Published:
21 April 2012You only realise how useful the rear seats in a Porsche 911 are after using a Porsche 718 Cayman for a week. The two-seat Cayman hasn’t anything like the storage space.
Still, the tailgate works well and the misty-eyed will agree that there’s a certain 928-style clunk to the way it opens and closes. Neither front nor rear boot is especially large and owners would be well advised to buy the Porsche luggage set because it makes very efficient use of the space available.
The cabin is familiar Porsche 718 Boxster. That means high-quality materials and excellent seats (ours were optional sports items, but the standard chairs are equally good) and driving position, pitted against a confusing array of buttons and switches and illogical speedometer calibrations (luckily there's also a digital speedo).
The optional PCM (Porsche Communication Management) unit for hi-fi, sat-nav and telephone becomes less intimidating over time and works very well, but other manufacturers integrate these functions more efficiently than this.
However, Lotus Evora apart, there isn’t another mid-engined coupé with an exotic badge that is as unobtrusive to use on a daily basis.
Graduate to the Cayman from, say, a Nissan 370Z and you will find its accommodation and storage space no better or worse, while the ownership and driving experience will be far more appealing.
