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I drove an S2000 for a year before buying a 986 S. The initial impression from just about anyone regarding the S2000 tranny is that it's the best thing since sliced bread, except for perhaps the miata. The long term impression for many is quite different, me included. It is a very light effort unit, like the miata, and a lot of that comes from the fact that it doesn't have to handle much torque. The less torque the engine produces, the lighter the effort will tend to be because everything in the tranny can be smaller and lighter duty. So, one would expect something like a Boxster S to require more effort to shift. The flip side of that is that the S2000 tranny feels fragile, and it is. Troll around on s2ki.com for a while and read about the high wear rate of the synchros... the crunching into 2nd gear due to light-duty synchros... the recommendation not to do 3rd-to-6th gear changes because of the splines on the shafts rounding off... all of this increasing shift effort over time and causing one to have to be very careful about shifting too quickly and getting the "crunch." Many S2000s that are not new have the "dreaded 1-2 crunch."
So IMO, the S2000 tranny is harder to use properly than the Boxster unit, by a mile.
Personally, after worrying about that for a year, I am very happy with the feel of the Boxster unit, because it feels substantial, rugged and easy to use.
Ken
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