April Panorama

[70Sixter]

April Panorama has a huge article on "How to buy a Boxster."

Same issue has some news or rumors about the 2012 911 (dropping the Carrera name).

Displacement down to 3.4 in base 911S at 350 hp/280lb-ft and 911RS at 400/295 with 3.8 engine.

Electro-hydraulic steering.

Side view mirrors may be replaced by tv screens at base of A-pillar.

And possibly a 7 step CVT!

Wonder how that will translate to Boxster/Caymans.

[Banana S]

What a huge mistake a CVT would be in a 911 (...or any performance-oriented car, for that matter). Ugh.

[Jaxonalden]

CVT...no thank you. I've driven a Nissan Altima and the Maxima with a CVT. They both suck. When you hammer the go peddle the engine revs to 6,000 rpm and just stays there. No sence of pulling, no feel of engine power through the rpm range.

[23109VC]

i agree - CVT sucks sucks sucks. I had a POS rental that had a CVT transmission and it was the most annoying thing ever. the rpms were in strange places - it was totally counter intuitive to how a car shoudl drive.

a CVT might be great if you are maximizing mpg or going for efficiency - maybe they are good at that - but if you want to have FUN and actually DRIVE the car - it blows.

if i woke up tomorrow and suddenly found my Boxster had been "infected" with a CVT it would need to be "put down"....

[Banana S]

I read the full article on "How to Buy a Boxster" in Panorama this evening. Honestly, I think most of us on this board could have written a more informative article on the subject.

The article contained gems such as "beware of sellers who claim to have done the regularly scheduled maintenance themselves. Virtually all maintenance on the Boxster requires a lift." (Yeah... Except the oil changes... And the spark plug changes... And the serpentine belt changes... And the air filter changes... And the brake pad changes... And the wheel bearing changes... But I'm sure he meant the OTHER regular maintenance items. )

I also found it more than a little disturbing that, although the author mentioned the RMS leak, he DID NOT mention some of the other common failures and things to look out for when buying a used Boxster, including air/oil separator failures, coolant tank leaks, CV boot tears, and potential problems with the IMS and D-chunk failures. Admittedly, there isn't much you can do to check for those last two, but in an article devoted to purchasing a Boxster, one would think that the author would at least mention them as possible problems that could wind up costing big bucks.

Just my $.02.