Porsche boosts 718 standard gear
BY TIM NICHOLSON | 7th Sep 2018
PORSCHE Cars Australia has announced running model-year changes to its 718 Cayman and Boxster sportscar twins, ushering in new standard features to some variants.
The base and S variants of both models are now offered with Porsche’s sports exhaust system as standard, while a reversing camera is now standard fare on all variants.
Base variants now gain the 19-inch Boxster S wheels as standard, while the S is now offered with 20-inch Carrera S wheels. These are both a one-inch increase over the outgoing model.
Despite the increase to standard specification, Porsche has kept pricing of the pair the same as before, kicking off at $114,900 before on-road costs for the base Cayman manual, topping out at $178,680 for the Cayman GTS paired with the company’s PDK automatic transmission.
The drop-top Boxster starts at $117,700 and hits $181,480 for the GTS PDK.
Porsche Cars Australia head of public relations Chris Jordan said the additions to the 718 range would help boost sales of the company’s entry-level sportscars.
“We think so, we have seen 718 demand actually improve,” he told journalists at a media event this week. “We said it would and it did. And even GTS coming on board and more word of mouth and people that perhaps were in market for the car, but still just had it on consideration set, have then gone in and purchased. And we think this can only add to that.
“We were already happy with it being a really strong proposition, and now it is even better. It is improved.”
Sales of the drop-top Boxster have dropped by 21.4 per cent to 88 units to the end of August this year, while the Cayman has increased its sales by 12.7 per cent to 177 units.
Both the Cayman and the Boxster are powered by a range of four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engines ranging in output from 220kW/380Nm for the base variants to 269kW/430Nm for the PDK-equipped GTS.
Porsche is taking orders for the Cayman and Boxster now, with deliveries starting in November this year.
2018 Porsche Cayman and Boxster pricing*
| Cayman | $114,900 |
| Cayman (a) | $117,132 |
| Cayman S | $145,100 |
| Cayman S (a) | $150,909 |
| Cayman GTS | $172,700 |
| Cayman GTS (a) | $178,680 |
| Boxster | $117,700 |
| Boxster (a) | $119,932 |
| Boxster S | $147,900 |
| Boxster S (a) | $152,890 |
| Boxster GTS | $175,500 |
| Boxster GTS (a) | $181,480 |
*Excludes on-road costs
