The 986 stimulated a commercial turnaround for Porsche, which during the early 1990s had been suffering with an ageing product range and falling sales, and it's credited with saving the company.

[1] In October 1991, following a visit to the Tokyo Motor Show, Porsche began to devise solutions to succeed the poor selling 928 and incoming 968 (a heavy update of the 944).

However, by the second half of 1993, difficulties arose with fitment of some components, resulting in lengthening of the hood and requiring another design freeze by fourth quarter of that year.

[1] Through consultation with Toyota, Porsche began widely sharing parts among models and slashed costs.

[3] The Boxster shares parts with the more expensive 911 (internal designation 996), including the bonnet, front wings, headlights, interior and engine architecture.

The engines had a number of failures, resulting in cracked or slipped cylinder liners, which were resolved by a minor redesign and better control of the casting process in late 1999.

In addition to causing problems with coolant and oil systems mingling fluids, it also resulted in Porsche's decision to repair faulty engines by boring out the cast sleeves on the cylinders where defects were noted in production and inserting new sleeves rather than scrapping the engine block.

Each car also had special interior paintwork, a high-end BOSE sound system, two-tone grey and silver 18 inch Carrera wheels (unpainted as another zero-cost option), 5 mm (0.2 in) wheel spacers, the Boxster S sport exhaust, the M030 option sports suspension, and a plate on the center console piece commonly known as the "batwing" showing the production number.