Good points, and the 911 rear seat comes in handy when a friend passes out.



The Boxster hardtop should be priced $10K less than the Boxster cab, not $10K more.

 

Price of Cayman: $52,600

Price of Boxster: $49,500

Price Difference: $3,100

Where did you get a $10,000 difference from? Are you just randomly making up numbers?

 

Nah. 2 points against. Stuffed back there you can't reach and will never extract.

 

Wow, rear engine a design flaw? Tell me that when you are powering out of a corner and leaving most everything else behind.

 

Not at all a flaw. It is a design decision. And there are a lot of other design decisions that make the stock 991 handle just about as well as a stock Cayman these days. They are so close that driver skill, tire pressure and tire choice dominate the design at the track.

 

I agree the 991 can handle almost as well as a cayman but my point is that porsche had to work extra hard to get it to perform that way only because of the rear engine. A lot of engineering effort was needed to make the rear engined car handle as well as a mid engined cayman. It's like deliberating tilting the odds against oneself and then working extra hard to win any way.

 

Going with the 2+2 was really a spur of the moment decision. I just didn't put much thought in to it. It might have also helped if they were offering a 400hp cayman, but that was not available.

I do have a wife and an infant but no one has used my rear seat. My wife has shown little interest in riding in what she calls my "ferrari." The two times she did sit in it in almost a year, she insisted that I not exceed 30km/hr! Now I have decided to get a real ferrari.

Oh, I don't use my red 911 for bar hopping. I am afraid it may attract unnecessary attention from a cop. When enjoying the night life I take the sedan or suv. I am 39, but the last time I checked my liver was like that of a 49 yr old due to my drinking.

 

Sorry, while I do make up numbers sometimes, I was thinking of a different delta. My point being, however, why should the Boxster coupe be more expensive than the Boxster cab. The delta for a 991 is about ten grand in the other direction, but I'm certain you'll have a more precise amount.

 

Well now I understand your comment better - you're in-between stuffing 20-something friends in the back and having kids who are old enough to be excited to ride in it! My wife can't drive stick, which maybe has lowered her enthusiasm as well, but 2+2 is infinitely more practical with young kids than just 1 passenger seat... (OK, not infant-in-car-seat young, but in general...)

Enjoy in any case, the red is beautiful, and a Ferrari would be quite nice as well.

 

It does feel like that delta is backwards in any case (regardless of exact amount) - or is there another car where the soft-top costs less than hard-top?

 

Having driven the 997 and 991 back to back its pretty clear the 991 is moving towards being a Sports GT and less of a Sportscar. It even looks more like the Panamera and Cayenne.

I see the Cayman being the "Sportscar". It may have similar numbers, but the real difference is the character of the car. It makes less concessions to luxury.

It also looks more like the 918 and Carrera Gt.Those cars seem to have a less GT like visual language. More race inspired.

With this broad a product range it seems Porsche will offer you the numbers you want across the range and separate based on the character of the experience.

 

I've been saying this for over a decade now, and have come up with over a hundred ways to say it. This is the best I've seen.

I agree that in about every other vehicle I've ever looked at, I recall the convertible costing more than the hard top. What did Porsche do to make the convertible cheaper? And why isn't everyone else jumping on this bandwagon of cheaper parts that are now mobile?

Or is just more marketing?

 

I think the trick Porsche sells is, the idea of paying for MORE performance, even when it means getting less. The Cayman R and the Boxster Spyder were great examples of that. Also the Cayman sells in smaller quantities.

The McLaren 12C is an opposite approach. The car was designed as an open top, but launched as a hard top to ensure its seen as a "proper" supercar. They level set the hard top as the base expectation and now the lack of a roof is an ADDED bonus worth paying more for.

 

I would hazard to guess that the pricing between the Cayman and the Boxter has to do with the fact that the Boxter came to market first as an entry level vehicle. Later when they brought the Cayman to market, they changed the appearance, gave it a few different curves, and proceeded to market it as a different car (at a higher price). Porsche fans quickly saw though the ruse, but from the outside you would just assume that they were different vehicles. Now with the redesign, it’s obvious that one is just the hard top version of the other. Presenting them as the same car would require a major “re-boot” of the marketing strategy and is unlikely to happen.

 

Having driven both, the Cayman just doesn't work for me. I find it quite a bit louder inside than the 911 (997 or 991). The biggest issue I really have is that I can't get enough stuff in a Cayman. Try to get an 11" staff golf bag in a Cayman, it can't be done. Not only does it fit in the rear seat of the 911, I can get a second bag in there so that my wife and I can use the 911 for weekend golf getaways.