Planet 9

I was browsing around the dealer sites and I noticed that there are very few color deviations on non built to order caymans. For example there's only one 2009 Ruby Red Cayman (non S) in all of Southern California. I know because the dealer emphasized in bold and put exclamation marks around that fact. I was bored so I checked the other dealers in the area and every car falls into the same 4 exteriors and the same 2 exteriors:

Exterior colors: Black, Meteor Grey, Arctic Silver or White.
Interiors: Black or Sand beige.

It's not like many of these vehicles are light on the options. Is it just dealers being conservative or does Porsche decide what cars/colors/options the dealers get?

It is not a case of the dealers being conservative, it is a matter of them stocking what sells like any other retailer. Silver is far and away the most popular exterior color. It has been for years. The other colors you mention also come in high based on consumer choice. Ditto for the interior colors.

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Cayman S – A Six Cylinder Symphony

Dealers order the most popular combos so they can sell one off the lot, some buyers may not want to custom order and wait 6 months for the car. Want one next week, take the loaded silver S. It's both a gamble they take and a game they play. I don't think Porsche decides the orders.

The dealers order and spec the cars in the colors and with the options they thank they can sell of the lot. Porsche does not tell them what to order, they only tell them how many allocations they get, and when those build-slots are available.

brad

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22-year PCA Member
PCA DE Instructor

Thanks for the responses. I guess you take what the market demands if you don't special order. I usually buy white cars, but I have my eye on a malachite green 2008 as soon as my local dealer drops the price from $72K.

Driving a Cayman is physical enjoyment, color is just eye candy.
So pick anything you want, but keep in mind popular color combos are easier to sell.

They stock what will sell and in fewer models, especially at this time.

In contrast, a year ago, my local Porsche lot (Tysons, VA) had ruby red both in base and S model, a Macadamia model (talk about rare, it even had the exterior color console), and of course plenty of black, guards red, white and silver models. No yellows in stock (my preference at the time), they said the resale value in the conservative DC area would be lower over time (I suppose that's an issue with leases which were popular at the time) and so if you really wanted yellow you had to order it. Porsche of Arlington, VA last fall had a silver 2.7 model with Carrera Red interior. If I had seen that in my early stages of looking, my brain would have probably shut itself off temporarily, and I would have snapped it up on the spot regardless of options.

I suspect some of the "one-off" vehicles which do show up may be orders which fell through (i.e., buyer couldn't get financing or got cold feet, etc).

Keep in mind you can order in any color you want for a price ($700 or so for metallic colors, $3000 or so for "special colors"), and you can pretty much go to your paint store, get a color chip in just about any shade (like those old MoPar muscle car colors like Plum Crazy), and the factory will paint the car in the color you want (for a price).

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"He who dies with the most toys is, nonetheless, still dead." — Unknown