blazex4

Hi All,

Wanted to introduce myself to the forum. I am 22 turning 23 years old come July. Currently, I drive a BMW 06 325i (e90) and love it every second. The BMW was a "handy-down" from my mom as she got a new car as of last year. My goal after college was to find a car for myself and have her trade-in her current car so she can stop paying those bills. I am in a fortunate situation where I have a career in IT with a wonderful company and am in the market for a new car.

Sorry for the story, continuing....

Now I am in the market for the 2014 Cayman S. I've only had BMW's in my head since they have been a family tradition. For the longest, I've been interested in the 335xi and the m3. After reading and watching so many reviews about the Cayman S, I haven't found one yet where they find any dislike about the car. The forums have been helpful in answering my many questions such as: any good in snow, power output, and handling.

So hopefully you guys can answer a couple question's that will help me out in the near future..

1. Are Porsche's, particularly the Cayman S, reliable after say 6 to 10+ years? I plan on using the car as a daily driver and to be kept with me as long as I can.

2. Porsche recently came out saying there will be a 4-cylinder (turbo?) engine in the next generation Cayman/Boxster models... when will this be?

3. Have you ever gotten bored with your Cayman? I've read some threads about the recent 335 and how some get bored after a year but I guess it goes with preference.

4. Are there any "must need" options that you guys recommend getting?

Here are the configurations that I plan on getting:
Jet Black Metallic
Carerra Classic Wheels
Standard Interior in Black
PDLS
PDK
Sport Exhaust System
(Convenience Package- still thinking..)

5. If you know any salesman in the NJ/NY area, please send me their name for a recommendation.

Thanks again for even taking a look at my boring 'ol story.
-Brian

Tom Tweed

Hi Brian.
You are very fortunate to be considering a Porsche at such a young age. I couldn't afford to buy one until I was nearly 50 years old, and have never purchased a new one. I was considering an order for a 2015 Cayman S myself, until I found a 2011 CPO car that met my needs. I am coming from the 911 air-cooled world, so I will leave it to the other members to comment from deeper Cayman experience, but here are my thoughts according to the research I have done in the last couple of months:

Since you are looking at a new 981, there is less long-term history to go on with this model. They use the same DFI engine that was introduced in the 2009 model 987, though, and so far, the reliability seems to be good for that powerplant. There have been discussions about the "coking" problems from DFI, and the possibility of premature valve guide wear, but in general, they seem to be holding up well over the long term (if you can count 5 years as "long term.")

I'm not sure this could happen before the 2017 MY, at the earliest, but others may have more insight. I will be disappointed if they do this for all models, as forced induction makes for a different "character" to the engine, and also means more heat, which must be managed well to prevent increased wear.

I definitely can't answer this, as my car is still getting shipped to me.

It depends on what your "needs" are. I'm not sure why you're ordering an S if it just going to be a daily driver--the base model will be perfectly capable and fun for that and save you a ton of money. If you are getting the S because you're thinking about getting into performance driving in the future, then I would say you need to order the Sport Chrono to go with the PDK, and consider the Sport Suspension option and PTV for the limited slip. The last two can be taken care of down the line in the aftermarket, if you do get into performance driving in the future, so aren't critical, but you want to order the SC up front.

Sorry, I'm on the left coast and can't help with that.
When you do start talking to dealers about an order, don't be shy about asking for a discount--it seems they will give 6% off MSRP without a struggle, and more if you negotiate hard, especially if you order a lot of options (they make a bigger margin on those).
Good luck,
TT

jivemutha

The biggest decision about what to add you've already made--the PDK. I hate old slush box torque converters and swore I'd never get an automatic but I'm in love with the PDK.

As for "musts" I recommend trying to parallel park a Cayman without "Park Assist." In my 2011, it's hard to sense where the back of the car is, so for me this is a pain in the butt. As a result, I'm getting Park Assist in the new one (2015 due in August). Sure, you can add Park Assist after the fact from a bunch of suppliers, but it would hurt your chances to ever resell the car to a dealer because they don't want to CPO a car with any non-OEM parts. Just try it and see what you think, and forget any "sissy" talk. You really want to put a scratch on that back bumper? Even if that's not going to happen, Park Assist lowers your blood pressure.

Also, if you intend to do any shifting yourself, the paddles on the sport wheel ($490 extra for PDK cars) are much nicer than the tiny buttons that come standard, AND the sport wheel looks much better than the plastic standard steering wheel.

If anyone pushes you to get stuff like Chrono Package or PASM or Torque Vector, be sure to drive with and without to see if you really care. In my case I didn't--the car corners beyond anything I'll be doing without any of that stuff. This is not true for everyone, and if the car were for the track you'd probably want all of that.

As for the endless list of cosmetic stuff, note that the mahogany may be real but it's covered in so much stuff that it looks phoney. And, except for the obvious lack of stitching, the graining impressed onto the imo leather that comes stock looks more like the skin of a cow than does the sadly sanded-smooth real leather you'd have to pay extra for.

Bottom line--except for "to PDK or not to PDK" there really are no absolutely critical decisions. Have fun!