Cobalt Blue - help me decide!

I finalised my spec on the 9th September for a Seal Grey / Black cruising machine, and then Porsche went and updated their site... Now Seal looks boring, and I want Cobalt Blue! Gimmee! So my questions are thus: Am I being misled by the excellent Porsche photography, or is Cobalt really as excellent as it looks? Does it wear well? I'm less concerned about resale values, but am I shooting myself in the foot? (Heck, I'm going to LIVE in my car for the first month, I can't imagine selling it just yet) And if I did get Cobalt (bearing in mind in the UK the special leather options aren't available at launch ), what colour full leather interior should I get? I'm still waiting for a Cobalt car to turn up at my dealer, so I've not (knowingly) seen one on a Porsche in the flesh...

Cobalt looks great with grey interior IMO. Throw in some painted bits and its an amazing color. I just don't want to spend the extra money for that color.

My salesman just got back from Frankfurt. He said it looked nice but only to get that color if the car is a keeper. It's likely to be a tougher sell and the $3-4K you have to pay to get it will be lost money. All in his opinion as a Porsche sales guy for 10 years. I've ordered Guards Red, which doesn't seem popular here, but he feels I will be OK there. I've had a million boring color cars, and I'm tired of it so now I need something interesting myself. I can relate to your dilemna. -Pete

I've seen Cobalt in the flesh and I concur that grey is the best interior choice. I saw a Cobalt and Savannah beige combo on a 986 and it was ugly IMHO, can't speak for the new natural brown / tan tones though available in the new cars, one of those might work OK as well, but grey is safe. I think Cobalt is a great color, but you'll never get your $$$ back out of it on resale but I don't think it would be hard to resell the color. Cobalt cars I've looked at in the past have sold pretty quickly.

I think the cobalt is a good color and at least in S Florida resale is not a problem.Stone graylooks okay and is a 'safe' choice. I've seen Cobalt with Sand and it looks a little more lively than Stone, especially with some interior pieces in exterior color. If you're going to spring for the paint, I would consider the interior design package in exterior color that the Frankfurt Cobalt Cayman had. FWIW black would also work with Cobalt and I think come off with a little more presence than the gray. If you keep the car at least 3-4 years the paint won't be that big a hit if you trade or sell. Besides it could be worse, you could be shelling out 16K for an X51 upgrade that you won't notice as much as you would the paint!!!!! Edited by - DaveC on 09/23/2005 12:54:55 PM

Grey might be a good match, but from the inside I would be bored and dissapointed. Of course, personal tastes vary, but I find the grey to be lifeless. I think I would go for black or two tone (though I find grey lifeless enough in the center console to hurt this choice) with cobalt. Too bad there aren't more two tone combos available. I've seen a 997 in Cobalt. Very nice color indeed, just don't expect the brightness you saw in the pictures from Frankfurt. In real life it is much more subtle. I think it will be sharp in the Cayman and ended up my second choice to Carmon. I went through the..."should I spend $2,200 extra over metallic paint for Cobalt"...thought process and decided that for equal money I would probably still go for Carmon.

Seen Cobalt in the flesh on a 997 Carrera , looked good and my Mrs thinks it's the best colour. That said, I currently have a lagoon green boxster(2 and half years old)and I am totally bored of it (the colour not the car). Wish I had gone for black.

I think the bright flashy colors get old quickly. I get tired of the bright colors very fast. Meanwhile, the conservative colors like seal grey, black, artic silver are more tolerable 2 years from now and may make selling the car yourself a lot easier. Those bright colors are not appreciated by everyone. IMHO

and some of us need bright flashy colors to keep us awake...

i had a cobalt boxster S for 5 years and loved it...go with your gut...one dealer didn't think i'd like it either but all i ever got were compliments on the choice...black interior is fine but grey is good too....have fun and i can tell you i had lots of offers on selling the car....if you like some color then its a fun way to go.

Just my .02, nothing more..... I've seen cobalt plenty of times in the flesh and it always leaves me a little flat.......it's one of those colors that may fascinate you for a moment or two......but then it starts to looka littleoddto me after a while. The second problem is that just about every manufacture from Subaru to VW to Nissan have one of these medium shocking blues......it's getting old now. According to my dealer, Cobalt is not 'hard' to sell, but it doesn't exactly fly off the lot. For me colors fall into three catagories for a Porsche......mean, classy, and artsy. Cobalt is definitely an 'artsy' color IMO.......and that's not my personality.

Actually Atlas Croc makes a very good point, there are a lot of electric and bright blues around, not exactly the same as Cobalt, but it has become more common in the last few years. Living with a color is important. The main reason I ended up with Carrara White and Black interior was that my father had a 77 911S with that combo (Grand Prix White in those days) and we never got tired of it. We did get tired of the oil leaks common to those 2.7L engines with the EGR emission controls but we still remember the car fondly. Not a major issue, but the solid colors (i.e. non-metallics) are easier to maintain over time, certainly easier to touch up chips. Edited by - DaveC on 09/23/2005 10:03:05 PM

i dont have to final spec my cayman until december, but everytime i sit down with the order guide i come up with new things and completly different cars, on one hand i want to make it true sports cars, on the other i want a grand tourer, and i am having a hard time combining the 2.

Thanks for the comments so far guys, much appreciated! I'm going to have to hunt down a Cobalt porsche of some description and take a look in person. I'm not as concerned about resale but I think it should always be considered (I'm with dave90601 on this one), however Atlas_Croc's comments are the most interesting: Is there a general consensus on the mean / classy / artsy divide? I'd love to see a list.. And confused has a point too.. I'm definitely on the Grand Tourer side of the fence, peering over occasionally wishing I was Kimi Raikkonen. I'm not sure if that affects my colour choice though. I think both the cobalt and the silver in the photographs look great. The easy option would be the silver - but it looks loads better to me in the brochure than Artic Boxsters I see on the road. Is that because of the photography, or is it actually another colour? GT perhaps? (Yes, I'm a Porsche virgin - I don't know the colours too well yet)

carrara white. no charge. simple. always cool in sunlight. lightweight /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/regular_smile.gif

While I agree that the Carrara White looks great, can I ask about it being lightweight? IS that true?

one last comment from myself...i had the color and loved it, but alas it was much less common when i got mine and i agree with another person here that it has become less unique. just enjoy whatever you get....