2014 pdk Cayman 2.7 - Page 2 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

Hey guys Looking to get a Cayman PDK 2.7. Was just wondering if anybody on here who owns one could tell me what the car is like on fuel, both driven hard and sensible? Thanks

Had mine for three months, can almost reach 40 on a steady trunk road, sits at 35 most of the time, never checked when driven hard.

I have a 3.4 Cayman PDK - computer reckons 19.x mpg - that's an average over about 6,000 miles. I"ve never worked out how true the computer is compared to actual. I'd be surprised if the 2.7 is much more frugal than the 3.4 if that's a major influencer for you.

Thanks for your feedback guys. Also what kind of range are you receiving on a fuel tank?

Ok I am surprised - sounds like the 2.7 IS a lot more frugal - maybe I should be lighter of foot...

I've just sold mine. I was getting about 25mpg around the doors, best I got was just under 40mpg on the motorway doing legal speeds.

Mine's a 981 Cayman 2.7 PDK, 6 months old 6,000 miles. Computer says 29mpg overall, 35mpg on a long (mostly motorway) run.

The 2.7 is bound to be substantially more frugal - it has almost no torque :-) In seriousness, my 987.2 S gets about 28mpg in a mixed motorway, town and A/B-road week. It will never get more than about 32mpg over a tank (unless no start-stop driving at all is involved). It gets pretty much exactly 20mpg on my commute (into Central London), which I think is pretty impressive for a bigish engine in a slightly chubby car. I expect that the realistic figures for a 981 S are about 5% better and that the 981 non-S is about 10-15% better than that. At a guess, pushing 25mpg in town and up over 35mpg on a mixed tank. The guy getting 25mpg from his S is driving it hard or mostly in town.

In case you care, I think the 2.7 PDK is the worst combination. I think the heirarchy is like this for most enthusiastic drivers:- (1) S manual. (2) S PDK/2.7 manual (depending on whether or not you like the bigger engine and where you will be doing your driving). (3) 2.7 PDK. A couple of reasons for this: (1) PDK tends to put the car in very high gears unless you stop it doing so, and this is where the lack of torque from the 2.7 is noticeable and (2) the PDK makes sense for town driving, whereas the 2.7 is most at home at high revs and having fun on A/B roads - if you will be using the car as an everyday driver, including in town, the S makes more sense because it is more "driveable" due to the torque being a bit better at low/medium revs. I get irritated with the lack of low end power in the S, let alone the 2.7. It feels pretty stupid putting the car in manual mode around town to stop the car chugging along in 6th gear at 1000rpm...kinda defeats the purpose of PDK on an everyday driver.

ORD said: In case you care, I think the 2.7 PDK is the worst combination. I think the heirarchy is like this for most enthusiastic drivers:- (1) S manual. (2) S PDK/2.7 manual (depending on whether or not you like the bigger engine and where you will be doing your driving). (3) 2.7 PDK. A couple of reasons for this: (1) PDK tends to put the car in very high gears unless you stop it doing so, and this is where the lack of torque from the 2.7 is noticeable and (2) the PDK makes sense for town driving, whereas the 2.7 is most at home at high revs and having fun on A/B roads - if you will be using the car as an everyday driver, including in town, the S makes more sense because it is more "driveable" due to the torque being a bit better at low/medium revs. I get irritated with the lack of low end power in the S, let alone the 2.7. It feels pretty stupid putting the car in manual mode around town to stop the car chugging along in 6th gear at 1000rpm...kinda defeats the purpose of PDK on an everyday driver. You've got a 3.4 PDK Owain? Do you still get this annoying race to 7th gear when in Sport Mode? What about Sport Plus... did you option Sports Chrono and does Sport Plus alleviate this race to the bottom of the engine torque curve? Still trying to decide between PDK and Manual. Never had a PDK before and head is telling me to consider it while heart is tugging in the other direction including the thought that the GBP2k saved can go towards PTV and PASM.

Just press the sport button if you want to stop the box changing up quickly.

I found the PDK 2.7 to be good fun. Boot it along, throw in some gear changes and still be below the speed limit. Drove everywhere in Sport mode. Used the paddles quite a bit.

