When was your defining moment?

I saw the first picture of the Cayman S in the first week of June. It was love at first sight, and my desire for it was, at that early stage, based on looks and some sparse commentary. My Engineering mentality normaly forces me to research a purchase at great lengths. With the Cayman S, it was like commiting to a mail order wife. By June 18 I had placed a deposit to hold my place in line. What made it even more exciting was that my real (non mail order) wife, was as excited as I was. As time passed, and very slowly as we all agree, and I began to find out more about the car, I began to realize that this beautiful mail order wife that I had agreed to take on looks alone, could also cook, fix things, had a great personality, fun to drive,(pun intended)/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/embaressed_smile.gif . They say that a man thinks about sex every 6 seconds. Well, for me, the Cayman S is a close second. Well, my bride has not arrived yet, but I can tell you that I am already hopelesly in Love with her. Nothing anyone has said who has already driven her(ok, maybe I'm too liberal)/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/omg_smile.gif, has given me any reason to hesitate on my decision. So then, my defining moment came only one week after I first became aware of the car. I guess the quickest 70k I ever spent, but still way cheaper than real life wifes./fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/kiss2.gif

Very good analysis. I guess we saw the same picture although I waited until late Sept. to place the order. I knew more about the car by then than the dealer.

Oddly enough this picture sealed the deal because it had some perspective to it with people in the background.

That might have been the picture that did it for me too. These guys look pretty satisfied with their work.

I ordered my Cayman S with Hennessy Porsche Atlanta on April 5th & left a $1000 Credit Card deposit. Two days later my Salesman called to say 'unfortunately Mr Hennessy will not take C.C. deposits' So a quick call to Jim Ellis Porsche not only got me My Cayman S ordered [using my same C.C. deposit] but I found myself First In Line; and at the time they were unaware of my previous saga! Certainly told me which dealer puts the Customer First. How did y`all do?

I wanted to use my AMEX for paying for the car but my dealer will not accept CC's either.

My dealer accepted an Amex deposit of 1k in June to get on the waiting list and another 1k on CC when I specd the car on 8/22 by phone. Nice to know that my dealer is not among the anal types.

Very interesting thread. Friend at work said there was a new Porsche back in June. Believe it or not I had no idea what he was talking about, thought he meant the "new" 987 but he said it wasn't. Went to Porsche.com and saw the animation/video and was totally hooked. The picture that Santa Fe posted above clinched the emotional connection when I first saw it. For me, that picture sums up " Sports Car", and I knew I had to have it.

Great story kmns! I was not looking for a new car and had no intention of buying a Porsche. I went toBarnes & Noble one daylooking for some photography magazines when I saw a Cayam on or in some magazine. I thought it looked neat but knew that anything that looked like that had to cost 100K + so I just went on about my business. Now here is the funny part, about a week later I was surfing the net and (I have no idea why)but Ityped in Porsche.com. I somehow ended up at the intro page to the Cayman, you know that promo video clip. It blew me away! I had never seen anything more beautiful. I researched further only to find out that it did not cost a fortune at all. It was really almost in my budget, but I thought ' I am not looking to buy any new car' and with that I dismissed it for almost a month. One day at work out of the blue I had a crazy notion to call my local Porsche dealer and inquire about the Cayman, I did and he sent me a beautiful brochure. That sat in my office for a couple of weeks before I called him back to ask if I could come down and talk about it further in person. That was it! October 30th I laid down my deposit and went home trying to figure out how am I going to tell my wife. Well I decided not to tell her anything after all it was months away, but feeling a little guiltyI decided to wait for the rightmoment andspring it on her. She was a bit surprised but took it quitre well. Her only question to me was, 'you get a Porsche and I get a Honda?' I replied yes of course! You are a woman aren't you? NO JUST KIDDING! You think I am nuts! (hummm, dumb question). Since that that day I made the decission to buy mine I have fallen deeper and deeper in love with the Cayman. Honestly I thought these days were over, when you just think of something and it makes you so happy thatnothing else can bother you. Being a contractor Ican tell you this was the best therapy I could have ever found!The fun and excitement just keeps building. Aloha Russ

