Boxster manual five gear
 

I am considering a 2008 Boxster. The only thing that bothers me about it is the five-gear transmission instead of six on the S. I don't need the power of the S. I could wait for a 2009 but I can get a 2008 at 18% discount. I don't know why it bothers me but it does. My S2000 had 6 and my Cayman S had six.

Those of you owing a Boxster, do you miss the 6th gear. Do you give a damn? Is a five gear ratio actually better for city driving where shifting often

Thanks

It is a personal question (and economic)... how often did you use (or do you use) the 6th gear?

Never had one, but 18% is 18%.

Five gears works great for me, but then I am also quite happy with my 2.7L engine. I was driving the country roads around our home the other day and realized I could get into plenty of trouble with just 5 gears and the "little" 2.7L engine.

Ed

:cheers:

I only use 6th on highway drones and frequently forget that I even have it. I'm sure I would be fine with a 5, but hey, since the S came with 6, there it is...

Do back-to-back test drives to find out. That's what I plan on doing to decide between an '04 base, and S model.
Steve

We've had a couple of threads on this in the past. Personally, I think 6 speeds on a car with torque is more of a marketing feature than an engineering one. I had a v-tech Acura with 5 speeds that I would have loved another gear for cruising (80mph was 4500 RPM!) but in the Boxster, I usually skip 5th gear and go from 4th to 6th when I hit the highway. 4th and 5th are spaced too closely, making 5th redundant.

I have an '02 S...I really only use sixth gear on highway travel, as it slightly lowers the rpm for fuel economy. If sixth wasn't there, I doubt I'd miss it. In fact, I sometimes find myself cruising in fifth and need to consciously move to sixth.

I haven't compared ratios of the two boxes, but I doubt there's much difference in the overall final drives and second thru fifth are only slightly shorter on the six speed box. These motors like revs and Porsche probably did it for overall EPA mileage estimates anyway.

As I understand it, the 5 speed transmission has shorter gear ratios for better acceleration (why some people prefer to put 911 engines in a 5 speed car). The 6 speed has gear ratios that are identical or very similar (I think, I read that somewhere) to a 911. First and second are "long" which is nice for auto X where you generally just stick in second, but can have a wide range of speeds, 3-5 are "short" which is great for high speed acceleration (I beat an e46 m3 on the highway from 65-130 probably because of this) and 6 is the cruiser/top speed gear.

I don't remember where I read this though...

We talked about it here.

http://986forum.com/forums/performance-technical-chat/7010-2007-base-987-w-6-speed-worth.html

This may have been where you found it. The transmission ratios are close (or the same) but final drive is higher in the 6-speed cars.