Launched in 1996 and specifically designed as a two-seat roadster, Porsche’s first since the 550 Spider, the Porsche Boxster was introduced to the world with a lukewarm reception. The first-gen Boxster faced an uphill battle since day one, a battle that is nearly won 21 years after. Could the Porsche Boxster be the unlikely hero no one expected it to be?

Hardly doing Porsche’s design department any favours in terms of pushing the design envelope many joked that the front was drawn and then the designers folded the page in two to complete the car. This idea of lazy design and name calling carried over with the Boxster longer than rational adults should carry a joke and shadowed the car’s stellar sporting credentials. Think what you like about its design there is no denying that 20 years on the car is still one of the strongest lightweight sportswear propositions on the market.

At launch the Boxster housed a 2.5L flat 6 which was soon upgraded to 2.7L in standard guise, after which a 3.2L unit was added to the purist’s choice S version. The Gen 2 Boxster was released in 2005 which sought to do away with the styling complaints of the first generation and incorporate more details from the Carrera GT in the hopes of boosting it’s sporting appeal. Following this the Cayman, essentially a hardtop Boxster, was released for the 2006 model year to higher praise than the Boxster received, however both cars have matured well and the market has become more accepting of their flaws.

Accepting might just be the word to describe how we see the Porsche Boxster, from being the runt of the litter it is now the prize pig of the used car market. Values at auction are stable for early models between £8,000 – £12,000 with good examples not too hard to find, if you had £10,000 to spend on a used sports car, would you go for an MX5 or a boxer engined Porsche? Exactly.

As you can see from the graph above, although not flooded with examples the Boxster market is surprisingly strong. We haven’t seen a downturn in prices at auction as there haven’t been many coming through the major auction houses until this point, however we aren’t seeing them slipping down in value either. The classifieds see a little more variation in price but the majority of 986 cars (’96 – ’04) are trading at around £12,000 – £14,000 so the Boxster is looking very strong.

It’s up to you to decide if you like the car, if the styling is for you and if you want to drive the baby of the bunch. If you can live with a Boxster, they look to be an example of a fantastic sports car that isn’t losing money hand over fist, that you could drive a lot and that is holding its value with a commanding stance compared to other sports cars in the sector.