10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Buying a Porsche 718 Spyder!

🔥 After 5 years and 22,000 miles in my 2021 Porsche 718 Spyder, I'm sharing the 10 things I genuinely wish someone had told me before I bought it. From the PDK vs. manual debate, to what it actually costs per mile, to the luxury features Porsche quietly leaves out — this is the real owner's guide nobody else will give you. I track this car ~16 days a year at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (Mosport) and I'm a PCA instructor. This isn't a press car review — it's 5 years of ownership, costs tracked to the dollar, and hard-won lessons from the track and the road. #Porsche718Spyder #PorscheOwner #718Spyder #PorschePDK #TrackDay #HPDE #PCA #PorscheClub #PorscheReview #SportsCar #718GT4 #Mosport #CTMP #PerformanceCarOwnership #MiamiBlue #PorscheLife #CarReview #TrackCar #Boxster #CaymanAbout: I create fast, honest, and practical car detailing and car ownership videos for real enthusiasts who drive performance cars. If you’re looking for clear, step-by-step guides on how to detail, maintain, and protect your car—without the fluff, hype, or clickbait—you’re in the right place.This channel focuses on premium car care and real-world ownership insights for vehicles like Porsche, Toyota GR, BMW M, Audi RS, Corvette, and other sports and performance cars. Every video is designed to save you time and give you the truth about what actually works.If you want professional car detailing tips, real car ownership advice, and straight-to-the-point videos, subscribe and join thousands of enthusiasts who prefer results over hype.Please comment or ask questions below.📋 CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS 00:00 What's This Video About? 01:50 Thing #1 — PDK vs Manual 05:01 Thing #2 — Real Cost of Ownership 10:06 Thing #3 — Options You'll Regret 13:55 Thing #4 — Manual Convertible Top 17:29 Thing #5 — Track Reality at 140 MPH 22:55 Thing #6 — Tire Choice 24:45 Thing #7 — Dealer Relationship 26:39 Thing #7.5 – Making the Purchase 30:36 Thing #8 — This car is Noisy! 33:01 Thing #9 — Day-to-Day Practicality 36:37 Thing #10 — The PCA Community 39:22 My Next Steps?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

And everybody asks me about my scariest time ever on track. The gearing is just too high. At the time I needed the front brake pads, there was no brake pads available, and I had to actually wait several weeks and I ended up missing a track day. And some people have actually it's actually rubbed right through and it's actually caused a leak. I bought my 2021 Porsche 718 Spider in November of 2020. And I've had it for what, about 66 months now and 22,000 miles, and absolutely love this car. Now, when I purchased it, I made some really brilliant decisions and a few that were flat out dumb, and I'm sharing them all with you today. Now, in ordering my 718 Spider, I went through the usual PDK versus manual dilemma that everyone does. But since I've learned about the ownership cost, the compromises of the spec that I chose, the track use reality, the convertible top, the tire choice, the dealership relationship, getting an allocation then compared to buying them news now. The exhaust sound and daily driving challenges are things that I wish someone had told me about before I signed on that dotted line. Now, some of these things may seem minor, but believe me, they certainly add up. And if you're thinking about purchasing a 718 spider for yourself, this video podcast can definitely save you some surprises. And if this is your first Porsche purchase, I'm going to share some bonus content about the one surprise that most port first-time Porsche owners definitely don't consider, and they definitely should. And we'll talk about that a little bit later. Now, this video came out of the hundreds of comments and questions that were posed as a result of you folks watching my five-year review video of my Porsche 718 Spider. So this one's for you. So of course, the big one is the PDK versus manual choice. So, like I said, I chose PDK. And the reason for it is quite simple is that the manual transmission, uh, the gearing is just too high. I mean, it's just too high. For driving on the street, you'll be almost all the time in second or third gear unless you're in sixth cruising on the highway. So for track use, PDK is is better, it's faster, it's easier. Um and uh, you know, that's really what it boils down to. The PDK gearing is lower, it's slightly lower, but it is lower than it is with the manual transmission. And believe me, you can uh manually shift that PDK uh transmission no problem. Now I have nothing against manual transmission cars. I started to drive on a three-on-the-tree 1967 Chevy II, which I believe it or not, I still own. Um and my daily driver is a GR Corolla with its manual transmission. The GR Corolla is a blast to drive uh around the city or around on the highway, um, country roads, it's just a blast because the gearing is nice and short between the gears, so you're doing a lot of shifting, and it's it's just a lot of fun. I knew that if I got a manual transmission uh Porsche Spider, that just wouldn't be the case. But the real reason for me that I chose the PDK over the manual was because the PDK is just plain faster on track. And I do track this car