First post and a few questions (2nd try!)

Greetings! I have been lurking a while, but wanted to share a moment with you all. After much discussion with my lovely wife about you know what, I had been making little headway. On our drive back to Boston after visiting family for X-mas, I saw a red 911 on the road, and said 'I wonder what the Cayman would look like in red'? She replies ' I thought you were going to get that tasteful grey?' 'going to get'! Success at last.... I have found a good dealer (I hope, and comments on Pass and Weisz in Burlington, MA?). He tells me that if I were to get my order in the first week of January, I could get a March build slot, and expect delivery in May, or as late as June. Does this make sense? This gives me only a limited time to settle on options. My biggest issue is sport seats. I have seen almost no cars pre-ordered by local dealers with anything other than stock seats. It seems most people who post have done the same, is this true? Many thanks for such an awesome site, and more questions to come! peace, michael Edited by - michael young on 01/01/2006 1:38:22 PM

Welcome, Michael... talk to us, don't be afraid Brad

Hi, welcome to a great forum and group of people. Just hit reply and type your question... hold your breath and with any luck it should work.

thanks guys, i had to swich to a different browser to post a message. gotta let go of mac explorer...

Welcome Micheal, seats were my biggest hang-up too. You really need to hop back and forth to decide, butSport Seats seem to be a pretty common option around here. In the end I decided they felt better and looked better. I wanted the Adaptives, but not enough to spend the money.

Sport seats are great. We order most of our cars with them. They provide great support and they look great also. Porsche of Omaha

Welcome Michael. Again sport seats are a personal taste option. Try them if you can and make sure they fit your body. They look good and are supportive for track events if you plan to do any. I passed on them not for fit but to make it simpler to get the preferred plus package. The local dealer wasn't clear on substitution of them for the regular seats which I found quite comfortable anyway.

The standard seats seem to come as manual adjust with a $1550 power/memory option. Are sport seats available in bothmanual and power versions or are the Adaptive Sport Seats the power/memoryversion of the sport seats?

Actually, I think a lot of people who post here went for the sport seats. I had them in my build at first but then decided that I like the feel of the standard seats better. But I have fairly broad sholders and felt the sports seats pinch in too much for everyday driving. For someone else they would be a perfect fit. My guess is that your wife would be fine with them, so it really comes down to what you think fits your body the best - and the question of if you want the extra grip for a track event, if you are into that. You will have some time (I'm guessing two+ weeks) after ordering to make change, so my advice would be negotiate the best deal possible and get the car on order. That is what I did anyway. Have fun!

Thanks guys. Since I will not be able to see any Cayman seats in the flesh before ordering, wouldn't the seats in Boxsters be the same? What about 911s? Do the dates sites in my mesage make sense?

Michael, Welcome again... you might want to call around to several other dealers in your area... slots are allocated to dealers based on their sales volume... another dealer that does higher volume in your area might be able to get you a sooner build/delivery slot. You might also look at the dealerships in upscale parts of Conn. like Greenwhich where the locale means they move a lot of cars. There's a salesman I met at the Porsche parade in Hershey this last summer who works at the Greenwich dealer (he's also a heck of a photographer specializing in Porsche still lifes - hmmmm is that an oxymoron?) named Michael Ross, who's a great guy. On the sport seats, there's been a couple of threads aboth them already on this board. Again, you might go to a higher volume dealer to see if they have any inventory with them so you can try them out. They might have a car (either a 911 or Boxster) that was ordered with them, and is waiting for the owner to pick it up... they should let you sit in the car and try them. Fyi, I ordered the sport seats... Brad

Woodhouse is a Cayman Club sponsor and ships nationwide. Perhaps you can see what thier inventory looks like as well. They could confirm the dates you have been told.

The adaptive sport seats are the power/memory AND adjustable version of the regular sport seats. The adjustable or 'adaptive' part refers to the ability to adjust the degree of 'hold' in the leg and side areas of your body. The seats contain air bladders inside that fill with air to form around your body and therefore hold you in the seat better. They also can be 'deflated' to provide less support in the leg and side sections of the body, making the support less aggressive than the standard (non power) sport seats. They are quite amazing seats really. At one point a skeptic, it only took a little sporty driving to sell me. They are quite expensive though, approx $3000 and $2600 if you have ordered full leather interior. Compared to the standard power/memory seats for approx $1500, they are definitely worth an extra $1000 if you've ordered the full leather option. Then again, I think all Porsche's should have full leather as an ordered option.

Michael, All the seats are the some across the 911, Boxster, and Cayman lines... Also, I use macs, and Firefox works very well on this site... Good luck, Brad

I am not so interested in the adjustable seats, but it is clear the sport seats are thought of well, and I will be calling 'round to try them out for my butt. Now I just gotta settle on color and wheels!!

i test drove caymans (is that the correct plural for more than one cayman?) with and without sports seats. the sport seats are a must if you plan on using much of the available performance of the car. without sports seat, you tend to slide around in the seat too much, and have to locate yourself by holding on to the steering wheel and brace against the dead peddle rather hard. by contrast, the sports seats hold you quite well (though a 6 point harness would improve matters further), and allow you to use the steering wheel for its intended purpose! (posted with safari on a mac)

that post has convinced me, i hope to have need for sport seats! i lived in the uk (cambridge) for a few years, and can only imagine a cayman on b roads lined by hedgerows... too much fun. peace, michael

Welcome Michael; Like most people here, I ordered the sport seats after going back and forth between 2 boxsters , 1 with, 1 without. I really like the way they fit and feel. However, I made the wife try them both as well as she will get to drive once in a while. She thot the sport seats felt much better as well so it was easy to get them, I thot of the adaptive seats, but like the paint, did not want to spend the extra $3k on them. Won't know for sure if I made the right choice until returning from our first trip after getting the car (taking place 4 days after delviery).

Welcome Michael, As far as delivery dates go, I ordered on Oct 28th, got a late Nov. build date and the car shipped on Dec 13, arrives here in Honolulu of Jan 15. The dates your dealer gave you seem a bit long. I sure would check with other dealers. Aloha Russ

wow, those dates are way faster than i have been quoted. i will ask around the area. the biggest dealer is the one i bought my audi from, and the service has been so bad, i hesitate to go there.

Your mileage may differ: Ordered 9/7/05 and as far as I last knew Cayman was on the dock of the bay --- in Finland . I'm guessing that a change to the order in mid-Oct delayed it some but I don't know. Or it could have been the option package. Anyway some don't arrive as soon as others.

My dealer has that black car for sale afaik, I sent you a PM on it.

Welcome, Michael. Here in Orlando, FL, we only have one Porsche dealership. My wife and I didn't like our first visit there mostly because of the salesman who kept patrionizing us the whole time. You should definitely look elsewhere if you're not comfortable with them. We will probably have to drive to Tampa (2 hours away) to purchase our Porsches. One shouldn't be spending an excess of 70K+ for a car unless one is satisfied with the service, right?