Coupe daily driver advice

[jd4392]

Hi all,

First post as there is only so long I can keep mulling this over alone.
In a few months I'll be moving into a house where I will finally have a garage/driveway and be able to have a car that I care about without worrying about it being parked on the road. It'll be my first reasonably quick car and I'll be using it every day for my commute (only 12 miles each way) so I want okay(ish) fuel economy and reliable enough that I'm not left stranded all the time. My budget is around 16K and I've pretty much narrowed it down to three (quite different) options at different price points.

- 987 Cayman (can probably stretch to a gen 2 with around 60k miles on the clock)
- Z4 Coupe 3.0 si (a good one for around 10K)
- Mk3 TT 2.0 tfsi (the sensible option)

My heart is with the Cayman as I've always wanted a Porsche, but am I living in a dream world thinking that I can use it as a daily driver without going bankrupt? The TT seems like the sensible option to me - newest by a mile, quick enough and I'm assuming will be most reliable and cheapest to run. The Z4 came up recently as an option to save a good chunk of cash but still keeping it interesting as my first coupe. Alternatively I could ignore all of that and get a mk3.5 MX5 but I don't think It will have enough grunt to keep me interested for long (the Mrs' mini is quicker). Advice please? Any other options that I've not thought of? Cheers!

[jd4392]

jmcc500 said:

I was after a TT, test drove a couple then stopped off and tried a Gen 1 987 - it was night and day a better drivers car. Daily driver for a couple of years before moving onto a 987.2 Spyder, which I then put 10000 miles on in a year.

Definitely stretch to a Gen 2 for peace of mind (gen 1 problems, be they real or perceived, do sit at the back of your mind). Daily driving is no problem, BUT things can get expensive quite quickly - I had springs fail (common around the 60-70k mark I believe), and the gen 1 also needed a water pump which was best part of a grand. I imagine the other options could throw up similar expense, I can’t comment on the likelihood or magnitude though.

Get a 987.2, try to budget a bit every month into a maintenance pot, and then enjoy - they are great cars.

Thanks for the input. When you say budget a bit every month, how much in your experience is reasonable? I've seen several sources saying to budget about £200 a month for maintenance - that sound about right?

[jd4392]

cerb4.5lee said:

While they aren't that fast...does a Toyota GT86 appeal to you? RWD/LSD and really good fun to drive from what I read and they aren't terrible on fuel either.

I have considered the GT86 but I assumed it would lack a bit of refinement compared to the others. Although I've not actually driven any of them yet (just planning ahead and narrowing down the options).