about 15, 16 days a year at a very fast track, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Um and uh and that like I saw other and I see now other people in GT4s and other 718 spiders that are on track the same time as I am. When we're heading up the back straight, accelerating, I can definitely see that I gain on them every time when they're shifting gears. So it's faster. Uh road and trend, no, sorry, car and driver and motor trend, they tested a zero to sixty time of 0.7 seconds faster with the PDK, and the quarter mile is a half second faster with the PDK versus the manual. Now, will it be a concern at resale time whether the car is a manual or a PDK? Who knows? It's one of those things that uh people are just gonna have to choose. It's like like my car is Miami blue, and that's a very polarizing color. Lots of folks love it, lots of folks hate it, lots of folks think it looks cool, but they wouldn't want it for themselves. So it may be a concern when it comes time uh to sell my car. But I don't care. I didn't buy the car for resale, I bought it for myself. I want to enjoy it while I own it. When it comes to resale time, I'll deal with it then. Now, when it comes to reliability of the PDK versus the manual, I don't know. I've had friends with 981s and 997s that have had transmission failures in both PDK and in manual. So I don't think it's gonna really make much difference. Will uh failure be in my future? I hope not. But if it happens, we'll deal with it. And if you look on the forums, uh Ren List, uh again, it always boils down to the same thing. Guys that track it prefer the PDK, guys that drive it on the street and don't track it, manual transmission. So what about you? If you were buying a 718 spider today, would you prefer the manual or the PDK? All right, let's talk about money. So um I'm in Canada, but all these dollars I've converted to US dollars, so you can uh definitely ri relate. So I paid $103,000 uh dollars uh for my car, US dollars. Um and uh so in Canada that there's no ADM additional dealer markup, right? Uh in Canada they can't sell cars for higher than the MSRP new. Now used, that's a whole different story, but we won't go there right at the moment. Um so what happened uh was I did my allocation, I chose what I wanted to, and I purchased my car. Um now, luckily, uh I don't know, luckily or unluckily, I per I spec'd my car during COVID. And during COVID, they were just happy to get a deal. So, which was one of the reasons why I probably got an allocation because I actually waited a long time to get an allocation. But um anyway, um, so all the costs that I'm talking about here are dealer costs. Um, and we'll talk about the dealer relationship a little bit later. I pay $525 a year uh for insurance. Now I got a lot of questions about this $525. So there's a few things you need to consider about what my insurance costs are compared to what yours may very well be. So that's for eight months of the year. I've been accident-free for almost 55 years, no claims whatsoever. Um, I live in the country, um, not in the city. So, and I only I don't drive the car daily, uh, about uh six or seven thousand miles a year. Um, and it's also bundled in with four other vehicles, my house insurance and a bunch of other stuff. So I've definitely got a rock bottom insurance rate. So then it comes to the services. So a minor service, which is once a year, is $488. Basically, an oil and filter change. Every second year you need to get a medium service, which is $1,188. Now the spark plugs, they recommend that you change them every $27,000 miles at a massive uh $1,200. But if you track the car, they actually recommend that you change it twice as often. So I I have been going with the recommendation on spark plug changes so far, but we'll see what happens as we go forward. Brake pads run six to seven hundred dollars for the front, and again six to seven hundred dollars for the rear, rear for OEM uh brake pads. At the time I needed uh front brake pads, there was no brake pads available, and I had to actually wait several weeks, and I ended up missing a track day for that. So now I plan ahead for my brake pads. And yeah, if you're getting aftermarket parts like aftermarket brake pads and things like that, yeah, you'll definitely save money. But again, we'll talk a little bit more about that a little bit later. There's a lot of uh wear, so I've gone through several sets of tires in my uh 66 months of ownership. Again, I track the car 16 days or 15 to 16 days a year. Uh and the front tires, especially the outside edge, wears out uh more quickly. Um, I'm gonna do something about that this year, and again, we'll talk about that a little bit later. But I do have to rotate the front tires back and forth fairly frequently uh to try to even out uh that wear on the outside edge. On my situation, it's the driver's side. And this car is premium fuel only. So on a track day, you'll go through a lot of fuel and it's very expensive, especially on a high-speed track like the entire Motorsport Park, where you're hitting 140 miles an hour on the back street. But it's so much fun and it's so worth it. So my total five-year cost is just under $24,138. Don't tell my wife, which works out to a $1.10 per mile, which is actually pretty uh reasonable. But keep in mind, my car has