined sports cars that sparked desire, extended a lifeline to the German sports car maker, and welcomed hundreds of thousands of people into the sports car fold.
However, the Porsche Boxster as we know it is about to change forever. Mid-way through 2025, the last combustion-powered 718 Boxster is reportedly set to roll off the line, with the next model in the series slated to be all-electric. So, considering this is likely last-call for the combustion-powered Boxster, does it feel like a fitting end to this chapter? More importantly, how does it compare to the beginning of the modern mid-engined Porsche lineage? I gathered a 2024 Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition and my 1999 Porsche Boxster together to find out.
[Full disclosure: Porsche Canada let me borrow this 718 Boxster Style Edition for a week so long as I kept the shiny side up, returned it with a full tank of 93-octane fuel, and reviewed it.]
Something Good Can Work
Hang on, we’re starting by looking at the old one? Why of course. Porsche design is evolutionary, so understanding where the 2024 Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition came from is key. It’s hard to believe 1999 was 25 years ago, but the years having passed is evident in how the original Boxster looks soft, approachable, non-threatening, yet still quite pretty. From the curves of the fenders to the scallop for the third brake light, everything on this mid-engined blueprint feels like it was made for the gentle haze of sunny days. The hardest crease on the body side is where the sill meets the quarter panel, and even that’s remarkably modest by today’s standards. The original Boxster is simply draped in post-Cold War, pre-9/11 optimism that everything was going to be A-okay. There’s a bubbliness to this car that carries through to the interior, which is far better built than many critics claim.
Granted, these early models featured no soft-touch plastic coating to peel with age, and the vinyl-clad dashboard doesn’t have the suppleness of leather, but everything in here feels well screwed together. Aside from a light creak from aged rubber door armrest stops, build quality feels tighter than most college students’ budgets, and the ovoid themes are now downright endearing. I’m particularly fond of the intentional gap between the gauge hood and the three dials, a touch of beautifully unnecessary whimsy that exists simply because someone thought it was cool. They were right.
While we’re on the subject of early installment weirdness, the steering column only telescopes, which sounds like an odd choice but actually works fairly well. Whether short or tall, your hands at nine-and-three are always in line with your shoulders, as they bloody should be. I’m all for a good range of driving position adjustment, but if this is the price to prevent people from ruining theirs, then so be it.
In addition, the storage situation in the cockpit is odd to say the least. There’s a lockable center console bin, two deep door bins, and a storage box behind the seats, but no glove box or cup holders. The latter’s okay, as tearing down an on-ramp while beaming like you just had your first kiss can decant a latte, but the former is a little strange. Chalk it up to the limitations of the time, both of technology and of a sports car company doing what it had to do to survive. Porsche wasn’t always the sales juggernaut it is today, and the original Boxster reminds you that it was a hopeful moonshot, a lifeline for the sports car makers of Stuttgart.
Pink + White
In contrast, the 718 Boxster Style Edition looks far more assured than the original. It’s confident in its own success, muscling up over the years as part of a model lineup that’s inched closer to the 911 than ever before. Deep creases in the doors blaze a path to vertical air vents, a ducktail spoiler proudly bends the air to its will, and an aggressive front fascia paves the way for its big brothers to punch out that center trim panel in the pursuit of performance. It still has the Merino-soft A-line and familiar proportions of its predecessors, but this pretty pink Porsche certainly doesn’t look like a pushover.
Oh yes, the color. Think of the 718 Style Edition as a base Boxster for extroverts and the Ruby Star Neo paint of my test car makes all the sense in the world. After all, with standard black or white stripes, black or white model badging, and 20-inch wheels from the 718 Spyder finished in — you guessed it — black or white, nobody could accuse this trim of being inconspicuous. It also gets some noteworthy upgrades such as black sports tailpipes, standard Chalk contrast stitching on the upholstery, the Porsche crest on each headrest, and discreet Boxster embossing on the soft top. Very nice.
