Buying a 987 Cayman

[Belle427]

Quite fancy one of these next, budget up to £20k but cant help thinking it would be better to buy slightly cheaper due to the borkage factor.

For example, car no 1: 2006 Cayman S 82000 miles with an engine rebuild at 78000 miles, £12995 ono. Not much info on other maintenance yet.
Car no 2: 2010 Cayman 2,9, 65000 miles, some key maintenance carried out such as new brakes, coolant pipes etc, £18995.

Im aware of the various engine issues etc and some say the 2.9 is the one to aim for but cant hep thinking you could save yourself almost £!0k by buying slightly older.
I do all the work on cars myself but costs do add up on these, would appreciate some info on which way you went if you did buy.
Head says to buy a car with all the work done but these are few and far between.

[trevalvole]

You may get a better response by posting in the Boxster/Cayman bit of the Porsche section.

[samoht]

As I see it you have three options
- buy an early car and budget for a proper rebuild
- buy an early car which has had a proper hartech rebuild
- buy a later car (987.2)

Personally I'd pick option two or three, as peace of mind is available and probably saves cost and hassle Vs option one
.

[VeeReihenmotor6]

samoht said:

As I see it you have three options
- buy an early car and budget for a proper rebuild
- buy an early car which has had a proper hartech rebuild
- buy a later car (987.2)

Personally I'd pick option two or three, as peace of mind is available and probably saves cost and hassle Vs option one
.

This.

I'd do option 2 or 3 too. Option 1 will never end well over the longer term. It costs £12-15k for a proper Hartech rebuild (if that's what you want) so you'll be out of pocket on mainteance + purchase price of option 1 if the engine does fail (probable imo).

Considering the Cayman is arguably a better driving car than the 911, and shares upwards of 85% of parts and architecture, the Cayman is an absolute bargain at sub £20k (i.e. 987.2 or .1 with a rebuild) for a relatively modern Porsche.

[Om]

samoht said:

As I see it you have three options
- buy an early car and budget for a proper rebuild
- buy an early car which has had a proper hartech rebuild
- buy a later car (987.2)

Personally I'd pick option two or three, as peace of mind is available and probably saves cost and hassle Vs option one
.

There is another variation on option 1 - buy a 987.1 2.7 that is unlikely to need a rebuild and by now, most of the other work will have been done.

[Belle427]

trevalvole said:

You may get a better response by posting in the Boxster/Cayman bit of the Porsche section.

Its a little slow in there hence posting here.

[Belle427]

987.2 makes most sense really with as much of the key maintenance work carried out as possible.
I think the engine size debate will rage on but personally id want at least a 2.9 even though the 2.7 is enough in the real world and probably represents the best value.

[SFTWend]

VeeReihenmotor6 said:

samoht said:

As I see it you have three options
- buy an early car and budget for a proper rebuild
- buy an early car which has had a proper hartech rebuild
- buy a later car (987.2)

Personally I'd pick option two or three, as peace of mind is available and probably saves cost and hassle Vs option one
.

This.

I'd do option 2 or 3 too. Option 1 will never end well over the longer term. It costs £12-15k for a proper Hartech rebuild (if that's what you want) so you'll be out of pocket on mainteance + purchase price of option 1 if the engine does fail (probable imo).

Considering the Cayman is arguably a better driving car than the 911, and shares upwards of 85% of parts and architecture, the Cayman is an absolute bargain at sub £20k (i.e. 987.2 or .1 with a rebuild) for a relatively modern Porsche.

I also agree.

The engine rebuilt car The OP mentioned sounds worthy of further investigation.

A higher mileage car with an engine rebuild will still have a price ceiling, because of the mileage. That's where the value is imo.

[maz8062]

I’d go with the S with the rebuild. With the engine out it likely would have a whole host of other work completed such as coolant pipes, water pump, clutch, IMS/RMS bearing, so you’d want to sight a build sheet if only to see what was done.

There’ll be a 30 bhp difference in power between the 2 and that’ll be noticeable.

[Belle427]

maz8062 said:

I’d go with the S with the rebuild. With the engine out it likely would have a whole host of other work completed such as coolant pipes, water pump, clutch, IMS/RMS bearing, so you’d want to sight a build sheet if only to see what was done.

There’ll be a 30 bhp difference in power between the 2 and that’ll be noticeable.

Yes would certainly need to know the full extent of the rebuild.