had zero depreciation. If the car would have had more normal depreciation, like 25 or 30 percent, we'd be talking to three to four dollars uh per mile. Yeah, that's a whole lot different. And like I say, I like to get have my car serviced at least once a year at the dealer to make sure it's serviced by the book in terms of uh what uh the the warranty is calling for, because the car is under warranty, it does have an extended warranty, and I also want to keep my foot in the door when it may come to a future allocation. Again, we'll talk about that one a little bit later. So, what I haven't included in my cost calculation is the cost to actually track the car. What I mean by that, yeah, I've included the tire wear, yeah, I've included the brake wear and all those kinds, and of course the fuel costs, but what I haven't included is the actual cost to enter the track day, um the staying there, you know, the restaurant food while I'm there, all those kinds of things. That's not included. So one of the big questions I always get asked is was the $5,500 premium to get Miami Blue uh color uh worth it? Well, put it this way I I chose the car, my wife chose the color, that works for me. Now, what would have that cost per mile worked out to if I had to pay ADM like a lot of you other owners had to uh when purchasing the car in the US? And you had uh to select $25,000 to $35,000 mandatory options to be able to get that allocation, yeah, that cost per mile would have been much different. And if you're new here, click the like button, smash subscribe, and hit that bell. I post honest real-world owner content, no BS. So when it came to spec in the car, I selected very few options. I wanted to keep it very low. Obviously, because of the cost, I mean it's cha-ching, cha-ching, ching, ching, everything costs extra. Um, but like I say, the the majority of the cost, I think it was $10,000 worth of options, went into the color of the paint and the PDK. There's a few other minor options, uh, but that was really about it. Oh, I went with the 18-way seats because I uh have problems with my back and I wanted to have uh lumbar support. But there are a couple options I definitely wish I would have gotten. So the first one was uh I don't know what Porsche calls it. A lot of car companies call it climate control. In other words, where you set the temperature and it's and then it the fan and the the temperature uh varies by itself. I just find it ridiculous to get into a hundred thousand dollar car and have to continually set the fans faster and slower and uh set the temperature up or down, colder or hotter. It just seems uh absolutely ridiculous. The other thing I wish I would have spec was uh keyless entry. Um pretty much all of our other cars except for my 67 Chev Chevy 2 have keyless entry. So what continually happens when I get into my spider, I get in, I do up the seat belt, and I go to start it, and I realize the key is still in my pocket. So I have to fish the key out and start it. I mean, it is kind of cool starting the car with the key on the left-hand side. I think that's cool anyway. But uh yeah, keyless entry would have been better. Now, there are a few things that I think definitely should have been included on this car. So, as I mentioned, I have the 18-way seats, which of course are power seats, but there's no memory function. So in my situation, my wife rarely drives the car, so it doesn't need a lot of uh adjustment of the seat. But like I say, I do track days, and when I do track days, I adjust the seat goes forward and the backrest goes back slightly, so I get the right angle. Um so it's there's a lot of fiddling around with that. So I definitely should have had a memory uh uh set up uh set up for that. The other thing that I I think that they really missed out on was um uh blind spot detection. So the car has a very small back window. Uh the rear three-quarter view isn't great. Um, but uh like I say, uh blind spot uh detection would help so much in terms of telling where things are. So you have to kind of anticipate it ahead of time. Now, one hack I found is that when you're on the freeway, um you can definitely hear cars in your blind spot before you can actually without even seeing them. So that is uh is a good thing and a bad thing. We'll talk about why it's a bad thing a little bit later when we're talking about noise and the convertible top. But um, but but that uh that uh definitely does help. It's kind of weird, but it does help. So the best you can do is you can adjust your mirrors as far out as possible so you don't see any of your fenders, your outside mirrors, and that definitely helps a lot. And on the passenger side, I did get a slightly convex mirror um that I switched out, and uh, and that does help too. And of course, I got paint protection film on the hood, the front bumper, the front fenders, the rockers, and up in front of the rear wheels, and even a small patch behind the rear wheels. And uh I think I paid a couple thousand dollars for that, and uh definitely, definitely money well spent. I mean, with the 22,000 miles and all the track days on my actually I had to put on my headlights too, now that I think about it. Um, but anyway, with uh the 22,000 miles and the track days that I've done, I'd have a lot of uh stone chips on the front if I didn't