Buying Advice - 987.1 2.7 Cayman
Discussion
Guys,
I'm getting closer to the point of buying a 987.1 2.7 Cayman. I have a much-loved 944 S2 at the mo but live in central London so the ULEZ will hit me hard and I need to change. Most of my travel is by bike, the car is used a couple of times a week for short journeys but also has occasional very long journeys out of town and across Europe. Other options considered were the MX5 (bit small), GT86 (struggling to love it, bit slow) and the BMW i3 (limited for longer journeys, marmite looks).
I've done the research and it seems that the 2.7 Cayman is the sweet spot; lower tax, less risk of RMS failure, bore score or IMS bearing giving up, slightly better MPG and a lovely engine to boot (I'll add that I have yet to drive one). It is likely that whatever car I buy I will own for the coming 10 years and probably do 100,000+ miles in, so I am happy to hunt long and hard for a good one. I maintain my cars myself and will be getting the spanners out when necessary, so have questions about self-maintenance and the practicalities of this.
I have a couple of questions, regarding things as disparate as maintenance and options and colours - the latter as I am struggling to find information about what was available when new on t'interweb. They are as follows;
- Cars around my budget (£10-14k) seem to be around the 70-90k mile mark. I know this is a stupidly vague question but how long could a clutch be expected to last on a car like this? And is changing one a realistic DIY option without a garage? (I did the clutch on my 944 myself but that was a bit beyond what I was comfortable with and wouldn't choose to do it again).
- The other biggie that gets mentioned is suspension. I am picky about how my cars drive so I would consider something that is tired and putting new suspension parts on. It seems that this is a fairly easy DIY job although there is no single good source of maintenance guides around. Where do people go for instructions on doing this sort of thing?
- Seats. I understand the difference between sports seats and standard seats but sometimes I see cars with alcantara(-alike) squabs, like this;
Was this an optional extra or was it the base-option and people would have had to pay more to have the full-leather seat?
- Dashboards. Some 987's seem to have a screen and some number keys in their dashboard, like this;
Am I right in thinking this is a sat-nav and telephone-connection option from new? If so I presume it is very dated now and maybe one to avoid.
- HiFi. Some cars seem to have a few different audio options - '2.1' and 'Bose' being mentioned occasionally. Are these any good and worth paying for? My initial thought is to replace any existing HiFi with a more modern bluetooth device, a decent amp and some better speakers but if some of the factory-fit stuff is good then I'll save the hassle. Alternatively, if the factory-fit stuff is universally pants then I won't seek out a car with it on. If I did put aftermarket stuff in then I would end up with something like this:
... which seems to be fairly common so can't be that hard to do.
- PASM. I believe this stands for Porsche Active Suspension Management (i.e. trick dampers). I'll probably be running small wheels as everyone tells me the cars are better to drive on 17's and see PASM as being an expense I can do without in the long-term as it makes new dampers more expensive. Is this short-sighted?
- PSM. Porsche Stability Management. All I know about this is that I had a Boxster with this option on as a courtesy car for 6 weeks about 10 years ago and it had PSM on, and the garage who loaned me the car asked me very politely never to turn it off as I would be sure to crash and die. I also know that the car nannied me more than I liked; if you pushed it hard into a bend you could feel the inside rear brake coming on to bring everything back to where it should be, for example. I presume this was the PSM doing its stuff? I also presume that I wouldn't have crashed and died had I turned it off, although I didn't do so (I stuck to the old-fashioned notion that if the owner of a car asks you nicely not to do something then you shouldn't.)
If both of these assumptions are true then I'll probably give the PSM a miss in the same way as I'll give the PASM a miss. Again, is this foolish?
- Colours. I want a car with some colour but everything (everything!) is black or silver, and almost always with a black interior. Why did everyone specify their Cayman's to be such boring colours? I know all the advice about not choosing a second-hand car on the basis of colour but I will NOT buy a black-on-black car if I can possibly help it ....
Are there any other options I should be considering? I am aware of the desirability of the extended leather option but this seems to be rare in the 987.1 non-S Caymans. It would be nice to have this but I suspect that holding out for it would mean I could be waiting a LONG time for my ideal car to be available. Other things like red seat belts, colour-coded interior bits, crests on the headrests, coloured dial faces and so on I am happy to take or leave.
Additionally, I have come across a number of buyers guides to these cars but none seem to be very detailed. If you good folks know of a really good one then do let me know.
All help, advice and comments very welcome - thanks. And if these questions are easily answered with some links to threads where it has all been covered before then please do let me know.
