Excellence Mag. Review - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Perfectlap · 05-26-2005, 08:52 AM

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 · 05-26-2005, 10:43 AM

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 · 05-26-2005, 10:59 AM

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!

Perfectlap · 05-26-2005, 12:10 PM

RMS failures are no picnic but I don't think its affecting 1 in 5 Boxsters or anything like that. Hard to put a number on it.

I'm talking about all the other reliability gripes. They are unavoidable with boutique car makers, Porsche is not a major auto maker. Not even close (They do have the biggest profits any car company, for sure)
as they grow bigger there will be teething problems.
Its a perspective I think needs to be understood by potential buyers and current owners. Most people will never own a Porsche and the limited production numbers mean that there is far less quality control and R&D to iron out the gremlins.

It still beats a Ferrari by a country mile this regard.