The guy must very simply have been a halfwit. Any knowledgeable Porsche employee would know the Boxster and 911 are the same car available in two different engine orientations. If you lament the Box, you lament its sister 911.

Yes, the Boxster gets lower output engines. But it's the same engine and power is only one part of a complex package that goes into a great car.

Even a basic 2.5 986 is quicker than most early 911 models, values for which have gone crazy. Ditto something like the original E30 M3.

You are so right. My brother bought a 2002 C2 Cab 6speed new for $96k. It was a 3rd car so by 2008 he had put only 17,000 miles on it. It was perfect -- garaged all day, under a car cover inside. Never driven to work. Not a tiny stone chip, interior and wheels perfect. Spent 3 months trying to sell it before getting an offer of 40k and settling on $42k. THe second owner got the world's best deal on a sportscar!

Did he sell it in 2009 or 2008?

A $54K depreciation over 6 years isn't too bad. :p
The interesting thing would have been to see how much he would have been able to sell for at the height of the credit bubble when the car was only about a year out of warranty. I'm guessing holding onto the car for those last two years cost him at least $25K. Dumping water-cooled Porsches turned out to be a lot like dumping houses before the crash.

The interesting was that the Cayman and Boxster prices didn't crash as hard because their prices weren't up that high in the first place. Yet another good reason to buy your luxury used. At times the credit market has a cold blooded way of giving Porsche mark ups/margins a swift reality check.

the 911 should thank Boxster for not being bankruptcy.....;)

I actually don't feel that the Boxster is really missing much compared to the 911 on the "car" level, i.e removing any 911 star power or allure.

First, the interiors of the Boxsters are almost always fairly close to the 911 each generation, the 911 may have a few extra gauges and better seats, but for the most part, they seem fairly and practically similar.

2nd, I'm really comparing more to the base 911 - as obviously the bigger engine 911's have what the Boxster and S don't have: A lot of power. (Especially the turbo) But then, money enters the fray and it's no longer a feasible comparison.

For the everyday guy, driving around town and the fun backroads, I think a Boxster is really sufficient. It may not have the 911 brand, but who cares - it drives in some regards even better.

In any group there are those who will look down there nose at others:

The Ducati guys frown on the Gixxer guys
The Harley guys whence at the Jap cruisers
The Rolex crowd looks down on the Seiko wearer
The Mooney pilot --- well you get the idea.

From my perspective.....the older you get, the less you care what others think. Believe me, it's VERY liberating.

I could care less what others think, its Porsche that has me worried. Why on earth doesn't the Boxster get the bigger motors or a Turbo or a GT-3 or even a measly -R version?

Because you would be taking away kudos & profit from THE recognised icon.

Forget the Boxster, if Porsche wanted to promulgate a potential world beater both on track & road, they would shoehorn a Metzger GT3 engine into a Cayman... but that ain't going to happen while the 911 rules the roost.

I have had some of the same comments. I like the one when someone calls it a girls car. They are normally ones who are stuck in a minivan and would probably enjoy a boxster given the chance.

I actually had that happen a few years ago, not kidding. I was at a stop light with the top down in the right hand lane, a Nissan Quest minivan pulls up on my left hand side. A 40 something guy who was in the passenger front seat felt the need to turn and say "nice chickster", I turned to see who / what said that and noticed him and then saw that his wife was driving. I just cracked up and didn't even respond.

Personally, I tbhink 300hp from a 3.4l lump is plenty.

A Mezger GT3 option is alluring. But a turbo Boxster? Yuck.

+1

Who cares what other people say. Prejudiced people just end up being shut out anyway.
What is not to love about the Boxster with heated seats and air cond. Options u don't get with earlier 911's ? Even if my engine blows up I can go out and buy a used
Box with a running engine.:):)

They may have to. the new 981 Cayman is already rumored to be slower than the Boxster Spyder in track testing.

Its surprising that Porsche hasn't followed BMW down the path of maximizing the sales of each model through model proliferation.

For example, the 5-series is available as a Sedan, Estate, and GT. Three engines are offered across these models along with an option for all wheel drive. And of course, there is the M option. Similar configurations are available for all of the major BMW models (1, 3, 5, and 7).

BMW has shown that this proliferation of models results in higher total sales. Sure, there might be a few low end 7-series sales cannibilized by high end 5-series buyers but overall the company has demonstrated that its earns more sales in total.

Porsche takes this approach for the 911 (Carerra, CarerraS, convertible, 4, Turbo, and GT-3) but surprisingly not for the Boxster or Cayman. Some might say that they are leaving a lot of potential sales on the table.

If I were running Porsche (insert a lot of laughter here!), I would merge the Boxster and Cayman into one car model (as the convertible or coupe options) and then proliferate the model line as discussed above. I would have the upper end of the Boxster/Cayman line overlap the lower one-third of the Carerra line. This way, any Boxster/Cayman sales that came at the expense of Carerra sales would be about the same revenue.

Ahhh, but the 911, Boxster and Cayman are all one model. It's just brilliant branding and some clever engineering tweaks that make you view them as separate models. So what we're dealing with is one model in a very large array of configurations. Very clever.

