New Addition To The Family

[husker boxster]

I should probably wait to announce the new arrival until I pick it up in 2 wks but I'm too excited, so here goes:

I bought a 2007 Cayman S! It's in my favorite color combination - Carmon Red w/ beige int. It will be replacing my "bad weather" PT Cruiser, not Punkin. While it's probably too nice to be an all season car, it will fit nicely as a DE car - something I didn't feel comfortable doing with Punkin. It has 17K mi and the only significant option is memory seats.

The car is in Houston (there's a glut of Caymans for sale there) and I hope to fly down in 2 wks and drive it home. Until then, Randall, please keep an eye out for burgondy flashes zooming by on the interstate. The owner said he's parking it in the garage until I get there, hopefully he does just that and isn't tempted to go out for one last banzai run.

Here's a pic

[ddb]

Carmon is beautiful! That picture doesn't do it justice. I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures. Driving it back home should be a blast!

[Evan528]

Best of luck with it! I have an 08 Cayman S...... I can not find another car that even comes close........

[Evan528]

BTW- That is the first "Carmon Red" Cayman I have seen. Its a nice color combo.

[WhipE350]

Nice! Perfect color combo. I want one too

[husker boxster]

Got her home Fri night. Been busy with a million things since. Wanted to get her claybarred and waxed, which I did yesterday. Now she's ready for her photo shoot.

It took several rounds of the "safety dance" to get the transaction all set. My bank wanted to be absolutely, positively sure he was legit and I'm glad they were so thorough. It's kind of sad we need to triple check to be sure it's not an elaborate scam.

The seller was great. He picked me up at the airport. I drove the car to his nearby business. I looked it over (more later) and then we started the wire transfers, faxings, and FedExings. Hit the road and headed to Dallas to spend the night at my sister's and then made the rest of the trip to Omaha on Fri. It's a blast to drive and a 1000 mi trip is a good way to get to know a car.

The car had a few scratches and dings, but nothing major. In some ways I'm glad it's not pristine since I want to use it year round and at DEs. I may have been a bit disappointed if it was my first or only Porsche. But it fits the bill perfectly.

I mentioned in my first post that it only had memory seats. I should mention that it also has heated seats, which was a "must have" for me since it will see winter duty. My Boxster's heated seats spoiled me. I was surprised that there are so many Caymans that don't have heated seats. Granted, they were in FL, TX, and CA, but I figured most of them had this option. Would have liked Sport Chrono, but didn't find many with this option and even fewer that were reasonably priced. I did see a few with Sport Chrono on base models. Found that interesting.

So she's home and acclimating nicely to her new location. Here are a few pics.

[coolbreeze551]

Love the color combo. That must of been a fun 1000 mile drive with your new baby. Good luck mate

[Pat]

I love it. LOVE it. So jealous.
Now go drive the piss out of it.

[eightsandaces]

FYI to all members, a genuine "little ol lady" Cayman tiptronic with 5,500 on the clock, always garaged, never out in rain, guards red. It's my friend's mom's she's in her 70's. Anyhow, if anyone thinks they are interested pm me, the car is in PA. It's spotless clean.

[Brucelee]

Gorgeous car. Best of luck.

Makes one wonder why a 911 is an option?

[Mike_Yi]

That is a gorgeous car!

[PhilNotHill]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

Gorgeous car. Best of luck.

Makes one wonder why a 911 is an option?

+1

Have not seen this color before...gorgeous.

I presume it is a stick?

[husker boxster]

Thanks everyone!

The first question I always get is "did you get rid of your other one"? I respond "no, every family needs 2 Porsches!". Kind of feel I have the best of both worlds. But I have wondered with all the money I have in these two, I could've bought a new base 911 or a very nice used 911. But the 911 just isn't my cup of tea.

My hot neighbor is a car girl and she stopped by to look at the Cayman. She said I have two rare colored Porsches. I'd have to agree.

Yes, it's a 6 spd. While I was researching Caymans, it seemed the tip prices were below comparably equipped manual prices. I prefer a manual but I don't have a lot of bumper-to-bumper traffic to contend with.

[ddb]

That color really looks great, especially in the sun!

Any major differences compared to the Boxster (other than the obvious)? Acceleration, stiffness, braking, handling, noise? Or do they feel the same?

Are you going to really retire the PT Cruiser?

[husker boxster]

Originally Posted by ddb

Any major differences compared to the Boxster (other than the obvious)? Acceleration, stiffness, braking, handling, noise? Or do they feel the same?

Good question. I do notice some differences but since I haven't driven Punkin much in the last 3 months, I was wondering if I was just imagining things. The Cayman seems livelier even though they have the same HP (the 08 Box got a 10 HP bump to 295 - same as the 07 Cayman). The Boxster has Sport Chrono, the Cayman doesn't. I don't drive in the sport mode very often so maybe the base mode of SC isn't as quick as a non-SC car. The Cayman has a stiffer ride. It has Michelins and the Box has Contis, maybe the difference is there? Handling and brakes are not different. Noise is interesting - the Cayman has a rattle at start up and a constant rattle. The latter is from the little curtain thingy they use to hide the contents in your trunk. It has a couple of sprung arms that rattle. It will be coming out soon to either be fixed or permanently removed. Cayman owners on Planet-9 talk about a "beer can sound" that fits the rattle at start up, which is also in the rear of the car. Need to do some investigating into this one. I hate rattles. So for now the Box wins the quiet award.

Originally Posted by ddb

Are you going to really retire the PT Cruiser?

Sadly, Petey must go. I have to slash inventory. I currently own 4 cars and have a 2 car garage (BTW... I'm single). My 79 Mustang Pace Car resides at my mom's. I spent all weekend cleaning Petey, so he still gets 1 of the available garage slots and the Cayman sits in the driveway. Don't want to keep that arrangement for too long. Petey was a good soldier and was very utilitarian.


UPDATE
Just sold Petey tonight (3/16). :dance:

[husker boxster]

The ad on ebay said the warranty expires the end of Aug of this yr. When I checked CarFax, the in-service date didn't match that (it was Apr 07). He handed me a bunch of paperwork when we were doing the deal and it included a CPO packet. That still didn't add up so I stopped by Woodhouse today after work. They punched it up and said the factory warranty expires 5/10/11 but the CPO extends it to 5/10/13.

Found money. Sweet!!!

[ddb]

Congrats on the warranty and for selling Petey!

[Pilot2519j]

Congratulations, but I have to say that having the top down today in NY was fantastic and I would not trade that. Still I love the Cayman but prefer the Boxster by a scintilla.

[Perfectlap]

Glut of Caymen? what's the cheapest you've seen yet? If I wasn't holding out for a C4 I'd be all over a Cayman. I've also been fixating on a local 997 GT3 that always seems to be in my path. Too many good options...

[husker boxster]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

Glut of Caymen? what's the cheapest you've seen yet?

07 base models are as low as $26K. There is a very nice blue 07 base in Chicago with 19K mi advertised for $28K. S models are holding their value better. Seems 06 S's are $30-$34K, while the 07 S is $35-$38. I was looking for low mileage cars. The higher mileage cars are even less. I paid $34K for my 07 S with 18K mi.

Pilot - the nice thing about having both is I can take the Box out on nice days. The weather's getting better here, but not quite top down nice yet.