Ownership Verified: Little Blue Pill - 2014 Porsche Boxster

[Der Stig]

As many of y'all know, the Jaaag sold just in time for me to collect the replacement, a 2014 Boxster.

With @Nabster and @Crazyjeeper having bought Mustangs last year, I felt the urge to get a sporty (and reliable) car. I scoured classifieds for Challengers and soon realized that there were some Porsches in my price range. Ruh roh.

After test driving some 987s, a 996, and looking at some 997s, I happened upon this 981. What a great car! I have a few beefs, like the silly electronic parking brake and the lack of a real dipstick for the motor, but it the way it drives felt better than anything else. Never have I experienced better inputs in a car. The gear change is smooth and sweet. The lever falls perfectly to hand. Clutch, brake, and gas are all wonderfully calibrated. Steering, although electric, still has plenty of feedback and has a nice heft. It's easy to place and the motor loves to sing. Intake noise is the highlight.

And here she is, a 2014 Boxster 2.7 6 speed with 46k (almost 47k now hehe).

 

[Misrabelle]

Great colour too!

 

[MWF]

So glad they didn't do blue leather inside. It always manages to look cheap when they do.

 

[93Flareside]

Congrats dude, this is awesome.

 

[Der Stig]

So glad they didn't do blue leather inside. It always manages to look cheap when they do.

Same, the color combo is what grabbed me.

Over here, most interiors on P cars with interesting exterior colors are Sand Beige, which is not unlike sitting inside of a Barbie doll.

 

[Mitchi]

Congratulations again. It's just about perfect. Love the lightly coloured leather on top of the instrument cluster, good contrast.

 

[DanRoM]

That is a beautiful car. Congrats on the purchase!

 

[Kiki]

Love it - absolutely gorgeous!

 

[gt1750]

Just to generate some activity on the forums - congratulations again I still love the color, makes me miss my blue 156

 

[Der Stig]

Upon calling the previous dealer that serviced it, I realized that it needed the 40k service (and was a bit overdue). So while waiting for the bodyshop to finish the paint, I ordered the requisite bits (2x air filters for the motor, 2x cabin filters, six Bosch spark plugs, the oil filter element, and zee spezial 74.4mm oil filter cap (whyyyy?!).

Over the course of the last week and change, I completed the major maintenance items, with help/heckling from @Nabster and @thomas.

And of course, a headlight bulb went out. Thankfully, Porsche has not taken a page out of VW/Audi's book and we didn't have to pull the bumper off. It was actually an easy job!

I made a total mess on the oil change. The filter does not really come out nicely and QuickJacks are on my "to buy" list to make life a little easier. Oil came out a bit dark, but clean. No pics from that because it sucked lol.

The engine air filters were silly to access. I guess that's the penalty for having two trunks. Step one, remove the plastic covers for the oil filler and coolant filler. Break at least one clip. Then, pull all the carpet back (don't forget to disconnect the light) and tuck it back. Next, remove the plastic cover and the DME. Oh, and don't forget to disconnect the oil filler tube (be ready with a rag to clean up). You'll see some pull tabs, yank them out as an assembly, unscrew the old filters, bin 'em, then installation is the reverse of removal.

Don't have pics from my car, but here's what you'll see.

The spark plugs weren't too bad coming out, but access to some to them for torquing down and re-inserting and torquing the bolts for the coil plugs (especially cylinder 4, the foremost jug on the driver's side) proved to be a faff.

Passenger side wasn't too bad. Also note still hot catalytic converter. @thomas and I confirmed this.

This isn't even my final form! I ended up using all of my 3/8"s extensions and wobbles at one point.

Old spark plugs didn't look too bad.

What @Nabster ended up using to get the T30 bolt for the coil plug on cylinder number 4 torqued down.

And at exactly 7 minutes past midnight on a now Friday morning...mission accomplished!

Next service item will be the drive belt at 50k as a preventative. Jury is out on whether or not I'll have a real mechanic do that yet as the job is best done after removing the seats and part of the interior to access and remove the inspection panel. I also suspect that the tires could use rebalancing, so post-Thanksgiving, I'll make a trip to a local tire shop.

Around town, it's been a great runabout with a forgiving ride and light clutch. On the highway, it's well-mannered and quiet enough to hold a conversation with a passenger or via Bluetooth. The audio system is solid and I'm happy to finally have a use for my old iPod. The nimbleness and rapidly revving motor make it a joy to flick about and chuck into corners. It definitely suits the James May philosophy of a slow car being fun to drive fast. I don't miss the power and torque of the higher spec cars (yet).

In the just-shy-of-two weeks I've had it, I've done 1,000 miles and loved every minute. Top down or up, it's an excellent car.

 

[JimCorrigan]

I highly, highly approve of this purchase. And good on you for having a chance to take care of most of the maintenance yourself, because that would have hurt at the dealership.

Gorgeous colour, inside and out.

 

[Der Stig]

Yeah, $1600 odd for the spark plug job, $300ish for an oil change, lolno. I think I paid about a tenth of that to do those jobs.

Hell after taxes, that would cost almost the same as the valved OE Sports Exhaust system from Suncoast.

 

[Der Stig]

Crossed over 48,000 miles this weekend on a road trip to Mena, AR for lunch with @Nabster and @Crazyjeeper and another friend. Had a great time tearing it up in the 'mountains,' the weather was excellent.

 

[Misrabelle]

Thread is missing a proof pic

 

[Der Stig]

@Misrabelle Here's your damn proof pic!

Over 49k miles now...my insurance is probably gonna go up since I'm not going to make the 5k miles/year hah. It's been a fun roadtrip car for when the forecast is too mixed to deal with a bike or when I actually have some luggage. That induction noise has not gotten old. Nor has the grip and nimbleness.

Fleet pic from the (very dirty) Porsche's perspective

 

[Der Stig]

Oops, that came up rather quickly If there's one upshot to the quarantine, it's that I can go for a drive in the countryside with minimal traffic, hence all the miles.

Forgot to mention that the wheels were rebalanced and that cured the high speed vibes, but now I'm getting some little vibes on braking. The old tires (2014s at rear and 2016s up front) are showing their age and mileage. The rears have been a little slide-y. I was prepared to splurge and spend the dough to get Pilot Sport 4Ss all around, but given the hit my income has taken, I'll most likely be going for Continental ExtremeContact Sports since they're several hundred bucks cheaper. I've also decided to do the drive belt myself, so I'll find out how much of a pain that is.

Once I get some proper cleaning supplies, I'll be posting pics after a good wash. She's filthy right now after ending up on some gravel roads, driving in the rain, etc.

Still loving this car and struggle to not drive it every day.

 

[loose_unit]

Can't believe I did not see this thread yet!

Awesome choice of car!

 

[93Flareside]

How's it holding up?

 

[WDWBen]

I can't believe I never noticed that Porsche included a gear indicator in the instrument panel for a manual transmission car. I know it likely simplifies the supply chain having a single instrument cluster, but they also would have had to figure out a way of transmitting what gear the car was in to the cluster.

 

[93Flareside]

I can't believe I never noticed that Porsche included a gear indicator in the instrument panel for a manual transmission car. I know it likely simplifies the supply chain having a single instrument cluster, but they also would have had to figure out a way of transmitting what gear the car was in to the cluster.

Perhaps that's a VW Group thing. My MK7 GTI had that as well as it used it to suggest at what revs the next gear should be.