When you were a child, did you ever dream of hitting the road in something a little more exotic than what your parents drove? Something with a row-your-own gearbox, the simplicity of two seats, and a fabric roof that lowers to grant you a view of a billion stars? You aren’t the only one. Even automakers dream of sports car nirvana, and Porsche is keeping the faith with the 2024 Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition, the latest in a long line of mid-engined sports cars that sparked desire, extended a lifeline to the German sports car maker, and welcomed hundreds of thousands of people into the sports car fold.
However, the Porsche Boxster as we know it is about to change forever. Mid-way through 2025, the last combustion-powered 718 Boxster is reportedly set to roll off the line, with the next model in the series slated to be all-electric. So, considering this is likely last-call for the combustion-powered Boxster, does it feel like a fitting end to this chapter? More importantly, how does it compare to the beginning of the modern mid-engined Porsche lineage? I gathered a 2024 Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition and my 1999 Porsche Boxster together to find out.
[Full disclosure: Porsche Canada let me borrow this 718 Boxster Style Edition for a week so long as I kept the shiny side up, returned it with a full tank of 93-octane fuel, and reviewed it.]
Something Good Can Work
Hang on, we’re starting by looking at the old one? Why of course. Porsche design is evolutionary, so understanding where the 2024 Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition came from is key. It’s hard to believe 1999 was 25 years ago, but the years having passed is evident in how the original Boxster looks soft, approachable, non-threatening, yet still quite pretty. From the curves of the fenders to the scallop for the third brake light, everything on this mid-engined blueprint feels like it was made for the gentle haze of sunny days. The hardest crease on the body side is where the sill meets the quarter panel, and even that’s remarkably modest by today’s standards. The original Boxster is simply draped in post-Cold War, pre-9/11 optimism that everything was going to be A-okay. There’s a bubbliness to this car that carries through to the interior, which is far better built than many critics claim.
Granted, these early models featured no soft-touch plastic coating to peel with age, and the vinyl-clad dashboard doesn’t have the suppleness of leather, but everything in here feels well screwed together. Aside from a light creak from aged rubber door armrest stops, build quality feels tighter than most college students’ budgets, and the ovoid themes are now downright endearing. I’m particularly fond of the intentional gap between the gauge hood and the three dials, a touch of beautifully unnecessary whimsy that exists simply because someone thought it was cool. They were right.
While we’re on the subject of early installment weirdness, the steering column only telescopes, which sounds like an odd choice but actually works fairly well. Whether short or tall, your hands at nine-and-three are always in line with your shoulders, as they bloody should be. I’m all for a good range of driving position adjustment, but if this is the price to prevent people from ruining theirs, then so be it.
In addition, the storage situation in the cockpit is odd to say the least. There’s a lockable center console bin, two deep door bins, and a storage box behind the seats, but no glove box or cup holders. The latter’s okay, as tearing down an on-ramp while beaming like you just had your first kiss can decant a latte, but the former is a little strange. Chalk it up to the limitations of the time, both of technology and of a sports car company doing what it had to do to survive. Porsche wasn’t always the sales juggernaut it is today, and the original Boxster reminds you that it was a hopeful moonshot, a lifeline for the sports car makers of Stuttgart.
Pink + White
In contrast, the 718 Boxster Style Edition looks far more assured than the original. It’s confident in its own success, muscling up over the years as part of a model lineup that’s inched closer to the 911 than ever before. Deep creases in the doors blaze a path to vertical air vents, a ducktail spoiler proudly bends the air to its will, and an aggressive front fascia paves the way for its big brothers to punch out that center trim panel in the pursuit of performance. It still has the Merino-soft A-line and familiar proportions of its predecessors, but this pretty pink Porsche certainly doesn’t look like a pushover.
Oh yes, the color. Think of the 718 Style Edition as a base Boxster for extroverts and the Ruby Star Neo paint of my test car makes all the sense in the world. After all, with standard black or white stripes, black or white model badging, and 20-inch wheels from the 718 Spyder finished in — you guessed it — black or white, nobody could accuse this trim of being inconspicuous. It also gets some noteworthy upgrades such as black sports tailpipes, standard Chalk contrast stitching on the upholstery, the Porsche crest on each headrest, and discreet Boxster embossing on the soft top. Very nice.
Sliding out of the 1999 Boxster and into the 718 Style Edition is almost like stepping into another world, and I’m not just talking about the sheer quality of materials. You sit far lower in the new car compared to the original Boxster, and much of that is due to revised seats. While the two-way ‘Sport Seats Plus’ thrones in this car no longer feel as plush as grandmother’s settee, they allow for a substantially lower hip point, cradle your shoulders nicely, offer plenty of bolstering, and are still all-day comfortable. The steering wheel isn’t just substantially smaller in diameter than that of the old car, but also the perfect thickness and beautifully detailed. Isn’t it lovely that automakers have figured out how to package airbags into steering wheels that look and feel spectacular?