Sliding out of the 1999 Boxster and into the 718 Style Edition is almost like stepping into another world, and I’m not just talking about the sheer quality of materials. You sit far lower in the new car compared to the original Boxster, and much of that is due to revised seats. While the two-way ‘Sport Seats Plus’ thrones in this car no longer feel as plush as grandmother’s settee, they allow for a substantially lower hip point, cradle your shoulders nicely, offer plenty of bolstering, and are still all-day comfortable. The steering wheel isn’t just substantially smaller in diameter than that of the old car, but also the perfect thickness and beautifully detailed. Isn’t it lovely that automakers have figured out how to package airbags into steering wheels that look and feel spectacular?
While we’re in here, let’s take a look around at all the modern conveniences. Optional ventilated seats are brilliant, a navigation screen with excellent black levels totally contrasts against the old car’s multi-segment displays, an oil temperature display in the three-circle gauge cluster’s full-color panel is a valuable addition, and a heated steering wheel in a sports car? Back in 1999, who’d have thought we’d have it so good?
Oh, and let’s keep the ball of modern amenities rolling for a minute. The convertible top doesn’t just feature a glass window compared to the original Boxster’s plastic screen, the side windows also roll back up automatically once you’ve raised or lowered the top. More than two decades of progress have also given us an electric header rail latch, and the ability to raise or lower the top at speeds below 30 mph. The original Boxster requires the handbrake to be pulled in order to work the top, which means you better be good at timing those red-light roof events. All this top innovation adds up to a more convenient convertible more of the time, a win for those looking to maximize both top-down motoring time and top-up comfort.
Granted, there are two things in the current 718 Boxster Style Edition’s interior to keep in mind, and the first is that the infotainment feels a bit last-generation and developed on a modest budget. Operation can be a tad clunky, but considering the age of the system and the fact that Porsche couldn’t spread UX development costs over millions and millions of cars, it’s understandable. More perplexing is that the optional Bose-branded premium audio system is cromulently clear, but it doesn’t have the rich golden-hour warmth or wind-dominating power of the optional unbranded premium sound system on the original Boxster. If you really want to be moved by your music at highway speeds with the top down, pop for the Burmester system. It’s expensive, but worth it.
I Belong In Your Arms
When Porsche’s 982 generation of mid-engined sports cars debuted in 2016, some people thought it was sacrilege. Replacing a family of naturally aspirated flat-sixes with a family of turbocharged boxer fours may have been a drastic move, but remember, Porsche started out with flat-fours. The surprisingly potent two-liter, 296-horsepower unit in the 718 Style Edition might not hit the same notes modern Porsche fans were used to, but it’s hard to deny that it’s fun in an old-school tuner car way. You really start cooking with gas around 3,000 rpm, pulling to redline with a genuine sense of urgency, all while soundtracked by some of the most hilarious turbo noises this side of Tokyo Auto Salon and a proper shove in the back. So what if the exhaust note doesn’t sound massively exotic? You’ll barely be able to hear it over the manic whoosh of forced induction.
While the available seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission is objectively excellent, a car like this demands a six-speed manual transmission, and this one’s properly satisfying to use. With pleasing notchiness, well-defined gates, and just the right amount of throw, you’ll often find yourself downshifting for no reason other than to plaster a primal smile across your face. Cable-actuated shifters are notoriously tricky, but with decades of experience to go by, is it really a surprise that Porsche pulled it off?
It’s only really in heavy traffic that the gearbox is somewhat nerfed, and part of that’s due to regulations. See, thanks to a variety of factors including drive-by noise tests and laboratory-based fuel economy testing, modern manual gearboxes often need longer effective ratios than those of old to be sold at all. The downside here is that merely idling along in first might occasionally be too quick for highway bumper-to-bumper traffic, and feathering the clutch is likely to cause mechanical sympathy flare-ups.
Mind you, to an actual sports car, straight lines are just interruptions between corners. Even if you’re ambivalent to the sound of a flat-four, you simply can’t deny the brilliantly involving way the Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition can devour an apex. There’s a sharper edge to the 718 that you don’t feel in the 1999 car, a stronger sense of rigidity that happens to come with an extra 285 pounds or so gained over a few decades of progress. The extra pounds aren’t a bad price to pay for modern crash protection and substantially improved body rigidity, and that rigidity only makes the 2024 car more eager.