Dave, I'm glad you find this thread interesting. I hope others feel the same way and relate their story. I have been following this site since August and I have come to feel as if I know many of the folks that post their thoughts on a regular basis. I believe that for most of us, the purchase and ownership of this car will mark a significant time in our lives. Maybe it is a first sports car, or a first Porsche, a first mid-engine car, a first two seater. In a lifetime of owning many cars, a few stand out in my mind, and I'm sure this one will be high on the list. This site and the months of sharing thoughts will have added to this feeling. This car drew me like a magnate, and did so unlike any other car I have purchased before. I'm sure many feel the same way. Reflecting on what caused this effect on each of us is something I find very interesting.

kmns YOU KIDDING! I love to share this stuff with you guys! No one else wants to hear it! If I told this stuff to any of my surf buddies they would kick me out of the water! LOL Russ Edited by - RussK on 12/09/2005 10:13:35 PM

Russ Your reply is exactly what I was hoping would start to roll out from many on this site. Although all our stories will vary in detail, the common thread of feeling an emotion that you don't often relate with the purchase of a material thing is something that I have detected on this site over time. It may help us all to feel like maybe we are not alone in our insanity if more of us express how we got to this state of mind./fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/dance.gif/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/drive.gif/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/thumbsup.gif/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/beer2.gif

I think my defining moment was when the first press release photos came out last spring, I showed that to my wife while we were waiting for my 987 Boxster S to come in and she said 'that's sexy, is that what we are getting?' ummmm no, at least not this time around... hence the 987S didn't stay around too long. Don't get me wrong though, the 987S was/is a great car, just had to have the Cayman S instead. /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/beer2.gif

I have wanted a hard top Boxster since they released the original 2.5! I am not a huge fan of convertibles but bought the Boxster S anyway because it is such a fine driving machine. The good looks of the Cayman was just a bonus for me, as I would have been interested even if it looked like a Z4. However I have to go on the record to say that I am dissapointed that Porsche hasn't given us the choice of an LSD/sports suspension combo like in the 911 and I don't understand the long gearing.

I had been toying with the idea of buying a 996 for the last couple of years, then the 997 came out and I thought I would wait for the second-hand values to come down when I read Car Magazine in July. One of their opening comments was 'if you've been looking at a 911, you're about to have a very good day' ! I read the review on Saturday and on Monday placed a £3,000 deposit with my dealer. The bad news is that it won't be here until March 06, but it's going to be worth the wait !

For me the defining moment was test driving the car. I got the chance to red-line 2nd,3rd and 4th gear on a straight clear road and the pace just felt like my 996(3.4 engine) I've just sold. From then on I knew the car was a notch up from the Boxster and didn't want to take the car back to the dealers. Until the test drive I was condisering canceling my order, that would have been a big mistake. Can't wait until I get my car in March/April 06

I have always wanted a brand new Porsche having had lots of older ones. I am not a cab fan so never wanted a Boxster. The 911 was always too expensive for me to justify as a daily driver. As soon as I heard the rumours of a Boxster Coupe I new it was the car I had been waiting for Porsche to make. In January 2004 I put in a letter of intent. Now I have the car I am so pleased with my decision. It is worth the wait.

My moment was as soon as I heard about the car. I didnt know what it was called except that it was a boxster coupe, and I had seen some spy photos and knew that this car was for me. I placed my deposit in early January of 05 and it will be over a year when I receive the car. I almost broke down and bought a used 997 but Im glad I held out. I just cant wait too much longer.

Wow Joshb1 now I don't feel so bad about how long I will have to wait to get the car. My path to the car started through looking at various convertibles while shopping for a new car - I got to the Boxster and then saw some early press about the Cayman. I loved the sculptural shape and so started reading everything about it. I've had a couple of 911's in the past and loved them, but didn't really see Porsche as a high reliability brand. My old air-cooled 911 would run great after coming from the shop, but a week or two later something else was likely to go wrong. I've become convinced that Porsche has fixed their reliability issues - especially on a new car as compared to a well-used 80’s 911. Still I knew that the one thing I had to do was drive the car before I purchased it. The short summation of my drive is simply that the Cayman is the best sports car I have ever driven. To cap that off, I took my wife for a spin (thanks to a nice dealer for allowing me) and she loved it also - so we can call that a double defining moment. After that it was just a matter of getting happy with the options I wanted - and reading this forum has been a great help. Thanks everyone! Edited by - K-Man-sculpture.net on 12/11/2005 12:52:12 AM