Yellow Car Journal

So my parents have borrowed my car.

I took them both up in the hills last weekend on an absolutely lovely day.  They loved the views and the car.  We ended our day by taking pictures of us with the car.  My dad and I put on our yellow shirts to match the yellow car.  My mom liked the yellow seatbelts.  All these pictures were posted on Facebook.  My mom’s profile picture is her in the car with the seatbelt on.

They could hardly believe that I would loan them the car so they could visit their friends in Fresno, but I really wanted them to do this.  They had a blast.  They did get a lot of comments, and one young couple was laughing at my mom as she learned how to operate the car’s manual transmission at a roadside parking lot.  Upon her return, she proudly announced that she didn’t stall the car once – dad had three times.

I think my parents are already eager to come back next year and take the car out again.  I may be seeing them more often.

In reading some reviews about my car online, and seeing some videos about the car, it would appear that everyone in the world loves my Cayman S except for Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear.  He hates Porsches in general (he’s a Mercedes fan), though on occasion, he’ll admit that some Porsche models are brilliant – just not the Cayman S.  He says that Porsche has “crippled” the Cayman S by not giving it a large enough engine, and had they given the Cayman a larger engine, it would have easily outperformed most 911s.  He’s probably right – The Cayman is all about balance.  On a “curvy” track, the mid-engine Caymans (and Boxters) would give the rear-engine 911s (the non-all-wheel-drive ones anyway) a run for their money. In the straights, however, the Caymans and Boxters lack the oompf of the 911s.  As Clarkson’s summary chart clearly showed, Porsche doesn’t want any performance cross-over between the various models.  They do this so they can charge accordingly for each step in performance.  The Cayman S is designed to fit nicely between the Boxter and the base model 911.  If the Cayman S had a 3.8L like the 911 S, no one would buy the 911 S.

The current Cayman S 3.4L engine is plenty big for me – I’m not that good a driver (yet).

If I were trading up (and money were no object), then a 911 Turbo (997) or a 2011 Speedster or a 2009+ Cayman S or a GT2 are the models I’d take over my 2006 Cayman S.  All are stunningly beautiful – far prettier than the rest – and the Turbo is probably the prettiest of them all.  Of course, the new electric Porsche 918 is simply the best – absolutely fantastic in speed and beauty – but it is currently unobtainable at any price. If/When it ever goes into production, it will be priced at around $660K.  Guess I’ll need to start saving my pennies.

Well, after two days in the shop, it was discovered that my battery was dying.  It was such an easy thing to fix, but since it had set off so many system alarms, and each alarm had to be checked individually and verified.  This is what took all the time.  Fortunately, everything but the battery was covered under warranty.  Still, it cost $438 for the battery & installation.  Good thing I had that 25% off coupon!  I’m clearly in a different league of service and repair!

Having said that, my service center experience was the best I’ve ever had – Porsche really treats you well!  And my car has never been better.  I had been been stalling my car twice a week on average since I’ve owned it – no more!  The car is now performing in tip-top condition, and it’s now even more fun to drive!

My son and I decided to drive the yellow car to get pizza today – some 10 miles away.  It was so good to get it out on the road.  This car is so fast!  On the way home, we followed a Carerra 4S convertible.  The driver seemed to be as interested in my car as I was in his.  I wonder: do Porsche owners covet each other’s cars?

This morning did not start of well.  My yellow car was acting sick and an engine light had come on, so I made an appointment with the dealership service station.  The Service Manager’s name is Gunter – super nice fellow.

My appointment was a 1PM.  My greatest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to make it there, but unlike this morning, the car worked great.  The engine light was still on though.  Hopefully all my issues are covered under warranty!  After an hour of diagnostics, it was determined that my battery needed replacing, and possibly my sparkplugs.  Gunter was also getting random warnings so he suspected that my electrical system may have been eaten by rats – seriously!  Well, my yellow car will be in the shop overnight so I now have a loaner car; a Mercedes C300.  Not too shabby as far as loaner cars go – impressive actually – but I was hoping for a Porsche 911 Turbo (997) or anything else they had handy on the lot.  Why don’t they loan those out?  The dealership had a Mercedes SLS AMG 6.3L on the floor and a couple of Porsche GT3s – I’d take any of those as well!  I sure hope I get my car back tomorrow!

