Overview

Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the sports car segment and utilize the same 2-door cabriolet body style and the rear wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Porsche-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 252hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 325hp engine designed by BMW.

Safety

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. Both vehicles belong to the sports car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? Furthermore, when it comes to weight, a factor that most people underestimate, Boxster offers a marginal difference of 1% more metal.

Reliability

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that BMW does have a slight advantage, when all the models are taken into account. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Porsche with an average rating of 4.0, and models under the BMW badge with 4.1 out of 5. Independent research findings rank Boxster 50% below average, and Z3 those same 50% above the first one. We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as Boxster rank it on average as 2.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 5.0 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

BMW is a bit more agile, reaching 100km/h in 0.6 seconds less than its competitor. Still, it lacks the power to win the top speed competition, topping at 250 kilometers per hour, 10km/h less than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy things look pretty much the same for both cars, averaging around 10.9 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (26 mpg), in combined cycle.

Verdict

BMW is apparently more reliable, not too much, but just enough. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, Boxster offers slightly better overall protection and takes the lead. It all continues in the same direction, with Porsche offering somewhat better performance, just enough to call it quicker. To make things even better, it consumps less fuel! No mistake, whatever you decide here, but I'd still go for the Porsche. Anyway, that's the most objective conclusion I could've came up with and it's based solely on the information found on this website. Aspects such as design, practicality, brand value and driving experience are there for you to measure them out. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser™, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.