The base 718 is the only modern Porsche that gets quieter the more you spend on it. That's not a joke about exhaust volume — it's what happens when you write a $70K+ check and the car that pulls up next to you at Cars and Coffee is a 20-year-old 987 that sounds more expensive. The 2.0T flat-four makes 300hp and it is genuinely quick. Nobody serious argues that. The problem is what the window sticker does after you leave the base config: PDK, PASM, Sport Chrono, Bose, the seats you actually want, and suddenly the "entry" Cayman is sitting on top of clean GTS 4.0 money. Porsche knew. That's why the flat-six came back in the GTS 4.0 at 394hp and the GT4 at 414 — not because the four was broken, but because the market told them exactly what it thought of it, in resale numbers. Base 718s take the hit. Six-cylinder cars don't, in a way that makes the depreciation math on the four look like a rental agreement. So here's the actual fork in the road, and it's not obvious. Do you buy the loade...