Latest / Performance Car Ownership with Gary / 6 REASONS WHY I PREFER TO DAILY DRIVE MY GR COROLLA OVER MY PORSCHE 718 SPYDER!

Transcript

6 REASONS WHY I PREFER TO DAILY DRIVE MY GR COROLLA OVER MY PORSCHE 718 SPYDER! · Performance Car Ownership with Gary

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And gives me a big smile every day I drive it.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: That would be the ultimate daily.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm driving my Porsche 718 Spider and it's not a manual, it's a PDK automatic.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I also own a Toyota GR Corolla, which is a manual.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if you asked me six years ago which one I'd prefer to drive every single day, you know, I would have laughed at you.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the truth that nobody in this hobby wants to shout out loud.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: My$40,000 Toyota is a better, more fun daily driver than my six-figure Porsche, this Porsche.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Not a better car, mind you, a better daily.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And by the end of this video, you're going to understand exactly why and which one of these two philosophies actually fits your lifestyle.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in case you don't know, I'm a PCA national track instructor.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've been driving manual transmission cars for over 50 years, and I own both of these cars outright.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's no sponsor, no dealer relationship, nothing but my own money and my own opinion.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, a couple of these are obvious, but you know, let's get into it.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now before anyone who accuses me of Porsche regret, stop right there.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Spider is, without question, one of the greatest driver's cars Porsche has ever built.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I track it six weekends a year at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've instructed dozens of students and even a few in cars just like this one.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now when I'm out driving this car top-down, engine right behind your head, screaming to 8,000 RPM, there's nothing that touches it for excitement on a track day or a fun Sunday morning spirited drive.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now this video isn't about which car is better.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's about which car I reach for on a Tuesday morning running errands in the sun, rain, or snow with a trunk full of groceries or you know, building supplies, and why that answer might actually surprise you.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, and this is the one that surprises uh people the most, is uh my you know, my GR Corolla is a manual.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I'll explain a little bit later why I didn't get a manual in my spider.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, in my GR Corolla, every single upshift, every single downshift, or at every light, I'm engaged.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm shifting gears and working the clutch.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm heel and toeing into that roundabout.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm making every gear change a decision.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's an old saying in this hobby, it's a lot more fun to drive a slow car fast than it is a fast car slow.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, the GR Corolla really exemplifies that whole premise.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: On a public road, at legal speeds, or you know, or maybe a little above in traffic, that's exactly what's happening.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: My GR Corolla is begging me to use every single one of its 300 horsepower.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: My spider at the same speed, you know, it's not barely breathing hard at all.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: One of those experiences is fun, and the other, well, unfortunately, it's just transportation to doing something fun, like a track day or a deserted twisty road.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, reason number two, and that's parking lot stress.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: My spider sits a little more than three inches off the ground with a splitter that, although I've been very careful, I've already scraped it once.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Every parking lot, every steep driveway, you know, every mall ramp is a calculation.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: With a GR Corolla, you know, I don't even think about it because its ground clearance is two inches higher than the spiders, and the the front splitter is two inches higher than the spiders.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: I pull in, I park, I walk away.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: That mental tax while doing you know menial tasks adds up every single day.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And let's not forget the rear three-quarter visibility from the spider.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, it's marginal at best.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you're working your way through traffic, the GR's better visibility makes it so much less stressful, you know, in that kind of a situation.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Reason number three is space, right?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh now don't laugh, because this one's this one actually matters, you know.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: The spider has no back seat and two trunks that you can, you know, it can hold some soft, flexible type bags.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing bigger than uh uh 45 inches long, and that if something is 45 inches long, it better be really narrow.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can fit two carry-on bags in the front trunk and maybe one set of golf clubs in the back trunk.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now the crowlers back seat, it folds flat, so it'll easily swallow those two carry-on bags and two full-size suitcases in the back.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you're heading to the airport, no problem at all.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Back seats are small, but at least you've got back seats in the case of emergency.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: All groceries, as well as our monthly uh Costco purchases, small lumber pieces, hardware for home projects, you know, and it'll actually fit all four of my wheels when it's time to change over to my snow tires.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: But if you need to carry a tire or a wheel in your spider, you better make sure it's one of the front tires and your passenger's walking.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: A couple years ago, I needed to pick up a new desk for my KEA that's about 100 miles away.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this desk is 32 inches by 62 inches in size, and uh you know that's nothing for a uh a normal size SUV to bring home, but for a sporty performance car like this GR Corolla, it was great to be able to do that.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I went and I picked it up, no problem.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it had enough room uh for the the top of the desk.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now I did have to take it out of the box, but um there was enough room for the desk, the the legs, everything that uh that came with it, and we still had enough room to stop in on the way back to Costco and pick up our monthly purchases.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: No problem.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Folding that back seat down gives you lots of space.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I wouldn't even think of trying something like that in my 718 Spider with a frunk about the size of a uh a cooler, and the back uh trunk is so flat and so uh such weird uh dimensions, there's no way you can fit anything like that in there.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't even try.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing about uh daily driving.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about that one glamorous drive on a Sunday morning, it's about finding driving fun, doing a hundred boring errands in between.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the GR Corolla just quietly handles all of them without complaint and gives me a big smile every day I drive it in the process.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And reason number four is one that really matters a lot for me where I live is the winter.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now we get long, brutal Canadian winters.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: The spider gets parked in storage.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's rear drive, it's low, and frankly, you know what, I'm not subjecting it to all the wear and tear those winter atrocities bring.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: My GR Corolla has GR4, all-wheel drive, and real ground clearance.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Come no matter what winter brings, it just goes through it.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Dedicated ice and snow tires.