Buying first Cayman .... Stressful !!

[prestonchris]

Been trying to buy my first cayman for about 3 months now , good cars seem to go very quickly and being up north they are often down south so by the time I can get a day off work they have gone

Also prices seem to have gone up by about 1k since I started looking :-(

Anyway , manged to look at a 2.7 today

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

but it had a stone chip in the middle of the left wing very noticeable, say 3mm by 3mm ,two of the alloys had bubbles in them and the brakes which had supposedly just been fitted with new discs and pads seemed very spongy

was up for 16895 , so I let me head rule my heart and walked away , Am I being too picky ??

I would say the least I should be expecting the alloys to be near perfect ??

Cheers

[Dan911]

Too picky.

But there are a lot of vehicles out there! You need to remember the vehicle in question has done near 50,000 miles so a chip or two should not be the end of the world!!

Also, if you are not into your cars you might not know about getting wheels re furb'd!

Bid £16,000 and enjoy it.

[Dan911]

Plus the owner must like/look after the car.. the inside of the wheels are clean.

[toon10]

If it's a dealer then I'm sure you'd be able to negotiate a bit if you showed genuine interest. Getting the wheels refurbed is about what £50 - £60 per corner? Tell them you want the stone chip and wheels sorted. They might say no but might do something with the price to help.

I'm currently looking for a fun car to sit alongside the XC90 and this is the sort of budget I'mlooking at. I'm a bit scared of the cost of "Porsche bits" when it comes to servicing and wear and tear parts.

I'm also up North so I feel your pain trying to source the right car. Most of the cars I see that match what I'm after (Z4 coupe, 135i coupe, etc.) seem to start from the midlands down over! Hope you find something that suits.

[juansolo]

toon10 said:

I'm a bit scared of the cost of "Porsche bits" when it comes to servicing and wear and tear parts.

Servicing you just have to grin and bear if you ever want to sell it. No one will buy a car that doesn't have specialist or OPC stamps on it. It's approx £250 for a minor and £500 for a major, they alternate bi-annually so over a 4 year period it actually works out at £187.50 a year. Which is about the going rate of most modern cars. Still think it's a rip off, but there's nothing you can do.

Parts, depends what it is. I was quoted at said specialist £800 to swap the brakes, it's knocking on a grand from an OPC. I got the brakes (full set of pads and front discs, rear discs were ok) for under £200 and did it myself. Piece of piss job. Some rear arb bushes were £35 and took all of 10 mins to swap.

However, I did have a A/C pipe let go that was in a particularly awkward place. £200 for the pipe and another £240 to fit it from a local garage (it was a proper bd of a job). That smarted a little. Also I'll be fitting new tyres tomorrow so expect another £650 or so for those.

It's been an expensive year. But that said, I've had it 5 years (car is 7yo) and this is the first time it's really cost me anything, and it's mostly been consumables that have all arrived at once. The only anomalies being the A/C pipe and the SPP amplifier packing up (£100 repair from a Bergvil FX in Norway). In realistic terms my Impreza cost me a hell of a lot more to run and I'd put it along side any modern car in terms of costs. Indeed it's a lot cheaper in a lot of respects. Insurance for me is comically cheap for example and it's not like it does bugger all to the gallon either.

Good cars if you buy wisely and look after it similarly.


OP, FWIW, if it's been used, it'll have stone chips. It's a low sports car, they all do that sir. Spongy pedal will likely be the brakes needing bleeding. It's not the end of the world and hardly a fault, it just needs doing at the next service. Though also bear in mind that they need a bit more shove than modern over-servoed brakes, so can take some adjusting to if that's what you're used to.

Edited by juansolo on Tuesday 7th July 16:24

[kingston12]

prestonchris said:

Been trying to buy my first cayman for about 3 months now , good cars seem to go very quickly and being up north they are often down south so by the time I can get a day off work they have gone

Also prices seem to have gone up by about 1k since I started looking :-(

Anyway , manged to look at a 2.7 today

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

but it had a stone chip in the middle of the left wing very noticeable, say 3mm by 3mm ,two of the alloys had bubbles in them and the brakes which had supposedly just been fitted with new discs and pads seemed very spongy

was up for 16895 , so I let me head rule my heart and walked away , Am I being too picky ??

I would say the least I should be expecting the alloys to be near perfect ??

Cheers

You probably need to drive a few first to see find out how picky you can be.

In terms of stone chips, I personally would rather have it sorted myself by someone I trust rather than the risk of a bodge-job by someone trying to cover it up quickly to sell it.

As for the brakes, what type of cars are you used to? These cars have quite progressive brakes, not like the "all or nothing" systems in BMWs or Golfs. They won't inspire confidence if you are coming from one of those cars and don't put your foot down a bit harder when braking. That said, the action from the pedal should still feel good. Was the invoice for the brakes available?

I am guessing the stone chips are on the rear wheels? Mine started to bubble as soon as the car came out of it's original warranty. It seems unavoidable with these as they just seem like stone chip magnets. My car wants for nothing in general, but the one thing I haven't done is refurb'd the rear wheels because I am convinced they would just end up as bad very quickly. That said, I probably would have them done if I was looking to sell!

[Trev450]

OP - as already mentioned you are being too picky for what is ultimately an eight year old car with close to 50K miles on it. If its the area around the valves that's bad on the wheels then this is fairly common with this particular type of wheel.