While we’re in here, let’s take a look around at all the modern conveniences. Optional ventilated seats are brilliant, a navigation screen with excellent black levels totally contrasts against the old car’s multi-segment displays, an oil temperature display in the three-circle gauge cluster’s full-color panel is a valuable addition, and a heated steering wheel in a sports car? Back in 1999, who’d have thought we’d have it so good?
Oh, and let’s keep the ball of modern amenities rolling for a minute. The convertible top doesn’t just feature a glass window compared to the original Boxster’s plastic screen, the side windows also roll back up automatically once you’ve raised or lowered the top. More than two decades of progress have also given us an electric header rail latch, and the ability to raise or lower the top at speeds below 30 mph. The original Boxster requires the handbrake to be pulled in order to work the top, which means you better be good at timing those red-light roof events. All this top innovation adds up to a more convenient convertible more of the time, a win for those looking to maximize both top-down motoring time and top-up comfort.
Granted, there are two things in the current 718 Boxster Style Edition’s interior to keep in mind, and the first is that the infotainment feels a bit last-generation and developed on a modest budget. Operation can be a tad clunky, but considering the age of the system and the fact that Porsche couldn’t spread UX development costs over millions and millions of cars, it’s understandable. More perplexing is that the optional Bose-branded premium audio system is cromulently clear, but it doesn’t have the rich golden-hour warmth or wind-dominating power of the optional unbranded premium sound system on the original Boxster. If you really want to be moved by your music at highway speeds with the top down, pop for the Burmester system. It’s expensive, but worth it.
I Belong In Your Arms
When Porsche’s 982 generation of mid-engined sports cars debuted in 2016, some people thought it was sacrilege. Replacing a family of naturally aspirated flat-sixes with a family of turbocharged boxer fours may have been a drastic move, but remember, Porsche started out with flat-fours. The surprisingly potent two-liter, 296-horsepower unit in the 718 Style Edition might not hit the same notes modern Porsche fans were used to, but it’s hard to deny that it’s fun in an old-school tuner car way. You really start cooking with gas around 3,000 rpm, pulling to redline with a genuine sense of urgency, all while soundtracked by some of the most hilarious turbo noises this side of Tokyo Auto Salon and a proper shove in the back. So what if the exhaust note doesn’t sound massively exotic? You’ll barely be able to hear it over the manic whoosh of forced induction.
While the available seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission is objectively excellent, a car like this demands a six-speed manual transmission, and this one’s properly satisfying to use. With pleasing notchiness, well-defined gates, and just the right amount of throw, you’ll often find yourself downshifting for no reason other than to plaster a primal smile across your face. Cable-actuated shifters are notoriously tricky, but with decades of experience to go by, is it really a surprise that Porsche pulled it off?
It’s only really in heavy traffic that the gearbox is somewhat nerfed, and part of that’s due to regulations. See, thanks to a variety of factors including drive-by noise tests and laboratory-based fuel economy testing, modern manual gearboxes often need longer effective ratios than those of old to be sold at all. The downside here is that merely idling along in first might occasionally be too quick for highway bumper-to-bumper traffic, and feathering the clutch is likely to cause mechanical sympathy flare-ups.
Mind you, to an actual sports car, straight lines are just interruptions between corners. Even if you’re ambivalent to the sound of a flat-four, you simply can’t deny the brilliantly involving way the Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition can devour an apex. There’s a sharper edge to the 718 that you don’t feel in the 1999 car, a stronger sense of rigidity that happens to come with an extra 285 pounds or so gained over a few decades of progress. The extra pounds aren’t a bad price to pay for modern crash protection and substantially improved body rigidity, and that rigidity only makes the 2024 car more eager.
See, that stiff structure really lets the suspension do its job. It doesn’t matter that both axles use simple struts, or that my tester wasn’t equipped with sports suspension or a limited-slip differential — the 718 Boxster Style Edition stays balanced and composed almost regardless of what you throw at it. A decreasing radius sweeper? A 90-degree corner that abruptly goes off-camber past the apex? An aggressive chicane with comically low-friction pavement? No problem. You can still get it out of shape, but it’s predominantly in the form of corner-exit oversteer, and that’s certainly no hardship. Plus, there’s just enough body roll to send a message without being detrimental to handling and just enough suppleness to soak up mid-corner bumps, to the point that the Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition is clay in your hands on a twisty road. No matter how skilled the sculptor, the result will still be art. Speaking of hands, let’s talk steering.
If you’ve never experienced the steering in a 718 Boxster, you’d be shocked to learn that this level of communication is coming from an electrically power-assisted rack. Changes in the camber of the road and increases or decreases in surface friction all invites your fingertips to a passionate dialogue reminiscent of more innocent times. While it might not be quite as gloriously fluid as the steering in the 1999 model, it still paints in color, a serious accomplishment for electric power steering.
