Would you sell your Cayman to get a 430?

My friend has both a Cayman S and a 430 Scud, among, other cars. Interestingly he tracks the Cayman and not the 430. My one comment will be about running cost. The 430 could easily be 2-3x more. GL!

 

I sold my Cayman S for my 348...some said I was crazy. I have found those people to be very wrong!

 

Are you really going to "daily drive" an F430? I went from a 993 to a 328, and while I loved the 328 I didn't drive it as much because I wanted to "preserve" it.

Also, unless it's about garage space, the resale value of a Cayman isn't going to cover half of a used F430, and F430s are still falling in price.

I'll give the standard useless FChat answer and say that, if you can do it, "keep the Porsche and get the Ferrari!"

 

I have an 05 430 and 07 Cayman S. I use the Porsche as a DD except in snow. I also track it and take it on long trips. The Cayman might well be the best all around car I have owned. But if I had to choose, the Cayman would go. The 430 is just so much more exciting to drive. I have a stick shift. Annual service on the Ferarri is a bit more but consumables are about even. The front pads did not last long in the Cayman when tracked and cost at least as much to replace as the 430 (both done at the dealer). I will be looking for an aftermarket/independent alternative for the Cayman. The 430 could be a DD depending on your climate and circumstances of parking for work. However, piling miles on a Ferrari leads to huge depreciation.

Dave

 

I guess another thing to consider here is what your daily drive consists of. Highway miles? Lots of short trips or city driving? You looking at F1's or Manuals? Standard brakes or CC's?

I do not believe in dedicated garage queens, but I'm not sure I'd want to daily drive a 430. The amount of attention it will generate could become a bit inconvenient; I know it would where I live, anyway. Plus, I just couldn't bring myself to park it in all those DD places where I know it could get banged on, keyed, shopping cart-ed, sideswiped, backed in to, sneezed on, spray painted, cat clawed, dog pawed, etc., etc., etc. It is a rare daily driver that does not display a telling amount of battle scars, and we're not talking about just any car.

I still say get it, but I'd budget for a cheap and reliable DD to take the brunt of the abuse. Unless, of course, your daily drive is less harrowing than average!

 

+1

in addition to the abuse a DD takes, the running costs will be significantly higher.

that's why most Ferrari owners have a Porsche that they take to the track

 

You may be right. There's a pretty good membership overlap here between the FOC and the PCA San Diego region.

 

+1

I'm a novice at Ferrari ownership, but holding off now might be the right idea. The 430 is going to continue to fall in price at least until Ferrari catches up on 458 orders. I feel it's better to be in the exotic car game to drive them rather than make money, but if you can hold out for a little while you should be able to lose less on the 430. I've got a dilemma of my own about trading one "classic" Porsche for another (I may post that later).

 

Doesn't that only matter if you intend to sell it?

 

Never had a cayman but had a 997TT and when I got my 430 the plan was to sell the TT, but I quickly realized that I couldnt, why? because the 430 is NOT, repeat NOT a daily driver. It is technically drivable to work but it is not practical to use it as such for so many reasons. The TT ended up staying.
My advise to you is to keep the cayman or get another daily driver with the 430. if you are not able to do that then maybe getting the 430 is not such a good idea.
If you can swing both, you will have the best of both worlds.

 

The F430 can easily be a daily driver as I have owned other exotics as such and daily drove those, including a Testarossa for three years.

 

Even people who claim they will never sell almost always do. Not many people keep their toy cars, regardless of make, very long. There is always another toy beckoning. In my case, I've had the 430 over 5 years and drive it a lot more than most people but I accept that if and when I sell there is a penalty to pay.

Dave

 

+1
I think thats explains how since Thanksgiving weekend 4 years ago, I have gone through a Cayman S, SL55 AMG, 997TTcoupe, 997TTcab and currently a 430 6 speed manual coupe ... I do plan on hanging on the 430 for a while though

 

Two points though ...

1) I miss my Cayman S

2) I would have saved a lot of money overall if I had held onto the Cayman until the 06 430 I bought in July 09 came within reach.....

 

Both are great daily drivers. I put about 13K on the 430 in the 1 1/2 years I had it. It's easy to drive, not punishingly stiff, very comfortable interior, etc. In addition, I literally didn't have to put a penny into it for maintenance until I got it ready for sale.

There are two issues which irritated me:

1) The F1 system. Not that it's bad in any way, in fact, it performed flawlessly. I simply grew tired of it REALLY quickly. That was my first Ferrari and I always felt like I cheated myself by not having the gated shifter to row-which was the main reason I sold the car. Of course, that's my issue not the car's. If my 430 were a manual I believe I'd still own it today and probably would have kept it for many, many more years. (I was sad to see it go but I don't miss it at all)

2) The miserable fuel mileage. I've never owned anything as thirsty as the 430 and when you daily drive it, its irritating having to pump $50+ every 1-3 days. Coming from a Cayman which gets 20+ mpg all day long you'll certainly notice the increase.

Having also owned a Cayman S for a couple of months earlier this year acquired via a trade with a buddy - the Porsche is a great car and I have nothing bad to say about it. However, it ain't no 430! (and your new Ferrari mechanic will be quick to point out that "It ain't no Cayman" when something breaks)

 

Off topic, but that's interesting -- I had the DSG system in my ex-Audi TT, and after a week or so of ownership I just left it in automatic mode. Basically the gearbox in sport mode was smarter than I was anyway. (Lot of car parts are smarter than I am, actually...)

I wonder how long Porsche will continue to offer a manual gearbox throughout the Boxster/Cayman/911 line. They seem to be the 'last man standing' in that regard.

 

i wouldnt let depreciation hold u back. granted the gator is from a lower base but they are both mass produced cars dropping. cayman literally probably goes to zero and someone somewhere will want to own a ferrari.

 

I wonder also but, unlike Ferrari, it looks like the majority of buyers still opt for an old fashioned stick shift despite having one fewer gears and the upcharge is 3K+ unlike Ferrari's 10-12K when sticks were still available. As long as sticks still sell well, I think they will keep making them. The bigger threat might be when they decide to make nothing but hybrids. That would be the end of the sports car world as we know it.

Dave

 

Upcoming EPA standards may kill manual transmissions at some point in time..........

 

If the electric motor replaces the internal combustion engine, then the whole concept of a gearbox is moot. My hunch is that the immediate torque you get from an electric motor is going to make it essential for performance cars that want to stay in the game. You can't have Ferraris and Porsches being outgunned by Toyotas and still have meaningful brands for those performance marques. IC engines may end up feeling a lot like dial-up/modem came to feel for Internet connections -- the wait wasn't so bad when it was the only option, but with DSL, cable, wireless, etc., it becomes agonizing.

But I think you're right, environmental concerns could do it in, and Ferrari's abandoning the manual transmission is probably more damning than what the EPA could do. The dual clutch/automated gearboxes win by any objective measure -- faster, more efficient and cleaner, more versatile for the large population that doesn't drive a manual or has a traffic-clogged commute. And perhaps more service revenue and less do-it-yourself activity, so any automaker with business sense is going to embrace proprietary, complex bits.

At some point, manual gearboxes may become like carburettors, where it's mostly old guys with a nostalgia for noise and fumes.

 

i will be one of those guys!

 

I think I'm already one of those guys.

Dave

 

+1!!!!!!

 

Long live dial-up!