have that, that's for sure. And unfortunately, right now you can't purchase a brand new spider, um, so you can't uh spec it uh for yourself. But you know, I've always felt spec the car for yourself, don't spec it for resale value, and deal with resale when it comes. But if you were specing a spider from scratch right now, what would be the three options that would definitely be number one on your list? So no conversation about the 718 spider would be complete without talking about the convertible top. Yep, it's totally manual. Yep, it takes about 30 seconds or so to lower it or to raise it. Uh, yep, it can be a pain. Um, I mean, in terms of using it, if you're going out for the day and that kind of thing, and the way I use my car, um it really isn't much of a pain. Um, yeah, if I'm at a track day and it's raining and I need to get the stuff out of my car when I arrive, I have to unclip the back of the roof so I can open up the back trunk. And of course, water runs down into the back trunk. Um, so that's a pain. The roof comes back a little bit, water can come in because the windows also go down. Yeah, that's a pain. Uh so those are some of the things I didn't really think about uh that it would be a concern with this car before uh purchasing it. But like I say, it it those are the kinds of things you notice after 66 months. The other thing that I've noticed is uh if I'm doing some errands around town, driving around that kind of thing, uh going in and out of stores. Uh I I I might just leave the top up because I feel it's a little bit too vulnerable with the top down. And uh when I had my box dress before that, yeah, it wasn't a big deal. You as you're pulling into the the parking lot or whatever, you put the top up. As you're leaving, you put the top back down. You could do it several times a day, no problem. With the manual top, yeah, you think twice. Now there has been something that has surfaced uh not just with my car, but with a lot of cars, is that when the the convertible top folds on the 718 spider, there's a rivet or a joint of the mechanism for the top that actually rubs against the cloth on the inside of the roof. And some people have actually it's actually rubbed right through and it's actually caused a leak. So um it's something you have to be careful of. What can you do about it? Well, the best thing to do about it is you can put a little patch. Um I put I used uh Velcro, the fuzzy side of Velcro. I put a couple of uh Velcro pieces on there so that that uh that rivet or that joint will now rub against the Velcro instead of rubbing against the inside of my top. Sure, Porsche would uh replace that top uh if it happened under warranty, but the problem is the wear may begin while a car is under warranty, but it may not wear through until the car is out of warranty, and then you gotta pay to either patch, which would be horrible, or replace the whole top, which would be even more horrible. Now the weather sealing of the top is uh is terrific. There's no um there's no whistles, there's no water leaks, uh nothing like that. The top is fine that way. Um, like I say, but it is noisy. You hear a lot of ambient noise, trucks going by, you hear that through the top because it's really only one layer of cloth. My Boxster S had an insulated uh top that was several layers, and I didn't think this car would be that much worse in terms of noise getting into the car, but yeah, it definitely is. One of the advantages of this top compared to other convertible tops or retractable hard tops is you don't lose any trunk space as a result of the top being down. Um, well, I don't know if that's technically isn't true or not, and now that I think about it, because um when you open up the back trunk, there you can see the little cavity where the truth the top folds into. So theoretically you could use that space. It's not very practical, but it's there. But one of the best things about this top, especially compared to the uh Spider RS, is that this top is good for 180 miles an hour. So no problem taking this car on track days. So for a lot of people, the manual top on the 718 Spider has been a deal breaker. But what about you? Would that be a deal breaker for you? All right, let's talk about track days. So, as I mentioned, I do track this car 14, 15, uh 16 days a year, depending on the year. Uh, it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Now I track at most board or CTMP, which is a very fast track. I'm hitting over 140 miles per hour on the back street in that environment.