SimonOcean said: ORD said: In case you care, I think the 2.7 PDK is the worst combination. I think the heirarchy is like this for most enthusiastic drivers:- (1) S manual. (2) S PDK/2.7 manual (depending on whether or not you like the bigger engine and where you will be doing your driving). (3) 2.7 PDK. A couple of reasons for this: (1) PDK tends to put the car in very high gears unless you stop it doing so, and this is where the lack of torque from the 2.7 is noticeable and (2) the PDK makes sense for town driving, whereas the 2.7 is most at home at high revs and having fun on A/B roads - if you will be using the car as an everyday driver, including in town, the S makes more sense because it is more "driveable" due to the torque being a bit better at low/medium revs. I get irritated with the lack of low end power in the S, let alone the 2.7. It feels pretty stupid putting the car in manual mode around town to stop the car chugging along in 6th gear at 1000rpm...kinda defeats the purpose of PDK on an everyday driver. You've got a 3.4 PDK Owain? Do you still get this annoying race to 7th gear when in Sport Mode? What about Sport Plus... did you option Sports Chrono and does Sport Plus alleviate this race to the bottom of the engine torque curve? Still trying to decide between PDK and Manual. Never had a PDK before and head is telling me to consider it while heart is tugging in the other direction including the thought that the GBP2k saved can go towards PTV and PASM. Yeah - with sports chrono. I love it. The niggles are just that and no more. Sport mode is probably closer to how I would change gear manually but is a little bit aggressive for pootling around in town. I think most drivers would like something between normal and sport mode for town driving. Sport will keep the car in 1st to around 15 mph, for example, and will be in 3rd/4th at 30mph (which is a bit loud and showy when driving past pedestrians). To give an example of the gear-changing profiles, I think the following is accurate for pootling around with restrained throttle inputs. I give the approx speed at which the box changes up in each mode (manual being me changing). Gear Normal Sport Manual 1 10 15-17 10 2 16 20-23 18 3 20 30-35 25 4 25 35-40 30 5 30 45-50 40 6 45 ? 50 In summary, at low speeds, normal mode loves 6th and sport mode loves 3rd and 4th. In sport mode, the car is far more sensitive to minor variations in throttle inputs so will change gear a little less predictably. In normal mode, I am pretty sure all those figures are pretty much dead on. Dont get me wrong, PDK is brilliant. It is fast as all hell and very smooth. Sport mode is great for fast B-road driving or searching out an overtaking opportunity and not having to keep changing gear manually to ensure that you are at the power band sweet spot. PDK is also pretty great in town (despite my niggle above). I am slowly learning to coax the car away from high gears by being a bit more positive with the throttle, but it does love to cruise if given the chance. Sport Plus is mental. It changes up at the red line and the throttle becomes really quite sensitive - it makes the car very hard to drive except aggressively (e.g. engine braking is intense because the revs are so high). I think I would marginally prefer a manual BUT would miss the PDK around town and during some driving out of town (e.g. where I am feeling lazy and/or want to focus solely on steering, scratching my head, etc).

To the original question, 40mpg is possible on a motorway slog if helped by the all too common 50 average speed zones! Magic919 said: I found the PDK 2.7 to be good fun. Boot it along, throw in some gear changes and still be below the speed limit. Drove everywhere in Sport mode. Used the paddles quite a bit. Agreed, getting to grips with the paddles makes a huge difference to the involvement. And it sounds great at higher revs! ORD said: PDK is also pretty great in town (despite my niggle above). I am slowly learning to coax the car away from high gears by being a bit more positive with the throttle, but it does love to cruise if given the chance. It can sometimes run away a bit going downhill in a 30 limit. So I find that two taps on the left paddle, one to prevent coasting & one to drop a gear, stops this quite nicely.

The difference in "Sport" with PDK is enough to transform any drive. In "Normal" the drive is relaxed, it's meant to be. FWIW I had a Cayman S and found it too racy for me. I found wherever I went I ended up travelling too rapidly, too quickly! The 2.7 would probably be adequate for most people. Certainly more than adequate for any UK rounds.

Around 25 when 'making progress' but on this morning's rather foggy commute (25mls of mostly dual carriageway) I saw 36.9! PS Whilst not wishing to add to the world's most tedious argument, I like PDK. PPS I always select stop/start off. Edited by Radish on Thursday 13th March 10:02 Edited by Radish on Thursday 13th March 10:04

N24 said: I have a 3.4 Cayman PDK - computer reckons 19.x mpg - that's an average over about 6,000 miles. I"ve never worked out how true the computer is compared to actual. I'd be surprised if the 2.7 is much more frugal than the 3.4 if that's a major influencer for you. Mate, the 2.7 is alot more frugal than the 3.4s....the old 2.9 also compared to the 3.4s was too. I get around 33mpg with mixed driving in my 981 2.7....usually 25mpg when I've had 3.4s loaners for a couple of days of the same kind of driving.. edited to make some kind of sense!! Edited by FrankCayman on Thursday 13th March 20:45

I have a 2.7 PDK [it's for sale btw ] I get around 25mpg on my commute (through town) about 35mpg on motorway runs. I would also give a big thumbs up to the PDK 'box but of course each to their own

On topic: I've just done 170 mile jourmey from north wales to north yorkshire, mostly motorway. Computer says 39 mpg and average speed door to door 63mph. So just normal brisk motoring, not trying for economy. Off topic and in response to comments above: I'm very happy with both the 2.7 engine and the PDK gearbox. It's a fantastic combination for road use. If you want a lower gear either use the button with "sport" next to it or press a paddle on the steering wheel and it changes down. Amazing!

JonN981 said: On topic: I've just done 170 mile jourmey from north wales to north yorkshire, mostly motorway. Computer says 39 mpg and average speed door to door 63mph. So just normal brisk motoring, not trying for economy. Off topic and in response to comments above: I'm very happy with both the 2.7 engine and the PDK gearbox. It's a fantastic combination for road use. If you want a lower gear either use the button with "sport" next to it or press a paddle on the steering wheel and it changes down. Amazing! Pretty much how I'd describe the same car; generally find the next corner/ car in front/ my limitations are the key things that slow the car and not the powertrain which is superb.

My two penn'orth, Boxster is very fuel efficient when cruising gently on a motorway. Mid-30s easily achievable if you want drive that way. (My car's a 3.4) In town the mpg drops below 25 mpg quite easily. (Mine's a manual) I'd be surprised if there's much mpg difference between the 2.7 and 3.4 in normal driving. After all, they are roughly the same weight and have identical aerodynamics. Yes, I guess the 3.4 will use more fuel if you decide to use the extra performance. The decision I made was to spend my money on the engine and stick with a fairly basic manual car. Very pleased with it. Does it make an easy car for driving in stop-start traffic? No, PDK would probably be better. But I wouldn't buy a Boxster to drive in stop-start traffic.