[Fugly M3]

Okay, so I have been speccing and speccing and speccing what was going to be my soon-to-be F30 328i. Decided on just M-sport, EBII, xenons, heated seats and maybe, maybe leather. and then yesterday I thought wait, for the same money as this new thing, I could probably get a nice, certified, low-mileage Cayman or maybe even a Cayman S.

Now I've never been a huge Porsche person. I've always found them to be in a weird market area, meaning if you can afford just a Porsche 911, why not get something else for less $ with similar performance, but at the same time if you can afford XYZ supercar, why not just get the 911 turbo for less money and better practicality. Almost like a too expensive to be practical and too practical to be expensive thing.

So I found the first close by Cayman with a stick at the local Carmax and went to drive it. First off, I'm sure this was just this specific car, but it was beat to $H!T on the inside for a 32000 mile car. Everything else was fine though. I was only there to drive it anyway. So off we went. Not terribly fast- definitely slower than my e92 335i with the N54 and stock. But it just felt sooo much better. It was tight and solid and just eager. Very eager. If I wanted to go it went, stop it stopped and turn, oh boy it turned! It was also far louder than what I'm used to. When you open it up it really lets you know about it.

Now, the car certainly has it's downsides. First, Porsche's are, for the most part, spartan things. This is especially true for the electronic gizmos and convenience features- like bluetooth, iPod and Satellite radio. These things are certainly nice to have. It's also a bit on the smallish size. Small not in the sense that I don't fit. I fit just fine, but it's just a small car.

So I find myself in a tough spot. I have yet to drive the S and probably will, but even the little base model was just a great little car. And it gets stellar mileage too for what it is. So I've been looking for certified models and have found a few, and prices are very decent for 07-08s. Porsche's certified warranty seems really good too because even if the factory warranty is over, Porsche gives you 2 years and 50k miles from when you buy the certified car. They're also offering 1.9% financing. Am I crazy thinking this is the must go route? Did I get bit by the P-car bug?