as big the CLS may be on the outside, the back seats definitely not big enough to plant babies.

 

tom can remove the front seat til u get the job done.

 

I have to agree with you there...test drove one and felt my 02' was quicker than it. (an 05' 997 non-S). And I especially think the interior of my car is light years better looking than that new plasticy consol and interior layout of the 997's. Its look a lot like $20-30K's asian cars *trying* for a euro look, lol. Definitely not traditional porsche.

 

Trovan,

Man, I wished you had sold me the C4S back in August when we spoke on the phone. Am the guy from SJ, that was flying down to pick up the C2. I was opffering you 63K back then.

 

well, good thing you didn't buy it from me then.. i am now going to sell it for much less!!!

how is the C2, hope everything is working out great.

 

I spent a while today test driving a 2004 C4S, a 2006 C4S and 2006 Cayman S (just to cover everything)...here is what I found:

- all the cars were coupes with standard transmissions
- The 2004 C4S was new and had never been sold after nearly 18 months on the lot. This bothers me becuase I love the car but wonder why it never sold. It's red with black full leather interio and all the standard options (no Navi). It has the performance exhaust and sounds fantastic!
- The 2006 C4S was nice and was spec'd at about 35 HP more but it didn't seem much faster. The pre-loaded brakes were nice but only marginally better (in feel) than the 2004.
- The Cayman S is junk (compared to the 911). The ride was choppy, the shifter was rough and un-refined, the power was low, the engine sounds were okay but there was an annoying whine and there was more road noise. It would be a nice car for $50K but not a penny more.

So I worked a deal on the 2004 for $78K (it has only 500 miles on it) and it will be sold as new so the warranty won't start until I drive it away. Does this sound like too much for this car? The sticker was $99K and change with all the interior options (red seat backs, red belts, etc.) and this is probably the big reason it didn't sell as $99K is a lot for red bits...

Sorry if I offended anyone wrt the Cayman but I was surprised how much less I liked it over the boxster or 911...

 

if you like red, it sounds like an awesome car. and i do think the 996C4S is one of the hottest looking car, even compared to the 997 version.

as for price, i would hope you can negotiate an even better price. i think the price on C4S will be on the way down for a while before stablization. even if the car has min miles, it is still a 04 and old version.

for example, my 02 with 18k miles will likely get no more than 55k when i finally able to let go. it is similarly equipped as the one you described. after a while, these are just 2 used cars that are 2 years apart with mileage difference.

either way, it is a great car and i hope you get it!!

 

I hope you toss me a message when you do decide to sell!

 

I offered $78K for the 996C4S and it was accepted but I just couldn't do it. This was probably 3-6K over what the car was actually worth and I just didn't want a new 2004...so I bought a 2006 black/tan C4s with all the stuff I wanted on it, including the items that really turned my head towards the 2004 996...namely, the sport exhaust which can be switched on/off.

Off the car seems very docile and easy to live with on a daily basis - the plan is to make this my daily driver. With the sport suspension/exhaust engaged the car feels and handles like a real sprts car. It also sounds drop dead fantastic - the way I WISHEd that my 2005 Turbo sounded.

So I'm a Porsche owner again for the second time in 3 months and I'm very happy with my new C4S...and I also had the full buy-in (pardon the pun) of my CFO (my wife) on this one!

 

There is very little real difference between leasing and buying outright. If he had bought the car at $65K he would have paid for tax ($5K) as well. You always have the right to buy out of the lease at a set depreciation schedule. Trovan's buyout is $59K after a few months on a $65K purchase price. Not really that bad.

I would be shocked if it were actually legal for Porsche to allow a buyout directly to a dealer, but not a private buyer. There was a discussion on the GT3 forum regarding taxes and flipping cars very quickly. The secret from some of the more addicted car guys was to lease so that you only pay taxes on the depreciated amount during ownership.

 

agree, many people lease to avoid paying all the tax. my purchase price for the car was 65.5K. my current buy out is around 59K. this is after 8 months. i guess not as bad as it could be.

porsche will sell the car outright to a dealer. that is what happen when the car is traded in.

anyhow, car is doing great right now with all the rattles fixed, so maybe keep it for a while.