Base Porsche 718 Cayman 2.0L Driven - Is This The One To Buy?

Hello everybody. Today myself and my increasingly scraggly lockdown hair are inviting you out for a journey in this Dan's 2020 718 Porsche Cayman. I'm very keen to drive this car for a number of different reasons. First off, I've not actually yet had the pleasure of the base two litre four-cylinder turbo engine the Porsche introduced with the 718 generation Boxster and Cayman. All of the cars I've driven have been the two-and-a-half litre versions which are quite different. On paper this car has all the ingredients required for a very enjoyable B-road bashing car. 300 horsepower, 1,350 kilos, a turbocharged four-cylinder engine not my preferred power plant but one which should give you a fair bit of shove low down and enable you to make the best of whatever gear it is that you happen to be in. Dan got this as a 50th birthday present to himself and I've got to say it looks like a fine way to celebrate. He specified it from new and he did the right thing because he chose the options that were important to him and not to anybody else. So this car doesn't have both but it does have a PDK, does have the Carrera Classic wheels and it does have the PASM adaptive suspension which is not standard but is actually a fairly reasonable option at a thousand pounds or thereabouts. It's also then got the leather interior which I have to say is actually all right. It feels really on par with a sort of good BMW, the quality of leather in here. It feels like the sort of stuff you'd get in a 3 Series, that kind of stuff, the sort of Nappa leather you'd get. It's decent, no contrast stitch or anything like that so it's a reasonably plain interior but for a sports car the Cayman is just right. Now not too long ago I drove the Cayman GTS 4 litre and memory of that car is still fresh in my mind so I'm going to be drawing a few comparisons between this and that. This all told was £55,000 so notably cheaper than the GTS by some 20 grand in fact and first impressions are very positive because some of the really obvious stuff isn't any different in here than it is in the GTS. The view out still magnificent and in fact the ride, and this is going to be the big one for me, seems to be a little bit better. The GTS I felt was just too firm all the time, it just never really quite relented and didn't let you enjoy the car on the sort of rough and ready roads that I tend to inhabit. On more European tarmac I'm sure it would be fine but for me it just lost a little bit of enjoyment on British roads and to be honest when you're looking at something like a Cayman, enjoyment is where it's at. These seats are pretty comfortable although sadly the leather on this one's already starting to sag at about a year old and 5,000 miles. Porsche unfortunately have said that this is totally normal. It's not, I've seen cars much older than this where the leather is still in fairly good condition so Porsche you need to sort that sort of stuff out. There were other must-have options too like the Carrera Classic wheels on here. They're very nice but they do create a little bit of a problem because you can then see just how small the regular 718 brakes are. He did consider going for the 718 S brakes but he just didn't feel that they were necessary. I shall find out in a minute if I agree with him. He was also upset at the fact that the calipers as standard are simply black anodized. I did try and point out that some car makers have actually tried to charge people a bit more for anodizing rather than painting because it's lighter. He wasn't buying that one but neither was he going to spend 500 quid on getting Porsche to paint some calipers and I think that's a reasonable thing to sort of draw the line at. He did consider a Cayman S but all told for sort of an equivalent specification he'd be looking at about £10,000 to £12,000 more and simply put that was beyond his budget. I know a lot of people can think that us YouTubers lose all perspective of what things actually cost and you know how difficult it is to get money but I like to think that on this channel I try and drive all manner of different cars and you've got to say that this I think is actually fairly keenly priced. After all £55,000 puts it only sort of £10,000 beyond a Golf R, puts it right in the firing line of an Audi RS3 and it's actually quite a bit cheaper than say a BMW M3, Audi RS4 or anything like that and it is still a proper sports car. It's a wonderful looking thing the 718 too but I knew that already. What I really want to know is how this car drives because that's honestly all I'm interested in today. So put the PDK box into manual mode which you can do by just moving the lever over. Are you paying attention Porsche engineers because the 911 doesn't let you do that anymore and let's go. Interesting, very interesting. So first thoughts, the engine, very laggy, very slow to respond and not powerful at all. I mean like to the extent that I would have thought this car might actually be broken so I'm hoping maybe it's the way I'm driving or it's going to come alive higher in the rev range because that was not good. Now one of the things about the 2.0-litre is I believe the 2.5 got the variable turbine geometry or variable vane turbines that