Re: Smaller turbo engine and extended warranty

I would not, if they sound like this.

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Porsche Turbo 4-Cylinder Testing - Future Car News - Road & Track

[www.roadandtrack.com]

get the Burmester sound system and a good Flat Six recording.

It reminds me of the 2014 Formula 1 engine debacle, with 1.6L V6 turbos that sound like an Accord with a fart-can muffler. Fans and venues up in arms.

Welcome to the CAFE/CO2 future. Low revving, small displacement engines with turbos and batteries for catch-up.

A lot like 1974, when engines were choked off. Everyone loves 1973 911s, 1974, not so much.

If you want the naturally aspirated flat 6 engine, model year 2015 may be it. Get your orders in now.

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Jim in Iowa
It reminds me of the 2014 Formula 1 engine debacle, with 1.6L V6 turbos that sound like an Accord with a fart-can muffler. Fans and venues up in arms.

Welcome to the CAFE/CO2 future. Low revving, small displacement engines with turbos and batteries for catch-up.

A lot like 1974, when engines were choked off. Everyone loves 1973 911s, 1974, not so much.

If you want the naturally aspirated flat 6 engine, model year 2015 may be it. Get your orders in now.

You've got that right. That's why I ordered mine when I did.

Sounds like it needs a little PSE

MIKELLIG

[www.soundracer.se]

I should have bought a Smart car and one of these.

What the heck is "trough acceleration"?

At least they say the sound "almost" fools the senses. Apparently, some people are fooled more easily than others.

My first experience with Porsche was as a fan watching the RSK Spyder driven by the Rodriguez brothers and Roger Penske at Meadowdale Raceway west of Chicago in the late 1950's. I was smitten, and never had a problem with the way the cars sounded.

I would be much more concerned about possible reliability problems. I was an occasional lurker on PPBB for years and read enough about engine problems that I never seriously considered a Boxster. The problems have apparently been solved with the new 9A1 engine. I would have to wait until the new engine had several years of service before I would risk it. I find it interesting that one can purchase an extended warranty for an Audi, but not a Porsche, even though they are both in the VW group.

The smaller, turbo charged engine would be one of my concerns as there would be more stress on the engine and more parts (turbo) to go wrong. As I noted in my other post about the cost of making cars more fuel efficient, JD Powers feels that one of the reasons for drop in reliability of 3 year old cars is the use of smaller engines and more complex transmissions..

While I think that an absolutely important part of owning a sports car is the handling, it should definitely sound like one too. I would imagine (and would hope) that Porsche would work on the sound of the exhaust system to make it sound better than the one on that test mule. I would hate to have to use the "fix" that MikenOH found.

On extended warranty. When I purchased my 981S last year in July, I had the option of purchasing a 2 year extended warranty (good for 6 years or 160,000 km (100,000 mi.). Not sure if that's only available in Canada or also in the US.

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Guenter in Ontario
On extended warranty. When I purchased my 981S last year in July, I had the option of purchasing a 2 year extended warranty (good for 6 years or 160,000 km (100,000 mi.). Not sure if that's only available in Canada or also in the US.

Guenter--was this a Porsche warranty or from an insurer of some sort, not associated with Porsche?

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MikenOH

Guenter--was this a Porsche warranty or from an insurer of some sort, not associated with Porsche?

It was a Porsche New Car Warranty Extension. It was not from a separate company.

you can buy an extended warranty backed by a Porsche entity above the dealer level. It is a decision of the local Porsche distributor. Does/did he feel that it was needed to sell his allotment.

The UK seems to offer one also just from reading the UK Boxster forum (boxa.net).

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mikefocke, '01S Sanford, NC
you can buy an extended warranty backed by a Porsche entity above the dealer level. It is a decision of the local Porsche distributor. Does/did he feel that it was needed to sell his allotment.

The UK seems to offer one also just from reading the UK Boxster forum (boxa.net).