A week after getting my little yellow car, I was back at my friend’s house for a “solar party.”  He had just installed solar panels on his house, and was now trying to get referrals for other solar jobs to offset his expenses.  The party was sparsely attended, but he did get at least one referral (me) out of the party.

While we were sitting there chatting, my friend’s neighbor dropped by; he wanted to know more about my car and mentioned that he used to own a Porsche.  I handed him the keys and asked him to try it out.  He was floored.  Twenty minutes later, he returned with a really big grin on his face.  He liked the Cayman S better than his former car (a 911).  He couldn’t get over the fact that some guy would allow him to drive this very expensive car.  The solar guys said that I was very trusting.

My daughter and I decided to drive the back roads of Calaveras / Felter / Sierra to see what this car could do.  It handles corners extremely well, but I was never able to get it out of second gear – there were too many tight corners and absolutely no straight-aways!  Still, it was fun, though probably hard on the tires.  With all the loose gravel on the road, I also put a few marks on the paint behind the tires.

When I got to my friend’s house, he was overjoyed to see my new toy.  I guess he’s always wanted a Porsche, but wanted to wait for his kids to leave the house first.  I let him drive it to another friend’s house, who was also overjoyed to see it.  My friend then took pictures and posted them on Facebook as if he owned the car.  I thought it was cute.

I could not believe it!  I had been checking for sales and deals on a used Porsche Cayman S for around two months now.  Today, I finally saw a really low price.  Over the past two months, I had been seeing prices between $46K-$55K for any used Cayman S.  The non-S Caymans went for less, but I did not want a non-S.  I wanted the larger engine.  Ideally, I also wanted a full-featured Cayman S, but in the used market, getting all the options you want is pretty hit and miss.

Last week, I finally saw a basic Cayman S on sale for $42K, so I went and test drove it.  It was beautiful, but only came with the better stereo – nothing else.  It was also light gray – not my color.  I wanted Atlas Gray (almost black) or Basalt Black (flat black); I suppose Speed Yellow or Red would also be OK, but too flashy for my taste (the car does look simply awesome in yellow – truly the best color for this car – but the police can see it a mile away).

My budget was $50K, and I was looking for a 2009 or 2010, but there were none to be found anywhere.  As of a week ago, I had resigned myself to buying a 2006-2008 – still a great car, but lacking a much improved navigation system (if equipped with Navigation) and LED tail lights.  The new optional slip differential would have been fantastic as well.

And then I saw it:  A fully loaded Speed Yellow 2006 Cayman S for $44K.  It had every feature under the sun – we’re talking $23K in options!  Such a car was usually $52-55K in the used market (and $75.5K new… $83K with taxes).  I had to go see it.

My wife and I drove all the way up to Marin to test drive this vehicle.  The car was beautiful, but it had one big problem: the previous owner was a chain-smoker.  The dealership had tried to remove the smoke, and had tried to sell it for more, but no luck.  They had to drop the price due to the interior smell, and because of a small paint chip off of one of the intake manifolds.  The car drove fine, but the smell was a bit much.  In order to save the sale (?), I guess the salesman decided to lower the price even further to $40K and he also decided to include $150 in cash to have the car “fumigated” locally.  He was even going to throw in a free roof rack that had just come in attached to another Cayman, but he couldn’t find the keys to take it off.  Oh well, I didn’t think I needed a luggage rack anyway.  What a deal!  Even with taxes, I paid just over $44K out the door.  I wrote a check (paid-full in cash – thanks company stock options!) and drove my new yellow toy off the lot.

I did run over an aluminum ladder in the road on the way home.  That sort of sucked, but the car suffered no damage, and the rest of the ride was wonderful.  I look forward to many drives in my little yellow car!