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Um, I mean, when you get out on track with a car like this for the first time, you're just amazed at how it the car just transforms. From being on the street, sure it's lots of fun on the street and that kind of thing, but let's face it, we all there's speed limits everywhere. Um, you know, you can't drive it the way they're meant to be driven. I mean, I've driven Porsches in Germany, it's a whole different story there. But around here, yeah, no, there's uh there's uh deaf speed limit. But get it out on track when you get it whaling, when you get it whaling up that back street, hitting uh getting up to 140 miles per hour. Wow, that's just fantastic. But it's not just there, obviously, accelerating out of the corners. You know, to be honest, if I didn't do track days, I don't even know if I would um own this car, and I don't even know if I would even bother owning a Porsche. Um, just because um you just can't really experience them properly um out in the wild. Now, when it comes to the compatibility of using this car, now fortunately the track that I have has no restrictions about convertibles, but there are several tracks in North America that don't allow convertibles at all, so my car wouldn't be eligible. Um I as I mentioned earlier, I changed my driving position a little bit. Um I have I've maximized the um the uh the front uh camber uh negative 2.5 degrees, but I'm still getting lots of tire wear. So, like I say, I'm having some changes made to my front suspension uh to be able to get more camber on the on the front end. So again, to uh have the tire sit a little bit flatter, uh increase the grip, and minimize that tire wear. Definitely a project for this year. The other thing I'm looking at uh for this year is I'm looking at uh installing a Garmin catalyst, and I'll be doing a video on that actually coming up uh very soon. It's something that uh I've noticed a lot of students have. I'm an instructor at the Porsche Club of America, um, and I've noticed a lot more students have it. So I wanted to be a little bit more conversant about what it tells us, how it works, and it if it actually is a great teaching aid or not. And the TPMS system in this spider is uh is weird. Now it it the GT4 doesn't have this concern, and the GT3 doesn't have this concern, and I believe that the turbos don't have this concern, is that you can set off or somehow turn off the TPMS system. But in my car, because as of course the tires heat up during track day, um I have to keep dropping the the pressure or dropping the the pressure to normalize the pressure. Um but the TPMS uh system constantly tells me I've got flat tire or uh it's running, it's it's low or whatever. So it would be great to be able to turn that off, like you can, like I say, in the GT4s or the GT3s. So what about using the 718 Spider on track versus a 911? I personally have never driven a 911 on track, but I've been in lots of students uh with 911s. And you know, I mean, the reason I don't want it in a 9-11 is I just find the car too big. Um, and of course, every new generation it keeps getting bigger and bigger. So I find the 718 um cars and the 718 Spider. It's just the right size. So um, and you know, one of the weird things I find out about I find um when it comes to all 9-11s on track, with the windows down, anything above 100 miles an hour, you get so much buffeting. I mean, you can get some little optional things, um wings that uh go on uh to minimize that buffeting. But I just can't believe it why they would have that. It's it seems they should have fixed that a long time ago. But I tell you, once you get on that track and you get that car revving, uh red line in every gear, heading up to, like I say, that 140 mile an hour uh top speed that I hit on the back straight. Yeah, that's really, really cool. And everybody asks me about my scariest time ever on track. And uh so coming off that back straight, coming, slowing down from 140 miles an hour into To about a hundred mile an hour turn uh car, a couple cars ahead of me, blew its engine, and I think it was an older Cayman. And uh white smoke, I guess it would be white steam everywhere, literally driving into a cloud. You couldn't see two inches in front of your windshield, ahead of your or behind you, blue drove into this cloud. I mean, I kind of knew where I was going because I'd been on this track many, many times before. But what I didn't know was how many cars ahead of me had slowed down, how much they'd slowed down, and I didn't know the cars behind me. Did they slow down or did they slow down as much as I slowed down? Luckily, I made it through the cloud. I didn't hit the wall. Unfortunately, other people did hit the wall, but and then I carried on. Always keep in mind that um, you know, you can easily have a mishap on track that has no fault whatsoever of yours. So my car came from the factory with Michelin Cup 2 tires, fantastic tires, amazing grip in the dry and in the hot situation. They're just fantastic tires. But I changed mine out to uh Michelin uh pilot sport uh four S's. I just find that the four S's no, they don't have the grip uh the Cup 2s have, that's for sure, in the dry. But the problem is if it's wet or if it's cooler temperatures, uh anything below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, those Cup 2s are definitely a compromise. And again, because I'm in Canada and the temperatures here are lower, generally speaking, and we get more rain, especially at Canina Tire Motorsport Park. I don't know what's with that place, but it's not uncommon at all for the weather to change from dry to wet to kind of wet, kind of dry, back and forth, uh somewhat drying track, somewhat getting wet track, some corners, uh, just during the day. So because of that, I just found that the cup twos were just too much of a compromise. Yeah, they're great in the dry, but for me, the uh four S's are a much better choice. The other thing to consider, too, is that I get about, I think probably a whole year out of a set of uh four S's, whereas Cup twos, when I when I hear what some