some of Porsche's more trick cars get and that meant it's actually quite responsive thing and indeed I've driven the 718s and they're pretty damn rapid but there's still 300 horsepower should be an exciting drive. I've come up here in my BMW 130i that's 260 horsepower in a heavier package so this should really feel still quicker to me. However the suspension does seem much better suited to this kind of road than that in the GTS. The gearbox also responds just like a PDK should. The new eight speed in the 992 just doesn't really seem to work so anyway we're coming to a national speed limit again so let's just find out what this engine's got and 30 mile an hour, second gear, 3,000 rpm, foot down. Oh that engine's so flat. How did Porsche get this one so wrong? This is frustrating, this is so laggy. I mean look let's let's give it the best shot I possibly can slow down a little bit get to a 50 mile an hour I'm in third gear I'm doing 3,600 rpm so I think we can all agree that should be well into its torque band this engine it's alive I've even got my foot on the throttle just a little bit so now I'm going to put my foot right down so foot down and there it goes that's more responsive than it was at lower rpm. No very disappointing the Ford Focus ST that I drove a couple of days ago was vastly more responsive and actually felt a lot quicker. I don't know what Porsche have done here is it the gearing because they do love their silly long gears second gear is good for over 60 mile an hour but not much over so not really the gearing I don't know what they've done. It's possible that this car's still running in a little bit at 5,000 miles it's it's not box fresh however there are good things about this car the suspension works this is damped I would say just about right for this kind of road now let's just put the thing in sport mode and yeah that firms up a little bit yeah and it's it's not really very enjoyable sport mode so let's take it out of that not that you'd probably even notice but the exhaust is actually already in its sport mode and in fact that's the one modification that Dan has made to this car he hasn't changed the exhaust but he has disabled the little sound generator that Porsche have to try and feed some of that weird flat-fourth thrum into the cabin the gearbox that's what a PDK is supposed to be like balance in the chassis is really good get a lot of confidence really lean on it in the corners and that's just as well because with this engine this really has to become a car that's all about maintaining your speed rather than trying to just mash your foot and go hell for leather I mean hold your foot down long enough and it will still of course pick up pace but it just never really feels like a proper sports car engine this that's a real shame Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres supplied on this as standard they are doing a fine job indeed pretty mixed conditions today it's a little bit chilly a bit greasy out there a few spots of rain coming down a little bit of fog too yes this little section here is what was catching the GTS out because there are some really difficult sections of road and the car was just skipping about this is still doing it but to a much much lesser extent and I don't feel like I'm personally being beaten around quite as much as I did in that car no reversing camera in here either another thing that Porsche want you to pay for that's just silly but it does have parking sensors at the very least in fairness this probably is still quite a bit quicker than an old plain Boxster used to be but because it's missing that glorious soundtrack I think it makes the task of revving the engine out now simply laborious let's be honest here an old 2.7 or 2.9 Boxster or Cayman not really a particularly quick thing but when they sound as good as they do that in of itself becomes the source of your enjoyment certainly no issues with the chassis though none whatsoever and of course being a Cayman it's massively practical decent sized boot at the front plenty of storage behind you feel special enough could be reasonably cheap to run fuel economy is okay in these cars not quite as good as you maybe hope it would be oh Jesus excuse me excuse you go away this car has also been kept in very very good condition so I'm very grateful to Dan for bringing it out what be quiet please I don't know what I did stop so this really is an infuriating car because actually the one piece of the GTS 4 litre that was genuinely brilliant which was the engine here is now rubbish but the other part of the GTS 4 litre which I didn't like which was the suspension is now here very good indeed perhaps I need to go and try a 718 2.5 again someone's got one particularly actually a modified one I'd be really keen to see what that would be like I'd love to try one but for me the 718 base model fails on the basis of the engine alone if you can get over that then it's a very good car at what is actually a reasonable price for me in a sports car an engine which has this combination of both lag and a lack of power I don't think I can forgive so there we have it that is the 2020 Porsche Cayman 718 thanks for watching please like comment below subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you all for the next one bye