The Porsche 718 is a lineup of potent sports cars. You can have the hardtop Cayman if you like practicality and peak handling, or you can have the Boxster if you know how to appreciate the rush of top-down motoring. However, new reports suggest the current generation models may not be with us for much longer. If you’re dying to own one, you might want to move quickly.
The news comes to us from Twitter, via auto writer Zerin Dube. The post contains an apparent screenshot from within Porsche’s dealer portal. Regarding the 982-generation models of the Porsche 718, it indicates that the end of production is slated for October 2025. The Autopian has reached out to Porsche for comment regarding the matter.
The screenshot also indicates that Porsche is discontinuing two paint colors, Azzurro Thetys Metallic and Palladium Metallic, due to the onerous amount of effort required to match these colors during production. Dealers are also instructed to lean buyers towards manual transmissions, due to limited availability of the automated PDK transmission option.
From the dealer portal https://t.co/8TGjZ07GhA pic.twitter.com/S2XZafRGRs
— Zerin Dube (@SpeedSportLife) June 12, 2024
The 982-generation Porsche 718 hit the market in 2016. It will thus complete almost a decade on sale before it ends production, assuming the rumors are true. The model debuted with 2.0-liter and 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engines, good for 295 hp and 350 hp respectively. S models got the latter engine, naturally, and Porsche made both manual and PDK transmissions available.
As is the way, Porsche continued to develop and upgrade the model over the years. In 2017, the GTS model got a boost to 360 horsepower, while 2019’s Cayman GT4 got 414 horsepower from a 4.0-liter flat six. 2020 saw the GTS 4.0 trim become available on both the Boxster and Cayman, with that same flat-six engine downtuned to 394 horsepower.
However, it was the and GT4 RS that would top the tree in terms of performance. It received a mighty 490 horsepower from its 4.0-liter flat six, which was derived from the engine in the 911 GT3. It wore more aggressive aerodynamics than the standard GT4, including a swan-neck rear wing, which helped it produce 25% more downforce at speed. It would knock off the zero-to-60 mph sprint in just 3.2 seconds.
Porsche has already had to limit 718 orders in Europe due to cybersecurity regulations, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the end of the current lineup may soon be upon us. Until we get confirmation from Porsche, it’s not a sure thing, but the timing would be about right. Meanwhile, there have been whispers of the new Boxster and Cayman in the works, but there is very little to go on at this stage. The new models may indeed be electric sports cars, with some spy shots suggesting just that eventuality.
In any case, if you’re wanting a Cayman or Boxster for Christmas, get on it. Give your dealer a ring and see what’s what. More when we have it.
Image credits: Porsche
Its great that they lean buyers to manuals. Its what they should ve doing all the time. I’m fed up of seeing every Porsche 718 and 911 in real life and for all of them to be damn PDKs is just lame.
So we get the electric one next and then Porsche sells 1961 718 coupes with a flat six & 6MT and 1962 718 convertibles with a flat six & 6MT and they’ll be $500k each.
Search your feelings, you know it to be true
Noooo!. :looks at bank account: :shrug:
It makes me sad that these will end production before I can afford a new one. It has been a bucket list item for me to take European delivery on a car. The only new European car I really want is a Boxster GTS, which is currently unobtainable. If the non GTS models had a 6 cylinder I might be able to justify splurging.
What do you mean there’s very little to go on? I thought it was common knowledge the EV Cockster is coming and we actually know quite a lot about it.. and are pretty close to a reveal…?
Still, I was thoroughly convinced they’d pull a Macan with it and sell both models simultaneously. So that bites. Maybe they’ll pull an uno reverse and facelift the shit out of it when the EV sales plummet after year one. Guess only time will tell.
Cybersecurity issues? Sounds like a perfectly good excuse to offer a ‘Cayman T’ or something along those lines and decontent the thing until the cybersecurity consideration becomes moot.
Seems odd they would cancel it without an obvious successor. Doesn’t every one of these sell before it even gets on the boat from Germany? Demand isn’t the problem.
Damn, time to find a 718 to see if I fit and maybe get thrown outa a Porsche dealer too!
Off topic a bit, but man that green on the topshot Boxster is incredible. I want and need a car in that color!
Sadly it’s no longer offered as a special color.
Boo! We need more colorful cars!
The cyber security angle is a new one to me, I hadn’t heard that before.
The linked article doesn’t give a lot of specifics other than saying the electric systems on the 718 don’t meet the standards. I’d love more info but the googles only return the same generic info.
Any ideas on what is “wrong” here? Porsche states it should be secure which you can’t truly take at face value. So is the EU reg just over the top or is there any real risk here?
European regulations are killing the ICE 718 and Macan. The next generation of both are going to be EVs. It’s a goddamn shame…although if a Porsche ICE sports car engine has to go I’d much rather it be these unappealing sounding flat 4s than the glorious flat 6. A 718 at wide open throttle is an unpleasant aural experience similar to a tooned WRX.
That being said I still love the 718. I think it’s one of the most beautiful cars on the road and they’re great on the track. I was at an HPDRE day on Saturday and Caymans were consistently some of the fastest cars there. It sucks ass that the ICE variants are going away since for a lot of us a secondhand one is probably our best shot at a true Parsh sports car.
But what can you do. These are the times we live in and if Porsche can only pick one car to keep carrying the ICE torch it has to be the 911. But damn. This still sucks ass.
“This still sucks ass.”
I dunno if it gets more “rich people problem” than that.
I disagree. Boxsters/Caymans depreciate way more than 911s do. 718s will eventually be well within the range of a cheap bastard. The more that are made the better.
Good point.
The whole carry-on over the sound of the boxer 4 is a bit overdone IMHO. When the 718 first appeared, a lot of the initial reviews were on the lines of ‘maybe not as tuneful as the 6, but still sounds good’. Then some very influential reviewers like Chris Harris, Andrew Frankel, and a few of the Evo guys, big-time flat 6 enthusiasts with a lot of time owning/driving 911s, starting saying how much they disliked it. And then everyone else had to jump on board, whether or not they’d ever driven or even heard the thing.
IMO the flat 4 sounds fine. Not as good as the 6, but that only really comes into its own above 4500 rpm, where you don’t get to spend that much time on the road anyway.
Finally, as a non-American, could someone please explain this peculiar ‘Parsh’ thing?
True, its not bad at all.