Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller continued to fuel the ongoing discussion with his statement that an entry-level car is still very much on the drawing board. Now that blueprints for the new 911, Boxster and Cayenne are onto the factory floor and can generate income for the car maker in this tough time for the vehicle industry, Mueller confirmed that Porsche’s attention can return to its A-segment roadster. He added that it is just a matter of timing the introduction to ensure optimal take-off, without the dilution of the Porsche brand.
Porsche purists would argue perhaps that it is not a matter of when, or even in what format, but indeed if. The current range is seen as the freshest and youngest ever. It thus already extends the Porsche appeal to a wider set of potential Porsche drivers. Performance and technical issues removed, concerns are that any move to expand this line-up any further down the price scale would not only harm the exclusivity of this prestigious marque, but possibly tempt aspirational buyers away from the other Porsche models.
All is not lost however, if your piggy bank is looking a little lean. Whilst it is undeniable that the new Boxster and 911 are indeed great-looking cars, they are not within everyone’s budget. Another vision in the tea leaves concerning activity at the marque’s factory is that there may be a new turbo-charged flat-four-cylinder Boxster somewhere in the Porsche programme in the near future. Delivering between two and three hundred bhp, this may not necessarily be a watered-down version of the six-cylinder nodel. This could certainly be the aggressive option to meeting the demands of a new breed of Porsche driver, a middle road between the Boxster and its baby brother, the modern 550.
A more cost-effective alternative remains, in the form of a short self-drive hire of one of these great Porsche supercars.