The end result is that the Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition isn’t just brilliant fun to drive, it also makes you forget how, 40 years ago, having some fun in a mid-engined car sometimes meant slow dancing with the Grim Reaper — when things went wrong, they went wrong suddenly, and for drivers with slow reflexes, catastrophically. Now, though? Porsche’s spent nearly 28 years building mid-engined entry-level sports cars that aren’t just forgiving, but nurturing, and this entry-level Boxster is brilliant at both developing your driving talent and settling down and doing what’s expected of a normal car. So, does the original Boxster carry that bandwidth and approachability?
Sweet Disposition
Yep. Absolutely. First, let’s talk power. The original Boxster may be down 95 horsepower over the current 718 Boxster, but this powertrain makes up for that output deficit in other ways. Firstly, the engine’s a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated flat-six instead of a turbocharged two-liter flat-four, and not only does it pull smoothly through the rev range, it belts out glorious organ notes of induction noise above 4,000 rpm. It’s an addictive, visceral howl that’ll have you frequently chasing redline. Oh, and chase you can on public roads, because the gearing on these early 986 Boxsters is reasonably short for a road car. The top of second is reached at a mere 58 mph, the top of third at 86 mph. A cheeky first-gear pull will only take you to 35 mph, which means you can do it from pretty much any arterial road traffic light and not risk a ticket, yet the torque multiplication of these short ratios means this 25-year-old roadster still feels somewhat quick. Sure, longer gears help post great numbers, but shorter ones are more fun in the real world.
As soon as you turn the key, you realize that driving an original Boxster is a thoroughly mechanical experience. You can hear the 2.5-liter flat-six loud and clear through the firewall insulation, to the point it’s a guest in the cabin, creating an intimate environment on par with a canvas canopy in the rain. The cable-actuated throttle body offers a direct link between your right foot and engine speed, one as natural as signing your name. If there’s any downside to the powertrain in day-to-day operation, it’s that the shifter’s a bit ropey, accurate enough but equipped with long throws and requiring merely limp-wristed effort.
Oh, and then there’s the handling. The chassis doesn’t just communicate to the driver, it communicates to the passenger. The ride’s dainty softness over war zone-tier pavement does translate into some body roll when you push on, but it’s nowhere near excessive. On modern rubber, the original Boxster just sticks and goes, pushing into mild understeer if you go too hard into a corner with too little weight on the front end, but staying as neutral as Switzerland on most every other occasion.
Of course, any passenger would be missing out on richly textured steering that telegraphs even minute road surface changes with ball-bearing smoothness directly to the driver’s hands. The combination of the rack and massive four-spoke steering wheel doesn’t offer the fastest ratio out there, but it encourages you to slow your hands and savor the information you’re getting, not a bad thing in a mid-engined car without so much as traction control to hold you back.
Old Love / New Love
So, which Boxster is the best? Well, this is going to sound like the cop-out to end all cop-outs, but both are so enjoyable that the answer really is whichever one you can afford. My 718 Boxster Style Edition test car stickers for a strong $94,735 including a $1,995 freight charge and $11,440 in options, or at least it would if it were an American car. In Canada, the sticker price including freight and options for an identically-specced car currently works out to $105,520 in loonies. Seriously strong money for a 718 Boxster with the base powertrain, but sports cars aren’t often bought on price alone. Keep in mind, the original Boxster started at about the same price as a C5 Corvette, a car with oh, 144 more horsepower, yet it still held its own appeal. Both of these cars are imbued with an effervescent specialness and addictive involvement that will plaster a megawatt grin across your face and bring joy to the drudgery of your daily commute. In fact, all models in the Boxster and Cayman lineage will, a fact made abundantly clear by a good friend of mine picking up a gorgeous 981 Cayman.
Even with a downsized engine, electric power steering, longer gears, and all the modern concessions that many automakers struggle with, the 2024 Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition still feels involving on a level that most near-six-figure sports cars can’t quite match, and makes driving a proper occasion. It’s constantly joyous, and that’s exactly the overarching trait that’ll make you want to reach for the keys.
At the same time, the 986 Boxster is one hell of a bargain. Sure, pristine ones are worth serious money, but you can pick up a solid driver for less than $10,000 and have an absolute blast. From the scream of the flat-six above 4,000 rpm to the utterly intuitive chassis to the surprisingly supple ride, it’s an impeccably well-rounded big-league brand sports car for those of us on a modest budget.
So, whether you want to give a flat-four a try, or simply want to scrape together enough change to buy that cheap 986 you’ve been eyeing on Facebook Marketplace, the winner is you. We’re looking at nothing short of two properly excellent sports cars. Like great-grandfather, like great-grandson, right?
[Special thanks to Ben Weenen for handling my 1999 Boxster during the photo shoot.]
(Photo credits: Thomas Hundal)
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