High Mile Club | £10k Porsche Cayman S
There are plenty of reasons not to buy a leggy 987 - though it's hard to recall them at this money
Getting on for four years ago, we featured a £10k 987 Cayman S as a Brave Pill - the bravery bit attributed to a six-figure mileage that started with a two. In fact, at the time of writing, it was the leggiest car ever to require medication. This one, in contrast, has come to rest at a far more modest 153,000 miles - an amount apparently accrued by just one owner at an average rate (the selling dealer helpfully points out) of 8,500 miles a year.
And why wouldn’t you? While many Caymans (and Boxsters) tend to fit most people’s idea of a second car, they are an entirely reasonable solution to everyday driving - assuming you haven’t got a wardrobe to continually move around or more than one passenger to regularly accommodate. Obviously you’ll need to make allowances for owning a naturally aspirated flat-six, present here in its larger 3.4-litre format, which will develop a thirst commensurate with your enthusiasm. But you needn’t give it death every waking minute.
Admittedly, in fine, summery weather, this can be tough. No iteration of Cayman was objectively unpleasant to drive, but Porsche really began to hit its stride after 2007 when both engines were upgraded. True enough, the mid-life facelift in 2009 delivered a significant upgrade (the S earning direct injection), but the 295hp available to the 987.1 felt like plenty - not least because it powered a mid-engine coupe that weighed less than 1,400kg.
With the six-speed manual (which is the transmission you obviously want), you ought to encounter the national limit in a shade under five-and-a-half seconds - i.e. the perfect amount of time for your Cayman to seem satisfyingly brisk without overly taxing your neck muscles. At any rate, the real satisfaction is not going in a straight line, but around corners, where the 987 (and indeed, every generation of the coupe) is as lithe as a professional belly dancer.
That the Cayman is no more probably has little bearing on the lower end of the used market, although it’s notable that in the four years since the aforementioned Brave Pill, £10k still represents the lowest rung on the valuation ladder - or it does this week anyway. The Porsche Boxster, of course, courtesy of its earlier 986 variant, can be had for a lot less than that. But for now, it seems like the coupe has plateaued out at a whisker under five figures.
Even allowing for all the usual provisos that come with buying cheap Porsches, that does seem like a very reasonable amount of cash for one of the great sports cars of the 21st century - especially a well specced one that is said to boast a ‘good’ Porsche specialist service history and a brand-new, apparently advisory-free MOT. ‘This lovely Cayman will make some lucky person very happy at this money,’ announces the vendor. ‘It’s the price of a Corsa’. Hard to disagree with any of that.
be interesting to see what the service history and repairs for wear n tear is like. for 10K it would be very tempting.
Probably easily DiYable so could get away with just parts.
However given the mileage on this one, doesn't that suggest that it is possible with a little care and attention to servicing, and caution as to how it's driven, warmed up and cooled down, to get high mileages out of them without an inevitable rebuild?
However given the mileage on this one, doesn't that suggest that it is possible with a little care and attention to servicing, and caution as to how it's driven, warmed up and cooled down, to get high mileages out of them without an inevitable rebuild?
In any case, they can and do score even when treated with great care.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff