[986_inquiry]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

My daily driver is a BMW 550i with a 0-60 time of 5 seconds and the boxster feels very slow indeed on the street and exceptionally slow on the track.

The 550i is an exceptional vehicle that few people are lucky enough to own, of course the Boxster feels slow, as would a new V6 Camaro or Mustang.

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

I've yet to meet anyone who is satisfied they bought the sports car with the smallest motor one can get in the model line.

Now you have. Hello, nice to meet you

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Whatever HP you've got now is never enough, just like cash in the bank, hair on your head, ram in your laptop, or the amount of sex you're getting from your woman!

Eh... I don't know. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

And as to the choice of words "exotic" used by a previous poster, a better word choice would have been "boutique" car manufacturer... which describes Porsche to a tee. They don't make nearly as many cars as BMW or Audi or VW, so the cars break down more and need more attention than these brands.

Exotic Cars 101: What is an 'Exotic Car' (by definition)? - National Exotic Car | Examiner.com

They have 10 criteria for a car to be considered "exotic":
1. limited production
2. personaliztion, ie hand built, etc
3. new or unusual materials or engine design
4. not intended to appeal to general population or market audience except to improve prestige
5. may require special dealer to procure or resell unless traded on private market
6. scarcity: Any car sold in a boutique automobile sales environment; if less than 8,000 - 10,000 cars per year, may be considered exotic
7. specialty tools or equipment to repair or service
8. may or may not have competed in races
9. design elements influenced by predecessor models considered exotic
10. appears strange or unusual in concept or design, may or may no include unusual functions (speed, task or newly defined multipurpose transportation, aesthetic value).

That list is pretty reasonable IMHO, the exotics I can think of would match most of the requirements on that list.

Boxster meets most of them:
1) Limited? Not really, they were hard to find when introduced but Porsche made as many as possible. No
2) Personaliztion? Not that I know of. No
3) Unusual materials or engine design? it's mid-engine and boxer, that's unusual. Yes
4) Not for general population except for prestige? two seat convertible that looks amazing. Yes
5) Special dealer? they're hard to find in most of the world. Yes
6) Scarcity? Porsche sold more than 30,000 vehicles in 1997 thanks to swift Boxster sales. While that's over their 8-10k/yr mark, that's still very few cars for a manufacture, especially when you consider in 1999 1.5 million new vehicles were sold in Canada alone, making Porsche's 30,000 seem like a drop in the bucket. Yes
7) Special tools to repair? Yes
8) May have competed in races? I can rattle of a long list of exotics that never raced, so I'm not sure this is a good measure of being an exotic, but it's still a No
9) Exotic design influenced by past exotics? Based on 911s and inspired by classic exotic Porsche 550 Spyder. Yes
10) Unusual concept or design, including special functions? Spoiler raises at 75mph and lowers under 50mph, that's pretty unusual and special, along with functional side vents which is rarely found on normal cars. Yes

So of the 10 criteria (9 if you remove the racing requirement) for a car to be exotic, the Boxster has 6.