Bought my first Porsche last year, after much shopping around I settled on a 981 Cayman with the 2.7.

For the money i'd say these are the sweet spot of Porsche ownership right now, they have the NA flat 6, are modern enough to be used all the time and don't cost the earth to run.

I went for a manual car although I tried a PDK and that was brilliant too.

I've covered over 10,000 miles in mine over the last year including a 1600 mile road trip around Ireland and numerous track days. The car is super practical thanks to the 2 boots, I even used mine to move my Mrs out of Uni!

Mines recently been through its 70k major service (fluids,filters,plugs,aux belts) at a local indy which came in just under £1000. Also just had some new rear tyres which came in at £600 for the pair.

A 987.2 with the 2.9 is also another option (The gen 2 solved the engine issues the 987.1 could suffer with) but I found that being 6"4 they were much too small inside compared to the 981. I did also consider the 4 pot 718 but the engine noise just wasn't what I wanted.

My only real criticism of the 981 are the steering lacks some feel and the gearing is far too long, but apart from that it's a corking sportscar that has all the performance you need for a UK back road.