Entry-level Porsche 718 Boxster review

The Porsche 718 Boxster. What's that?

The best semi-affordable roadster on the planet, that's what the Porsche 718 Boxster is.

Wait, what? I'd heard this new 718 Boxster was a mixed bag...

The flat-four engine does it precisely no – oh alright then: just two favours – but besides that major caveat we'll talk about shortly, the Boxster is still the quintessential everyday roadster. It's wonderfully practical, immaculately finished, delightfully easy to use and as refined as a Swiss bank clerk. And then the handling dismantles everything else in its class.

Nits well and truly picked, it could really do with more equipment as standard, but sadly Porsche didn't elevate itself to current status as the world's most profitable car maker by giving away digital radios and sat-nav for free...

Alright then, this engine. We're talking basic 718 here, right?

Indeed. The flat-four, single turbo motor displaces 2.0-litres, down from 2.5 in the 718 S and 2.7 in the previous naturally aspirated, flat-six Boxster. Power rises 35bhp from the pre-facelift car, to 296bhp. 280lb ft of torque is on tap from just 1,950rpm.

And the two boons of this engine are what exactly?

Slicing CO2 emissions by 24g/km drops you two road tax bands, saving a massive sixty quid a year.

Secondly, it's a much, much faster craft. With the instant-shift capability of PDK on board, it'll nigh-on peg the old 3.4 Boxster S from standstill, cracking 62mph in 4.9 sec and running on to 170mph. Keep reminding yourself these are the figures from a basic Boxster...

Even accepting Porsche's familiarly unwelcome gearing (longer than a Bond villain's monologue) which allows 105mph in third, the sheer accessibility of overtaking punch is dramatic. Think twice before aiming a hairdresser barb at one of these on a flowing A-road.

Cheaper to run, faster, flexier... Porsche has done it again, you cynic.

Not so fast. Fuel economy isn't a stellar gain. Real-world figures of 26.9mpg match what I scored in the sublime 3.8 Boxster Spyder. My first tank ran dry at 291 miles. Driven carefully, I'm sure over 400 miles is attainable. But did you really buy your Boxster to hypermile? The new stop-start gubbins that kills the engine as you're still rolling is a pain, regardless of implied fuel savings.

Mainly though, the downsized 718 provokes soul-searching from the notable absence of joy in its engine. It doesn't love to rev. It can feel laboured. The kickdown in auto mode is panicked. The fixed-vane turbo response is lethargic if you're not rinsing it. And on constant throttle openings, it sounds somewhere between a Subaru BRZ and a grouchy lawnmower.

The test car wore a sports exhaust, but as it merely adds volume rather than tone, I'd save your £1,530 for adding the tech toys that should be standard. I know, weird, us telling you not to bother with the sports exhaust. Oddly, I remember the pre-production 718 S I rode in this spring sounding bassier and angrier. I grabbed a quick exhaust rev video on the way to work this morning, so have a listen and see what you think.

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If the engine's traded soul for speed then how is this still a benchmark roadster?

Because the balance of the thing is still hand-gnawingly, grin-inducingly spot on. The electric steering, borrowed wholesale from the 911 Turbo, is ideally weighted and blessed with a pitch-perfect speed.

Challenge it to some flick-flack direction changes and you'll discover there's enough roll to detect how the car's gripping but not a degree more. And you’ll run out of bottle long before you lose confidence in the brakes, cherry-picked from the old Boxster S because the new car’s so much quicker, and ever so slightly heavier.

Traction, even deploying so much more twist, is irreproachable. Having swallowed the initial disappointment over the motor's lack of enthusiasm, I pretty much tuned it out entirely, like wind noise. Just got on with enjoying the stellar handling, much like you do with an Elise – another machine where the engine is just propulsion; a means to an end rather than the centre-stage showstopper.

And I would have this regular 718 over the S. Honestly, the S sounds little fruitier, and how quick do you really need to be going, especially with the roof off? Standard car for us please, and the £8,950 change.

But the old six-pot car had this handling genius and the feel-good engine backing track...

Correct. Wouldn't rush to trade that in if I were you. Meanwhile, the verdict on the new 718 comes down to the answers to two simple questions.

Is the new 718 Boxster as enjoyable to drive as its dad? No (unless you worship sheer speed above all other factors), because it's swapped a truly fantastical, engaging engine for an effective one. But that car's now dead, and the 718 is what we've got left. And of course, if you’re coming at the 718 fresh, having not driven its predecessor, you’ll be far too busy being bowled over by its poise and balance to be pondering what went before.

That leads me on to question number two. Is the Boxster, among the TTs, SLCs, Z4s, 4Cs and Elises, still the most complete 365-day roadster on Earth? Yes, it is. It's so fundamentally right, even a dodgy heart transplant can’t knock it off its perch.