See, that stiff structure really lets the suspension do its job. It doesn’t matter that both axles use simple struts, or that my tester wasn’t equipped with sports suspension or a limited-slip differential — the 718 Boxster Style Edition stays balanced and composed almost regardless of what you throw at it. A decreasing radius sweeper? A 90-degree corner that abruptly goes off-camber past the apex? An aggressive chicane with comically low-friction pavement? No problem. You can still get it out of shape, but it’s predominantly in the form of corner-exit oversteer, and that’s certainly no hardship. Plus, there’s just enough body roll to send a message without being detrimental to handling and just enough suppleness to soak up mid-corner bumps, to the point that the Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition is clay in your hands on a twisty road. No matter how skilled the sculptor, the result will still be art. Speaking of hands, let’s talk steering.
If you’ve never experienced the steering in a 718 Boxster, you’d be shocked to learn that this level of communication is coming from an electrically power-assisted rack. Changes in the camber of the road and increases or decreases in surface friction all invites your fingertips to a passionate dialogue reminiscent of more innocent times. While it might not be quite as gloriously fluid as the steering in the 1999 model, it still paints in color, a serious accomplishment for electric power steering.
The end result is that the Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition isn’t just brilliant fun to drive, it also makes you forget how, 40 years ago, having some fun in a mid-engined car sometimes meant slow dancing with the Grim Reaper — when things went wrong, they went wrong suddenly, and for drivers with slow reflexes, catastrophically. Now, though? Porsche’s spent nearly 28 years building mid-engined entry-level sports cars that aren’t just forgiving, but nurturing, and this entry-level Boxster is brilliant at both developing your driving talent and settling down and doing what’s expected of a normal car. So, does the original Boxster carry that bandwidth and approachability?
Sweet Disposition
Yep. Absolutely. First, let’s talk power. The original Boxster may be down 95 horsepower over the current 718 Boxster, but this powertrain makes up for that output deficit in other ways. Firstly, the engine’s a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated flat-six instead of a turbocharged two-liter flat-four, and not only does it pull smoothly through the rev range, it belts out glorious organ notes of induction noise above 4,000 rpm. It’s an addictive, visceral howl that’ll have you frequently chasing redline. Oh, and chase you can on public roads, because the gearing on these early 986 Boxsters is reasonably short for a road car. The top of second is reached at a mere 58 mph, the top of third at 86 mph. A cheeky first-gear pull will only take you to 35 mph, which means you can do it from pretty much any arterial road traffic light and not risk a ticket, yet the torque multiplication of these short ratios means this 25-year-old roadster still feels somewhat quick. Sure, longer gears help post great numbers, but shorter ones are more fun in the real world.
As soon as you turn the key, you realize that driving an original Boxster is a thoroughly mechanical experience. You can hear the 2.5-liter flat-six loud and clear through the firewall insulation, to the point it’s a guest in the cabin, creating an intimate environment on par with a canvas canopy in the rain. The cable-actuated throttle body offers a direct link between your right foot and engine speed, one as natural as signing your name. If there’s any downside to the powertrain in day-to-day operation, it’s that the shifter’s a bit ropey, accurate enough but equipped with long throws and requiring merely limp-wristed effort.
Oh, and then there’s the handling. The chassis doesn’t just communicate to the driver, it communicates to the passenger. The ride’s dainty softness over war zone-tier pavement does translate into some body roll when you push on, but it’s nowhere near excessive. On modern rubber, the original Boxster just sticks and goes, pushing into mild understeer if you go too hard into a corner with too little weight on the front end, but staying as neutral as Switzerland on most every other occasion.
Of course, any passenger would be missing out on richly textured steering that telegraphs even minute road surface changes with ball-bearing smoothness directly to the driver’s hands. The combination of the rack and massive four-spoke steering wheel doesn’t offer the fastest ratio out there, but it encourages you to slow your hands and savor the information you’re getting, not a bad thing in a mid-engined car without so much as traction control to hold you back.