Not sure if your asking if it was an incentive to make the sale. It was one of a number of add ons - paint protection, interior leather protection, rust protection, etc. I could have purchased the extended warranty alone for $3, 650. Based on the reliability of my '06, I decided against purchasing it.

Two thirds the number of pistons. Two thirds the number of connecting rods. Two thirds the number of associated bearings. I haven't heard of that many problems associated with modern turbos, but I confess I haven't spent a lot of time looking.

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SteveJ (2010 987 base, manual trans)
Two thirds the number of pistons. Two thirds the number of connecting rods. Two thirds the number of associated bearings. I haven't heard of that many problems associated with modern turbos, but I confess I haven't spent a lot of time looking.

You're probably right about the number of parts (that over all there'd be fewer), Steve. I was thinking the number of different parts. We don't hear to much of pistons, connecting rods etc. going on these cars. I'm thinking of the extra stress put on remaining 2/3 of the parts by using a turbo to get the same (or more) power, along with the turbo parts.

Any time a major change comes, reliability issues are likely to increase.

There's also the issue of heat soak, perhaps curtailing power in high ambient temperatures.

Plus mid-engined cars can have issues with engine compartment temperature management. There's lots of fuss over the 991GT3 fires, but as you may recall, the F458 had a bunch early on, because they got hot enough to melt the glue holding heat shielding over the exhaust. Shielding with glue falls on exhaust, fire results. Now Porsche tests their cars quite a bit more than Ferrari, but still engine compartment temps in high ambient temperatures is a mid-engine design issue.

VW has issues with turbos (Borg Warner, OEM, I hear), I have a friend with a Passat who drives quite conservatively and it shelled at 30K. It's been waiting 3 weeks because the first part set had been superseded with improved parts, now coming from Germany.

A 4 isn't going to be a smooth as a 6.

It's clear to me this is solely regulations driven. All the manufacturers, and thus customers, are going to be feeling the pain. G.M. has a fleet advantage, making such a broad line of cars, so the Cruze and Volts offset the Corvette. For Porsche, there is no economy box balancer. I think I recall the marque pooling was locked in back in 2009, so Porsche doesn't get to lump into VW, as they weren't under the same umbrella at the time the CAFE plan was laid out.

A turbo four is a set of trade-offs. Better fuel economy. Maybe higher output. Likely better low and mid-end torque. Cost.

Downside: throttle response and linearity. And sound. Not sure i'm THAT particular about the sound - if i need to trade off something, that would be high on my list. what i want is the smooth revving of a mostly-balanced flat motor, and the low center-of-mass from one.

The good news is that there's no more talk about an Audi/VW derived I-4T.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

to have be pretty darn good for it to replace the NA 2.7l 6-cylinder engine in my Boxster. That thing is so tractable and has such good throttle response, the benefit of that high (11.3:1) compression ratio. While I do not make a habit of it 1K in 4th is not a problem. OTOH, even the 6-cylinder 3.6l engine in my Turbo just doesn't like operating at low speeds in the higher gears. I can and do operate it at 1K in 1st, but in the higher gears it never sees low RPMs. The engine makes it very clear it does not like low RPMs operation in the higher gears.

Like it or not, for obvious reasons small-displacement turbo fours are the coming thing. As unappetizing as this may seem, modern design and engineering have teamed to produce engines of this description that are not constantly reminding us that they're fours. Better engine mounts and sound insulation have damped out most of the NVH traditionally associated with inline 4s. BMW's N20 Twin-Power Four has an unappealing idle, but under load is powerful and economical, with surprising smoothness and agreeable aural characteristics under load.

(That said, I admit to a distinct preference for its predecessor 3-liter straight-six in my 3-Series.)

Questions about durability are legitimate and predictable, but my reading indicates that the industry subjects these engines to very rigorous durability trials before they are approved for production. Whether industry testing results will be validated in real-world use remains to be seen.