skup

I believe you are seeing the effect of high demand for the car in the first 6 months of the year. The dealers did not have cars on the lots to offer customers. As a result I believe Porsche/dealers over compensated and more cars were ordered by the dealers anticipating demand to continue to grow. When I ordered mine last year the dealer in Houston had none to offer from their inventory. My salesman even mentioned that they over compensated the second half of the year in order to have more in their inventory. The demand has been the same but they were hoping it would grow and not settle at the same rate. The number of the other models in inventory has been constant for them. The % of Caymans they sell compared to the other models continues to be the same.

450knotOffice

I'll chime in with the excellence of the Cayman. I've got an air cooled 911 with modded suspension, a stock 2000 C2 (love it) and now a Cayman. As well as the other two cars handle, the Cayman is in a different league. Given the 997S engine, it would smoke that car on any track or back road. To hear that come out of my mouth, a dyed-n-the-wool 911 fan of over 30 years, says something.

fast1

It says that you can be objective, even when you are talking about the most subjective of things, and that's your love of cars. BTW, I agree with your observations. For the street, the 295 HP is more than enough to have a ball.

wushuhsu

Yes, but unfortunately, it doesn't come with a 997 engine. If only Porsche AG had not wasted all that money developing a new 3.4L engine for the Cayman and instead saved money by offering the Cayman with the 997 3.6 or 3.8L engine, then it could have shared parts and cut production costs and we'd have a more powerful Cayman for less money. Oh wait, that would mean Porsche AG would be doing something good for its loyal customer base, instead of fattening up its profits with a lower performance car for more money. Still, even now, if Porsche AG would offer a Cayman with the 997S engine, I'd buy it in an instant. If not, then I'll wait for some other mid-engine car to come to market. I want a Porsche, but I don't need one.

fast1

If only Porsche AG had not wasted all that money developing a new 3.4L engine for the Cayman and instead saved money by offering the Cayman with the 997 3.6 or 3.8L engine, then it could have shared parts and cut production costs and we'd have a more powerful Cayman for less money. Oh wait, that would mean Porsche AG would be doing something good for its loyal customer base, instead of fattening up its profits with a lower performance car for more money.

Yes, but your suggestion would probably kill off the 997, and Porsche is not about to do that. Too much profit in that car to risk killing it off.

bull30

I cannot figure why the 3.4L engine????? It really lacks midrange torque... Hell, they could have at least put the 3.6L in it... As far as killing off the 997... I don't believe anything could knock off that icon... Not only that, a lot of people don't like the cramped feel of the Cayman even though storage wise the Cayman probably has more room...

I've said this before... The time of Porsches being design by true automotive engineers is long gone an era that ended with the 993... Today it's all design groups and decisions by committee based on what they feel will appeal to the masses... Not to mention what brings in the most profit...

fast1

Today it's all design groups and decisions by committee based on what they feel will appeal to the masses... Not to mention what brings in the most profit...

I can't disagree with you. It's all about the bottom line. Nevertheless I really enjoyed my test drive in the CS and with the Dealer knocking off $10K from the sticker, the price wasn't too bad. The sports-shifter will be a must option for me should I decide to buy the CS. It made my test drive all the more fun.

bull30

$10K is all you got??? Hope you haven't finished that negotiation yet... $12-$15k is a more realistic number... Even at that they are not selling at Manheim... Caymans are not moving, so if you act serious enough and still walk out the door, you can count on a phone call or the sales manager chasing you down in the parking lot...

The Cayman is a very nice car... Just because it wasn't for me is not important... It's what makes YOU happy... Just do some serious homework and get the right price... My guess is that Porsche is rebating the dealers in some fashion already but WE (the consumer) will never know... Consider a used one with very low mileage, there's plenty of them out there in the mid $40s...

fast1

$10K is all you got??? Hope you haven't finished that negotiation yet... $12-$15k is a more realistic number...

I've been to the internet and visited my two local Dealers and the best that I could find is $10K off of the sticker. I did walk out the door because I was asking KBB excellent for my car, and the Dealer wouldn't give it to me. So he was willing to let the deal go because of a thousand dollars and I haven't received any phone calls from them.

BTW I checked again and my local Dealer is offering $12K off sticker on a car with an MSRP of $73K. So you can now buy that car for $61K. The car I was looking at stickered at $65K.

wushuhsu

The canonical argument for cannibalizing your own sales is "if we don't do it, our competitors will".

techno99

Where? I just looked on cars.com and autotrader.com. The cheapest Cayman S either had was $49.9k.

Tbred911

what kind of suspension do you have on your 2006 996 C2... stock suspensions on these cars were good .. but not great.... upgrade to ROW 030 on your car and it's years ahead of stock suspension...... BUT... having said that... I have not yet driven a Cayman S.

450knotOffice

Oh yea, you better believe I plan to upgrade to ROW M030. That mod is on my list of things to do.

Drive a Cayman. You'll be amazed by it's handling. I can't even imagine what a modded one must feel like (like that red Farnbacher-Loles car)

bull30

If the asking price is around $50k your have to figure you can get another 5-10% off that number...

VGM911

I'd guess that most Rennlisters spend the majority of their Porsche time on the street, rather than the track. That's the way it is for me (although I autocrossed for 10 years), so street performance matters more to me these days than track performance.

That being said, and with that perspective in mind, I traded my '03 Bosxter in on a 2001 BMW Z3 - and found that the BMW was more fun to drive. On a track, I have no doubt that the Boxster would have stomped the Z3, but in every day life on the street (naturally driven substantially less than 10/10's), the Z3 did all that I could ask of it...high cornering limits, compliant suspension, strong acceleration, responsive steering, excellent braking, etc.

For every day life on the street, my '99 996 provides similar satisfaction, but even more so....in fact, it has more abilities than I can safely exploit on the street. It has the added benefit of being a practical daily driver (storage space behind the seats, good visibility, plenty of room for my burly 6'1" frame, etc.).

So what's the possible allure of the Cayman for me? In theory, it's mid-engine design should out perform a rear-engine 911 on the track - I found the Boxster's handling to be stellar in this regard. But although I love the Cayman, too (bravo to Porsche for developing it for us!), the 996 does everything a Porsche should do for me. It provides thrills and gives me goose bumps, and it brings a smile to my face each time I drive it.

So I find these evaluations of the Cayman (and comparisons to other Porsche models) to be quite interesting, but at best, merely academic for me. Because I tend to buy cars frequently, I will probably try a Cayman at some point, but for today...the 996 satisfies me completely.