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Dream come true: How I brought home my Porsche 718 Cayman MT

25th December 2023, 14:08 by Ananth Iyer

It would be used as daily driver whenever I would travel to office, mostly 3 times a week around 10 miles / 16 kms each direction.

BHPian MadMax007 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

At times Life can be dull and dark

Sometimes Life can take you to very dark places, where everything looks horrid and meaningless. You start questioning everything about life and turn to philosophical views and realize the mortality of it. You get bored with same types of TV shows, similar Movies, and same vicious News cycles. You wish if anyhow you could be child again, especially true if you've had joyful childhood. Probably you know it’s about toy car, I still recall when my dad brought me remote operated car. I'd make it jump the bridge made out of notebooks. And then I stumbled upon below advertising by Porsche.

And I ended up watching it multiple times, every time it hit me, and sometimes I ended up shading tears. At one hand rationalist me knew probably such emotional ads are made by brilliant people to hit you where it will hurt most i.e. your heart. At other hand child me starts screaming , "So what ? If you try to rationalize everything then what about human love for their kids? Do you regret spending on them? And what about Porsche toy which you had at your desk even a decade back". And then he exclaimed mesmerizing words from the advert

It's a funny thing about a Porsche.
There's the moment you know you want one.
There's the moment you first own one.
And for the truly afflicted; there's the decade or two that passes in between.

And for me the wait was close to two decades. Finally I decided that it is time make kid me happy again and I was Porsched. After all is not that our childhood has major influences on our lives ?

Which Porsche ?

Before I start discussing Porsche, please note that I have not considered any other sports cars. Even my previous 2017 VW Passat was bought within first dealer visit when they offered 20% discount on it. Probably this technique may not be effective, however it has served well for me so far.

P911 is ticker of Porsche on German Stock exchange for a reason. It is the most iconic model of the Porsche and kind of its identity. One day I may win a lottery and end-up buying some exotic Porsche that money can buy like Porsche Sport Classic

Now back to reality from Dreamland, I think for a single guy like me, right now there’s no need for extra back seats. Also, I kind of liked clean looks of Cayman rather than big brother 911 which has grown quite bulky in recent years.

I spent next few weeks month browsing through internet, YouTube videos deciding which Cayman variants. Since I don’t like open top look of Boxster, and hence it was never in consideration. Though I had almost zeroed on Cayman as daily driver still ended up watching below informative video, please note that one of the guys owns Porsche and you may find him bit biased.

Below were my requirements when I began my search around Oct. 2022

It would be used as daily driver whenever I would travel to office, mostly 3 times a week around 10 miles / 16 kms each direction.
I have never driven on tracks and had no intentions to track with the new car as well.
It should have comfortable ride quality, hence kept 18" inch wheels.
Should not be too over the top in looks, or may be I'm just cheap.
Good audio System preferably Bose (due to chip shortage, it was bit dicey though).
And finally, it must be a manual shift for extra fun whenever I take it out for weekend trips.

Based on above criteria below variants were ruled out

Cayman GTS – One of my colleague owns Porsche 2020 GTS (he has another car as daily driver), though he is frequent track user. As per him using Cayman GTS as daily driver is total waste of extra power. More ever Oct 2022 when my search began, was an era of dealer markups. Specially for in demands models like GTS markups were around $40K for $100K Car.

Cayman S / T – I was not ready to pay extra $10K just for the sake of another 50 BHP and painted calipers.

A thing note that Base Cayman has 300 BHP which is plenty to experience the power on roads. And we can customize Porsche just like Pizza with zillions of options. To zero down options on Base model, I went through below informative video on the extensive options list

And I configured below important options for the final car model

Sport Seats Plus – For 6” ft guy with wide shoulders like me, this is most compatible option

Sports Exhaust Pipes in Silver – Default exhaust pipes are trapezoid shaped which kind of kills the look of sports car, whereas "Sports Exhaust Pipes in Silver" makes it way sportier.
Lane Change Assist – Useful to look out for blind spots and is must have option. Most other cars this standard feature (heck, even my sedan had this), however not in Porsche world.
BOSE® Surround Sound System - BOSE® Surround Sound System with 10 loudspeakers including center speaker and an active subwoofer integrated into the vehicle body.
Preparation for Porsche Dash-cam – Internal wiring for dash cam. Drastically brings down labor cost during Porsche Dash cam installation
Smoking Package - Though I don't smoke and no one is allowed smoke in my car, I optioned this one as it enhances look of the cabin and kind of looks clean.

And of course manual transmission

Final Build - 718 Cayman Build.pdf

Hunt Begins

Called up 3 different dealers in nearby area. One of them asked for markup and told me wait time could be anywhere from 12 months to 36 months. Looks they were not interested in selling the cars or may be too many buyers in waiting list. Then another dealer asked me to visit over to the showroom and I obliged. Unfortunately, they had not a single new car in stocks, and anyhow the salesman was trying sell me one of their Preowned stocks. Finally, I got fed up and I told him bluntly, ”I don’t deal with Preowned cars, never had or never will”. Looks the dealership was not in good books of Porsche. AFAIK Porsche allocated cars every quarter to dealers based on various parameters, sell may be one of them. Once the dealer gets allocation for few cars, then probably they allocate to customers, not strictly based on first come( probably customer with exotic options may be ahead of you, it means more margin for the dealer).

And I called up the last one dealer in nearby. I got in touch with one of the salesmen and he note down my information and requirement that I need new Porsche based on my specification. Then he explained that they don’t have allocation for Cayman at this moment and I would be called whenever allocation is there and hung up the phone.

