Porsche 718 Boxster 2016 Review

Porsche 718 Boxster

Local Launch Review
Gold Coast, Queensland

If Johnny has six Kit-Kats and his mum takes away two of them, but pours melted nougat over the remaining four, will they be as tasty? Porsche has applied a similar principle to its new 718 Boxster, starting at $113,100. But instead of Kit-Kats and nougat, it's ditched two cylinders and added a turbo to the brand’s trademark boxer engine. It's also added a convincing new look, improved dynamics and a more sophisticated cockpit. But what has it lost?

Driven hard on a twisting ribbon of asphalt in the Gold Coast hinterland, the latest Porsche Boxster barks and crackles angrily on the overrun. Its battle cry is different from before but still echoes purposefully through the dense eucalypt forests.

It's an engaging car to drive briskly, the mid-engine layout allowing it to pivot effortlessly left and right across the snaking sections of bitumen. The Boxster’s low centre of gravity remains a welcome ally in the pursuit of pace.

Foot to the floor, second gear, the new car squeezes the torso convincingly into the seat, bringing a surge of mid-range acceleration that wasn't there before. But it’s not the instant soulful visceral response we’ve come to know from the mid-engined Porsches.

That's largely because the 718 Boxster is now turbocharged, and four-cylinder – both firsts for the car.

Acceleration is rapid, now 4.2 and 4.7sec 0-100km/h for the Boxster S and Boxster respectively, with top speeds of 285 and 275km/h too. And that slight hint of turbo lag aside, the midrange improvements are impressive,

Fast? You better believe it!

The steering is pin-sharp, telegraphing every ripple and lump through the front wheels, via the steering wheel and into your body. It's as though you're running your hand across the surface of the road at times.

Although the popping, barking exhaust is music to any enthusiasts' ears on the over-run (augmented via a sound symposer), gunning it isn't half as sonorous.

At cruising speeds the four-pot Boxster develops a thrum that's equal parts VW Beetle and Subaru WRX, developing into a slightly more traditional, mechanical, Porsche-like scream as the revs rise towards its 7500rpm limit. It's a bit unusual at first, but the result of this swap from atmo six to turbo four, more power (plus 25kW for a total of 220kW in the Boxster and 26kW up in the 257kW Boxster S) and significantly more torque (+100/60Nm for the standard and the S respectively), is in its own way convincing.

Indeed, the Porsche 718 Boxster is a delight, especially with the top down. It takes roughly 10sec for the roof to open or close and can do so at up to 50km/h. A neat feature is the remote operation of the roof via the key fob.

Taller drivers will find things easy going with the roof in place, but once open there's a bit of wind buffet for those six foot and above, something that wasn't present in a $32,000 Mazda MX-5. Oddly it wasn't so much of an issue for the passenger, whose seat seemed to be able to drop to a lower point than that of the driver.

Porsche's mid-engine, open-top roadster ethos has been an attractive proposition for junior executives and well-heeled enthusiasts for the last 20 years. But it's not just cashed-up youngsters (read: 45 year olds) looking to add a Porsche to the portfolio who will be purchasing the new 718 Boxster (pronounced seven eighteen, not seven one eight), Porsche says. It's the purists, many of them retired, and the Porsche faithful.

The Boxster has been a six-pot machine since its inception and the switch from 2.7 and 3.2-litre six-cylinder boxer engines to 2.0 and 2.5-litre turbo-boxer engines will indubitably cause friction among those very same purists. The good news is that it's improved in virtually every measurable criterion. It's faster, it's more efficient. It's also got more gadgets and it's got more machismo too.

But it's not without criticism.

With Porsche’s decision to swap the position of the Boxster and Cayman, the price for the entry-level open car has risen by $8400 to $113,100.

More kit goes some of the way to justify the change. Fancy-pants LED driving lights front and rear, 14-way power adjustable seats, plus a rather fancy PCM 4 infotainment system with Apple CarPlay integration (but no Android Auto) are now all standard. So too are heated seats, a powered folding roof and an automatically deploying rear spoiler (120km/h-plus).

Overall the interior has a more premium feel and together with the new exterior style, even the base Boxster delivers a more resolved, more interesting aesthetic than before.

The $143,400 Boxster S is for the moment the range-topper. There's only 40Nm between it and the S, they both rev to 7500rpm and in terms of roll-on acceleration there's not that much separating the two in the real world.

That said the beefier 2.5-litre Boxster S does feel and sound gruntier from a standing start.

The Boxster S also gets larger wheels and stronger brakes – although both models get the same Brembo-gripped 330mm front and 299mm rear diameter rotors, the Boxster S's rotors are thicker and provide better stopping power.

On that topic, brake pedal feel on the test cars wasn't amazing. The brakes themselves in both models afford plenty of deceleration when you jump on them but there wasn't the instant response Porsche stoppers usually delivers. Perhaps this is to better suit everyday cruising duties?

The standard six-speed manual gearbox is involving and the interaction between gearstick and clutch perfectly metered. But the dual-clutch PDK ($4990 on the S, but $1333 on the standard car due to LCT and fuel economy vagaries) ain't bad either.

Unsurprisingly, Porsche says close to nine out of 10 Australian buyers will opt for the auto.

That's no bad thing. The way the seven-speed automatic PDK snaps between gears is astonishing and the paddle shifters add a touch more control and interaction. And it'll make commuting far less tiring. And Boxsters will commute thanks in part to a decent level of ride comfort.

That more grown up suspension tune also helps when spearing through corners with less-than-perfect surfacing, as it absorbs plenty of ruts.

You can check out more details and prices on the car in our Porsche 718 Boxster pricing story but after driving the Boxster and Boxster S back-to-back, we can vouch that the more affordable, more efficient 2.0-litre Boxster makes a compelling case.

Is the Boxster S worth an extra $30,000? Not in my opinion.

Turbo technology has allowed Porsche to develop a fast and fuel efficient Boxster for the new era but after two days in the saddle there's something missing here. Simply put, it lacks the heart and soul of the six-cylinder models, that pure, linear connection between the loud pedal and the rear wheels, not to mention the aural involvement.

It's unlikely to be a deal-breaker, but like the BBQ shapes debacle in Australia, there will be some who choose to vent on social media.

For the newcomers, the new Boxster is a rewarding car to drive. For those of us who loved the last six-cylinder generation, the technical delight of the new car is tempered with a slight sense of loss.

2016 Porsche 718 Boxster pricing and specifications:
Price: $113,100 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 220kW/380Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel: 7.4L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 168g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: TBA

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