I'm getting closer to the point of buying a 987.1 2.7 Cayman. I have a much-loved 944 S2 at the mo but live in central London so the ULEZ will hit me hard and I need to change. Most of my travel is by bike, the car is used a couple of times a week for short journeys but also has occasional very long journeys out of town and across Europe. Other options considered were the MX5 (bit small), GT86 (struggling to love it, bit slow) and the BMW i3 (limited for longer journeys, marmite looks).
I've done the research and it seems that the 2.7 Cayman is the sweet spot; lower tax, less risk of RMS failure, bore score or IMS bearing giving up, slightly better MPG and a lovely engine to boot (I'll add that I have yet to drive one). It is likely that whatever car I buy I will own for the coming 10 years and probably do 100,000+ miles in, so I am happy to hunt long and hard for a good one. I maintain my cars myself and will be getting the spanners out when necessary, so have questions about self-maintenance and the practicalities of this.
I have a couple of questions, regarding things as disparate as maintenance and options and colours - the latter as I am struggling to find information about what was available when new on t'interweb. They are as follows;
- Cars around my budget (£10-14k) seem to be around the 70-90k mile mark. I know this is a stupidly vague question but how long could a clutch be expected to last on a car like this? And is changing one a realistic DIY option without a garage? (I did the clutch on my 944 myself but that was a bit beyond what I was comfortable with and wouldn't choose to do it again).
- The other biggie that gets mentioned is suspension. I am picky about how my cars drive so I would consider something that is tired and putting new suspension parts on. It seems that this is a fairly easy DIY job although there is no single good source of maintenance guides around. Where do people go for instructions on doing this sort of thing?
- Seats. I understand the difference between sports seats and standard seats but sometimes I see cars with alcantara(-alike) squabs, like this;
Was this an optional extra or was it the base-option and people would have had to pay more to have the full-leather seat?
- Dashboards. Some 987's seem to have a screen and some number keys in their dashboard, like this;
Am I right in thinking this is a sat-nav and telephone-connection option from new? If so I presume it is very dated now and maybe one to avoid.
- HiFi. Some cars seem to have a few different audio options - '2.1' and 'Bose' being mentioned occasionally. Are these any good and worth paying for? My initial thought is to replace any existing HiFi with a more modern bluetooth device, a decent amp and some better speakers but if some of the factory-fit stuff is good then I'll save the hassle. Alternatively, if the factory-fit stuff is universally pants then I won't seek out a car with it on. If I did put aftermarket stuff in then I would end up with something like this:
... which seems to be fairly common so can't be that hard to do.
- PASM. I believe this stands for Porsche Active Suspension Management (i.e. trick dampers). I'll probably be running small wheels as everyone tells me the cars are better to drive on 17's and see PASM as being an expense I can do without in the long-term as it makes new dampers more expensive. Is this short-sighted?
- PSM. Porsche Stability Management. All I know about this is that I had a Boxster with this option on as a courtesy car for 6 weeks about 10 years ago and it had PSM on, and the garage who loaned me the car asked me very politely never to turn it off as I would be sure to crash and die. I also know that the car nannied me more than I liked; if you pushed it hard into a bend you could feel the inside rear brake coming on to bring everything back to where it should be, for example. I presume this was the PSM doing its stuff? I also presume that I wouldn't have crashed and died had I turned it off, although I didn't do so (I stuck to the old-fashioned notion that if the owner of a car asks you nicely not to do something then you shouldn't.)
If both of these assumptions are true then I'll probably give the PSM a miss in the same way as I'll give the PASM a miss. Again, is this foolish?
- Colours. I want a car with some colour but everything (everything!) is black or silver, and almost always with a black interior. Why did everyone specify their Cayman's to be such boring colours? I know all the advice about not choosing a second-hand car on the basis of colour but I will NOT buy a black-on-black car if I can possibly help it ....
Are there any other options I should be considering? I am aware of the desirability of the extended leather option but this seems to be rare in the 987.1 non-S Caymans. It would be nice to have this but I suspect that holding out for it would mean I could be waiting a LONG time for my ideal car to be available. Other things like red seat belts, colour-coded interior bits, crests on the headrests, coloured dial faces and so on I am happy to take or leave.
Additionally, I have come across a number of buyers guides to these cars but none seem to be very detailed. If you good folks know of a really good one then do let me know.
All help, advice and comments very welcome - thanks. And if these questions are easily answered with some links to threads where it has all been covered before then please do let me know.
cmoose,
Thanks for your answer. As resident Boxster/Cayman guru I was hoping you'd chip in!
- Alcantara seats - interesting, thanks. I prefer the look of them, but if the sides are pleather then I guess they are to be avoided. Hmmm.