Old Love / New Love
So, which Boxster is the best? Well, this is going to sound like the cop-out to end all cop-outs, but both are so enjoyable that the answer really is whichever one you can afford. My 718 Boxster Style Edition test car stickers for a strong $94,735 including a $1,995 freight charge and $11,440 in options, or at least it would if it were an American car. In Canada, the sticker price including freight and options for an identically-specced car currently works out to $105,520 in loonies. Seriously strong money for a 718 Boxster with the base powertrain, but sports cars aren’t often bought on price alone. Keep in mind, the original Boxster started at about the same price as a C5 Corvette, a car with oh, 144 more horsepower, yet it still held its own appeal. Both of these cars are imbued with an effervescent specialness and addictive involvement that will plaster a megawatt grin across your face and bring joy to the drudgery of your daily commute. In fact, all models in the Boxster and Cayman lineage will, a fact made abundantly clear by a good friend of mine picking up a gorgeous 981 Cayman.
Even with a downsized engine, electric power steering, longer gears, and all the modern concessions that many automakers struggle with, the 2024 Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition still feels involving on a level that most near-six-figure sports cars can’t quite match, and makes driving a proper occasion. It’s constantly joyous, and that’s exactly the overarching trait that’ll make you want to reach for the keys.
At the same time, the 986 Boxster is one hell of a bargain. Sure, pristine ones are worth serious money, but you can pick up a solid driver for less than $10,000 and have an absolute blast. From the scream of the flat-six above 4,000 rpm to the utterly intuitive chassis to the surprisingly supple ride, it’s an impeccably well-rounded big-league brand sports car for those of us on a modest budget.
So, whether you want to give a flat-four a try, or simply want to scrape together enough change to buy that cheap 986 you’ve been eyeing on Facebook Marketplace, the winner is you. We’re looking at nothing short of two properly excellent sports cars. Like great-grandfather, like great-grandson, right?
[Special thanks to Ben Weenen for handling my 1999 Boxster during the photo shoot.]
(Photo credits: Thomas Hundal)
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I came from that one site to say it’s nice to be able to log in and comment, and it’s *really* nice to read a thoughtfully written article about a new Porsche that doesn’t include any garbage about wishing it had an automatic transmission. I’m so turned off by that site these days.
I gotta say, man. I’m just gonna say it. Hear me out here:
good parsh
I’m a bit confused about the pricing. The article says the tested car was 105,520 CAD. At today’s exchange rate that’s only 77,098 USD, yet the article says 94,735 USD. Does Porsche just price the cars differently in the US and Canada? If so that would create a very profitable opportunity to import some Canadian cars to the US.
Converted out to USD, Canadians do get a better deal on many different cars, but once you add sales taxes and duties, it’s often just less expensive to buy a car in America rather than import one from Canada.
Thanks Thomas! Makes sense
So the newer one is sharper/more aggressive/better on the track, fair. But….. I think there is something to be said about a car with lower limits, where you can drive past them and it gets playful. Is the new one still playful? Or are the limits so high that if you go past them it does some crazy reactionary snap oversteer? Just curious.
Good news, the new one is still incredibly playful and progressive. It’s significantly more neutral than a C8 Corvette Stingray in the Chevrolet’s standard street alignment specs, yet it doesn’t want to bite you.
I love reading comparisons with the 986, because it’s always a love letter to my favorite things about my car. There’s a certain self-indulgent glee that comes from seeing pundits near-universally praise the car I bought because I couldn’t afford an S2000. I still want to get an “I couldn’t afford a Honda” sticker.
That’s almost the sticker of a base new 4.0 GTS. End of discussion.
Worth noting facelift 986s came with both a glovebox and a glass rear windshield. I know because I had one,
And beverage holders! Well, more like beverage throwers…
I don’t know if there’s anything more functionally useless (not to mention overly complicated and fragile) than the Boxster/Cayman flip-out cup holders. My 981 has these and they are the only thing about the car that annoy me consistently.
You would think after three generations they would get better. How were they on the next ten, in the 718? Did you even try them?
