New Car Prices and Reviews

The new Porsche Boxster Spyder will be ready in Feb of 2010. Photo courtesy of Porsche

Porsche announced yesterday that they would debut a light-weight version of their famous Boxster, one of the companies more popular Porsche variants, at the Los Angeles Auto Show in December.

Porsche claim the car will be the “purist form of the Porsche sports car – light, powerful and consistently open, and very efficient.” The car will weight in at a mere 2,811 lbs making it the lightest model throughout the entire Porsche range and features a 3.4 L six-cylinder engine with Direct Fuel Injection. The engine sits in front of the rear axle for optimal weight distribution and will deliver a hefty 320bhp, 10 more than the formidable Boxster S.

(Photo courtesy of Porsche)

0-100kph will arrive in around 4.8 seconds where fitted with Porsche’s in house PDK Porsche-Doppelkupplungsgetriebe transmission and the Sports Chrono Package with Launch Control. The car will reach – with the roof open – 166mph.

Porsche modeled the car on their 1953 550 Spyder, where most of the Boxster’s took their inspiration from. However, the latest incarnation is an attempt to remain truer to that earlier driving experience, hence the increased power to weight ratio and the enhanced suspension which sharpens the handling.

(Photo courtesy of Porsche)

The whole car looks more aggressive and will undoubtedly have significant popular appeal here in the U.S. given the relatively low cost for a sports car of this nature. While the car will be debut in December, Porsche are not mucking about with production and it will be on sale here in February of 2010. The car's recommended retail price is a smidge over $61,000. http://www.porsche.com/usa/

The news about the Boxter comes hot on the heels of Porsche's Golden Steering Wheel award for the Panamera. The Panamera was voted by a panel of experts as Best New Car of the Year in the Luxury Performance Class.

(Porsche President and CEO Michael Macht receives the Golden Steering Wheel award. Photo courtesy of Porsche via Bild am Sonntag/Jens Koch)

A Porsche press release informs that the Panamera was granted the award after extensive test driving of the Panamera and other contenders by a "50-man jury made up of racing drivers, engineers, celebrities and the senior editors of the Auto Bild Magazine Group". The award confirms Porsche as being deservedly among the ranks of the premium automotive manufacturers in the world.