Originally Posted by
Foxy100
Yeah, he's a dick and always comes out with the hairdresser comments. You'll get plenty of them for owning a Boxster too, and remember it's 'not a real Porsche'.
The NA MX-5 weighs 940kg, the 986 Boxster S, 1,295kg, and that's a big bugbear for me. You can rag the hell out of an MX-5 all day long and take it to its limits fairly easily, with the Boxster you have to be breaking the speed limit by a long way to get it to feel like it's actually doing anything, and feel like you're actually driving it. I prefer weight over the front wheels and a loose tail (ooh err!), with the Boxster you need to be carrying someting heavy in the front bonnet to make it give it decent front bite, and the amount of grip is phenomenal. The Boxster wins over the MX-5 in lots of ways but for me it's about having fun driving at all speeds and in all weather conditins, whether I want to rag the car or not, and while I found the Boxter hugely capable it was also dull to drive, relative to the Mazda.
It all depends what you want from the car and how you intend to drive it. I realised with the Boxster I was going to lose my licence in a big way if I continued trying to have fun driving it. I also found it incredibly uncomfortable, while I fit in an MX-5 perfectly. They're beautifully engineered, mine never had condensation on the inside of the windscreen, the front and rear boots do allow you to carry a lot of stuff and so on and so forth. My MX attracts condensation like a bitch, rattles, doesn't have an extremely good speaker/stereo system and so on and so forth.
I'd have a 911 (a 996 Carrera would be nice) at the drop of a hat but it's a different car to the Boxster. If I'd wanted a coupe instead of my 986 I would have gone for a 968 or Integra Type R but I didn't. As a convertible sports car the MX just works for me. If I do get a 911 it will be as well as the MX, not instead of one, and I'd approach it as a GT car, not a sports car like the Boxster or MX.
If you do look at an MX, avoid Mk2s. They rust from the inside out.