Different types of tiptronic?

[Obertelli]

Tomorrow, I'm going to look at my third Boxster 2.7 in three days. I've already travelled 800 miles since yesterday to find the right car and hopefully tomorrow's one will be just right.

But the first two were a late 2000 model year poverty-spec 2.7 manual, and an early 2000 model year tiptronic with climate and cruise control, but they were both around the same price for insurance. Tomorrow's one is an early 2002 tip with a few more toys on board, but shoots up an extra twelve groups for insurance making the quotes nearly 50% higher. The only difference is that the car registration plate brings it up as a "Tiptronic S" rather than a regular tiptronic and that's what all the insurers told me was making the difference.

Please forgive my newbie ignorance, but what's the difference? I know it's not the same as a Boxster S as they came out in 2003 with the 3.2 motor and a few styling differences including the glass rear screen. One other forum claimed the difference is that regular tips lack the steering wheel gear change buttons and only had four gears, but the early 2000 model I tried today definitely had five forward gears and steering wheel buttons when it left the factory.