The cup holders on the 982 are essentially the same as on the 981. A little fiddly and not suitable for Double Gulps, but still some of the better sports car beverage receptacles because they don’t block your shifting arm or sacrifice an armrest.
Porsche still sells the weird accessory cup holders that hook onto the holes in the air vents at the sides of the 986/996 dash. I recently bought one (the right-side part number by accident) for my 2000 Boxster S and it’s reasonably functional for a 12-ounce can or maybe a short coffee cup.
Genuine Porsche 986 Boxster 911 996 Carrera Cup Holder LH Driver’s Side USA | eBay
I forgot to flip the middle plastic thing back up to block the arm from moving once and took a turn a bit hot… They are definitely throwers in the wrong hands.
I’d much rather have this new Boxster than the old one.
For that matter – I’d rather have this Boxster than the 911 Cabriolet.
So I’m looking forward to seeing what the EV Boxster brings us.
They are both lovely, as is my friend’s 981 with the flat 6. Any and all are welcome in my garage.
Every Toyobaru comes standard with an LSD, yet in the 718 it is extra cost optional at twice the price. This in a sentence is why I like Porsche cars in a vacuum but I don’t respect the company and am unlikely to ever own one.
Luxury cars are weird like that. The base trims of many luxury cars are missing features that come standard on a Corolla. They’re just playing games with your money because if you’re spending $50k on an A5 instead of $30k on a Camry, they know they can probably squeeze another $2k out of you for automatic high beams and adaptive cruise.
Yep. One of many reasons I have little regard for most luxury brands, haha, and that’s before we even start talking about repair costs *shudders*
Like metallic paint. That one has always annoyed me.
20 years ago the base price of a 911 in the UK didn’t include options for a windscreen or seats. There was no base option, you couldn’t order one as it wouldn’t have seats or a windscreen at all, you had to pay extra.
This sort of shit is one of the two reasons I refuse to buy a new Porsche.
The other reason is that I don’t have anything like enough money.
Porsche do nickel-and-dime their buyers on everything and things like the sport chrono, leather trim and the good headlights should be standard at that price point. Just not the LSD.
I spent months looking into ways to put a Quaife in my 986 (it was never available back then), but the general consensus is that it doesn’t benefit from one unless you’re an advanced driver doing serious track time, as it has a negative impact on corner entry behavior and only pays off on corner exit at 10/10ths, where it also makes the car trickier to control. The LSD is optional now for those who are after serious lap times, but it shouldn’t be standard because it’s not universally better.
Mid-rear engined cars are better with an open differential unless you’re actually racing and chasing 10ths. Alpine also doesn’t offer an LSD in the A110 for the same reasons, same with the Alfa 4C.
If you want to offer a raw, ESC-off experience with the engine behind the cabin to enthusiasts without killing them, you need to know that they can consistently plant the rear and stabilize the car with the throttle, and for that, you need an open diff.
And let’s not forget that the open-differential 986 beat the just-released Z4 and S2000 on Top Gear’s test track in the rain, exactly where an LSD should make the most difference. Both the BMW and Honda were more powerful and had stiffer suspension than the Boxster, and should’ve embarrassed it based on specs.
Finally seeing the kilometre markings has made the speedo calibration in Porsches make sense! The German market uses kph so the markings are useful. The mph markings are for non-Germans and so are are dogshit, being 25mph (not a speed limit) 50mph (not often a limit in the UK) and 75mph (not a speed limit). I was driving a Cayenne yesterday and the speedo dial was utterly useless, you have to use the digital gauge.
I’m been a seriously shopping for a Cayman a few times, and I suspect I will again when my current mid-engined thing needs to go. The four cylinder engines are an issue for me though. I already put up with a flat four in my 86, I’d rather not have another one.
It’s a shame Porsche are killing them off soon, it’s going to play havoc with secondhand prices.
“ …40 years ago, having some fun in a mid-engined car sometimes meant slow dancing with the Grim Reaper — when things went wrong, they went wrong suddenly, and for drivers with slow reflexes, catastrophically.”
That depends which 40 year old mid-engined car you pick.
My first RWD car was a 1984 MR2, wonderful thing, taught me how to slide around with the back end just sticking out a bit.
