[ChkbookMechanic]

I drove all three before deciding to buy my '84 911 and the order I'd rank them for daily commuting is this:

(1) Cayman S
(2) Corvette w/ Z51
(2) Corvette Z06
(3) Elise

First off, I'm a tall, lanky person - 6'3" and 180lbs, so I was looking for something that would be comfortable if I had to drive it around on a daily basis when my current DD was in the shop.

That right there knocked the Elise out of the running. I loved it, it is an awesome car, but the folding myself into it just wasn't fun and I figured I wasn't going to want to do that on a daily - or even weekly basis. Also, after talking to a few of the owners I was told to stay far, far away from them because their build quality was less than that of a kit car after owning it for a few years. One of the owners dumped his Elise for a 500hp turbocharged S2K (go figure).

Now, the Cayman S and the Z06 were neck in neck. Had the Porsche dealer been able to give me what I wanted on my trade-in I'd be driving a Cayman S right now. However, it didn't happen, so I expanded my search to include the Elise and the new Corvettes. The Cayman S handles like a dream, is comfortable, fast and something I could drive on a daily basis. I loved everything about it except the price and that it could use more hp (but what doesn't?).

The normal corvette with Z51 package is stupid fast and handle way better than you'd expect - the Z06 is basically a Corvette turned up to 11. I drove it and it is one of the only cars that really, truly scared me with how fast and nimble it really is. People might knock the interior but I found it fine. It was comfortable, controls were where you expected them to be and I could find a good position to drive it. Then for the price there is nothing even close to it performance-wise. However, as a fun car and occasional daily drive I think the 'vette w/ Z51 package is the better deal - it isn't that much slower than the Z06 and it is loads cheaper. Like the Porsche dealers, the Corvette dealers couldn't give me what I wanted on the trade-in so I decided to wait and see what I wanted once I sold my MX-5.

I ended up selling the MX-5 for $2k over what I wanted from the dealers (both the dealers were $500 less than what I wanted) and decided to look at air-cooled 911s and ended up buying one of them, figuring I was buying something to run on the track, be reliable and that I could tinker on without breaking the bank having someone repair it for me. However, if I were buying new (or slightly used) I would definitely look really, really hard at the Corvette w/ Z51 and Cayman S.