Given Porsche's profitability, I'd say they know exactly what they're doing. Sure, they could do a Boxster Turbo (ghastly idea, but people would no doubt buy it). But there are implications for that sort of model re 911 sales

What you have to appreciate is that a Boxster / Cayman and a 911 are essentially the same car. But when you look at the list prices, you realise the margins on the 911 must be massive. And that's why Porsche doesn't make Boxster / Caymans that threaten to cannibalise 911 sales.

They are way ahead of us on this stuff, I reckon.

Pothole Quote - "Ahhh, but the 911, Boxster and Cayman are all one model"
Aside from the front end looking much the same how do you figure this? The boxsters are mid-engine cars and the 911 is a rear engine car... completely different setup and both drive completely different.

Different set up? yes....different hardware? Not so much. The bits are all essentially from the same bin, just assembled and attached in different ways...

Well I'm sure there's lots of parts that cross-match because the 'style' of the cars is so much the same, but that doesnt mean the cars themselves are the same! In the end they'd be silly to make or redesign every part seperately. Personally I think the 911 is far overpriced for what you get, but in the end you're paying for the '911' badge and its historic success :) which is what the stealerships use as leverage to boost the price tag.
Hey I can go out and buy a Escalade or a Yukon and get fancy trim and some extra features for and extra 30K in the Escalade and the parts are essentially the same....

My understanding is that Porsche do not report Cayman and Boxster sales separately, they are lump together as 987 or now 981.
,
Porsche limited engine options for the Boxster and Cayman because they fear the mid engine threat. I cant think of another brand that went out of their way to develop a deliberately less powerful engine for a new model. Inexplicably tall first gear to create a bigger gap on 0-60 times? The really funny thing is that if you were to randomly pull a part off the Boxster you're much more likely to be holding a part number beginning with 996 than 986. If it had the 3.6 it would essentially have been a 99-04 Carrera roadster with superior handling. And the inevitable time sheets would have upended the whole narrative that rear engine is superior. So the 2.5 was the only option to avoid explaining why the Boxster was faster than the mushy 993 Carrera being sold at the time of the Boxster launch.

The key differentiator between the 911 and the Boxster/Cayman is the engine location. This results in signifiicantly different handling characteristics not to mention back seats vs rear trunks.

BMW gets by just fine with even less differentiation (than engine location) by using old fashioned "size" to uniquely define the 3, 5 and 7 series.

It's not "part sharing". It's platform sharing. The front 2/3rds of the platform and structure and just about everything else is shared and more or less identical. The rear 1/3rd is configured for rear or mid installation.

People have someone misconstrued my post. I never said 911s and Boxsters drove the same. The engine location makes a big difference obviously. But the fact is, they are one model with two different engine installations.

Totally different propositions. A BMW 3 and a 7 are completely separate platforms and architectures. A 911 and a Box are the same save for changes made for engine installation.

The latest issue of Christophorus (the magazine that the Porsche mothership sends you if the dealer puts you on the list) centers on the mid-engine models, primarily the Cayman. You can read it in PDF if you google Porsche magazine Christophorus, I would post a link, but my posts with links don't seem to show up.

Porsche is pushing the Cayman and the Boxster lately because they're beautiful cars, simple as that.

Thank you for the help, Jager.

I think when you look at a 996 and 986, you can certainly see a lot of similarities in the cars - the front, the interior, etc. And as a previous poster said, a lot of the part numbers are even similar!

The newer Boxster is a bit more unique, this 981 - but still shares a lot of the same designs and interior.

It's not similarities and similar part numbers. It's the same bloody car. The floor pressings. The panels. The suspension components. The dash. The door cards.

The front 2/3rds is literally the same car. On the Boxster S, it's even the same brake rotors and calipers.

The 981 to 991 relationship is very nearly the same. OK, they gave the 981 unique exterior panels. But that's the just the clothes covering the expensive bits underneath. It's the same approach. For instance, the 981 has unique exterior door panels, the the inner door structure is once again shared. Overall, it's still one architecture available in either mid or rear-engine configurations.

914
 

Coming from a 914 background, I am very familiar with this "stepchild" talk. But it is all garbage, and usually from very uninformed people.

For instance, we 914 owners used to get this "Not a real Porsche" crap from time to time. Justified? The 914 was mid engined, it had an air cooled boxer engine, and was very minimalistic in concept. Just like the early Porsches! It was a back to basics concept. Oh, but it had a VW engine, so the trash talking began.

VW and Porsche were two separate companies that proceded after the second world war to manufacture air cooled cars based on Dr. Porsche's air cooled engine design. Historically, the 914 is all Porsche! :-) So a snobbish comment is also an uninformed comment.

This sort of thing does not really come up anymore with the 914 because, most people don't know too much about them now. Personally, I stoped caring long ago. I think back in the late 70's early 80's a certain snobiness developed against VW by certain people. That doesn't really exist today, because the companies image is much more sporty.

But, having recently purchased this 986, I am surprised to find a this variation on the same theme. There is no VW-Porsche crossover like on some other models. I read somewhere on a forum that some Porsche owners degrade the Boxster. So. the Boxster not a real Porsche? By what measure?
It doesn't make sense. In fact, it never made sense with the 914 and it doesn't make sense with the Boxster. I think it is all based on some snobiness. I have yet to experience this snobiness, because 911 drivers have been waving at me left and right.... but I am sure there is some jackass who thinks only he drives the "remnant" of true Porsche lineage and heritage.