problematic...
The Boxster has caught it's share of arrows on this and other boards for some reliability/engineering issues which have affected a considerable number of owners.
I just thought I'd share this news item on the RX8--my wife has one--and some recent reliability issues with it that have reached a boiling point and how Mazda, apparently, decided to deal with the poor customer satisfaction scores on the car.
Link attached below but the gist of it is that Mazda is recalling most or all 04-05 production to determine how many cars have had a loss of compression affecting performance. The fix--you guessed it--is replacing the engine. The problem is that many replacement engines also go south--per the RX8 forum--requiring multiple engine replacements.
To add insult to injury, a webcast meeting between dealers and the Mazda national dealer advisory council was pirated and shown on the internet where the Mazda and the council agreed to continue getting customer survey scores on the RX8 but not include them in their customer satisfaction scores--for the dealers benefit I think.
I guess my point in bring this up is not to diminish the reliability issues that have come up on the Boxster but to show that there are other car manufacturers having major reliability issues with their products. The fact that, unlike the Boxster, a replacement engine is not a permeant fix, is scarey; some of these engines have reportedly failed within weeks of installation with the owners on their 4th or 5th engine.
I'm glad my wife and I are on the same page on this--her car will be long gone before the warranty is up; sooner I suspect if it leaves her stranded.
http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=97039