Excellence Mag. Review

[99-Boxster-MK]

Its just one car for now... I would hold your judgement.

Speaking of RMS, does anybody know the % failure rate on the 986. What I mean is out of 100 cars how many engines have a failure??

Just curious

Mike

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by 99-Boxster-MK

Its just one car for now... I would hold your judgement.

Speaking of RMS, does anybody know the % failure rate on the 986. What I mean is out of 100 cars how many engines have a failure??

Just curious

Mike

I suspect that only folks who know this with some reliability would be Porsche. I highly doubt this data is forthcoming volunatarily.

[Ronzi]

It is interesting that this reliability/quality issue came up just now.
About a week ago I read an article in one of the local papers about a just-released JD Power new car "quality" survey.
The Power survey ranked 36 domestic (US) and import brands based on the number of "problems" per 100 cars reported by new car buyers within the first 30 days of ownership.
As I recall number one (fewest problems) was Lexus, with something on the order of 54 problems per 100 cars.
What about our favorite marque?
Porsche ranked 32nd out of the 36 brands, with 147 reported problems per 100 cars, barely beating out VW and Kia.
As a devoted Porschephile I found this ranking to be extremely disappointing, to say the least. Porsche built it's reputation on unmatched build quality, and it is disheartening to see them apparently abandoning their heritage in the pursuit of greater sales volume.
While I have no complaints whatever about the reliability of my own car, I am at times dismayed in reading about the perpetual problems some of the other forum members report about their cars.
I don't know whether the good folks at Porsche occasionally review what is being said on forums such as this (I'm sure their lawyers do), but hopefully they do, and take to heart some of the criticisms that are being levelled against their product.

[Thumper]

I always take those JD Power surveys with a grain of salt. Think of just how many people do not answer those survey requests due to busy schedules or just plain apathy. The only JD Power survey I ever answered was in regards to my home builder, who at the time I was less than pleased with, so I was all too happy to slam them good in the survey. If I had no issues with the builder, I probably would have trashed the survey request.

[Perfectlap]

well allot of reliability is down to maintenace and proper driving. A sportscar is a sensitive car, to compare it to a compact commuter car for reliability is ...wrong.
I can't believe how sloppy some people are withe their sports cars. Both in maintenace and driving/shifiting/braking. You have double the care of high performance car.
The Boxster was ranked by the German Motor Vehicles "commission" (who are much stricter than the U.S.) as the domestic sports car with the fewest 'fails'.
Granted the Boxster will never be a Honda S2000 for bullet proof reliability, Honda simply have far better resources and have built thousands more cars to perfect all the little gremlins.
But hey if you think an S2000 is more exciting to own/drive then you are getting the best of both worlds. Definitely the better choice for the daily driver concerned about repairs and maintenance.

I know several GT3, C4s, Turbo, M3, owner all former Boxster owners who all say that the 986 & S, is hands down the most fun they ever had.

[Brucelee]

The last time I looked into this data, Porsche was ranked about 8th in the world on initial quality.

Then, they built the Cayeene, which has been a disaster from a reliablility standpoint.

My guess is that that is the great bogey for the lastest Porsche data.

[RandallNeighbour]

Perfectlap, no one here would argue with you on the fun factor of our cars.

It's the rear main seal failure fears in the back of some of our minds every single time we get into our cars that is so concerning!