Many updates have been made. I've included new scoring categories, some updates to existing categories, a better weighted scoring system, value calculations, and a chart showing the score vs. price to illustrate the best bang for your buck -- the S2k.

Pls. provide feedback on this. As you can see, it is incomplete. I will ultimately add recurring cost data to enhance the cost analysis.

Regards, Mark

 

Here is a link to the actual spreadsheet, as promised.
Easiest way to use it is to right click and download the file to your computer. Note that there is one sheet (CAR ANALYSIS) and one chart (VALUE PROP CHART).

http://www.hevanet.com/lar/roadsters_003.xls


Pls. feel free to contribute to this in any way possible. Excel wizzards, statistical experts (of which, i am not), go to town.


Take it easy, Mark

 

BMW ask for "Inspection 1 & 2" in between oil change services
that will cost 400-500 for Inspection 1 and 700-900 for
Inspection 2... but some have already learn to go to
independent shop (own by BMWCCA club racers) that
will do these services at 1/3 of the dealers....

This assuming nothing breaks..

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mdavis
[B]CoralDoc - Were you faster than the new Boxsters or the original version of the Boxsters?

 

CoralDoc-

I suspect you are a better driver than the Boxster-S guys. The times I have for the Nuerburgring course are:

COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT SPORTSCARS ON THE RACE TRACK
(Data from German car magazine Sport Auto, which is affiliated to German Auto, Motor und Sport) Cars were driven by the same driver, dry pavement and almost same pavement temperature.

Nuerburgring Nordschleife (length 20,6 km):
Porsche 996 Turbo --- 7 min. 56 sec.
Lotec Porsche 993 Turbo (600 HP, racing suspension) --- 7 min. 57 sec.
Porsche 996 GT3 --- 8 min. 03 sec.
Ferrari 550 --- 8 min. 07 sec.
Lamborghini Diablo SV --- 8 min. 09 sec.
Ferrari 360 Modena --- 8 min. 09 sec.
Chrysler Viper GTS --- 8 min. 10 sec.
Porsche 993 Turbo (430 HP version) --- 8 min. 12 sec.
Porsche 996 C2 --- 8 min. 17 sec.
Ferrari F355 --- 8 min. 18 sec.
BMW M Coupe (321 HP) --- 8 min. 22 sec.
Porsche 993 C2 --- 8 min. 28 sec.
BMW M5 (400 HP) --- 8 min. 28 sec.
Porsche Boxster S --- 8 min. 32 sec.
BMW M3 Coupe (321 HP) --- 8 min. 35 sec. <--- E36 M3Euro
Honda NSX --- 8 min. 38 sec.
Honda S 2000 --- 8 min. 39 sec.
Chevrolet Corvette --- 8 min. 40 sec.
Audi S4 (265 HP) --- 8 min. 42 sec.
Jaguar XKR Coupe --- 8 min. 49 sec.
Mercedes CLK 430 --- 8 min. 52 sec.


Hockenheim Kleiner Kurs (length 2,6 km):
Lotec Porsche 993 Turbo (600 HP, racing suspension) --- 1 min. 12,3 sec.
Porsche 993 Turbo --- 1 min. 14,3 sec.
Porsche 996 Turbo --- 1 min. 14,6 sec.
Porsche 996 GT3 --- 1 min. 14,9 sec.
Ferrari 360 Modena --- 1 min. 15,1 sec.
Ferrari F355 --- 1 min. 15,3 sec.
Porsche 996 C2 --- 1 min. 15,9 sec.
Chrysler Viper GTS --- 1 min. 15,9 sec.
Ferrari 550 --- 1 min. 16,1 sec.
Lamborghini Diablo SV --- 1 min. 16,4 sec.
BMW M Coupe (321 HP) --- 1 min. 17,2 sec.
Chevrolet Corvette --- 1 min. 18,2 sec.
Porsche Boxster S --- 1 min. 18,3 sec.
Porsche 993 C2 --- 1 min. 18,4 sec.
Honda NSX --- 1 min. 18,4 sec.
BMW M3 Coupe (321 HP) --- 1 min. 18,4 sec. <- E36 Euro
BMW M5 (400 HP) --- 1 min. 18,5 sec.
Honda S 2000 --- 1 min. 18,9 sec.
Porsche Boxster --- 1 min. 19,3 sec.
Mercedes CLK 430 --- 1 min. 20,8 sec

 

I too am an anal retentive engineer but some things have to come from the heart. I agonized over all the car stats and figures myself for awhile but when it came down to it my heart said S2000. Once I blasted that first 9000 rpm shift all other cars were a distant memory.

BUY the damn car man! You are missing valuable VTEC time. First time you downshift and come barrelling out of a corner with the top down you will kick yourself for even thinking about any sedan like the S4.

To repeat. Buy the damn car, you are letting your brain get in the way!

 

Hi - thx for making yr .xls avail to us all by posting the HRL! Appreciated... it's a good analysis - like the notes!

 

Not a problem Mike. Pls. provide any feedback/enhancements/comments.

Also, I've made more additions and enhancements. I have yet another statistical methodology that ranks each car from 1-7 instead of allowing a subjective ranking from 1-10 for each category. This eliminates some subjectivity by creating a constant distance between each cars rank and therby forces the "weight" to be more indicitive of the actual weighting, instead of the weight X relative difference in pts. This changes the outcome between the Z3/S4, but has insignificant effect on the rest. The M3 may pull slightly further in pts, but still loses significantly when considering the value proposition. It also quantitatively computes the value propositions for each car. In the end, the S2k is 21% better than the M3 in terms of price/perf. (or actually, price/weighted score, since perf. on the s2k is really better in many regards). Note that the M3 is still quite high due to the weighting of the safety and "most likely to get mark killed" categories.

I may post this update if there is any interest.

Again, I'm very interested in any other enhancements to this, as others look through and hopefully adopt the methodology.


-Mark

 

Interesting spreadsheet!

Personally, I think you tanked the boxster S with some of your rankings and weightings...

 

Test drive a new 01 M coupe.