Talk me out of a Porsche Cayman

[Bucky]

I can see that! The 911 4S is pretty awesome.

We're certainly in a golden age of performance vehicles. What are you driving?

So true.

I daily a C6 Vette and have a C7 Z06 for the nice / special days.

[olstyn]

Attachment 73356

Do you mean to tell me that it's not normal to get that much air in your air-cooled 911? How else would you keep it from overheating?

/smirk...

[rayrevolver]

You’ll have a blast at the school, Barber’s is just down the road from me and is an awesome track and the premier motorcycle museum in the country, (iirc largest collection in the world) if you come in a day early or late it’s definitely worth the price of admission if you have an interest in motorcycles.

A few of us flew into DFW and dragged a travel trailer to Barber for the AMA races (must have been in the 2006-2009 timeframe). Met Nicky Haydens dad Earl, got a picture somewhere.

Yes the museum was amazing. Amazing doesn't do it justice. Lots of eye candy, to include my modern crush, the 1999 YZF-R7. Oval-piston Honda NR750. Vincent Black Shadow. No big deal.

The track looks like lots of fun to ride as well and a great place to watch races.

[TGS]

So true.

I daily a C6 Vette and have a C7 Z06 for the nice / special days.

C8 sounds like it'd be the perfect transition for you, then In all seriousness, bang-for-buck I think that's the most impressive vehicle to hit the market in decades, and objectively a better choice than the Cayman.

There's certainly some charm to the American muscle out on the market today, like the Challenger Hellcat. I can totally see my wife driving a widebody Challenger in Hellraisen paint....showed her a picture and she agreed. I'm generally much more inclined towards eurotrash, but she wears redwing boots, 5.11's and a collared shirt to work everyday with her half sleeve tattoos showing. Her driving a widebody Challenger would be super sexy, but she likes her Subaru Outback too much to give it up and we don't have room for a third vehicle.

[Bucky]

C8 sounds like it'd be the perfect transition for you, then In all seriousness, bang-for-buck I think that's the most impressive vehicle to hit the market in decades, and objectively a better choice than the Cayman.

Funny thing is, I did go to a Porsche dealership And after talking with the salesman he talked me out of the all wheel drive. Little did he know that was the biggest draw. Not to say that the 911 is not awesome, even in rear wheel drive, but my attraction was the all wheel drive. Once he convinced me I didn’t need the all wheel drive, the C8 sounded like the better bet for me. The leaked videos of the C8 Z06 extremely impressed me. The only problem is, when will it be out and how long of a wait will it be. Just getting a base model C8 is a challenge.

[TGS]

Love this car so far.

In addition to fun driving on fun roads, I've done a 600 mile road trip and lots of regular, routine driving in the DC metro area. The car is amazingly fun in sport mode; the exhaust is burbly like an older air-cooled German 4-cyl, the programming keeps the RPMs high/gear low, the car is incredibly response and ready to rumble. Get onto the highway and switch it into normal mode and the car is still fun, but the engine is much more quiet. On the 600 mile road trip, I was able to get 29mpg overall including the couple miles on local roads at each end of the trip.

If you keep it in normal mode, it's easy to drive the car leisurely on the highway without going into boost. Yes, it's a 2.0l 4-cyl that is tuned for performance and not efficiency, but it's still only a 2.0l 4-cyl, so the gas mileage isn't terrible considering what the car is (as long as you stay out of boost). It's perfectly comfortable for regular commuting and long distance drives; spacious interior regardless of the cockpit-like feel, and tons of storage capacity. In the frunk I can fit a medium sized hardsided checked luggage (24"? 28"? I didn't measure) on top of a carry-on hard-sided roller, with a satchel behind stored vertically behind the top luggage between the luggage and wall. In the rear, I can put the same medium sized hard-side luggage in the trunk and the same carry-on on the shelf....or, two stuffed-full backpacks on the shelf. The ride is compliant, so much so that I've had people tell me that it's actually more comfortable to ride in than their Ford Focus or other econo-commuter.

The performance of this car in turns is fucking ridiculous. I've done enough high performance driving schools to not attempt to find the car's limits on public roads, but from what spirited driving I've done I can assert that it's limits are not-approachable on public roads in any reasonable way, even if you have a trust fund just to bail you out when the Virginia Troopers put your ass in jail. Not only are the cornering limits insane, but the feedback and sensitivity to driver inputs is just plain phenomenal. This car really is the mature, street-friendly version of a Lotus Elise.

Reflecting on the purchase:

At first I was second guessing my purchase. Not the 718, but having gotten a base model. I purposely bought a base model with nearly no extras, as there's a chance I may want to keep the car long term and I think the base model with a punchy 300hp motor is a better road car than a car which dramatically exceeds the speed limit as soon as you tap the gas pedal. The Porsche dynamic suspension is incredible in its capabilities, but also excessive to my use; the stock suspension is more than capable in the performance world while keeping the complexity/cost down, and still being perfectly comfortable and high enough that the car doesn't scrape on any speedbumps, driveway ramps, etc. Another example: I didn't realize this until afterwards, but there's actually a fair number of people trying to no-cost swap their 14 or 18 way adjustable power seats for the base manual seats. They're comfortable enough for most people, you don't need power seats in a sports car, and the base manual seats actually seat you lower in the car than the power seats which is an advantage. Hmm....most people would think, "why the fuck would you pay that much for a car with manual seats!?", but these are the things you don't think about.

