Honest John in Saturday's Telegraph

[Guest]

I always read Honest John in the Telegraph on Saturdays as he gives interesting general advice on motoring. However he does not seem to like Boxsters and regards them as unreliable. Yesterdays included "....Boxsters do not respond well to light use. Brake discs rust and cooling system problems occur. You can't see the engine, so it is hard to tell what is going wrong. Note that Boxsters only have a two year warranty and Warranty Direct will not cover them."

Now I fall into the light use category with my one year old 987 and wonder the extent to which his comments support experience? I know cars thrive on use so that low usage is an issue with any car. Frankly with modern cars seeing the engine does not help much; I couldn't see much of the engine in my previous BMW 3 series as it had a dirty great plastic cover as do most current vehicles. Has any one any observations?

 

[oliver]

In the latest Which? Magazine Annual Car Guide the top award for 'Readers' Favourite' went to the Porsche Boxster

"There's something about open top motoring that always brings a smile to the face. At least that is the near unanimous opinion of the Porsche Boxster owners in our survey - a phenomenal 98% of owners would definitely recommend this car to a friend. Owners praised the responsive engines and every aspect of the Boxster's driving performance. This devotion is backed up by great after-sales care and a host of well liked features. It comes at a price though - some owners griped about the cost of parts and servicing."

 

[gdavison]

Our Boxtsers I guess fall into the low mileage catagory .. approx 5 K miles a year (the Cayenne gets the miles on it).. We are on our 4th and have had no "Low Mileage" issues .. its a true "ohhh lets take the Boxtser, find Keys (often the only problem), open garage start engine and drive" experiance .. I wonder if you could do that with a Ferrari, TVR etc..

 

[JCB..]

ORIGINAL: Bickley

I always read Honest John in the Telegraph on Saturdays as he gives interesting general advice on motoring. However he does not seem to like Boxsters and regards them as unreliable. Yesterdays included "....Boxsters do not respond well to light use. Brake discs rust and cooling system problems occur. You can't see the engine, so it is hard to tell what is going wrong. Note that Boxsters only have a two year warranty and Warranty Direct will not cover them."

Now I fall into the light use category with my one year old 987 and wonder the extent to which his comments support experience? I know cars thrive on use so that low usage is an issue with any car. Frankly with modern cars seeing the engine does not help much; I couldn't see much of the engine in my previous BMW 3 series as it had a dirty great plastic cover as do most current vehicles. Has any one any observations?

Yes IMHO he talks out of his arse! [&:]

 

[daro911]

ORIGINAL: JCB..

Yes IMHO he talks out of his arse! [&:]

He probably does too quite a common feature in these days of spin spin spin.

I have done 4000 miles p.a. in all my Boxsters since 97- to date and never had any low usage issues what so ever .... honest John I haven't

 

[oliver]

It is true that Boxsters and 996/997s (and probably many other cars) should always have the brake discs dried after cleaning and before garaging to reduce the likelihood of disc corrosion (it is in the handbook).

 

[Guest]

Thanks I agree, I too thought HJ was speaking from a different part of his anatomy. I love my car and as gdavsion says it is good to be able to drive off straight away after a period of inactivity. I had a TVR and can speak from experience that you cannot do that. In my Chimaera I found the battery went flat within a few days and those experts at Blackpool had put it at the bottom of the passenger footwell. You needed a 19th century child chimney sweep to be able to reach it. Then to find the terminals.............! The only good thing about the TVR was the exhaust noise, oh the noise! After 11 months and 3 recalls I traded it for a Marcos, which did all the things properly that the TVR did not, except that after 20 minutes your feet caught fire from the heat such that my wife refused to go in it!!!. So I should have gone straight to a Porsche then!!

 

[BoxsterBox]

ORIGINAL: daro911

ORIGINAL: JCB..

Yes IMHO he talks out of his arse! [&:]

He probably does too quite a common feature in these days of spin spin spin.

I have done 4000 miles p.a. in all my Boxsters since 97- to date and never had any low usage issues what so ever .... honest John I haven't

I agree with Digger. Unfortunately, my Boxster hasn't had much use for the last 3 years but I've had it from new (July 98) and whenever it is used it's for long 2/3 hour runs. Apart from recently replacing the battery (which is pretty good after the low use and time on the trickle charger) and a wheel bearing (when it was being used more frequently) it hasn't missed a beat. As long as the discs are dry when you garage the car they don't rust. I think you will find that generally all modern dics brakes rust when parked up outside in the wet. It is not a 986/996/Porsche fault.

Simon '98 AS/MB/MB

 

[Michael Downing]

HJ is strongly anti-Porsche, which is why I left his forum. Every time I mentioned my 996 he popped up to tell me it was cr@p, would break down any minute now, and must not under any circumstances be tracked. Eventually one tires of this.

He likes cheap Far eastern imports, and always seems to have one on long-term loan.