I suspect 185 tyres and only 120 bhp had a lot to do with that.
It’s a shame no one makes a small, light mid-engined car with modest performance any more. Maybe if Toyota hadn’t deliberately limited sales by offering no luggage space we’d have got a mk4. They could have platform shared with Porsche and put the NA 2.0 Toyota/Subaru engine in it…
FWIW 25 mph is a typical speed limit on city and suburban neighborhood streets in the USA.
In the UK it’s 30. Sometimes 20 or 40.
Most speedos are marked in multiples of ten.
I don’t think I’ve ever tried to actually use the speedo in my 997. The numbers are tiny. The digital readout is really the only way.
Same, I almost exclusively use the digital speedo in the 986. I imagine the physical one is there for either style or broad estimation when pushing it, as “needle points up” is processed faster than reading actual numbers on a 7-segment display. It may be handy in situations where you just need to know if you’re going fast or really fast, especially in a Tiptronic, where you wouldn’t have time to check what gear you’re in to estimate by sound. After all, I usually hear the tightness of corners called out in terms of what gear you’d be in rather than what speed you’d aactually be at.
75 mph is a speed limit in several US states, including mine.
It absolutely needs that white trim and those white wheels. Black with this color would be an abomination.
Black wheels in general are a fad that needed to die yesterday. They’re up there with gray cars for me. Both work in very specific applications but look dumb and overwrought 90% of the time.
Have you ever had a German car? I’m not sure why but they all produce a metric ton of brake dust. Maybe Porsche offers an option for an electro-static coating that repels the brake dust on these white wheels but I would guess these won’t look that good most of the time.
You’re correct though. Black wheels on this color car would be a hate crime.
Can confirm, white wheels are a pain to keep clean on my 997. They look greyer and greyer if I don’t wash them weekly.
I really, really want them on my 986. Maybe after upgrading the brake pads, I’ll try it with plastidip to see how bad it really is for me.
Do it! I went with white HREs to replace the lobster forks. Added the Porsche stripe between them to tie the wheels together and it looks great, at least I think so.
I will! I’ve got my sights on a set of 993 Cup II’s to replace my 17″ twists, but that’s a ways out, first I have to track down a tiny vacuum leak triggering a CEL and some microswitch triggering my alarm at random, install Numeric Racing shift cables, late top with glass window/defroster before Winter, brake pads/rotors, Ben Auto Design shifter, etc, etc, etc, THEN wheels. But I might get a trail bike before wheels. Decisions, decisions.
I’ll definitely plastidip my twists some time soon though, I feel like it’ll make Arena Red really pop. I know it’s a bit sacrilegious to plastidip anything Porsche, but I’d rather not powder-coat a set of factory wheels, only to change my mind later.
Once my 225/45R17 Wintracs wear out, I’m considering a set of beat-up 15″ 944 phone dials for Winter.
Oh he has two Audis. He knows.
I’m a huge Boxster fan. It was one of my first automotive loves. I remember being at soccer practice as a kiddo and one of my teammates going WOW IT’S A PORSH BOXSTER. I turned to take a look and was absolutely smitten by a red 986 that was cruising by. Soon after my German car obsessed uncle (rest in peace) got me a very nice remote control Boxster that I spent hours upon hours driving around. I even won an RC car competition with it in 6th grade.
Anyway, I love every generation and they’ll always be an aspirational car for me. I’m a real sicko though, because I actually think the 718 generation is the best looking. The 986 is elegant, but suffers from the fried egg headlights and general visual softness that most late 90s/early 2000s Porsches are afflicted with. The 987s look nice but are very plain. I sort of see them and the 997 911s as a transition period in Porsche design. They’d started to atone for the sins of the 986/996s, but were still figuring out how to make the classic Porsche design cues translate to modern cars.
The 981s are great and were too short lived, although I like the 981 Cayman more than the Boxster. They look mean but elegant and offer flat 6 power across the board. It’s hard to go wrong with one, but the market agrees and nice examples cost nearly as much as they did new unless you are okay with going PDK. Even though I’m a card carrying dual clutch apologist who refuses to daily a manual, this is absolutely a car you should be rowing your own in.
