2024 Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition Review: Fashionably Fun

It’s surprisingly comfortable in the 2024 Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition.

Not surprising because of the Boxster’s almost legendary suspension tuning blending agility with proper road-trip comfort. That’s old news. How about that the two-seat cabin is well-trimmed and cozy? Pfft, heard that one before.

Nope, I’m pleasantly surprised because it’s snowing, we’re on the highway, and the top is down. With a toque and gloves on plus the heat turned up a few degrees, not only am I a plenty warm enough, I can clearly hear the Christmas music coming through the speakers. The 911 has long held a reputation as the all-year sports car, but as it turns out, the 718 Boxster is one well-rounded winter companion too.

The Style Edition imbues the 718s with, well, an extra dash of style. Based on the base-model Boxster, the Style Edition picks up a trio of three-line racing stripes in black or white, including one on the hood and two along the lower sides. (Buyers can choose to delete them at no cost, but c’mon, do you hate fun?) Wheels measure 20 inches, with the pretty, thin-spoke design of the (now-discontinued) 718 Spyder. These too come in either black or white; the tester you see here was swapped to silver 19s to accommodate winter rubber. Soft-top models get a unique roof with the “Boxster” logo embossed along the side.

Pop the door open, step over the illuminated sill plate—another Style Edition addition—and the cabin features a standard black leather treatment with contrasting Chalk stitching. That same contrast stitching applies to the floor mats as well. The right-sized steering wheel has standard heating, and the Porsche logo is proudly embossed on the headrests. There’s still a CD player in here, too.

Beyond the embiggened rolling stock, the Style Edition is a purely aesthetic upgrade. The turbocharged 2.0-liter flat-four still puts out 300 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of peak torque. The sweet-shifting six-speed manual is standard, but I’d never begrudge anyone for speccing the seven-speed PDK auto, either. Doing so shaves an additional 0.2 seconds off the dash to 62 mph (100 km/h), making it 4.9 seconds. Check the box for the Sport Chrono package and it’s another two-tenths quicker.

It’s easy to overlook the base-model Boxster—and Cayman—when the six-cylinder GT4, Spyder, and GTS 4.0 models get all the time in the spotlight. A freaking Corolla makes as much power these days, and it does so with just three cylinders. Yet the Style Edition still impresses thanks to curb weight on the fun side of 3,000 pounds (2,943 lb or 1,335 kilograms), an ideal center of gravity, and uncomplicated rear-wheel drive. There’s a refreshing immediacy to its responses, even on the chunkier winter rubber. It took a little while for Porsche to dial in its electric power steering, and the pay-off is that the 718 is amongst the very best examples out there. The small-diameter steering wheel has pin-sharp accuracy, filtering out the secondary noise from the road while cleanly conveying how much grip is left in those front contact patches.

It's true, the turbo-four does not have the singing voice of the flat-six with double the capacity. It sounds… purposeful, but not melodic, even with the exhaust valves opened up wide. There is serious mid-range shove though, with little turbo lag to wait on. It’ll even rev up to 7,500 rpm, which is uncommon for anything forced induction. The six-speed manual remains as satisfying as ever, with a well-judged clutch and tight, mechanical throws. If only the ratios were shorter: second gear is enough to threaten most speed limits. Oh well; I row it any way, because the action is so positive. Twist the wheel-mounted dial over to Sport and the 718’s twin center tips will emit the occasional pop and crackle.

Out in the white stuff, the Boxster telegraphs grip levels in a predictable manner. Here the long gearing helps, allowing drivers to deliberately mete out power without the traction control icon blinking like a Christmas light on the fritz.

Officially the 718 Boxster will average 22 mpg (10.7 L/100 km). I did slightly better than that with a) no intention of trying to and b) on winter rubber, in snowy conditions.

The Boxster cabin is getting on a bit, even overlooking the almost comical CD player. Not the design itself, mind you: the layout is clear, rectilinear efficiency, including a sizeable center console with glorious physical buttons lining the straight-forward top controls. No swipe-to-lower nonsense here. That being said, the climate controls are small, fiddly, and oddly located behind the shifter. I’ll also never entirely trust the flimsy pop-up cupholders; the closer of the two also keeps drinks directly in front of the vent, so if your drink is cold, well, it won’t be for long.

The driving position is basically perfect, though I do find the steering column hangs lower than expected, so care is needed lest drivers enjoy bonked knees. The combination power/manual seats sit ultra-low too: great for that connected feel, less good for ingress and egress. That’s the sacrifice one must make.

The older infotainment setup gets the job done. It’s very plain now, but easy-peasy to navigate. Apple CarPlay is of the wired variety, and the plug is in the tiny armrest between the seats. Don’t expect a modern phone to fit in there without turning it into an impromptu oven.

Dropping the top is as simple as holding a button for a few seconds. And while there isn’t much storage in the cabin, the Boxster has two sizeable trunks, making it weirdly practical in the two-seat world.

Getting into a 718 Boxster Style Edition runs $78,350 in America including destination, or $89,050 CAD in Canada including destination plus estimated dealer fees. On one hand, that’s a minor increase of $6,300 ($7,600 CAD) over a boggo Boxster; applying the most affordable optional 20-inch wheels plus the interior upgrades to the latter already nearly match that. From that angle, the Style Edition is something of a bargain.

On the other hand, this tester rings in at $91,900 ($104,500 CAD). Put another way, it’s now as close to GTS 4.0 territory as the base Boxster is to the Style Edition. That’s deep into C8 Corvette territory for a base-motor Boxster. BMW will finally offer the Z4 M40i with a manual transmission for 2024, and even loaded up that will undercut the Style Edition’s starting price. Every other convertible under six figures and with roughly comparable performance is a much larger, heavier two-plus-two affair.

In a land where snow can and does happen eight out of twelve months, the 2024 Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition can seem like a silly choice for year-round motoring. I’m sure most buyers won’t use it that way, either. The proven engineering of the droptop package and the innate balance means they absolutely can, however, with the added visual pizzazz of this special edition only increasing the smiles per mile. It's only a relative bargain instead of an actual one, but this Boxster still offers an experience unlike anything else in the segment.

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