Good luck with your decision. Both are great cars but the possibility of my boxster engine going at anytime worried me enough to sell the car, well so did the leaking RMS that was gonna cost me another 3k to repair with a new clutch. Plus a new engine for a boxster will cost you close to 15k which could actually buy you a new running boxster or for sakes a used rx-8. Since selling the car, I bought a Nismo 350z but wasn't too happy with it either. It was nice but the car is HEAVY that's why it needs all the HP. Plus as you said its kinda of racerish especially with the nismo exhaust. First day I got it some kid in a EVO tried to race. Ended up getting rid of that after 3 months. Missed the convertible so I looked at the s2000 but that 4 cylinder car was too noisy since you had to get in the higher rpm's to hit torque. I went ahead a bought a BMW Z3 with a 2.8L engine. Its a nice little convertible but it doesn't handle like the porsche but it actually has more torque at a lower rpm than the base boxsters. A suspension upgrade would help that. Have you ever looked into the "M" z3 coupe or roadsters? Those cars will eat the boxster and boxster "s" maybe even a base 911... The M's have 345hp. The BMW's seem to be a nice alternative to the boxster in terms of being a convertible and fun to drive as well as status and speed. Good Luck. Hoped that helped....
