Porsche 718 Boxster review

It’s as superlative as ever in here. Porsche nails the ergonomics of nearly everything it makes – dodgy electronic air vent controls in the Panamera aside – and the driving position, visibility, steering wheel size and pedal positions are all just so. Nobody does this stuff better. At least not in a car that so expertly balances the requirements of everyday use with the desires of us driving nerds.

You’ll want to spec Sport Chrono. It brings a driving mode dial to the steering wheel, which flicks between varying levels of assertiveness for the engine and suspension as well as adding rev-matching for the manual gearbox (a fantastically judged system even Porsche’s own expert engineers use in place of their own heel-and-toeing) and a mid-mode for the stability control. Handy when it’s a wintry day and you’ve that extra torque to manage.

The roof is as brilliant as always, a fabric item that electronically folds up or down in just 12 seconds at 30mph and below. Refinement is very good when it’s up – it’s nearly as hushed as a fixed-roof 718 Cayman – and it’s relatively bluster-free roof down, and certainly better than any four-seat convertible that wasn’t bespoke-engineered to be topless.

While this generation of Boxster effectively launched in 2012 – the 718 treatment and flat-four arriving with its 2016 facelift – if you spec it right it somehow still doesn’t feel dated in here, helped by a media system running CarPlay and its ilk. A little bit of age means the dials are analogue, too. A rare treat nowadays, and one we suspect the next-gen 718 won’t offer. Especially if its electric drivetrain doesn’t need a big fat central rev counter.

Porsche’s brilliantly nerdy cupholders are present and correct, too. They’ve been a mainstay in its sports cars for well over a decade but the 992-gen 911 has ditched them, suggesting the next 718 will too. We’ll mourn their passing; wonderfully damped, expertly constructed and with a little illustration on their cover that appears to display a punchy little cocktail rather than a hastily bought latte. It’s the little things that make us smile.