Few weeks went by, and I even forgot calling up the dealer. However, I just decided to drop at the dealership. And ohh boy I felt like a kid in toy store and spotted couple of beauties there ( albeit already sold)

Then I was greeted by the receptionist, and she could pull up my information and directed me to salesperson to whom I had spoken earlier. Now the salesperson tried to show me few models (one of was heavily optioned Boxster 718), however I just gave him the Porsche Code and asked him if I can get the allocation for this model. He paused for few moments and nodded yes and told may be next month it’s possible if they get allocation, however I need to deposit $5k. I simply handed over my credit card and signed the deposit papers. Few months just passed by and there was no news from the dealer. And all sudden I got call from the dealer In May 2023 month, luckily I got the allocation. Only catch was I had to put down additional amount in next couple of hours to confirm the allocation and it was 2024 model with increase in price by another $5K with total. Of course I happily obliged, signed the final build document to confirm allocation and to be send to Porsche, Germany.

Dreams Come true

In next couple of weeks I received an email form Porsche confirming the order and a customized video where my name would appear on odometer, such a personal touch by Porsche, no wonder there are so many Fan Boys out there.

Also Porsche sends an activation link so called "Track Your Dream" where you can track progress of the build and overall current status of the car. Though sometimes you may see few steps being delayed due to various logistics issues. Though If you are lucky you could grab actual production photos as well from Track Your Dream" website. After couple of months, I could see the actual production of the car started in "Track You Dream" website.

For me the delivery date was around August 2023, and actually the car was build in Sept 203. Though looks make me happy in spite of the delays, Porsche did send below scaled model, they surely know how to keep the kids entertained

Once the build was finished in couple of months, it left the factory to be shipped to the dealer.

Good things come to those who wait ...

And finally, I got the call from the salesperson confirmation that the car arrived at dealer in Oct 2023 (almost a year after booking) and ready for PDI. I was too excited and reached there in just couple of hours for PDI. Though it just had been uploaded from the truck and not all part were fitted yet, she is still a stunner, ain't she ?

Happy days are here again

Next few night were sleepless due to the excitement and days were filled quite hectic stuff. Decided to sell of current car to Carvana (used online Car Dealer in US) as their process is completely online(I never had time and energy to deal with private buyers). Cherry on top was that Carvana offered me around 70% of the original buy price. Not bad for 7 year old car. thanks to crazy preowned car market in US. Decided to take delivery on Saturday, arranged finance for the car and everything was all set or was it not ? Just got call from dealer couple of days informing that there some taxes pending with local DMV (equivalent of RTO in US), and they could complete the delivery unless I cleared up those. I paid those right way online and listed later to DMV to get it cleared, apparently it takes around 4 days to clear it if paid online. However a nice lady over there promised it clear those earliest, and finally she did on a day before scheduled delivery.

Finally the delivery day arrived, the appointment for the delivery was at 12:30 pm. On the same morning my current car was picked by Carvana after they inspected it and handed over me the check. Overall the process was quite smooth and just took 10 minutes. Around 11:30 AM I booked Uber to the Porsche Showroom, and tipped handsomely to the Uber driver. I reached almost 20 minutes earlier, however the Salesperson did not mind much. We did another round of inspection of the car, and explained various features of the car. Was also offered PPF, ceramic coating and prepared services at quite exorbitant price. It is bit funny how minor things can be expensive in Porsche world. Was handed over keys and a small gift of Porsche Umbrella and a keychain with Porsche logo. I must confess that delivery experience in US was pretty bland as compared to celebrations in India, no garlands, no cake cutting. Meanwhile my mom asked did I at last had drawn Swastika on the car, and was hilarious to explain "Swastika" on German car does NOT go well in US. Finally, the delivery was completed in 30-40 minutes and I drove away from the showroom happily

Happily parked along side with stunning Black Beauty Audi R8 ...

Driving Experience

After driving the car for 1800 +km (1142 miles) I could confirm that it is absolute delight and therapeutic to drive it , especially on twisty mountain roads over the weekends. The car sticks to the road like a magnet, and sometimes I feel like I am just in a video game in real life. The default 18” wheels makes ride pretty comfortable and make less noise cruising at high speeds. Contrary to common belief I found even after 2+ hours driving just another pleasure.

Even at 75 mph ( i.e. almost 120 km/h) it is well planted on the roads, and I don’t feel it’s so fast, alas that’s the legal max speed here(may be time head to AutoBahn).

Probably it will be another cliche to mention about telepathic steering by Porsche, however that’s factually true and not an exaggeration. I feel the steering has its own mind and exactly knows what I want to do (obviously I never felt that way in my previous humble sedan).

Not so powerful engine ?

To be honest I have no idea what on earth I’d have done with more power than 718 Engine has. May be this can be attributed to fact that I’ve not driven more powerful cars, or never tracked so far. Overtaking those bulky trucks is a breeze now (Yeah, I still try to follow safe driving lessons from my decade back Team-BHP browsing days and try to get away from potentially unsafe cars). In Sports Mode , the car has bit different characteristics, the exhaust sound becomes noticeably louder, and it becomes more responsive. Though the sound it makes is not really a music to ears, nonetheless pretty good in Sports mode. Of course, Sports mode also shuts off “Auto Stop / Start” feature and mileage takes bit hit as well, anyways who in right mind would think about mileage while driving sports car. So far rpm has not crossed 5000 and have not experienced so called “Turbo Magic”, may be after 2000 miles I will give try.

Real men drive stick