Automobile Magazine:

“A lap of the Nordschleife is long, some 12.9 miles, and Porsche tells us that a standard Cayman S completes the circuit in eight minutes and twenty seconds, just five seconds slower than a 911 Carrera”.

The big difference between the base Cayman and the S is the engine size. Chassis is the same. In that light Porsche’s base offering seems like a relative bargain.

p.s. Nissan’s don’t even compare in fit and finish exterior/interior and quality of materials.

the 350Z is a little less refined than “name brands”. its got straight line performance like a the Cayman, a little bit roomier than the others mentioned, and some “cheap luxery” if you know what i mean. i dont know a whole lot about the G35, but it sounds to me like even more straight line performance and more roomy and more roomier, but from the pictures ive seen of it, i wouldnt want to see the numbers from its skidpad. the Cayman is very well rounded. with a serious weight advantage over the 350Z and G35, horsepower is not too much of an issue. along with less weight comes a much better skidpad. on the other hand, this weight loss comes from a smaller car, taking away form the “luxery” aspect. though i have not personally seen the inside of a cayman, all pictures look quite nice and whatever the screen is impressed me.

obviously what is bothering you all so much is the high price on this new porsche. easy answer: light weight, high tech material as apose to the heavier but cheaper materials in the other 2.

~David

And I think the ‘purists’ want a proper Cayman. Nothing harkens back more towards the days of the 356 than the Cayman.

Jon.

Hi, Just checking for grumpy day!
XOXO

Using the 350Z to bolster an argument may or may not be correct–yes, that’s true. But to say the Cayman doesn’t have to stand up against a much cheaper insurgent car like the 350Z is giving Porsche a pass. The playing field is changing–Porsche has to stand up against value brands, no matter how they categorize their cars.

Jon.

Before I got the G35, I was looking at the 330ci because a 3-series is what I had always wanted (but couldn’t afford until now.) After driving the 3 and driving the G35, I realized which car I liked better regardless of what it cost and that was the Infiniti. The attention and genuine help I received during my Infiniti purchase process was a stark contrast to the aloof and uninterested attitude the BMW salespeople had shown, and that made me even happier with my choice. That, plus the G35 has almost 80 more horsepower

I did not know that!

Jon.

Have you gone insane? You started off in Post # 6, I then responded to you in Post # 14. Then you responded to me in Post #: 18. Then, I stopped posting. Yet, you in Post # 22, you scold me regarding something I never posted…and seem to lecture regarding maturity…

Jon.

–well said, regardless of the argument at hand

First of all, I’m not an engineer, I’m an architect, and I did respond your query. Secondly, when you reach a certain level of maturity, you stop caring how other people perceive you. So, I don’t care what other people might think of my ride, because they (just like you) have no idea what else I have parked (now or in the past) in my garage, you twat.

As for your rant on exclusivity and luxury and being ready to pay for it… I thought we were dicussing sports/performance cars, where does luxury come in? And when did a Boxster become exclusive? Don’t make me laugh. I see dozens of them everyday. And yes, a Boxster is a better overall drive than a 350Z, but do you know how to make the Boxster instantly better? Take $5k off the list price as it should be. In any case, if you judge your purchases on some ridiculous notion of exclusivity, then you’re one of the morons to which I alluded in a previous post, and I have nothing but poison for you.

Please, do go out and be “ready to pay [inflated prices]for exclusivity”, so that you don’t get caught dead in something with a cheap interior. Do remind them to pass on the fat profits they make on people like you, as discounts on the properly engined models to people like me.

And then go suck your thumb.

If you truly want balance, poise, superior acceleration and a massive pleasure per mile quotient, get a Lotus Elise. Trust me. As for the Cayman outcornering, outbalancing, underweighing a G35. Okay, but I never mentioned the G35, and again, considering the premium, if the Cayman didn’t do a lot of things better than a Nissan, well then, what would be the point? It’s the price/performance gap that annoys me. Back in the days of the 944 Turbo there was a world of difference in any quantifiable area between the Porsche and, say, a 280zx or an RX7. That difference/gap is no longer there. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with a $50k Porsche, I do think however, that considering the offerings from other companies, Porsche should offer more at that price.