I think the 718 is really when they perfected the design. They look modern but are instantly recognizable as Porsches. They’re aggressive looking as well, but not excessively so. The soft edges that plagued the early generations have been corrected, and the things just have presence on the road. They look very exotic, especially considering they’re the most “accessible” Porsche sports car. I loved them when they debuted and I love them now.
With that out of the way, the flat 4s are a real bummer to me personally. The last time I was at a track day someone was running a 4 cylinder 718 (I believe it was a S) in one of the faster groups. It was super quick, but the aural experience just isn’t pleasing. I remember watching it lap on the back straight and at full send it honestly sounds like a tuned Subaru.
It wouldn’t bother me if it wasn’t a Porsche. I daily an obnoxious 4 cylinder that I think legitimately sounds great at wide open throttle. But I paid $36,000 for it and it has a Hyundai badge. I really can’t even begin to imagine paying $95,000 for a turbo 4 cylinder car that doesn’t have a goddamn limited slip differential. That’s just a very dumb use of money when you’re within striking distance of a Z06…or a very nice used 911. A certified 718 GTS can be found for less than that as well. Hell you can buy a lightly used ZL1 Camaro and have enough leftover for an ND3 Miata…
Is this edition cool? Yeah. Is it what I’d buy if given that budget? Absolutely not, and I’m a dyed in the wool Porsche fanatic. The market agrees too, because 4 cylinder 718s depreciate way more than any Porsche with a flat 6 will. I see certified ones listed in the 40s pretty frequently. For that much money they’re an amazing buy despite the meh powertrain. But brand new?
Hard pass. I’m finding a used 718 GTS or 911 at that point. Regardless, it’s a goddamn shame they’re going electric. If there’s anyone that can pull off keeping the driving experience alive and well with electrification it’s certainly Porsche, but it just feels wrong to me. Like V10emous and Ben suggested, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Porsche course corrects and finds a way to offer an ICE engine in them eventually. After all, this is the company that posted a eulogy to V8s then promptly brought them back.
But if they do it they need to make it a flat 6. Please and thank you.
I actually agree the 718 is the best visual design of the bunch. Maybe because of Porsche always slowly refining the design through the generations rather than clean-sheet new designs.
I love my 981 for the flat 6 but the 718 is prettier.
I think the 718 GT4 RS is the most desirable Porsche of the last decade. I get that everyone loves the GT3 and I’m sure I’d be utterly beside myself if I ever got the chance to drive one but something about that engine mid mounted in a 3200 pound package is just so amazing to me.
If someone wrote me a blank check for whatever Porsche I wanted that might be what I go with…that or a 911 ST. I think I’d rather have the 718 for track duty and the ST for daily driving. Too bad I’ll never be able to afford either…
Anyway, someone brings a GT4 RS to the track I go to…but he drives it hyper conservatively. On one hand I’m happy it’s actually seeing a track…but on the other it deserves to be driven as god intended and not protected like an investment. Oh well. That’s a world I’ll never understand anyway and it’s not like any of the guys with the really serious and expensive shit will even give folks like me that are still learning the time of day. They get treated like royalty because they’re the ones who spend tons of money.
I’ll have a Porsche one day, but what it will be is anyone’s guess. I almost bought a Macan a couple of years ago but the elitist in me can’t help but think it’s not a “real” Porsche. Deep down I want something with a flat 6, but I guess a Panamera would be a decent compromise that the wife would green light. They also suffer the magic of luxury sedan depreciation! $50-60,000 gets you a nice example all day.
I had a Panamera as a dealer loaner a while back. Good god those things feel like they’re 2 miles long. It’s as if you need binoculars for the rear view mirror! Really nice car though.
My wife truly desires a Macan. I wish they had offered a plug in hybrid. I drove a loaner a few times. I would have a 2018 or older because the 2023 I drove now feels like a tank. Handles like a real Porsche but you can truly feel that mass. But all models eat a lot of premium petrol. But I want to road trip a Porsche. No Macan EV for me.
