Wednesday, May 28, 2014

2002 Porsche Boxster - my test-drive

......Posting my write-up on this test-drive from 2011 when I had it on my old site:

Today's car was a 2002 Porsche Boxster with manual transmission and a short-shifter kit installed by a Porsche dealer.

Let's get down to the point right away. Even though this car is 9 years old, it felt like a new car. Based on a short drive, it felt the same as the 2008 Porsche Cayman that I test-drove a few weeks ago. Please read the Cayman review below to see what I mean by "same". Even though this Boxster has 217hp compared to Cayman that has 245hp, they felt about the same in power in city driving conditions.

If I just look at the power and handling in terms of numbers in city driving condition, both Cayman and this Boxster felt the same; however, this Boxster was more fun to drive and that's all because of a short-shifter that this Boxster had.

The short-shifter gave me the confidence and most importantly quicker shifts which equates to more fun. It has a notch every time you shift into a gear and shifting it every day makes your daily commute as if you are on a race track. Don't get me wrong, you can still drive and shift the gears in lazy mode if you don't feel like driving fast. Since I've owned VWs and Hondas, I will explain it the following way: This specific Boxster had a VW clutch feel (medium/heavy) which I really like and the shifter was very precise and similar to Honda shifters which I also liked on my previous cars. So it is a best of two worlds for me. After driving this Boxster with the short-shifter makes me realize how much I enjoy driving manuals and it makes me realize that it will be very hard to switch to automated manuals with paddle shifters when it really comes down to it. The time will show and the basketball left jumping knee will tell me how it feels.

Conclusion:
I am not a big convertible fan for a few reasons, but when I think about it, I realize that I could get a used Boxster between $15k and $20k that would give me more fun than a $30K+ Cayman; however, I would have to install a short-shifter right away.


- almirsCorner.com -

#cars #carreviews #Porsche #Boxster #testdrive #driving #shortshifter 

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