P-Wagen running errands. Better than a hatchback, with a trunk and a frunk
“P-Wagen” – another car with a name. I know, the specialists will argue that the pre-war P-Wagen was a Porsche-designed Audi, not a Porsche. But for whatever reason, our Porsche is “P-Wagen”.
It started with a well laid plan and almost ended in a disaster. After 6 years driving a RAV4, my wife had expressed the desire to get “a nice car” for her birthday. Based on her requirements, I had pre-selected a BMW Z4 and a Porsche Cayman for a test drive at one of the Carmax stores of the Atlanta area. She drove the Z4, did not like it (it was a car for retirees, not active women, she said). She drove the Cayman, and fell in love with it. It’s been 7 years now, and the love is still going strong.
The good thing with Carmax is that they know very little about Porsches. They had not checked the VIN against the Porsche database, and did not know it was still under CPO warranty for 2 years. And they did not know how to sell it – the car was sitting on the lot with no taker. So we got a very nice car, under Porsche warranty, for a pretty good price. The bad thing is that some of their associates are Male Chauvinist Pigs. I had explained the whole birthday thing to the sales person, but he still registered the car under my name and not hers, probably because I was “the Man” and she was just a woman. It made my wife furious, to the point she wanted to return the car and refused to drive it for a while.
On the parking lot of the BMW Museum in Spartanburg, SC – no, it was not BMW evaluating the competition, it was a delegation of a Miata owners club.
“P-Wagen” is not the “holy grail” of the 1st generation Caymans (that would be the Cayman R of 2011 in my opinion) but it’s very close. It has the “good” six cylinder, the naturally aspirated 91A engine (the one without the intermediate shaft trouble or the bore scoring issues) and the absolutely great PDK gearbox (not the conventional Tiptronic). Being a 2.9 liter, it still uses a conventional indirect fuel injection, not the DFI that created some trouble for the owners of 2009-2010 Carreras and Cayman S. And so far, at 95,000 miles, it has been absolutely flawless.
The start of the Tail of the Dragon, Robbinsville, NC
There is plenty to love with this Cayman – it’s a car obviously built for people who love to drive, and want to be informed by the car of what’s going on. In town, it drives like a small car, but on your way to the countryside, you press the loud pedal a bit, and the six cylinder shrieks from the top of its lungs up to 7300 rpms. Drive it in the canyons (that would be the Tail of the Dragon for us) and it’s precise, efficient, and fast. And did I already say that the PDK gearbox is magic? A week-end at the beach with your significant other? There is plenty of room for both of you and your luggage – the car is a comfortable long distance cruiser.
Living in Porsche-ville – driving on Porsche Ave, in Atlanta (that’s where the US HQ and the Porsche Experience are located)
I was also pleasantly surprised by the Porsche dealers and the Porsche Club – passionate about the product, and without an ounce of snobbery.
P-Wagen waiting for us during the briefing – at the start of a PCA rally – don’t say they all look the same…
What’s not to like? The cost of the maintenance. Fortunately, the base Cayman being a “small” Porsche shares a lot of components with “small” Audi and Mercedes sedans, and it’s not as expensive to maintain as a 911 Turbo, but it still needs to be maintained by specialists if you want to avoid catastrophically expensive failures at some point in the future – a thorough preventative maintenance is key to long term happiness.
P-Wagen on the parking lot of the Porsche US Head Office (for a meeting with Vic Elford, organized by the Porsche Club of America)
We have no plan to replace “P-Wagen”. We love it, it runs like a charm, and I don’t like the 4 cylinder turbo engines of the new 718 Caymans – they sound like flatulent Subarus. A 4.0 liter, six cylinder naturally aspirated engine is only available on the GTS and the GT4 models, at a price well into Carrera territory and beyond our reach, even on the used car market.
Did Carmax adjust their price because they had little interest in the car? I thought they placed a carefully calculated valuation on their cars and let customer take them or leave them.
They don’t negotiate, but (from what I’m reading) they do like almost any other used car dealer and adjust the price down regularly until the car finally sells. They can also be very flexible (in our case, they marked the car as “sold” although we had not committed to buy it yet – so as to offer us a few days to think about it and come up with the money).
Carmax definitely marks them down if they have been on the lot too long. They want to keep the inventory cycling through pretty quickly.
When I got my 06 Mustang GT convertible, mine had been at Carmax for a while so it had already been marked down once or twice when I finally found it. I think it didnt sell quickly because mine had a manual transmission. Also shipped it from Tucson to San Diego for a small fee, and I was only obligated at that point for the fee. If the car arrived and I didn’t like it, didn’t have to buy it.
Well, THAT’S not made in Toledo. I guess we have to wait until next week for that. 😉
Sharp looking car. I’m guessing the dogs approve?
Toledo’s finest is next week as per Paul’s schedule…The dogs? the Cayman is a two seater: one seat for the driver, one seat for the lucky dog, and the passenger footwell for the unlucky one. Not sure the unlucky one likes it that much.
and by the way, this Cayman was assembled in Uusikaupunki, Finland, in the Valmet factory. (the contract with Porsche ran between 2005 and 2011).
At that time, before their merger with VW, Porsche did not have enough in-house manufacturing capacity and had contracted the assembly of their two seaters (Boxster, Cayman) to Valmet. That’s why the 11th character of the VIN is a “U” (for Uusikaupunki) instead of a “S” for Stuttgart.
Before assembling Porsche, Valmet was assembling SAABs, and is now sub contracting for Mercedes.
Nice! I’d like to spend a couple of days with one out here.
They actually put the car in the person’s name at the car lot??? “The HORROR!!!” How did “Princess” survive that ATROCITY???
It was supposed to be HER car and they were supposed to establish the title paperwork under HER name. And they registered it under my name. Practically, it made no difference (we’ve been married 20 years and share the same bank account) but Carmax ruined the symbolic value of it – she was driving her husband’s car which is not the same at all as driving her own Porsche. Happy wife, happy marriage…Well, let’s say she was not happy…
Ca. 1976 an acquaintance in San Francisco was in the market for a Saab 99. She went to a dealership, and the salesman said, “What, you’re buying a car and you didn’t bring a man with you?” He did not get her business.