of the other guys are getting, they get about half that usage out of their cup twos on track. And cup twos are more expensive. So I mean you got to weigh that into the equation too. Is are cup twos really worth it for that little bit of extra traction? If they are to you, go for it. And by the way, what do I mean by when I say they're terrible in the wet? What I mean is um you don't have the traction. You just don't have the traction. And if it starts off cool in the morning and it's wet, yeah, you're either gonna be sitting out and waiting or you're gonna be driving very, very carefully. All right, let's talk about the uh Porsche dealership relationship. It's a long game. And what I mean by that is keep in mind a couple things is that uh Porsche dealers they make money when you buy a car, but they make more money when you service your car at the Porsche dealership. So what's happened, especially in recent years with allocations, getting allocations for GT cars like the 718 Spider, is the dealer's gonna want to sell a car to someone that's going to bring it back and to have it service there. They're also gonna want to sell it to someone that buys multiple Porsches there, which is uh pretty difficult for all of us. I know it's not it's not in the cards for me, that's for sure. That's why one of the reasons I like I like to keep my foot in the door with the dealership. Yeah, I know it's about 40% cheaper having the car serviced uh somewhere else. So what I do is like I say, once a year I have it serviced at the dealership, and then um other services throughout the year for tires, for having the brakes replaced and things like that. I go to an independent shop, pay the 40% less. But I'm keeping my foot in the door at that dealership, so I'm hopeful that if and when the time comes that I'm looking for another GT car um allocation for my Porsche dealer, I'll be able to get one. But you need to keep a close eye on that dealership. So one of the things I noticed is they have this minor service, basically an oil oil and filter change, and uh uh that the car needs once a year. So I wasn't looking too closely, and I realized when I started going over my bills for the last uh few years, that includes changing the windshield wipers at a hundred bucks. So does my did my car need new windshield wiper blades after 6,000 miles of summer only use? Absolutely not. In fact, you know what? I don't think I've even refilled my windshield washer reservoir since I bought the car. That's how little windshield washer fluid I've actually used uh with this car. So you need to keep an eye on them, that's for sure. All right, so let's talk about purchasing uh one of these cars. So, of course, they don't make any new um uh spiders anymore, 718 spiders, they don't make any new 718s anymore. Um, and uh even spider RS. There's a few new 2025s laying around at this point, uh, but generally you're looking at uh the used car market. So, I mean it's a trade-off. Um when I was purchasing my car, like I say, it was super difficult at getting an allocation, but now there are spiders for sale, they're out there. Yes, they're pretty much full retail, they're full what the original owner paid for them when they were new. That's what they're for sale for right now, because they're very much in demand. Um, so yeah, you are paying a lot of money for those cars, but you're not paying ADM. They're a used car. So now you have to make sure uh there's a few things you need to look for. You know, obviously you need to get a car fax, obviously need to get the car checked out um by a shop that um specializes in uh Porsches to make sure that uh the car is in good shape before you purchase it. Because keep in mind repairs, uh replacement parts are super expensive. Now, um you may want to go with one of the certified cars uh from the the Porsche dealerships. Yeah, that's gonna cost you more than a private deal, but uh you're also gonna get that warranty. And often you can even extend that warranty. You know, I mean, replacing the transmission or an engine in one of these cars uh is super, super expensive. And uh so as are a lot of other parts. So, you know, a few thousand dollars for a warranty isn't a bad idea at all. And of course, the other concern is trying to find a car that's a spec of something that you can live with. So, as I mentioned, a lot of cars were spec's very, very high because the dealers were requiring you to add $25,000 or $35,000 in options. So, you know, you're gonna be paying extra um for those cars. And there's very few cars that have a uh a minimal spec like mine. But be patient. You know, I just checked uh bring a trailer and auto trader today, and uh there definitely are spiders available. And as we get closer to spring, there'll be more and more out there. Yeah, the prices will be higher though. So, what kind of cost are you looking at? Yeah, somewhere between $110 and $140,000 for a reasonably equipped uh 718 spider. Of course, the spider RS's, yeah, that's gonna be a whole lot different story. And if you're concerned that the car's been used for track use or out of cross use, um, how do you know? Well, I guess uh there's a few things that you can check. The first thing is you can check for, like I say, significant uh outside wear on one of the front tires. Um, you can also check for