No remorse about getting a PDK transmission. It's simply incredible, and the way the car behaves while driving it is much more reminiscent of a manual transmission as opposed to a traditional automatic. If this was strictly a weekend car, or I didn't live in a heavy traffic area, then sure I'd get the manual. All I'm sayin' is don't knock it until you try it.

I'm going to stick with the 18" boxster wheels. Their 5-spoke design is growing on me, and besides looks everything about going to a larger wheel is 100% a disadvantage for my use case; dramatically more expensive tires for track days, more prone to breakage/bending for routine use, etc.

The Bad:

Every single middle-aged dude in a lower-tier Charger acts like a jerkoff and wants to race me. Dudes in SRTs, Scat Packs, Hellcats, Shelby GT-whatever, LT1s....no. They're not jackwads. Dudes who wanted a muscle car but could only afford the Charger SXT or GT? Dear god, it's like my mere existence driving normally in traffic is an affront to their manhood. That's it for the bad thus far.

My phone takes shitty pictures, but check out the mirror like finish. It has a no-name ceramic coating from the dealership, and I added the Meguiars liquid wax just to make it pop. Washed and waxed, my 2019 718 Cayman in midnight blue with 18" Boxster wheels:



@JRB @JSGlock34 @RJ @noguns

[RJ]

@TGS Nice! Car looks great; sounds like a fantastic driving experience. Definitely echo the "wanna race?" idiots out there feeling you get. Looking forward to more reports, especially if you get it to a track experience.

A yearly update would be nice, let us know how she is holding up.

That's not a bad idea; on August 8 the 4 year OEM warranty expired, and I transitioned to the 2 year CPO extension, and have some routine service items to report. I'll gather my thoughts and post an annual update with some facts and figures.

[Bucky]

The Bad:[/B]

Every single middle-aged dude in a lower-tier Charger acts like a jerkoff and wants to race me. Dudes in SRTs, Scat Packs, Hellcats, Shelby GT-whatever, LT1s....no. They're not jackwads. Dudes who wanted a muscle car but could only afford the Charger SXT or GT? Dear god, it's like my mere existence driving normally in traffic is an affront to their manhood. That's it for the bad thus far.

The Subaru guys are the ones I find constantly want to race anything and anywhere.

[noguns]

It’s a beautiful drivers car! When I grow up one day I’ll own a P car. Preferably before all vehicles are hybrid or battery powered. When that happens a cayman like yours will start to skyrocket in value!

[RJ]

Annual Report - Year 4

So, herewith some data/info on a catch-up annual report.

Car was purchased new August 2017, so this will be for years 1 through 4, plus a bit of 5. I'm the second owner, just over two years. As far as I know, it was a lease car in New York. I bought it from the selling dealer in Long Island June 2019.

I keep tabs on the car in my own custom spreadsheet I developed on my BMWs in the 00's called "Simple Automotive Asset Manager". It is multitabbed, with logs/sheets for tracking and computing service predictions, tires, fuel, expense and activities, and operating costs. I find it very handy.

Car is now at 31,289 miles. MPG average (actual gallons / actual miles) is 24.3 mpg. I just entered "Year 5" and transitioned out of the OEM 4 year/50K warranty into the "CPO" 2 year/unlimited mileage warranty period. Looking at just Service and Repair (service = planned, repair = unplanned), assuming year 5 continues (and I don't have any further planned maintenance until an OCI next Feb, so this will be close), the average annual cost to maintain the car is $1,037.



Expenses this year were the front brake pads and rotors ($772, DIY), a new Duracell AGM battery, ($188, DIY), spark plugs ($636, dealer), and the engine air filter ($606, dealer). I'm caught up on all maintenance items for the "30K" service; my local dealer (Suncoast Porsche Sarasota) did my inspection and stamped my service book free of charge when they put the filter in. I think the box of Dunkin' Doughnuts I left on the seat for the guys helped.

The car had two unscheduled service visits for warranty repair items this year, both N/C:

- Sunroof Window Shade Roller Blind (Mar '21)
- Engine compartment deck lid gas struts (June '21)


Things are looking good, service wise. Tracking several items but nothing near term is coming due. Just the normal oil change interval next Feb. I already have the oil, filter, and Blackstone kit from before. I even bought some more M1 5W-50 on sale at NAPA at their crazy low price they offer sometimes.




Counting fuel, service, and repair, I'm running about $0.26 cents per mile.




I had them save the engine air filter from the replacement. Sucker was pretty dirty:



New Duracell I bought was a 92Ah, a bit bigger than the 80 Ah Banner OEM that was in the car.



Still love driving the car.