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Hello from Arkansas!

5K views 23 replies 12 participants last post by  Viffermike 
#1 ·
Been lurking for a long time and finally signed up because my car is ready! Flying to the PEC in Atlanta this week to pick up my 2018 Cayman base! Long time coming and the EPA issue nearly derailed my plans, but they pulled it out in the nick of time. Will post photos soon. I did a different build from many and went heavy on comfort features and light on performance. This car is already going to be head and shoulders over my 2011 Cayman and I drive it most days and realized that a bare bones setup had several annoying issues that I just spent a ton to eradicate!
 
#5 ·
Comfort Options

When I first started looking for an upgrade to my 2011 Cayman Base, I couldn't really find very many highly optioned Caymans in the used market. So I pretty much assumed I would get a used 911 because there are a lot of those out there. I never even considered special ordering a car.

However, when I went to the dealer and actually drove several 911s, I was left sort of flat - it wasn't the superior driving experience that I had expected. Maybe I had built it up too heavily in my mind. Anyway, I then drove both a new Cayman S and a Cayman base. When the salesman spelled out the pricing difference, it made the decision pretty easy... I could purchase a new Cayman base and spec it exactly the way I wanted for the same cost as a 2 year old 911.

I got a bunch of stuff, but the highlights are GT Silver, Espresso Leather, 14 way seats, GT steering wheel, 20" wheels, Sport Chrono, LED headlights. Several others. Yes, I am stupid. The big kind of controversial choice is the Bermester stereo. I have the Bose system now and it always drives me crazy with random boominess and poor sound. I probably won't hear enough of the difference to justify it, but I won't be second guessing myself for years either.

I thought hard about Sport Exhaust, but when I test drove the cars for just 10 minutes each, I really couldn't hear much difference. I may regret that. Because of all the raging controversy about the 4 cylinder sound, I was anticipating that I wouldn't like it. However, at least in my testing, I thought it sounded pretty great. If push comes to shove, I can buy an after market exhaust if it bugs me enough.

We fly to Atlanta Wednesday evening and do the PEC thing on Thursday. I am dropping off the car to get clear film on the front before starting the long drive back to Arkansas on Friday evening. I will post how things go.
 
#10 ·
By the way with regard to the Burmester system. Originally I didn't actually like the sound of mine much but it does improve considerably after many hours of usage when the drivers finally break in, so persevere. Unfortunately you'll also be trapped in close proximity until it does & the only way they'll bed in is if you play it. Truth be told I'd still prefer better, but I'm inordinately fussy regarding sound quality & it's still far superior to any other factory sound options. One thing you will undoubtedly need to do is back off the Bass settings by two or three notches. Whoever made the decision regarding standard settings was clearly partly deaf, because as it comes it's boomy & totally overblown.
 
#13 ·
I purchased a new Kenwood head unit for my 987 and while it was a dramatic improvement over the PCM radio, I have never been satisfied with it. Going with a completely base radio and fully upgrading the system is probably the best idea, but after my experience, I wanted to stay stock this time. I wasn't aware that the speakers needed some break in time, I am glad you said that because I likely would have been disappointed. Just 3 more days!
 
#17 ·
Ok! Back in Arkansas with long drive back from the PEC in Atlanta. I will probably post a lot about my initial experiences, but I must say they have been almost universally positive. However, this isn't really the best car for 12 hours on the interstate... on the plus side, I am well on the way through my break in period!

I have one question. About 3/4 through the trip, my AC seemed to stop working. It just gradually stopped blowing cool air and the "wind speed" also slowed way down. No manual changes seemed to help. I stopped at a gas station for a couple of minutes and when the car restarted, it worked just fine for about 30 minutes and then it started to repeat. At that point, we turned off seat coolers and manually turned off the AC. Immediately, it seemed to start blowing better and after several minutes, we turned on the AC and it was great. I left off the seat chillers for about an hour and tried them again and everything was fine. The problem did not repeat again. Any ideas what happened here? The temp outside was about 100. It reminds me of how the AC would power down in my 987 when I tromped on the gas, but I was loafing along at interstate speeds, not pushing the car at all.

About the Bermester stereo - we stopped midway through the trip at the inlaws house and I spent a chunk of the day fiddling with the car. I am very pleased with the Bermester when it is playing high res sound. It is noticeably worse when streaming via Bluetooth vs playing music saved from Tidal on CarPlay. I hope it continues to improve! I had sort of expected to have a built in equalizer to dial in the sound myself, but the presets are pretty good. Time will tell.
 
#18 ·
Sounds like something that should be checked out. I've had no issues with mine and I've been using the seat ventilation almost every drive. It was actually blowing too hard for me, but you can adjust the blower in the settings to "low", "med" and "stong". It may be possible that your car was switching to different key memories (one key set in memory to low and one set to strong). Just a thought since you likely had both fobs on you while you drove.
 
#19 ·
.....About 3/4 through the trip, my AC seemed to stop working.....
From your description, it sounds like ice started forming on the evaporator. When you stop, or turn the A/C off, the ice melts and it resumes working again once you turn it on. This was a common issue with the early Macan's. More prone to happen in high temperature, high humidity areas.

A/C AirFlow Problem - Page 5 - Porsche Macan Forum
Congratulations on your new Cayman!!
 
#22 ·
Also glad to see that we have another Cayman owner on the forum but i'm not the least bit surprised its that easy to make the decision. Cayman has so much to offer that any little issue or concern won't throw someone off like it would with a different hot coupe.
 
#24 ·
Haven't done it yet, but it's planned for this spring.

Keep in mind that I have a Cayman, but you have a Boxster. Your priorities will be different in a Boxster because you don't have an enclosed space to fill with sound. You'll need to project more, and overcome two main things:
- The 718 Boxster does NOT have rear speakers in the base stereo. It's all in the doors and on the dash.
- The 718 Cayman's listening space is a known (and relatively small) volume, with mostly hard surfaces. The 718 Boxster's listening space is essentially an infinite baffle with the top down, and topped by sound wave-absorbing cloth (with no hard surface behind it) with the top up. That presents a different set of acoustic challenges.

Because of the challenges above, Boxster owners should prioritize two things more than a Cayman owner should:
- Bass reproduction
- Clean power
In car-stereo terms, you should consider a subwoofer with its own amplifier, and a more powerful amplifier in general, for an install -- and select upgraded drivers than can handle that power.
 
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