The Cost of Change
By Jack Wood
Weighing up the pros and cons of upgrading to the Gen2 Cayman S.
It’s a real dilemma. What to do? What to do?
There I was, sat comfortable with the thought that no matter what had been written from the first drive reports, the Gen2 Cayman S could not possibly be £30k worth of capital or finance better than my current Gen1 Cayman S. I've covered thirty five thousand-odd glorious miles in my Cayman, and there's just no way that the Gen2 car can be so much better that it would persuade me to trade up to the latest model. Right?
You see, my trusty 55-reg Cayman S has been one of those defining cars for me. It’s defined my appreciation for vehicle dynamics to a degree that I had previously not thought possible. It's changed the way I look at reliable performance and everyday usability. It’s ultimately defined the way I judge every other car on the road and what that car has to offer me, and as such it's a car that I am still driving every day after over 3 years of ownership. And that from a man who had never owned a car for longer than 18 months prior to collecting the keys to the Cayman on that cold December morning.
Of course, MX55 YUK hasn't stayed completely standard. The day the warranty expired, a Quaife diff was fitted, and at the next available brake change, a set of Pagid pads were fitted. But bar those two minor indiscretions, the car has remained standard, serviced just twice at 20k miles apiece and with the Michelin PS2 rubber replaced when needed. And that’s about it. Cheaper day-to-day performance of this level is just not possible.
That is, until you start to look at what it would cost to put you back in a new car of the same spec. Until you start looking at that £30k. OK, so some of that sum is down to the number of miles I’ve put on the car over its short life, and some may be due to the stone chips that a handful of track days a year and a couple of trans-Alpine crossings might have added to the nose. But it’s still 30 grand that would need to be found to put me behind the wheel of a similarly-specced car. It seems like a big ask.
Then the inevitable happens. An invitation so spend some time in the new car. “Just don’t drive it!” “Honestly, you’ll want it if you drive it!” Yeah, whatever. Just give me the keys and I’ll sit and giggle at the lunacy of those fools parting with their hard-earned cash to change out of perfectly good cars for the “Oooh, must have, blah, blah, blah...touch-screen blah...DFI blah blah...low emissi-BLAH BLAH” new version...
Oh crap.
The new car is actually quite good. Oh crap.
Why couldn’t Porsche have just left it like it was, painted it a different colour and called it “NEW! Special! Improved!” like every other low-ballin’ company does? No, they have to go and screw with that proven cheapskate formula and make something that's already way above the average even better! Those dastardly Germans...
The engine is a gem. So free of inertia, it feels like it could rev to the moon and back, and so smooth that the old unit feels like something out of a Massey Ferguson by comparison. A noise from the new exhaust that actually sounds like a “real” Porsche. Brakes with bite and power that make you wonder how the hell you kept yourself out of the greenery for the last 3 years without them!
There is so much to love about this new car, yet more importantly all the things you loved about the old car are still there in abundance. The poise, the balance, the mesmeric damping - just how the hell do Porsche manage to judge their damping so perfectly when seemingly every other car manufacturer on the planet falls short? - the effortless direction changes, the accuracy of the steering, and the sheer feel of the car as the tyres flex, compress, rebound and dig for grip.
Everything that made the first car so special is there, magnified and then complemented by the addition of things that you never even knew were missing or lacking in the old car. Things that only go to enhance the experience of driving one of these cars in the manner for which it was originally conceived, designed and engineered.
But - and it's a big, Jennifaa Yopez-sized BUT - is it thirty grand better? The list of what you get for 30k is pretty big. Warranty, more reliable engine with more power, better (and newer) brakes, no miles on the clock, shiny paintwork, new tyres, blah blah blah. But, still, does that add up to thirty thousand pounds? Yesterday it did. Today, not so much. Tomorrow? Who knows. I sure as hell don’t...
What to do? What to do?