Porsche Boxster reviews

2005 Porsche Boxster Driving Impressions

And what a trip that would be in this bigger, better Porsche Boxster. It feels all grown up, self-assured and solid in purpose, as though it no longer has to lag behind in the shadow of its big brother.

You feel this move into maturity as soon as you settle into the redesigned seats. Despite being larger, they're also stronger and lighter than the outgoing chairs, and Porsche even developed a patented vibration dampening system to reduce road buzz. But you will get a buzz just from turning the key, because when the Boxster's flat six burbles to life, there's no mistaking it for anything but a sports car engine. Both displacements received improvements to their respective intake and exhaust systems, boosting maximum outputs (240 hp; S: 280 hp) but also adding muscle to the torque curves where it counts.

Porsche claims the base Boxster can sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds; 5.2 seconds for the 3.2. Top speeds are 159 mph for Boxster; 167 mph for Boxster S. Porsche's factory performance numbers are generally on the conservative side. Both cars, incidentally or not depending on your geo-political bent, qualify as Low Emissions Vehicles. Both cars, not incidentally, are quite fast enough to satisfy any delinquent desires. If anyone needs to get to 100 mph in less than 14.5 seconds (S: 12.3 seconds), then check into the next Skip Barber driving school for therapy.

Proper sports cars, it has long been contended, have three pedals on the floor, and so it is with the Boxster. At their very best, sports car drivers are one-person jazz combos, juggling the interplay of shifter, steering wheel and pedals in a polyrhythmic balance of manual dexterity. Remove the clutch and it just ain't the same.

Granted, some of the latest automatics are so good that electronic de-clutching should no longer be considered so shameful. There's certainly no shame driving a Boxster with Tiptronic S, which is pretty good for the species and would be the logical choice if your Boxster is condemned to a life of urban crawl. This newest version sports revised differential gearing and retuned software to maximize the shift behaviors, especially to avoid excessive "hunting" during upgrades and descents, and a new transmission fluid recipe extends the replacement interval to 112,000 miles. If a Boxster fell out of the sky and it was equipped with Tiptronic S instead of our preferred manual, we would no doubt find a way to be content with our good fortune. Besides, there's something deliciously decadent about reaching deep into the engine's power reserves simply by pushing a button.

But, Porsche does manual shifting as well as anyone, and there's no reason for even the ham-fisted (ham-footed?) to fear the clutch. In fact, you lazy left-footers don't know what you're missing. Doing what they do, Porsche's engineers made the best even better for the new Boxster via reinforced synchromesh rings and additional multiple synchromesh elements (for both manuals), allowing the practiced driver to feel as confident slipping the shift lever into its proper position as a magician sliding a card into the middle of the deck. In short, we recommend going for the manual.

This empowering of the driver is at the heart of all good sports cars. And at the heart of that heart is a good, balanced chassis. The Boxster has from inception been the epitome of balance, which is key to all controlled movement, at least in the physics of this universe. Porsche, thankfully, operates in a slightly different timeframe than most car makers, where "balanced" is a constantly evolving state. Upgrades are developed as soon as a component reaches production, but rarely does a Porsche platform get such a thorough overhaul as did the new Boxster. Though the basic suspension layout remains as before, almost every element was re-engineered, from its retuned springs and shocks to larger wheel bearings, from its wider front track to the st