986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post

blue2000s · 10-18-2006, 06:59 AM

Your situation is somewhat similar to mine. I've owned 1st gen Rx-7s for almost 20 years and driven several 3rd gens in the interest of purchasing one. I'm driving a 2000 S now instead of buying an FD.

I would say they are both about on the same level as far as handling and driver feedback go. I can't imagine going from the FD to a 986 S and thinking that something is lost in the experience. In fact, the mid engine sharpens responses a bit more than the front-mid design of the FD. Both cars are about 2850 pounds depending on options.

As far as structure goes, the Boxster is a convertible, there's no way it will be as solid as the closed coupe. The windshield does shake a little over train tracks and it creaks some going up onto curbs but it's still very solid for a convertible.

As for power, I felt that they were pretty much on the same level. There isn't a turbo kick in the Boxster, obviously, but the power delivery is smooth and gets greater as you rise in RPM, similar to the way the power comes on with the FDs stock sequential turbos. The stock cars acceleration times are almost identical to each other.

As for quality, as much as some folks on this board complain about the quality of the Boxster, it's worlds ahead of the FD. Mazda made a lot of decisions geared towards keeping their car light. This lead to very thin body panels and poor interior parts quality (the center armrest and door panels break ALL the time). The Boxster may not have the interior quality that someone would have expected of a $55k car at the time, but in my opinion it's a very nice place to be. They also, as you noted, underdesigned the cooling system in the FD, leading to all the problems that you mentioned above. There's no such issues with the Boxster. The knowledge that after 80,000 miles in the FD, the engine is on borrowed time would have driven me nuts and as hard as it is to find a good Porsche mechanic, rotary guys are 1000x harder to find.

Ultimately, I went with the Porsche because I was never satisfied with the quality of the Rx-7 The Porsche is just as much car, performance wise +mid engine + convertible.

10-18-2006, 06:59 AM	#7
blue2000s Porscheectomy Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Seattle Area Posts: 3,011	Your situation is somewhat similar to mine. I've owned 1st gen Rx-7s for almost 20 years and driven several 3rd gens in the interest of purchasing one. I'm driving a 2000 S now instead of buying an FD. I would say they are both about on the same level as far as handling and driver feedback go. I can't imagine going from the FD to a 986 S and thinking that something is lost in the experience. In fact, the mid engine sharpens responses a bit more than the front-mid design of the FD. Both cars are about 2850 pounds depending on options. As far as structure goes, the Boxster is a convertible, there's no way it will be as solid as the closed coupe. The windshield does shake a little over train tracks and it creaks some going up onto curbs but it's still very solid for a convertible. As for power, I felt that they were pretty much on the same level. There isn't a turbo kick in the Boxster, obviously, but the power delivery is smooth and gets greater as you rise in RPM, similar to the way the power comes on with the FDs stock sequential turbos. The stock cars acceleration times are almost identical to each other. As for quality, as much as some folks on this board complain about the quality of the Boxster, it's worlds ahead of the FD. Mazda made a lot of decisions geared towards keeping their car light. This lead to very thin body panels and poor interior parts quality (the center armrest and door panels break ALL the time). The Boxster may not have the interior quality that someone would have expected of a $55k car at the time, but in my opinion it's a very nice place to be. They also, as you noted, underdesigned the cooling system in the FD, leading to all the problems that you mentioned above. There's no such issues with the Boxster. The knowledge that after 80,000 miles in the FD, the engine is on borrowed time would have driven me nuts and as hard as it is to find a good Porsche mechanic, rotary guys are 1000x harder to find. Ultimately, I went with the Porsche because I was never satisfied with the quality of the Rx-7 The Porsche is just as much car, performance wise +mid engine + convertible.