Only if money is an issue. Most who buy highend cars, its not. In the vette forum I was surprised how many paid cash for their 60K car. The Dollar for dollar game is played by those who have to buy according to their income and want to justify thier choice of car. Im sure if you had a million dollars you wouldnt be in a Z. Right now the new stang beats the Z in dollar for dollar too for the price range and performance most of us here have to go by.

The 'vette is marketed toward a demographic that makes well over 6-figures a year. Hell, the average WS6/SS F-body customer made around 70K a year from what I recall. Those were 90's dollars, too, lol.

A lot of those guys are older, and have bought/sold many 'vettes previously. The younger ones are usually military and ratholed their money instead of burning it on bitches and booze. Or really dedicated guys like me who live small and put 1/3 of their gross income into a savings account until we scrape up 20% down or so and get the bank to take us on.

This is true. The vette forum is kinda boring and alot of them old guys dont beleive in modding the car or going over the speed limit. Why buy a 430 hp/427tq car and not use it? Some get the Z06 and never use the power. Alot have paid cash for thier cars too. Most are retired military officers who can be stuck up. My dad was an officer and of course with 21 yrs in the army Ive seen some stuck up officers, and some good ones too. But I think most got the vette as a status quo thing. Not me I wanted the power.

when (billionaire) tom cruise appeared in top gear, jeremy clarkson asked him what car he drove. cruise said he drove mostly motorcycles and flew airplanes. i guess a car is too slow for him :)

To go back to your questions you have the following options that I can't think about it:

1- CarMax (already mentioned)
2- Search KKB, Edmunds and NADA
3- Get the car apprasial from other dealers
4- Sell the car private

Other than that if you can wait, then wait for a good deal. You will ALWAYS lose more money on trade-in.

Eh, what section are you hanging out in? TONS! of modded 'vettes in the Z06 section. I see cam/E85 conversions claiming 600+whp all the time, etc. Lots of FI, on and on. Way more modding happening there than the "Should I get a Nismo cat-back and does it need a tune?" going on here.

From what I've heard the Cayman is underpowered and pretty dull to drive around the track. If you want a porsche, then get a porsche, but know that it will not be as fun or as fast and servicing will cost a whole lot more. I've looked at them, but in the end then only reason I could see for getting one is the fact that it is a porsche.

Now, with PDK...thats a different story. Its a great transmission and it would be a lot of fun. Still...I don't know if its worth it in my opinion.

And um...since when is Tom Cruise a Billionaire? I highly doubt that...

For reference, I took my 2009 370z base/sport package with 10k miles to Carmax last month and they offered me $23k.

Do you have the Rays?

yes, the car is all stock.

Yea the general section seems to be where the non modders hang and the tech for the modders.

Interesting - the slow sales seem even more widespread that I thought. Is the government padding the durable goods reports every month? :rolleyes:

With this in mind, I say go for it!
I had the opportunity to purchase a gently used Cayman from a friend, but thought twice about it when my wife reminded me how much the upkeep on her Mercedes is.
Sure, the Z and the Cayman might perform equally, but so do a Timex and a Rolex when it comes to telling the time. Why would people buy one over the other? The Cayman looks tits and it says Porsche on it. If buying a Cayman makes you feel good and it's not a financially wreckless decision, then do it! I'll be here watching while being just a little jealous.

Nah!

1. I do not think the Cayman looks tits.
2. Some people buy Porsche for reasons and not because it says "Porsche"; unless you have owned AND driven one, it is somewhat hard to relate.

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I would love looking at a Cayman in my driveway because I do think it's a gorgeous car.

As for point 2., I was trying to be brief with my response. Sure, there are plenty of esoteric, intangible reasons to purchase one comparable item over another aside from name cache... I was going with an obvious analogy.
While I've never owned a Porsche, I've had plenty of opportunities to log seat time at SCCA and PCA events, so I think I get it.