Porsche to rename Boxster/Cayman to 718

[10/10ths]

....This move has NOTHING to do with building a "lower cost" car.

It actually costs MORE money to build the 4 cylinder turbo engine.

The reason they are doing this is the same reason the 911 is going turbo and the BMW's are turbo and Honda is now selling small turbo fours---EPA and CAFE.

All the auto manufacturers MUST reduce Co2, NoX, and particulate emissions by a huge amount.

Also, all Corporate Average Fleets MUST be 54.5 MPG by 2025 in the USA.

It's the law.

The car companies have to build these drivetrains.

The days of big, naturally aspirated engines are numbered.

Look at Ferrari, the new 488 is turbo. Look at McLaren. Same.

They aren't building them because they think it's what people want. It's like EVs, they HAVE to build them.

Now, the one GOOD thing about this, is that a turbo engine makes a LOT of torque and you can just "crank up the boost" as a tuner for more performance. To a point..

So, don't blame Porsche. Vote early and vote often.

Anyhow, the 2.0 Turbo Hybrid 919 made 1,000 Horsepower this year, won LeMans, and won the WEC Constructor's World Championship. So.......

Now, having said all that, I LOVE big natural aspirated engines. When I wanted to buy a Porsche, I chose my 2004 Boxster S 50 Years of 550 Spyder specifically because it was "old school", with a 3.2 L NA engine, and no electronic feldercarb.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by 10/10ths

....This move has NOTHING to do with building a "lower cost" car.

It actually costs MORE money to build the 4 cylinder turbo engine.

The reason they are doing this is the same reason the 911 is going turbo and the BMW's are turbo and Honda is now selling small turbo fours---EPA and CAFE.

All the auto manufacturers MUST reduce Co2, NoX, and particulate emissions by a huge amount.

Also, all Corporate Average Fleets MUST be 54.5 MPG by 2025 in the USA.

It's the law.

It's the law but in practical application the penalties for falling short of the fleet average, which is not an issue for Porsche, are a literal pittance relative to Porsche's revenue and earnings. Perhaps for a struggling boutique car company this might be an issue, MAYBE. But for Porsche, strong dollar and import taxes in other markets are a far bigger consideration. IMHO, CAFE as the thrust behind moving to fancied up Jetta Turbo's is grossly overstated when you look at Porsche's numbers which continue to climb to historic levels. And the few sports cars that Porsche still make will eventually account for a very small part of their production, to the point that Porsche will be a luxury brand first that happen to make a few sports cars. Porsche could use the turbo 4's on their mainstays, the Cayenne, Cayene mini, and Pana and leave the already very fuel economical flat 6's to the two seaters and simply pay the minuscule penalties for falling a few ticks short of fleet average. Heck I wouldn't be surprised if they would make MORE money in the end by up-selling the flat 6 at a bigger margin over the turbo 4 to the purists and simply factor in the CAFE penalty as a cost of capturing that additional business. Purists are willing to pay the added margin, especially when you pair the NA engine with a strip down performance oriented offering. The Cayman GT4 sold out just like the GT3's.

The real rationale, imho, for the Turbo 4 is to lower their in-warranty liabilities while sustaining this relentless power increase of the last 15-20 years.
Look at how much power an M3 for instance had in 1999 (240 HP?) compared to what is expected for a performance label these days. Expectations keep going north with price tags. hard to do one without the other. Continuing to make that kind of power in an also bullet proof NA engine is a serious challenge in the mass production era of 200K Porsches a year. Going with the Jetta 4 Turbo is simply easier and more profitable in aggregate once all in-warranty costs are deducted. And really, I don't think 9 in 10 Porsche buyers care one way or the other so all the easier for Porsche to go the easy way out. And Just look at the 991 GT3 flambe engine debacle. Total recall. You can't have your German Chocolate cake and eat it too if you want to bring home the big profits.

Believe it our not our 986/987 cars will be special in the end. A thoroughly modern Porsche (no new oil leak of the day in your drive way), without electric steering nor Jetta turbos, superb handling and feedback... all at relatively low running costs (for a Porsche). None of the really bad of an old Porsche and none of the bad of all the new ones.