My point is this, again: premium brands (Porsche and MB, in particular) are now offering substandard vehicles at their usual premiums because markets have shifted in such a way that undiscerning customers willing to buy into a “lifestyle” illusion will pay anything with complete disregrad for the substance behind the brand.

Believe it or not, that’s hurting the discerning enthusiast, because to obtain the superior product, you’re forced to pay through the nose (Cayman S). In other words, enthusiasts are subsidising the posers. Porsche has become a “lifestyle” brand, and its products reflect that reality. If you’re a true enthusiast, and I suspect you are, you should be as angry as I am for the way great marques are currently being managed and cynically marketed, and we should protest. Why do you think Nissan launched a reasonably priced 350Z? Because enthusiasts stopped purchasing $40k 300ZXs.

As for styling, it really is a personal issue. Me, I’ve never warmed up to the Boxster back end, especially with the hardtop on. In black, I think it looks like a cockroach from the back. But if you think that’s worth $10 or $15K on its own… okay.

The Cayman will out corner the G35. It’s a more balanced car and it weighs less (3485.5 lbs. vs. 2954.2 lbs.), a lot less than the G35. Even if you don’t take it to the limits (and as you point out, few will) the drop in weight is noticeable when cornering, even in an every-day, boring traffic-riddled commute. Yes, Porsche milks the brand name for all it’s worth, but at the say time the Cayman looks better than the G35, or the 350Z.

Jon.

Look at the history of Porsche and the pricing of their models and then come back and post.

Jon.

Key phrase in your post is “if I had the dough”… meaning you don’t, and therefore you neither own, nor have you ever owned one of these brands. Hence you don’t know what you’re talking about. Unlike you, I’ve owned cars from every German brand, especially BMWs, incidentally. And while you’re absolutely right about BMWs being a far more compelling price/performance/quality ratio product than current Porsches, your comment on the interior of Nissan’s 350Z is just stating the obvious: “350z has an awful plastic interior”. Yes, but it’s $17k cheaper, and at that price it’s a very compelling weekend/track car purchase. As for your marketing analysis… I’m an independent 42 yr. old entrepeneur, and I do have the dough to purchase a wide variety of cars, and I’d still purchase a 350Z. I find your comment ignorant and objectionable simply on the basis that you’re missing the point: it’s a matter of the premium matching (or at least having some relation) to increases in performance and quality in order to justify itself.

My guess is that you’ve been reading a few too many Road & Tracks.

On a separate note, 350z has an awful plastic interior and G35 is not superior in performance to the base Cayman. Maybe the new one will, but the current one isn’t. I personally would pick the Cayman over 350z and G35 if I had the dough, but then I’d pick the Z4 3.0si over all of them.

Morons like you are the reason why certain brands feel secure in charging ridiculous premiums for products which demonstrate no distinct superior features in relation to their inflated prices. Have you even seen the interior of any current Porsches? I seriously doubt it. They’re crap. As a former Porsche owner I can speak at length about them, and let me tell you, the quality of Porsches as a whole has taken a nosedive since the 963. Especially in mechanical terms. Just like Mercs, they’re simply not worth the premium anymore. As for performance… take your head out of your ass, you (and most people, for yhat matter) probably don’t have the skill to fully exploit the capabilities of a $28,000 350Z, why would you spend $50K (right on the money, Mike) simply to cruise and say “I have a Porsche”.

People who think like that (ie. new rich morons with no criteria other than “brand”) are the reason why companies banking on past glories/reputations keep selling substandard products to jackasses who can’t tell they’re being shafted; and the rest of us who know what these cars/products used to be like are forced to accept inferior product at higher prices simply because daft rappers, porn stars, and newly rich white trash (name your Hollywood starlet here) and their ilk are seen on TV driving/wearing/pushing this or that brand.