CAR WARS! WHICH Is The BETTER Sports Car And WHY? Jaguar F-Type V6 S vs. Porsche Cayman GTS

The Jag is absolutely gorgeous outside. A bit boring inside. But I'd easily take the Porsche.

cant really imagine these two cars being cross shopped, the cayman seems much more a drivers car the jag, more in a league of the mercedes sl550.
on looks alone, the jag is nicer than porsche, but if you care about handling and the actual drive, porsche no doubt.

If you listened carefully to the video you would see that the handling advantage the Porsche has over the Jaguar is fairly small. The Jaguar handles far better than any Mercedes SL or SLK or BMW Z4. It has probably 95% of the handling capability of the Porsche. So really then the question is could most average drivers either tell or enjoy the difference? The answer has to be an emphatic NO. Most drivers would not know or be able to exploit the Cayman GTS handling advantage. So if you take that aspect of both cars away what do you have left? You have interior and exterior styling, Straightline performance, and a manual versus an automatic transmission. The Porsche is by know means a bad looking car. However the Jaguar is simply a much better looking car on the exterior. On the interior I think it's dashboard architecture is more interesting than the Porsche's. Quality wise Porsche has some slightly higher quality areas where the plastic is better than the Jaguar. Transmission The Porsche offers 2 options where the Jaguar offers only an automatic. Engine and performance from the video the Jag appears to sound better and appears to be a little quicker in a straightline. (however I will acknowledge that the Porsche had the manual transmission so perhaps it lost a performance edge). If you are an auto tester or a very skilled driver I think you have to pick the Porsche. It offers that last smidgen of handling involvement and fine tuned throttle metering. However if you are an average driver the Jaguar has to win. It's better looking, it performs slightly better, and offers an automatic transmission that most average people can handle.

A lot of good points. Certainly from an emotional standpoint, the Jag is a winner. The other area where a difference can be felt is weigh, especially if you like lighter weight cars. The Jag weighs in at over 450 lbs more, and as Sutcliffe states, you can really feel the added weight. I would also give nod to the Cayman for reliability.

@mini22 although I agree with most of your comments, there is also the feel of a car, how the controls all work and balance together, the interaction with the road, steering, seat of your pants and so on. Although Steve does not mention this much he does at points mention it and you do not have to be driving flat out to feel them. I have had the same quandary buying cars and those zillion little things that all come together to give a car that perfect feel, put me off buying a G37 Coupe years back (bought an M3 instead). Personally with two cars like this that are close in so many parameters but seem to have a different feel about them the best thing to do is drive them and see which feels best to you. Written with lots of feeling :)

In terms of feel there is another very important point that has not been mentioned. A mid engine or rear engine car is going to feel different than a front engine car. Even if the Jag lost 200 to 300 lbs it is still a front engine car. It will not have the pivot feel of a mid engine or rear engine car like the 911 or Cayman. The fact that the Jag is close to the Porsche in handling ability you really have to be an experienced driver to get that last 5% out of the Porsche. The average wealthy driver will not detect the difference. So therefore you have to make the choice based on all the other factors.

Difference is build quality. The Jag will fall apart well before the Porsche - but how many care about this these days, with changing cars so often, so much consumerist waste, so much 'fashion'? The Porsche will always be the superior car by far.