things like um you can ask the owner. I mean, if you have access to the owner, you can ask them to see if they've used it uh that way. But the best way is actually is check the receipts. I mean, I wouldn't be buying one of these cars if you didn't get a full list of receipts and see how often they've had the oil changed and had the car serviced and that. But if they're doing PCA track days, they have to have it, um they have to have a track inspection done, and that would definitely be on their invoice. So um if you check through, you can see on there if they've had done track days and how many track days they've done. And if you feel comfortable with that, then you can decide where you go from there. The other thing to keep in mind with cars that have more options as opposed to less options, yeah, you're gonna get those options now at a discount compared to what the original owner um paid, um, but you're definitely gonna pay more for a car than without those options. And when it comes time for you to resell that car, again, you're gonna uh realize uh a smaller return on those options than someone that doesn't have pay extra for those options. So you're paying more, but they're gonna depreciate too. Keep that in mind, if it's important to you. So the three things you definitely need Carfax, PPI pre-purchase inspection by a Porsche shop, and to see those invoices. And if that perfect spec you find isn't a manual, is it a big deal going to PDK? I don't really think so. I don't think you'll be losing out much. Okay, let's talk about noise. This car is noisy. And that four-liter, 414 horsepower, naturally aspirated engine just loves to revs. And you know what? The sound when you rev that thing out, it's just plain amazing. But at low RPM, when you first start up the car, it sounds horrible. It's uh a raunchy, raspy kind of uh clickety clackety noise, and it uh just sounds awful. Yeah, once the car warms up a bit and you're out there driving, that goes away. But uh yeah, not a nice sound. And you know what? Um, the exhaust on this car is nowhere near as good sounding as it was with the 981 spider. Keep that in mind. If you if you think the uh this definitely doesn't have a nice sounding exhaust like a five-liter Mustang, that's for sure. But when you rev this thing out to 8,000 RPM, ideally on a racetrack, yeah, the sound is just amazing. And keep in mind this engine's right behind you. So with the top up or the top down, windows open or windows closed, you're definitely gonna hear it. I know of at least one owner that purchased one of these uh 718 spiders, waited for their allocation, finally got the car, had it for three months, and got rid of it and got a Boxster uh GTS instead. The reason being was the noise and dealing with that convertible top just wasn't worth it for them. So keep that in mind. It does have a sport exhaust, which you can turn on and off. And sure, uh I turn that sport exhaust on when I'm driving around town or driving on country roads and things like that. It's great. On the highway, yeah, I definitely uh turn that off. And I do turn the sport exhaust on whenever I'm tracking the car. And also the sport suspension. But reving up that back street at uh Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, um 7,600 to 8,000 RPM in every gear, heading to that 140 miles an hour. Wow, that's just a fantastic experience every lap. But using this car to commute or using this car for longer trips, which we'll talk about a little bit later. Yeah, the exhaust noise gets a little bit tiring. Okay, so let's talk about living with the 718 spider on a daily basis. You know, the reality check. So, I mean, you know, it the trunk it has two trunks, sure, but the trunks are very small and a very peculiar shape. So, I mean, you're definitely restricted with how long. I think it's something like 28 inches is the longest thing you can put in there, and it has to be of a certain size or a certain shape. So, I mean, you know you're giving that up, giving that up uh with a sports car, you know that. Um, you know, you're also not you're not gonna have all-wheel drive and all those uh kinds of things. Those are the things you know you're giving up. What are some of the things you don't know that you're giving up? Yeah, I do know that there are people out there, and I have had comments um on my uh five-year review video that people, this is their only car, it's their daily driver. And they get by. They use Uber when they need a bigger vehicle, or they rent a car if they're a vehicle if they're doing a building project, they need to pick up some stuff or those kinds of things, or they take a cab. Yeah, it definitely can be done. Is it the best way to use it? I don't think so. I mean, I don't drive all that much right now, but I have my GR Corolla, it's all-wheel drive. We have winter here in Canada, and uh so that's that's my daily driver. I enjoy the manual transmission, but this and the 1718 Spider is great for you know just fun drives, it's great for date night, it's also great for uh taking on the track. That's where it's uh it's suited best. Sure, I have taken it on a long road trip. We drove to Hershey, uh Pennsylvania back uh last year. It's a thousand miles round trip, and it was fine. Um, you know, um, like I say, you do hear cars in your blind spot, so it is