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So when it comes to snow slush ice, you know it it just doesn't care.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's not a small thing.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, this all-wheel drive GR Corolla is an absolute hoot to drive in the snow and on those slippery roads.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind for me, that's one-third of the year where one of these cars just simply isn't an option and the other one is my only option.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, reason number five before I sold my businesses, this GR Corolla was actually my company car.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can easily justify the GR Corolla as a company car due to its practicality in terms of uh space and cost, which maybe it'd be extremely difficult to justify that with something like 718 Spider.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: That way you enjoy your performance hot hatch while you're on the road for work and commuting to and from the office.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, if you could justify a 718 Spider as your company car, you might have some explaining to do about your pricing when visiting your customers with that 718 Spider.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, number six, let's talk dollars, US dollars, because this is where the gap gets even bigger.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Currently, my GR Corolla Circuit Edition 2023 is worth about$35,000 versus$110,000 for my 718 Spider.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: That you know that's a huge gap.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: But consider too that my GR Corolla is depreciating while my spider is actually appreciating.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to insurance, believe it or not, I'm actually paying about the same for my GR Corolla as I am for my 718 Spider.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, my 718 Spider only have insured for about eight months of the year, but uh for the GR Corolla it works out to about$960 a year.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: The fuel costs, surprisingly, they both use premium.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Although for the spider it's 94 octane when I can find it, versus the 91 octane I typically use in the GR Corolla, which saves me about 30 cents a gallon.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: But again, strangely enough, they both get exactly the same fuel consumption of about 21 miles per gallon, except when I've got that spider on track, of course.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: A set of tires for my GR Corolla are about$1,000 for a set of 4 of the Michelin Pilot 4S, while my Spiders Pilot Sport 4S run about$1,716.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on my original GR Corolla tires after 20,000 miles, which share their workload with my snow tires.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: But those summer tires look like they'll last another 10,000 miles, uh, no problem.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the tires on my spider, well, they get replaced every single year.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're significantly affected by those 15 or so track days per year on that car.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: The GR Corolla is not used for track days.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's just not suitable for that purpose.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: A simple oil and filter change at the dealership for my GR Corolla is about$160, versus the$488 I pay for a simple oil change on my Porsche.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: The GR Corolla isn't just cheaper to buy, it's dramatically cheaper to live with.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Although the appreciation on my spider definitely helps offset some of its higher costs.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's before we talk about the effect on the depreciation that we'd experience as a result of the wear and tear on my Porsche's splitter, paint, or interior when being used as a daily instead of a weekend fun drive and you know track car.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now let me be very clear because I don't want a single comment calling this Porsche Regret.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely not.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Take both of these cars to a track day and the GR Corolla, you know, just isn't the it just isn't even in the same conversation.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not even close.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: The spider is a mid-engine, naturally aspirated, top-down weapon.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's frankly a shame if an owner never takes one of these to a circuit.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it was built for.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: When you're out there top-down, no rain, empty road ahead, there is no version of the GR Corolla that replicates that feeling.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: The engine note behind your head, the way it changes direction, the way it makes you feel, like a better driver than you actually are.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's not something a daily driver conversation can touch.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: This car earns its place in my garage every single lap, thinking about it, being on track.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my honest verdict.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Best daily and best car are not the same question.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: And anyone who tells you they are hasn't owned both a hot hatch like the GR Corolla and a Porsche at the same time.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: My GR Corolla wins the daily grind, the commute, the winter, the parking lot, the hardware store run, because it's engaging, it's practical, and it's cheaper to live with, but still lots of fun when used that way.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: To be honest, it's more of a consumable.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: A fun and engaging car, but a consumable nonetheless.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: My spider wins everything else.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: The track day, the fun, twisty roads, the Sunday with the top-down, because some experiences simply cannot be replaced by a practical car, no matter how much fun that practical car is.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: My spider is definitely a keeper.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now both of these cars are special.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're just special in completely different ways for completely different purposes.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so who should actually daily a car like the GR Corolla instead of their sports car?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you live somewhere with real winters like I do, if you value a manual, you can row through the gears every single day without worrying about track wear, or if your fun car would rack up some stone chips and splitter scrapes on your commute, daily the practical car and save the special car for the days it deserves.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And who should keep daily driving their sports car?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you live somewhere with mild weather year-round, if ground clearance and cargo space generally don't factor into your life, or if the emotional payoff of driving something special every day outweighs the cost and the stress, that's a completely valid choice too, believe me.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: That would be the ultimate daily situation for a spider like this.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's no wrong answer here, just your answer.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're curious about what three years and 20,000 miles has done to my GR Corolla, that update video is coming very soon.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure you've liked this video and you're subscribed so you don't miss it.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: My 718 Spider, I chose Porsche's PDK Automatic over the manual for two huge reasons.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: One, the manual gear ratios are way too high for driving in North America.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So you spend very little of your time actually shifting that manual transmission while driving, which of course that's where the fun is, right?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind that just because it's a manual doesn't automatically mean it's more fun to drive.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: The gear ratio choice makes all the difference.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: The closer ratios of the GR Corolla make it more fun to row through the gears than a 718 Spider.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And secondly, when equipped with the PDK transmission, the 718 Spider accelerates much more quickly and is faster, especially on track.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, since I tracked my 718 Spider, that PDK automatic transmission was the best choice for me.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you want the full breakdown of what it's actually cost me in my five years of ownership of my 718 Spider, click this link over here.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's got my five year review video where I break down all the costs and what it's actually like to live with one of these, and I'll see you there.