Well I just got off the phone with Matt over at Speedway, asking him about the whereabouts of my car cover. (it’s on its way now). And I was asking him about the SUV tax. Apparently, that tax program is on hold at the moment (I don’t know why), so if you went out and bought an SUV, you’d avoid this tax. But I have no idea what will happen with this tax in the future.
The SUV (or tax on inefficient vehicles) was introduced earlier this year while a tax incentive was introduced for fuel efficient cars. The incentive goes up to around $2000 for fuel efficient cars, while the SUV tax ranges up to $4000 depending on how “inefficient” the SUV is. Something like the hummer would cost you an extra $4000.
With the CAD near all time high vs. the USD, I think canadian car dealers will be hurting. Even with a less favorable exchange of a few months ago, plenty of canadians were buying from south of the border - I almost ended up buying a slightly used Porsche Cayman S (if it was not sold before I had the chance!) Despite Porsche’s price cut of about 10% across the board, Canadian porsche prices are still around $12 to $15k over US prices. Now with the loonie worth more than the USD, the price difference becomes even greater I imagine most people would probably consider purchasing south as a main option. The price difference is significant enough even for lower ranged cars that many will probably shop for something in the US.
When the time comes for me to replace my SUV, if current conditions persist, it’s very likely that I’ll find something down in the US.
Yay for Zaino! For making cars shine like a mirror! I spent most of sat/sun this past weekend Zainoing the Cayman.
There was plenty of raildust on the driver side of the car, so I clayed the car and then prep’d it for a few coats of Z5 and Z2. After 3 coats of Z5 and 2 more coats of Z2 over the 2 days, the car was unbelievably shinny, and “wet” looking. And it was shinny enough to almost look like a mirror from an angle.
Reflection from the passenger side.
The wife came along for a drive this evening, and I took a few more pics of the CS.
Butt of the Croc.
Chrome Exhaust.
Seat belt in guards red.
After a long 4 day wait after my Cayman S arrived at the dealer, the PDI and additional protection options installed, it was ready! Originally, the dealer was going to deliver it, but I’d have to wait another few days, so I headed over to Victoria Tuesday Noon to pick it up. When I got to the dealer, there it was, sitting in the main show room!
Would you like financing with that?
No…
You sure you don’t need financing?
No… Would you like that in Cash?
As mentioned before, all MY08 Porsche models had a “Market Adjustment” due to the strong CAD, basically saving me about $10k. I purchased a 3 year extend warranty for an extra $4.5k, and the final invoice price was still about $6k lower than my original cost. The finaly amount came out to around $105k. Cheers. 
As for insurance, without discount, the full cost of insurance would be close to $5k per year. Good thing I’m at the max discount level and it ends up being around $2.7k/year. Yay for safe driving… Boo for speeding tickets…. yeah, 2nd time in Victoria, got my 2nd ticket on my way back to the ferry.
I was going just as fast as everybody else on the road, although everyone was speeding, sure enough, the cop signals out the Porsche. Meh… What did I expect? But I probably didn’t learn my lesson…
It’s arrived! My guards red cayman arrived at the dealer today, and I got the long waited call! The PDI and some extra protection options are being done and delivery is set for next tuesday.
As far as price goes, it’s now confirmed that the base price is reduced by $8k, and that the 3 features (auto climate control, heated seats, rain sensor) are now standard features of Canadian Caymans worth $2420. So the total saving in this is $10420 plus 16% less tax paid of this discounted amount. Take that CCRA! Basically amounting to a little over $12k in total savings from my original invoice price.
Just got off the phone with my Porsche sales guy, and confirmed that the 2008 Cayman S model base price will be reduced by $8k to $75,300. Saving me a cool 8k + taxes and etc… Unconfirmed yet, is whether Rain sensor, heated seats, and auto climate control has been made standard in all Canadian models. This effectively reduces the cost of the MY08 Caymans by about 10k, making it slightly less attractive to import from the US.
From my post way back in march when the xchg rate was about 1.17, the savings amounts to about $14k. With the xchg rate today (around 1.07), it works out to around $20k in savings. But now with the market adjustment, the savings are around $10k. It’s all the doings (or undoings of the xchg rate).
I found out this weekend, to my surprise, that Porsche introduced a “Market Adjustment (MA)” option on all 2008 porsche models, effectively reducing the cost of all MY08 models by $8k to about $15k depending on the model. The base prices and options are all same priced, but the MA option reduces the final price. Looking on various canadian porsche dealer sites, the MY08 cayman models are priced around $10k less than the MY07 models.
Having bought a porsche way back in March, it was like a major kick in the balls… But being an 2008 build, that’s to be delivered in about 2 weeks, there was some hope that the MA option would apply to my situation.
I first called PCNA, to which they had no answer for, go figure…
Then I called the dealer, and to my relief, the canadian MA option applies to all MY08 models, and I was told it would apply to my 2008 cayman S. Exactly how much different is unknown until the dealer gets invoiced by Porsche. So we’ll see in about a weeks time when I call to check on the status.
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