noisy on uh in the interstate highways, that's for sure. We got to do some of the curvy roads in and around uh Pennsylvania, in and around the kind of mountains and hills, and uh that was very cool with the car, and it's great for something like that, but it's definitely not a commuter, you don't want it for commuting. Can you take it on grocery and Costco runs? Sure, I do it all the time, but you're not coming out with that big block of uh paper towels or toilet paper and things like that. Um, and you have to pack smart, you have to pack into all the little cubbies and that. Do I have enough space for going to the track days and staying for a weekend and taking everything I need? Yeah, absolutely. Except I can't take, you know, one of those big 10 by 10 tents uh to set up um uh where uh where we're uh located uh at uh trackside. Uh so I have to rely on some of my friends to sponge off them. Um but uh you know I have a little uh pup tent that I put my stuff in, and uh that seems to work fine, and there's more than enough room for two people going back and forth on the weekend, no problem. And my wife's perspective on the car, well, she just loves being seen in it. That seems to be her favorite thing. And uh so when we go for a drive, the first thing she always says, Well, you're gonna put the top down, aren't you? And uh so even if it's in the fall or even if it's in uh early spring, we're still a little bit cool and we've got the heater going on full blast. She loves to be seen in it, uh that's for sure. Do you have to be careful in parking lots? Absolutely. Uh speed bumps, yeah. Be very, very careful. Driveways that go up on the slope, yeah, you'll you'll scrape that uh front splitter. Have I? No. Strangely enough, I haven't scraped that uh front splitter yet. Um but uh but no, um, that's not great. And the other thing I definitely advise is uh if you're uh parking somewhere, back in. Um it definitely makes a difference for getting out. And uh the backup camera works uh really well. I don't have a front camera in my car, so I just find uh backing in is much, much safer. And whatever you do, don't back up over a curb because you'll definitely scrape that back diffuser. All right, for those of you that are considering purchasing a 718 Spider as your first Porsche, this is the bonus content that you really need to know about, and it's something that people just don't consider, and that is the Porsche Community and Porsche Club of America Club. It's an amazing club, and uh what I mean by that, the events that they host are just unbelievable. From like I'm at belong to Upper Canada region, which is based out of Toronto, and uh and they host events pretty much every weekend from spring right to fall, right through the summer. I mean, there's track days, uh at least uh two or three days a month. There's um uh cars and coffee, there's group drives, there's concourse, there's social events every month, there's all kinds of events. If you want to meet like-minded people, uh I mean, definitely the Porsche Club's there. And again, um I'm a track instructor for uh PCA, and uh and it's a great program. It's super, super inexpensive. Like the cost is uh less than it's about a quarter of what you pay for uh private track days. Instruction is included, and it's a very structured program, so it's very safe. Um I'm sure there's a lot of cars on the track at one time, but it's very safe and uh it's an amazing program. And you've you've access to instructors before you get signed off. You're you start off with an instructor uh for the first uh couple levels. Um, but you can use an instructor all the way through. You can have an instructor when you you are an instructor. We have instructor training trades, it's an amazing program. So I definitely encourage you not to underestimate that when you're considering a Porsche purchase. I know for me, I went from a Honda S2000, I went to my first uh Boxster S. And one of the reasons I went to it to getting a Porsche was because of the club, and I was definitely not disappointed. The club is just amazing. And yeah, the demographic is definitely on the older side. I'd say track days uh pretty much 50 plus, although we are getting some younger, obviously affluent uh people with brand new GT3s and January brand new GT3 RS. Uh, but like I say, it is uh definitely a little bit older crowd that uh belongs to the Porsche Club. And once a year they have Porsche Parade. This year it's in um Lake Placid. So actually I'll be there. So if you happen to be there, um look for uh a Miami Blue uh 718 Spider and say hi. And you know what? I think a lot of people, if they're on the fence between buying a Porsche or a Lotus or a Corvette, if you're thinking about tracking that car, you're definitely far better off going with the Porsche, just so that you have access to the Porsche Club. Because keep in mind, 95% of the cars at the Porsche uh track day events are Porsches. You might be surprised to hear that after five years and everything I've told you, I'm actually uh weighing some options about uh the future status of my 718 Spider. But I'll be talking more about that in the next video. And by the way, just in case you missed it, click here for my five year review of my 718 Spider, and I'll see you there. Any questions or comments? Add them down below.