Site closed: 4 June 1998   29900

  After 7 years of being a loyal Porsche customer, I today have had called an end to the low quality product and service that I have had to recently endure and have sold my Boxster and bought a BMW M3 Evo Coupe (for a comparison with the Boxster, click here).

My Boxster was tremendous for a few months, and then the poor quality of manufacture started to show through. I have lived with an gradually increasing number of unfixed faults for the last 10 months, to a point where now my car drives just like you would expect a well used 10 year old high mileage car to drive. Porsche (PCGB) have acknowledged the car was very poor, and offered me a replacement Boxster in July. Porsche were offering no financial incentive; I would get a very poor price for my car and would have to pay full list price for the new one. The favour was that I could get a production slot only three months away. I accepted that a further three months of driving in a now very shabby car was a price (just about) worth paying - especially as I was paying!

A couple of days ago I received the news that all UK June and July builds are being put back to October or November. I spoke with the dealer, who was distraught and apologetic. I then spoke with James Caiger at PCGB and reminded him of my slightly different situation (the new car was in effect a warranty replacement). He tried hard for a day to find a solution but confirmed that there were no cars available for the UK market for the time being. So, instead of having to put up with my faulty Boxster, I've cancelled the new one (i.e. told them that their proposed solution to my problems was now unacceptable owing to the protracted delivery), sold my Boxster for a good price (there are now plenty of customers in the UK looking for used Boxsters!) and bought the M3. James Caiger was very disappointed to have lost me as a customer, but he was understanding.

I today received a circular from the Managing Director (if Microsoft was British, Bill Gates would be the Managing Director) of PCGB confirming the situation - deliveries put back until "Autumn" due to a lack of supply of engine crankcases [page 1, page 2]. In true arrogant fashion I guess they expect all their customers to adopt the attitude "well, there's nothing I can do so I'll just have to run with them. It'll be worth it in the end". If I ever did anything like this to my customers, all I'd be able to afford would be a Yugo. I do detect that if you live in Porscheworld, then there is no competition to their vastly superior products.

I will miss the Boxster, as it was back in early 1997. I still have my name down on the S, but will wait for Porsche to iron out the very serious production quality problems I believe they have. I should have worried a little more when they first removed my steering rack and found the locating dowels were never inserted at the production stage. Also the sight of the 996 having a new engine installed at the dealer was not too confidence inspiring! Remember, I have a good knowledge of the old days (968s and 993s) when things went wrong only very, very rarely. In all 60,000 miles of 968 ownership I had fewer faults than I had in the Boxster on the day of delivery. I spoke recently with the current owner of my 968 and sure enough, he loves it and it has been fault free...

I will leave this site on my server for a bit - I'll only issue the rm*.* when I need the space!

Bye!

This is the site as I left it:

Got bored and wrote a Windows screen saver.

Added some photos of the S. Spending a bit of time on my bike at the moment...

Well, I've sold mine. The rattler is no more. And (after much consideration) I've bought the finest sports car in the world to replace it...

The premature ageing process (see the faults section) has finally got to me and even Porsche admitted that the car is "not good" and "less than perfect". I went for a drive with the PCGB area manager and he was saddened that I was less than satisfied, but acknowledged the presence of the suspension rattles and interior noises. Initially PCGB suggested that a couple of mechanics came up from Reading and supervised the fixing of the car at the dealer. But very soon plan B was proposed. Basically, the dealer would offer a favourable part exchange deal, and Porsche would give me an immediate slot for a new car. The deal meant that the monthly repayments would stay the same (to my employer) and I get a nice new developed car. My employer thought I was doing an OK job, so instructed me to "spec it up"! So I rattle until August, when I get Boxster 2. Incidentally, if Porsche are working double shifts 50 weeks of the year, then my queue-jump will cost all those people expecting delivery of their cars before August an extra 2.1 hours wait. Sorry! The only blow is that getting this new car now scuppers any realistic chance of getting an S (and I'd really like an S - the lack of grunt in the Boxster is the only significant downer).

Going back to the drawing board with a little experience allowed a few changes. This time it's Zenith blue - I like blue but felt a change was in order. I had to have the sports seats, because they keep your leg off the centre console. These are £1600 and you have to order partial leather (£1200) at the same time. But if you order full leather @ £2500, the sports seats are a no cost option. So black leather it is. And no, you can't have the sports seats heated... Air con @ £1800, paint @ £800, 17" wheels @ £1000, missing dash components (console and wind deflector), painted centre plastic, aluminium stick, better sounds and a computer bring the extras bill to a mind numbing £8200. I wonder where Porsche are making their profit? £8200. That's £200 more than the drive away price of a small Ford. The air con alone is 3.5 times more expensive that the air con option on a top end BMW. Furthermore, for £12000 you can get a Ford which includes air con, alloy wheels etc etc... If I were buying this with the stuff in my back pocket, it would be a simple process. Boxster, red, 16" wheels. List price. Thank you.

[£1 = $1.6]

Older stuff:

At last I have new tyres! No thanks to Michelin though - after 6 weeks they delivered one, and promised the second in "about 2 weeks". My Porsche dealer kindly found these for me. I got bored and did a paintbox, put loads of pics into here.

993 and 914 get together and have a son. But what's it really like? I took delivery of mine on 3 January '97, and I hope to be able to pass on a few impressions to anyone who's interested in this car. I will take care to explain my automotive background and likes and dislikes, so as to assist with your job of translating my opinions.

In most sections I have included my "marks out of ten", for what it's worth.

This site has nothing to do with the company Porsche, it is purely a report on the views and happenings of an owner. Porsche have their own website - please visit this link if it is the official Porsche site you were looking for (I'm sure there's no confusion now, is there?!)

Please feel free to email me (Andrew Potts) with questions about driving the Boxster or indeed anything contained in this document, and I'll try to answer as best I can.

Incredibly, I was in the Carlounge top 40. Shame I never made it to the top 10...  or have a look at some reviews.