What is your next car up from a Boxster?

[Gougoushu]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Cayman S is my next sports car for all the obvious reasons. I've yet to drive one though—mostly because I know I will want one and I cannot have one.

I just can't fathom selling my sorted-out 97 for a 1/3 of what I've put into it to get it sorted. This alone will probably keep me out of a Cayman S.

I have a deal to pick up a base Cayman tomorrow, which I knew would be my next car up. Hoping the deal goes as planned, and will soon have a Boxster for sale; if so, I'm gonna miss the top-down runs that have brought so much happiness.

Randall, when I read of your experience of buying the cheapest Boxster available (which is what I did too), only to find it was actually very expensive (I was luckier that way), I remember a song I once heard on the radio years ago, "Thousand Dollar Car."

So I just looked up the song. By the Bottle Rockets, it has some great lines. "$1000 car's life was through/'bought 50,000 miles 'fore it got to you...
Sink your money in it, and there you are/the owner of a 2,000 dollar 1,000 dollar car...If a $1000 car was truly worth a damn/then why would anybody ever spend ten grand." Classic... hope it doesn't apply to this Cayman.

[JoeFromPA]

Anyone here owned or extensively driven a 2000-2003 m5?

I've driven one, and was hooked. Yes, it doesn't have the agility of a boxster. Yes, it's 4000 pounds stock.

But my God did it feel great doing everything.

To me, the perfect car is the car that does everything as close to perfectly as possible. The Boxster is great, and I need to get exposure to a Carrera or Carrera S at some point, but that particular m5 was, too me, the closest thing to that.

I also think it has far better appearance and interior spacing compared to the newest m3, which is also nice.

My list of cars to try out to find which one is "most perfect" includes:

2001-2003 m5, 2005+ Carrera, 2007 Audi RS4, and a few others

To me, that's my step up from the Boxster. We'll see

[RandallNeighbour]

Joe, before you decide to buy an M3 or M5, ask about the cost of maintenance. The motors are not run of the mill and require more and expensive oil, have shorter service intervals, etc.

I do love my 07 550i though. It is plenty fast for me at 5 seconds zero to sixty. I'd be scared to move that much metal any faster.

[JoeFromPA]

Randall,

I'm very familiar. I was a BMWCCA member for a few years and still have the dream. The boxster was a early inheritance from my father.

So, ironically, I drove a 2007 550i 6-speed sport package and found it to be far too smooth in terms of power delivery. It didn't feel that fast because it was so much of a turbine.(for what I want)

The m5 felt incredible.

That being said, it might be worthwhile for me to check out a dinan 335i (more affordable maintenance).