2012 Porsche Boxster

There are two ways of looking at the Boxster. The first says that there have already been several incarnations since the roadster was first unveiled to a delighted audience at the Detroit Auto Show back in 1993.

But the other, more genuine argument is that this 2012 Porsche Boxster is the first time buyers have been offered a genuinely new model. It's groundbreaking fresh, both in body and engineering.

With a style that still instantly shouts Boxster, the cabin has been moved forward, the windscreen raked back and the side profile changed so that it looks like a couple of recent exotic Porsches, the Carrera GT and the 918. It's a brilliant result that immediately makes the early Boxster look very dated indeed.

For some time the Boxster S has had a 3.4-litre engine with efficient direct injection, whereas the Boxster's was a 2.9-litre with the previous technology. Now the Boxster gets an upgrade to direct injection too, going a little smaller at the same time, down to 2.7-litres but gaining 7kW to 195kW. That's more than the original Boxster S.