How reliable are new (2020-21) Boxsters?

Shaun @ Tru6 · 06-08-2020, 01:22 PM

A friend wants to buy a new Boxster but she is afraid it will be as unreliable as her new Mercedes SUV which has apparently suffered a ton of electrical gremlins in the last 6 months for every conceivable system on the car.

Anyone know if a new Boxster will be better? It will be a weekend car. She wants to be able to drive to Jersey so see friends for a weekend, trouble free. I recommended she look at a low mileage 993 being still fairly analog. She was open to it.

herman maire · 06-08-2020, 01:29 PM

I look forward to the replies. As much as I don’t want to, I’m always concerned about the engines and cylinder bore durability/ materials they use in these newer engines.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

Porsche has had top rating for reliability across the brand.

My wife has a 2017 Macan we ordered to fit her wants. Just routine maintenance.

She loves her Macan more than any vehicle he has ever owned.

Eric Coffey · 06-08-2020, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

A friend wants to buy a new Boxster but she is afraid it will be as unreliable as her new Mercedes SUV which has apparently suffered a ton of electrical gremlins in the last 6 months for every conceivable system on the car.

Anyone know if a new Boxster will be better? It will be a weekend car. She wants to be able to drive to Jersey so see friends for a weekend, trouble free. I recommended she look at a low mileage 993 being still fairly analog. She was open to it.

Coming from a Merc SUV, she would be in heaven with a new Boxster.

Obviously, she would be giving up quite a bit of the "U" there, so depends on what her priorities/needs are.

As G mentioned, maybe have her look at a newer Macan (GTS/Turbo if she has the means and wants something sporty/fast).

Of course with any newer car, maintenance costs are probably going to pale in comparison to the depreciation hit.

David · David's Garage

I bought my 2014 Cayman S in June 2013. Besides normal maintenance, I've had door panels warp a year or so ago and got replaced and last week replaced the headliner. A couple of times I've turned the key to start it and nothing happened, then tried again and it started just fine. A couple of times the dash lit up weird and then never did it again. So my opinion is it's pretty darn reliable.

Shaun @ Tru6 · 06-08-2020, 04:06 PM

All good to hear, thanks for posting.

Mahler9th · 04:19 PM

Hard to compare a newer Boxster to a car like a 993. I drove a newer Cayman for a few days last year (on loan as a pace car for a local Club Race) and I was impressed, but it was only for a couple of days. I am sure I'd be similarly impressed with a newer Boxster.

I have owned a 993 (a cabriolet) and it was generally reliable. It was a '95 and I had the wiring harness replaced (right before the recall) and I had the motors for the top replaced.

If you really want to dig deep, one possible resource is the PCA tech group.

https://www.pca.org/technical-committee

I see a gentleman named Pedro Bonilla is the contact for Boxster. I do not know him. But I know Peter Smith really well.

He is local and highly trained and experienced. He works at a local dealer. If I wanted to know about such cars he'd be my first call. He used to run the tech group for PCA and I think was the contact for Boxster for a number of years.

I have known him for 20 years or more. He worked with PCNA to get my 993 wiring harness replacement done before the recall and has been a tech and PCA member for a really, really long time. He is my #1 contact for things related to the newer cars.

He is also a very talented and accomplished racing driver (though not active for a while).

911boost · 911boost's Garage

Jeez, one would hope a brand new Porsche would be more reliable than at the newest a 22 year old air cooled 911.

Shaun @ Tru6 · 06-08-2020, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric Coffey

Coming from a Merc SUV, she would be in heaven with a new Boxster.

Obviously, she would be giving up quite a bit of the "U" there, so depends on what her priorities/needs are.

As G mentioned, maybe have her look at a newer Macan (GTS/Turbo if she has the means and wants something sporty/fast).

Of course with any newer car, maintenance costs are probably going to pale in comparison to the depreciation hit.

Eric, this would be a third car for her, just for fun. But I like your idea and am going to tell her to trade the GLE in and get a Macan and a Boxster. I have to think a dealership would treat her pretty well in that deal.

She just doesn't want to see the car in the dealership as much as the Mercedes has been. And she appreciates my addiction to the older cars.

Dan J · 06-08-2020, 05:25 PM

In my experience they are super good reliable cars

HardDrive · 06-08-2020, 05:34 PM

I purchased 2 CPO Porsche. A 2002 Boxster, and a 2005 911. The only issue I had was a rattle in the sport exhaust on the 911. I took it to the dealership 2 months outside of the CPO warranty, and they replaced both mufflers at not cost. I would not hesitate to buy a new Porsche product.

look 171 · 06-08-2020, 07:15 PM

I have both. Not a new Cayman but an 2010 S with 0 issues pushing 85,000 miles. Its my daily driver between that and the 4runner. I am told by my mechanic, family friend in Downtown Porsche, they last a long time with little issues if maintenance is kept up. He thinks the new ones are pretty good too. I hardly drive the 993T. The Cayman S (PDK, baby) is more fun (? and easier to live with daily).

petrolhead611 · 06-08-2020, 11:52 PM

My son in law has had snow 3 year old MB GLE 250diesel from new and my daughter a base 4 cylinder Cayman with PDK. No issues with either so far.

petrolhead611 · 06-08-2020, 11:53 PM

Porsche do not top the most reliable car list in Britain. Hyundai does

masraum · 06-09-2020, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by petrolhead611

Porsche do not top the most reliable car list in Britain. Hyundai does

Which is interesting if you go back and find some of the threads about Hyundais getting their engines replaced at 40k miles, but maybe that's due to the US market getting different/larger engines than the UK market.

masraum · 06-09-2020, 04:26 AM

Porsches in general seem to be pretty reliable, but I think it's probably a little early to tell with the 2020/2021 crop. None of those are even a year old. But then I guess if her Merc had been in the shop several times in <1 year, then maybe that is long enough. Of course, I think there's also the matter of consistency. Any time I see threads about BMW, I see a solid mix of "no problems" and "nothing but problems" which has led me to form the opinion that BMW has bad QC and is 50/50 whether you get a good one or a bad one. With any manufacturer, there's always the possibility that you get a bad one whether it was made on a Friday after lunch or there were problems with batches of parts that just happened to affect that one.

Nevergrowup · 06-09-2020, 04:29 AM

In a Swedish survey Porsche is at the top of number of engine damage/breakdowns. Lexus, Kia and Toyota are 1,2,3.

Linked doc in Swedish:
https://www.lansforsakringar.se/globalassets/aa-global/dokument/ovrigt/aa-om-oss/rapporter-och-undersokningar/lf_maskinskaderapport_2020.pdf

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

As I mentioned, my wife has the 2017 Base Macan. She loves it. Ladies of um, well "middle age" seem to buy SUVs only. Most of her lady friends have a form of SUV. From Caddies to Land Rovers. All of them are impressed with the overall ride, and performance and driveability of the Macan.

Have her go for a test drive. Many guys seem to think the just have to have the Macan S or Turbo or whatever. The base Macan is faster to 60 than my 85 911.

https://www.caranddriver.com/porsche/macan

The S is really fast. With her base model she can get up to speed to merge onto any interstate with ease. The S and Turbo just add expense and complexity.

While she is there at the dealer test driving have her test drive a Cayenne. Those were just too big for our needs.