German built verus Finland Boxster - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

jci-joe · 12-09-2006, 05:17 PM

I recently purchased a 1999 Boxster and it was built in Germany. This was verified by the one character of the VIN being an S versus a U for Finland. Is there any benefit of having the Boxster built in Germany? Has anyone proved any type of quality difference? Of all the boxsters I have looked at, I have not found another one with the S in the VIN.

blkflg · 12-09-2006, 07:41 PM

I took the tour in Zuffenhausen this year. It seems they build a very small percentage of Boxsters on the same production line as the 911. All the motors are built in Zuffenhausen. The tour guide told me they want their workers to be familar with building Boxsters so they can build them there if 911 demand drops or they need to build more Boxsters. I'm not sure it's any advantage to have German built Boxster. Quality control may be better on a production line that is always building the same car. It probably doesn't make to much difference though since the 911 and Boxster are so similar technically. -Just my 2 cents-

MNBoxster · 12-09-2006, 09:19 PM

Hi,

Sorry to tell you, but several people in-the-know (dealer, PCNA personnel) have said that they see a slightly better recored on warranty claims on those cars built in Uusikaupunki, Finland by Valmet over those built in Germany...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

ohioboxster · 12-10-2006, 03:40 AM

I was going to make a thread about this but I will just post it here. My Boxster was built in Finland. (Disclamer)Im not saying this has anything to do with where the car was built. I've noticed a few things. My car does NOT eat tires I have put roughly 13k miles on these tires and they still look fantastic and are wearing even. It does NOT have the signature smoke on start up from the flat six that is so common. I have NOT had to add oil other than when I broke the filler tube and some leaked. The top works great and this is Ohio so it may go up and down six times a day. Typical ohio day, rain, sun, cloudy, rain mixed with sun, snow, snow mixed with rain, sun, sun mixed with rain etc. you get the idea. Everything just works as expected on my car. There was a brief time that I was not happy with the car because the ignition switch and a rock or jack that caused clutch line damage. Its all fixed now as most of you know.

Next thought, I found a car I wanted on e-bay the other day and was thinking of selling the Box again but came to my senses. The car was an 04 with 30k miles and it only booked at 20 to 21 thousand. It made me think about the car really only being 2 years old and dropping almost 35% in value. Dont hold me to the % its off the top of my head but seems about right. Its not even all that attractive of a car either but it boasted 480hp and Im still a hp junkie. I'll just clear it up for you, it was an 04 GTO with a procharger set up, after market clutch, gauges etc. Its just so dang ugly and not of what I think of when GTO strolls through my mind. I have owned a 1968 and 1974 GTO and really liked both of them. In closing (thank God I know) the Box survived another round of my OCD, lol.

airboxster · 12-10-2006, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jci-joe

I recently purchased a 1999 Boxster and it was built in Germany. This was verified by the one character of the VIN being an S versus a U for Finland. Is there any benefit of having the Boxster built in Germany? Has anyone proved any type of quality difference? Of all the boxsters I have looked at, I have not found another one with the S in the VIN.

While viisting the plant in Germany I was told all North American Boxster are built in Finland. Never asked when this started.

jci-joe · 12-10-2006, 05:01 AM

Does anyone know the quantity or percentage of cars that are built in each location? There are some good arguments to each location and I am sure both are nearly identical in quality. I have only owned my 99 for 6 weeks but with the information from the first owner, this German built car has been nearly problem free. I expect this can also be attributed to the great care he provided the car during the first 6 years.

While this may be a new thread, I thought I would start it here. Are there benefits or potential problems with having a hardtop. I just put in on and plan on keeping it on till March-ish. The mechanism will not operate till then. Is that a good or bad thing?

MNBoxster · 12-10-2006, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jci-joe

Does anyone know the quantity or percentage of cars that are built in each location? There are some good arguments to each location and I am sure both are nearly identical in quality. I have only owned my 99 for 6 weeks but with the information from the first owner, this German built car has been nearly problem free. I expect this can also be attributed to the great care he provided the car during the first 6 years.

While this may be a new thread, I thought I would start it here. Are there benefits or potential problems with having a hardtop. I just put in on and plan on keeping it on till March-ish. The mechanism will not operate till then. Is that a good or bad thing?

Hi,

Boxster production is about 85%/15% Uusikaupunki/Stuttgart and that's approx. the same mix as the importation numbers to the US market...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Jeph · 12-10-2006, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jci-joe

While this may be a new thread, I thought I would start it here. Are there benefits or potential problems with having a hardtop. I just put in on and plan on keeping it on till March-ish. The mechanism will not operate till then. Is that a good or bad thing?

I keep my hardtop on probably 70% of the time. My top's motor doesn't get bored, and works fine in the event I want to go topless. When my hard top is not on, I raise and lower my top about 2-3 times a day.

RandallNeighbour · 12-10-2006, 10:34 AM

Ohio, what's gotten into you with that incredibly long post?

djomlas · 12-10-2006, 10:37 AM

70% hardtop kinda defets the purpose of a drop-dop, dont u think?

ohioboxster · 12-10-2006, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Ohio, what's gotten into you with that incredibly long post?

Randall, I know and I must attribute it to all the Benedryl I took this morning. This past 2 weeks been fighting the flu or a really bad cold off! Was in a fog....

mn box s · 12-10-2006, 09:33 PM

70% hardtop kinda defets the purpose of a drop-dop, dont u think?

Maby, but I roll probably 90% H/T. You see never been a big fan of drop tops, and l basicly think of my Boxster as a Cayman. You really didnt have the Cayman choice untill recently. Im not in the market for one or Id buy one, an S of coarse. Id rather walk than drive a non S. Just the way I work, you get soooo much more for so little more in my eyes. Nothing wrong with a non S just not my cup of tea. I mean a porsche is a porsche. Really just wish I had a 997tt, but dont we all? Still thinking about removing my soft top completely.

Jeph · 12-11-2006, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djomlas

70% hardtop kinda defets the purpose of a drop-dop, dont u think?

Ironically, I've never really cared for convertibles... I'm not a convertible guy... girls dig it when the weather is nice, so I've got that going for me! No one needs to see me when I'm out and about driving around. Besides, I'm so tired of signing autographs!

Perfectlap · 12-12-2006, 08:37 AM

Forget who told me this or where I read it but as MN points out the Finland builds have a much better record. I suspect like anything, the more you do it the more specialized you become and the less errors you make. They assemble allot of Boxsters.
But what I heard was that education levels/quality of assembly line workers in Finland were much better than those of the German assembly workers which include a high number of North African immigrant workers. Who knows if its true.

p.s.
if someone gave me a 997TT I would promptly sell it. I could get better sytiling and almost as much fun with 996 TT and have $65K left over for the piggy bank.
btw,
Compare the interiors of that $130K car and your 987, almost identical. something wrong with that.

Sammy · 12-12-2006, 09:05 AM

Without seeing a lot of numbers and statistics held by Porsche I don't think you can accurately pick one over the other. Because of the much lower percentage of cars produced in Germany it would be easy to skew/misread the warranty figures. I would be more worried if there was valid information that correlated the powertrain warranty repairs between the two.

For example, if German made cars had a warranty issue for an out of adjustment top on 1000 cars it would be different than if 1000 cars in Finland came back for an engine repair.

This is unless MNBoxster's information was referring to major warranty repairs???

SD987 · 12-12-2006, 09:31 AM

The Valmet plant recently won a quality award for their production of the Boxster/Cayman. While not an indictment of the Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen plants, it would at least suggest that the Finns do a pretty good job.

The image is a re-post, as we had a similar conversation several months ago (which of course could be said of almost every post

).