Talk me out of a Porsche Cayman

[StraitR]

Agree—at least with respect to Audis and VWs. Never again.

I still lust after a BMW M3 though.

I don't typically lease, but I believe there is a time and place. I paid nothing above my payment, insurance, and gas for that car, as the warranty covered issues and Audi covered scheduled maintenance. Even drove to me, dropped off a loaner, and took my car, then brought it back when done. It was convenient, I'll give them that.

That said, had it been a purchase and used outside of the warranty, the convenience would have been gone and I can't even imagine the total cost of repair/maintenance. The M3 may be a good candidate, or maybe not, considering their popularity/demand. I was shopping for that car in January, and they'll give you just about anything post holidays when everyone is sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for better weather and consumers to recover from purchase burnout.

[LSP552]

Wouldn’t you rather have a Boat?

[OlongJohnson]

Back on topic, get the S, because "Always get the biggest engine." Get the direct injected motor, my understanding is that the redesign also did away with the IMS. Don't track it. The oiling system doesn't work when the engine is turned around backward. There are certain tracks where if you log oil pressure, it goes low in certain places on every lap. A three-pedal Cayman S from the good years is exceedingly rare and valuable.

I picked up a Hyundai Genesis 3.8 R-Spec last fall as a German car alternative. On paper, it basically hits the benchmarks set by an E46 M3. It's taking some development to get there. But it does have legs, and for under $20k on an 18-month-old car, I'm still liking it.

[Peally]

Porche? Pleez...

[DallasBronco]

Porche? Pleez...

On the previous years of this car, I would agree, but this new one has an Ecoboost V-6. I'd rather have a Hellcat...

[Dagga Boy]

Wouldn’t you rather have a Boat?

I can help with that. Mine is always for sale.

[rd62]

Agree—at least with respect to Audis and VWs. Never again.

I still lust after a BMW M3 though.

I almost forgot my VW. It was the least reliable car I ever bought. Then I bought a used BMW...

[RevolverRob]

Porsche /= Audi/VW/BMW/Merc reliability.

Porsche is consistently ranked as the one of the most reliable automobile manufacturer usually just ahead or behind Honda and Toyota (and Lexus).

Let that sink in for a minute. Porsche is ranked above every American maker, all of the Koreans, all the other Europeans, and nearly all of the Japanese, except the two brands that epitomize "reliability". Three of the top five luxury sports cars in reliability rankings are Porsches this year. The other two are the Lexus LC and the Corvette.

Being a used Porsche is the smart thing to do. They depreciate quite fast and a 4-5 year old car typically cost 20-40% less than a new model. Porsches are often second cars, so mileage doesn't rack up super fast. Regardless, with proper maintenance (read: oil changes) Porsches are exceedingly reliable. I've seen and driven with tracked cars that had 175k miles on their original engines. There isn't anything mythical about them. They can be a little tough to work on, because of engine placement, but they aren't magic. They work, they work well, and they continue to work.

If you guys haven't seen the Porsche assembly line before, Youtube it. Porsches are as close to hand built as you can get for a "production" car. Great care and pride is taken by the craftsmen that build them and the engineers that design them care a lot about maintaining Porsche's legendary reliability. You don't get to have the winningest sportscar model in the world (911) by building shitty cars...

I guess what I'm saying is, if a Toyota is the Glock of the car world. Porsches are the properly constructed 1911s of the car world. Carefully constructed and specc'ed and with proper maintenance will last just short of forever.

[RevolverRob]

Unfortunately, I'm kind of stuck on the 993. I turned 16 in late 1994; I'm sure that's not a difficult equation to solve. That's not to say that if finances and opportunity ever come together the right way, I couldn't be happy with a 1980s Carrera or Turbo, but ever since I first saw it in the pages of my dad's Car and Driver magazine, I've loved the 993.

The beauty of '74-96 911s...is basically all the body parts interchange. Taking an '83 911SC and post-dating it to look like a '96 911 is quite possible.

[Peally]

I can see your points Rob, but what you're missing is the cool factor which is the only factor that matters. And the GT simply just rates higher on the cool factor than a Porsche.

Sorry bro it's just science.