You could also consider paying a holding deposit by credit card for anything you are interested in but can't get to view straight away. I did this prior to purchasing mine on the clear understanding that if the car wasn't exactly as described, my deposit would be refunded in full.

[gilliambot]

I second what the above comment says regarding brakes. I just bought a golf, and on the test drive I could not believe what the brakes are like you barely touch them and the car comes screeching to a hault! What you might be mistaking for 'spongy' brakes is in fact a much greater control over the breaking of your car. *Just something to bare in mind*.

[prestonchris]

Stone Chip



2 wheels like this



I said most I would pay was 16k and he wasn't interested , wanted pretty much list price ,

Don't really want a touch up job on a stone chip on top of the front wing , I'd want the whole wing doing

so that including the alloys would take it over 17K

To be honest I want to buy the car then not have to worry about getting things done correctly , just adds more stress !! ha ha

I drive a BMW 3 series and when I got into my car the brakes felt much better , the Porsche did seem to be taking a long distance to slow down unless a floored the brakes

Its the first one i've drove , driving another on thursday , so will be good to compare


I'll just buy a focus !

Edited by prestonchris on Tuesday 7th July 18:52

[andymc]

you're being unrealistic mate

[kingston12]

That is pretty common on the wheels although mine went more around the spokes because of stone chips.

Brakes understandable if coming from a BMW . It will be interesting to see what you think of the next one as that will tell you whether it is actually faulty or not. When I get into the Zipcar 1 series that I use from time to time I always spent the first few minutes almost putting my head through the windscreen when stopping at junctions.

Don't be disheartened, there are a lot of good ones out there, and they don't seem to command much stronger money than the average ones.

Being PH, these are seen by many as quite basic, entry level sports cars, but you'd be surprised how many of the wider population consider these quite a special car and keep them in the same sort of fettle that a lot of PHers would reserve for something worth well into six figures.

As said above, when you are looking at cars approaching a decade old, you are still going to find more bad than good if you have high standards.

Edited by kingston12 on Wednesday 8th July 14:02

[Megaflow]

juansolo said:

Servicing you just have to grin and bear if you ever want to sell it. No one will buy a car that doesn't have specialist or OPC stamps on it. It's approx £250 for a minor and £500 for a major, they alternate bi-annually so over a 4 year period it actually works out at £187.50 a year. Which is about the going rate of most modern cars. Still think it's a rip off, but there's nothing you can do

Is that true?

I'm looking at swapping the Elise for a Cayman next year, I do all my own servicing, always have done. Not because I can save money, but because I believe I do a better job.

All the service work is back up with receipts, service sheets created from the manufacturers schedule etc.

[juansolo]

Ask the OP

[Beanoir]

I think thats overpriced, my Cayman S sold for less than 15k (after 6 months advertised) and had same mileage and better spec, I don't blame the OP for being picky to be honest, I wouldn't pay that price for that car.

[Shaoxter]

For this particular example I don't think you're being too picky, I wouldn't pay £17k for that either.

Plenty more fish in the sea, a quick look on AT gives you these:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

[Klippie]

I'd concentrate more on the mechanical parts being sound over the cosmetic looks, paint chips, dings and wheels are easily fixed.

My 2009 CS had dents and a few paint issues but I still handed over more than 30K in a private sale as the potential of the car was so good, it cost less than £500 to get it mint.

Good luck in your search...

[nckr55]

kingston12 said:

..............

As for the brakes, what type of cars are you used to? These cars have quite progressive brakes, not like the "all or nothing" systems in BMWs or Golfs. They won't inspire confidence if you are coming from one of those cars and don't put your foot down a bit harder when braking. That said, the action from the pedal should still feel good. Was the invoice for the brakes available?

................

I can empathise with this. Hopping between two cars (I kept my Cooper S for school run duties when I got my Cayman last year), the hardest thing to adjust to was the brakes. They felt (in comparison to other, more heavily servoed set-ups) like they weren't very good. Transpires they are fantastic - just designed to be very progressive. In the context of their designed ability to repeatedly slow the car from three figure speeds, the ability they offer to accurately moderate them is pretty impressive, IMO.

I too faced the challenge of being seemingly at the other end of the country from all the cars that fitted my search criteria. Not being the most patient person, I predictably did what I've done for the last 3 or 4 cars I've bought - and paid top dollar for a car within 5 miles of my house...
<shakes head sheepishly>

I ended up buying a car from the local OPC, though - so got the peace of mind that comes with 2 years warranty.

Now, however, facing the same challenge as I want to switch out of the Mini & Cayman into a late 996 or early 997....

[AndrewsCayman]

I drive a 3 series most of the time, when I get in the Cayman I usually have to adjust to the brakes fairly quickly at the end of our road! Less servo assistance so a firmer shove on the pedal is required.

I've just had ChipsAway sort out a one foot long scratch on the rear wing for £216 and it's completely invisible now. There's no need to get a whole front wing sprayed for the sake of a stone chip IMHO. The technology they use is amazing in achieving the exact paint match. He found a Hyundai yellow was a closer match to the 8 year old paint than the original Porsche yellow!

I bought this Cayman from the OPC a year ago and paid a lot more than your budget, but I think I've had my money's worth out of the warranty already. That's why I paid the OPC premium originally.

[prestonchris]

Finally Bought this yesterday

1 prev owner , all Porsche main dealer history , not a mark on it , all alloys spotless

very happy !!

[Trev450]

Congrats. Looks a nice car. What's the spec?