Edmunds Review: Porsche Boxster S

[BMWDave]

Plenty of Porsche Magic
By Scott Oldham
Date posted: 05-11-2005

Imagine you're a midengine Porsche nut with money to spend. Your collection of Stuttgart's finest already includes a 550 Spyder, an RSK and a new Carrera GT. Life is good. You spend your days sipping vitamin-enriched designer water, playing lawn sports and mastering the heel-and-toe downshift. Then, without warning, tragedy strikes. You lose the use of your left foot in a freak bocce ball accident.

What do you do?

Well, besides a quick switch to a less obnoxious beverage, we suggest hopping down to your local Porsche store and plunking down the green for one of these: a 2005 Porsche Boxster S with the optional five-speed Tiptronic S automanual transmission. It's a midengine Porsche with no nasty clutch pedal. In fact, it's a midengine Porsche with no nasty anything.

Trust us, life is still good.

Redesigned for 2005
According to Porsche, nearly 55 percent of the newly redesigned 2005 Boxster and Boxster S comes directly from the newly redesigned 2005 Porsche 911 Carrera, including the steering, front structure, seats and electronics. We're not sure if that makes the 911 the world's greatest parts bin, or the Boxster the world's greatest kit car, and we don't care. The resulting ride is the greatest argument for parts interchangeability since the assembly line.

The base Boxster rides on standard 17-inch rubber and is powered by a 2.7-liter horizontally opposed six-cylinder rated at 240 hp at 6,400 rpm and 199 pound-feet of torque at 4,700 rpm. Add the S and everything goes up. Tire diameter is now 18 inches, displacement is bumped to 3.2 liters, and power is a more respectable 280 hp at 6,200 rpm and 236 lb-ft at 4,700 rpm.

This may be the second generation of the Boxster, but you'd never know it from the curb. In fact, during our photo shoot we stopped at a supermarket and ended up wasting a few minutes of good light when the photographer, vitamin-enriched designer water in hand, couldn't unlock the car. Turns out he was attempting to enter a blue 2004 Boxster S, which we secretly planted nearby to confuse him.

Look closely and the new model's wider stance, larger side scoops, reshaped headlamps and more pronounced haunches are noticeable, but only if you look closely.

Nicer Office, but?
Inside, the changes are more apparent. Boxster aficionados will recognize the new car's instrumentation, basic layout and pronounced rollover hoops, but the rest is new. Better, too.

There's a bit more room for taller drivers, and the quality of materials is up, although not as high as we would like. "The car feels a little downmarket," wrote one tester in the car's logbook. "It's better than it once was, but the little door covering the ashtray in the center console feels cheap, the inside door handles are noisy and the insubstantial feel of the doors themselves leaves a poor impression."

Seat comfort, on the other hand, is extraordinary, as is the seating position. The leather-wrapped steering wheel feels a bit large at first, but you quickly realize it's perfectly sized.

Wind control with the top down is excellent, but wind noise above 70 mph with the top up can be enough to overpower the optional Bose sound system. On the upside, this is still the only sports car you'll find with two sizable trunks.

Ergonomics are both good and bad. Overall, everything is placed properly, and the two hideaway cupholders are pure genius, but the sound system is a sea of small, tightly packed buttons, and the gear selection readout on the gauge cluster is so small it borders on useless when you're running hard.

Plenty of Porsche Magic
The above gripes are immediately forgotten the first time you flick the Boxster S into a corner. That's when the Porsche magic takes over.

This car can be driven wickedly fast. Pace is really just a matter of skill, guts and conditions. Running out of car is rarely part of the equation. Grip seems endless, even with the Porsche Stability Management (PSM) turned off, and we mean off. Unlike before, PSM doesn't automatically reactivate when the brake pedal is depressed. Instead, the new system lies back until the brake pedal is pushed hard enough to exceed the ABS control threshold on at least one front wheel.

Fact is, if you're that deep in the ABS in this car on a public road, chances are you've entered a corner too quickly or a wolverine has appeared in your path. Either way you'll be thankful for the help.

Some will find the Boxster's around-town ride too stiff. Those people shouldn't buy Porsches. The firm ride, which is really never harsh, is a small sacrifice for the two-seater's rapid reflexes.

We also must throw praise at the Porsche's perfect balance, its tight chassis and its awesome interaction with its driver. The Boxster's steering lives and breathes, its throttle response is skin tight, and its brakes are the best binders we've ever tested. Fade-free, great pedal action and a 60-mph-to-0 stopping distance of 105 feet.

Transmission Blues
The really good news, however, is that the Tiptronic S transmission, while not perfect, and certainly not preferable over a true manual box, doesn't dilute too much of the above brilliance. Gear changes are almost quick enough, either up or down, and the gear ratios are spot on. It also gives you the option of left foot braking, just like Schumacher.

Ironically, it's around town where the Tiptronic loses our love. Of course the Tiptronic makes traffic jams more tolerable, but the tradeoff is a Porsche with a laid-back disposition. It's like the Porsche that swallowed a Xanax.

Part of the problem is that the transmission starts in second gear unless you floor the throttle off the line. This does not exactly make the most of the boxer's power band and makes the car feel sluggish. The transmission also upshifts too quickly, so you find yourself running 40 or 50 mph in fifth gear, which means the engine is too often lying limp just off idle.

You can solve both problems by driving the car hard and shifting gears manually with the steering wheel-mounted rocker switches, but it's just too easy to drop it in drive and go. And you find yourself driving the Boxster like a Camry.

Another shortcoming of the Tiptronic is slower off-the-line acceleration. Even if you womp the throttle from a stop, the automatic just makes you wait longer for the six-cylinder to find its sweet spot. It isn't slow, but in today's sports car world a 0-to-60-mph time of 6.1 seconds and quarter-mile performance of 14.3 seconds at 101 mph aren't what legends are made of.

Get the Stick
A base Boxster costs $43,800. A Boxster S will run ya $53,100. Our Lapis Blue Boxster S test car also wore options that spiked its MSRP to over $61 grand. The two most expensive were the 19-inch wheels and sticky Michelin Pilot Sport tires, which come from the Carrera S and cost $1,550, and the Tiptronic S transmission, which costs a whopping $3,210. Automatics usually cost about a grand.

The car is worth the coin, but if you don't play bocce ball, stick with the standard six-speed manual.

[Raza]

The last one is still the best car I've ever driven (and I've driven a shit load of cars).  I can't imagine this one being anything but better.

[Submariner]

"It's a midengine Porsche with no nasty clutch pedal. In fact, it's a midengine Porsche with no nasty anything."

Yes, because we all know the shifter doing the shifting for you makes a Porsche that much more enjoyable    

[BMWDave]

"It's a midengine Porsche with no nasty clutch pedal. In fact, it's a midengine Porsche with no nasty anything."

Yes, because we all know the shifter doing the shifting for you makes a Porsche that much more enjoyable  

They obviously dont know how to test sports cars at Edmunds.  Thats just about the stupidest thing one can hear from an enthusiasts standpoint.