Well for most people not tracking their cars regularly, the Cayman should be very cheap to maintain. 20K mile oil change intervals (I don't know if I could let it go that long). 40K mile airfilter change. Lifetime coolant. 60K miles for spark plugs and accessory drive belt. 120K miles for manual tranny fluid.
Many people on a three year lease may only end up doing one oil change and an air filter change. Pretty damn reasonable requirements to maintain the warranty.
I can see two sides to this.....
First, I would almost tend to believe that the 20K service will be a little more than an oil change and will probably be in the $200 - $300 range at a dealer. So while you only have to do it once in 20K, its like doing 10 oil changes on some other car. Like most, I don't really like the idea of a 20K oil change......10K would seem about right to me......and that's probably what I will do. 40K for an air filter?.......maybe, but I usually do it around 30k. Plugs and belt at 60k?.....sounds reasonable. Lifetime coolant?.......I don't believe any fluid is lifetime in a car. 120K for tranny fluid......I'd probably do it every 60K or so.
I guess it depends on how you drive the car and how long you intend to keep it. The fact is the majority of these cars will be leased and people will do the minimum service. Porsche sets this minimum service with the intent of being able to re-sell the vehicle as a certified pre-owned with a warranty. So it's Porshe that would be taking the risk here.
BTW, I have had Mobil 1 in all my sportscars and even changing it after 10K hard miles the stuff looks brand new unlike dino oil.
I run mobil 1 in my turbo'd race car and am lucky if I can get 1500 miles before the oil looks like sewage.
Turbo'd cars are a bit different.
Remember that manufacturers are motivated push the limits of service intervals. Especially Porsche, what other manufacturer would have a whole chapter in the sales guide named 'Environment'?
How its driven matters a LOT. Miles with the cruise set at 70mph on the interstate arefree compared to track miles or stop/go traffic miles.
I'm not counting on cheap maintenance compared to other cars. I bet tires alone will exceed the maintenance cost on both my other vehicles.
This is the same service intervals as my 987.Service managersaid 20K or once a year for oil changes, which ever came first. If you put 20K miles on a Porsche in a year, lots of it would probably be highway miles.Can't help but think that after break-in the oil and filter should be changed, so had my 987 oil and filter serviced at the 5K mile point,Porsche dealer charged $150 which included a free loaner car. My 987 was still on the full mark at 5K miles, pretty amazing. Synthetic oil likeMobil 1 doesn't break down like conventional oils, but it doesget contaminated or it could run longer than 20K. Porsche engineshave closer tolerances (in general)which leads to less contamination.
True, driving style does mean a lot......as does the car.As a past and present owner of various Porsche 928s I have learned a lot over the years about oil. Most people don't know it but the 928 with 9 quarts of oil on-board had 12k mile change intervals.....and that's with 20 year old dino oil technology. My first 928 with 120k miles on it was kind of a beater that I honed my mechanic skills on.I once did the 12k mile interval on good quality dinooil and then had it tested.......it showed to be in perfect condition with almost nobreak down or polutants. According to the lab, it was goodfor another 12k miles. Either says much about the oil or the over-engineered loafing manner of the big V8 in the 928. Now while I'm not about to change the oil in the Cayman at every 3kinterval, I think 20k miles without an oil change in ahigherreving much smaller 6 may be pushing it a little.
I think most manufactures today ride a fine line between durability and 'low maintenance' claims......Porsche being no different. As far as 'certified' pre-owned Porsches go.....I have almost never seen one with more than 10K miles or more than 1 or 2 years old at my dealer. I think oncethey reach 20KPorsche pretty muchdoesn't care about that part anymore.....the cars arejust about wholesale at that point and out of their hair.
