Just thought I would pop in here and share some initial impressions of a Boxster S and along the way give some personal views on options list.
To start with a disclaimer, aside from a brief test drive in one of OPC Silverstone's demonstrators, I have no previous experience of the model so am not able to make any meaningful comparisons with its predecessor. This means that any benchmarking is against the 911 family.
Also it should be said this is primarily my wife's car, .......well that was the original idea.
We picked it up on Wednesday in Stuttgart. Much has changed since I was last there and it is better than ever. Anne thought it was "fantastic"!
Wonderful autumn colours and decent weather complemented the fine roads for the run back via Heidelberg, Luxembourg, Belgium, to Le Shuttle which we did over a couple of easy days.
Overall impression. Brilliant!
Did we get the options right? I'd say pretty much spot on for our use.
Platinum silver and black leather and hood may be not to everyone's taste but in the flesh show off the sculptured lines very well. And not unduly conspicuous, which was important for Anne.
PDK seems even better than on my car with no hesitation on moving off and imperceptible changes up and down the box. As someone who learned to drive in a car without syncro on 1st gear, I am sorry to see the demise of the manual but have to concede that this is a better solution.
Now to the first of the potentially important choices. Wheels and suspension. I have something of an aversion to the ever increasing size of wheels, especially when it is at the expense of ride quality. And if my 911 can get by on 19", do we need 20" on the Boxster? As soon as you decide to stick with the 19" wheels then PASM becomes less important. The acid test of course is on the road. Precise, responsive, agile, reassuring, compliant, supple....I've started to run out of adjectives.
Obviously, it being a new car and with its proud owner alongside we took it pretty easy but even so the instant response of the N/A engine is very compelling and required considerable self restraint. Also the balance between exhaust bark under acceleration coupled with quiet burble at cruising speed means that to these ears avoiding spending £1400 on a PSE was money well saved. And it still sounds miles better than my 911. This is going to be a crackerjack when run in.
You can probably tell by now the way this is going. PTV no. Sports Chrono. No, there is just no room for Launch Control departures in Waitrose carpark
However, what we saved on these options was spent instead on PDSL, Park Assist, TPM, 14way seats, Cruise, PCM and some odds and sods like wind deflector etc.
Most of these options are just that. They are non essential but nice to have. No more messing around taking the headlight out of the wing to drive in Europe. Just dial it up in the PCM menu. PCM of course is not cheap and for basic navigation a £100 Tomtom would do the job. But there is now such a wealth of other toys hidden in the depths of PCM that navigation becomes a mere ancillary to any amount of things to play with on a long journey.
Other points.
I was somewhat surprised to see that at 130kph I only had 800rpm. This is the coasting feature, confusingly called gliding in the manual. I recall seeing some negative comments about this and how it means you miss out engine braking. Not in my experience. It is quite a sophisticated system and only works if your driving style at that moment warrants it. And it can be switched off.
The hood is superb. With it up it is just like being in a saloon and yet it folds down and away in seconds without appearing to compromise boot space.
Niggles. I prefer to have basic gauges like oil pressure, water temp etc permanently on show. I guess modern engines are now so reliable that this is a somewhat anachronistic view but even so I miss them. I also miss the space behind the seats that you get with a 911. The in cabin storage in the Boxster is pretty meagre and even the door pockets seem small.
Rear quarter visibility is rather limited and makes entering and changing lanes on European Motorways an area for caution, and parking sensors essential.
But these are small gripes and as an overall package for a couple of OAPs the Boxster S is hard to beat.
And finally, it was only when we got to Calais that I suddenly wondered if this car has that dreadful electric steering!
Cheers.