First gen V6 Macans are tempting. I’ll see certified ones list between 30 and 40 all the time. Hell I found a 2017 GTS with less than 50k miles on it and a clean CarFax for $34,000 recently. It wasn’t certified, so I’m sure some very expensive stuff will need to be done pretty much right away. But shit, man…that’s a ridiculous amount of car for that price. You can find Turbos for that price too.
It’s a good engine too. My mom has an SQ5 with the same V6. It’s smooth, sounds good, and has a very usable power band. It was codeveloped by both Porsche and Audi as well, so it’s not like it a full VAG hand me down like the EA888 in the base car or the turbo 4 liter Audi V8s in the current Cayennes that like to blow up. It may not be a flat 6, but it’s got that special Porsche sauce.
Shit, maybe I’ve talked myself into a Macan again….
Not a Macan, but I bought a 957 Cayenne S from my dad at what the dealer offered him for trade in on it with 119K and some wear. I had always thought it was a bit of a joke aimed at snobs but getting to know it better I found the Porsche engineering is the real deal-admittedly haven’t driven a Toureg-but I couldn’t believe how fun that thing could be when you pushed it, as well as the general thoroughness of engineering. Been a BMW guy for a long time but Porsche’s ability to make a big heavy SUV dance like that made me want one of their sports cars more than ever.
Does the SQ5 have the turbo v6 or the supercharged v6? My dad’s replacement for the Cayenne was a Q7 which got wrecked and replaced with a Q8. I find the later turbo engine much livelier personally. Though maybe the Q8 is just a livelier car…
Turbo. I don’t think that supercharged V6 has found its way into anything in the last 4 or 5 years. My dad had a 2018 or 2019 A6 with it and it was an absolute gut punch once it got going. I will say that the turbo’d one definitely feels a bit more linear and refined though.
I legitimately got myself into trouble a few times with the supercharged 6. Once it got going you’d be doing 90 before you knew it. I’ve driven the SQ5 a fair amount already and find it to be very easy to control. It’s a great car as long as you care more about luxury than driver feedback. It’s pretty damn numb when you push it, but if you’re like my mom and are just driving it like a normal Q5 and enjoying the extra power occasionally it’s more than adequate.
I have a feeling this may end up being a “New Coke” situation where Porsche drastically changes something beloved but no longer flashy, suffers some bad press and lost sales, and is “forced” to bring back the old thing to universal appeal and higher sales than ever.
Or they just want more people to buy 911s.
The easy response is “we’ll see”, but Porsche has self-course-corrected before. They put a flat 6 back in (some very expensive trim) Boxsters, and they put a manual in the GT3, they’ll do what their customers will pay for.
Yep, those examples are exactly why I feel the way I do.
The sales on the 718 have never equalled what they were when they had a flat 6, last for the 2016 MY, even though they outperform the older Boxster in nearly every way. I don’t think they can correct due to regulations though. Just sticking with very low volume GTS models to keep the faithful happy.
When the 718 was being launched I was invited with a lot of other current Boxster owners to come to Atlanta’s headquarters to view them and get a ride-along with a pro driver on their course. Everyone I spoke to had a universally negative opinion of these due to the flat 4. Some because of the differences in performance, some due to the sound. They were unquestionably better in every way except the one that mattered: how they made you feel as a driver.
It will be a sad day when we won’t be able to get a flat 6, or even listen to them. I’m also sure Porsche will no longer offer anything with a manual in ~5 years or so, maybe less.
I’ll predict this to be a fitting description of the EV version too.
I’m not sure of this at all. I’m on record here predicting the last manual transmission offered in a production vehicle will be installed in a Porsche. Their customers have proven willing to pay for one, and they can easily hide the the development and certification costs in a high MSRP. That’s isn’t going to be possible for someone like Mazda.
Yes but they already dropped them in the 911. I know they’ll offer it in the 718 GTS models for a while. And I would not be surprised if they have a few 911 special editions that come out every few years offered with a manual. That’s all speculation though.
As it stands, after the 718 goes EV the only manual options on offer will be those few, remaining 718 GTS models and how long do they really have?