- Factory nav. I guess I could simply remove it if I was to put a new double-din stereo in, as you suggest. Thanks - that's got to be the simplest option, although I bet any vendor is going to see fitment of this as being a selling point!
- Extended leather. I'd like it, but I think I've seen two cars listed second-hand in the last month which have it. I think pragmatism may have to win the day with this one.
- PASM. Standard set-up is soft? Alas, that's a shame; I like more taught-feeling cars. If I change the shocks then are there firmer options? I put Bilstein B6's on my 944 which are simply SUPERB (better than the much-vaunted KWv3's by some margin); if there is a similar option for Caymans then I'd be very interested in pursuing it. Thanks for your help on this one.
- PSM. Interesting - I've seen it advertised as a "valuable option specc'd when new" for some cars. I guess that's a load of horse-sh t then?
- Other options. I've never had a car with Xenons so didn't think about them. Thanks for the LED suggestion, maybe it's one to follow-up.
- Clutch life. Again, thanks - that's helpful.
Still just a shame that there are so many black and silver cars around with dull dull dull black leather interiors. Bah!
Thanks for your answer. As resident Boxster/Cayman guru I was hoping you'd chip in!
- Alcantara seats - interesting, thanks. I prefer the look of them, but if the sides are pleather then I guess they are to be avoided. Hmmm.
- Factory nav. I guess I could simply remove it if I was to put a new double-din stereo in, as you suggest. Thanks - that's got to be the simplest option, although I bet any vendor is going to see fitment of this as being a selling point!
- Extended leather. I'd like it, but I think I've seen two cars listed second-hand in the last month which have it. I think pragmatism may have to win the day with this one.
- PASM. Standard set-up is soft? Alas, that's a shame; I like more taught-feeling cars. If I change the shocks then are there firmer options? I put Bilstein B6's on my 944 which are simply SUPERB (better than the much-vaunted KWv3's by some margin); if there is a similar option for Caymans then I'd be very interested in pursuing it. Thanks for your help on this one.
- PSM. Interesting - I've seen it advertised as a "valuable option specc'd when new" for some cars. I guess that's a load of horse-sh t then?
- Other options. I've never had a car with Xenons so didn't think about them. Thanks for the LED suggestion, maybe it's one to follow-up.
- Clutch life. Again, thanks - that's helpful.
Still just a shame that there are so many black and silver cars around with dull dull dull black leather interiors. Bah!
Chaps,
Thanks for the comments. FWIW, 'around the £1000 mark' is the rough price I've been given from my local indie for a clutch on a 987 Cayman. London prices, natch.
Jagr, I'd heard that the 6-speed cars were subject to higher road tax as well, thanks for the figures. I presume it relates to some peculiarity in the testing process that makes a car with the 6-sp 'box produce a fractional amount more nasties and thus tips it over some arbitrary cut-off point for tax. £250/year more on tax is enough to make me happy with a 5-sp car!
Thanks for the comments. FWIW, 'around the £1000 mark' is the rough price I've been given from my local indie for a clutch on a 987 Cayman. London prices, natch.
Jagr, I'd heard that the 6-speed cars were subject to higher road tax as well, thanks for the figures. I presume it relates to some peculiarity in the testing process that makes a car with the 6-sp 'box produce a fractional amount more nasties and thus tips it over some arbitrary cut-off point for tax. £250/year more on tax is enough to make me happy with a 5-sp car!
Coming back to this one, particularly on the colour front. I've now looked at enough pictures of 987 Caymans to make my eyes spin. (I'm still 6 months to a year off actually buying one but the process is all-important, right?) However the common factor is that 80% of them are in colour schemes that I find terminally dull. The most common exterior colour is black, as is the most common interior colour. And black-on-black cars seem to be modally very common indeed, but the very antithesis of what I want. I know I need to buy something that is mechanically excellent and condition is more important than colour etc etc etc but I want to own something that I actually like.
Does anyone have a definitive list of the exterior and interior colours that were available on the 987 2.7 Cayman? I am deciding that I am more fussy about interior colour than exterior and could tolerate a black car if it had a good colour for the interior. (There is a black one with a lovely red interior in the classifieds at the moment which has quite captured my imagination!) However interior colours I have seen for sale thus far have been as follows;
- Black
- Grey (looks like black)
- Blue (looks like black)
- 'Sand'. Looked better than black.
- Red. Yes. I think I like this.
What other options were there?
For what it's worth, the list of exterior colours as far as I can deduce is very similar;
- Black
- Various greys which look quite like black.
- Dark blue.
- Mid blue metallic. These look good.
- Red. Love it, but my wife thinks it looks far too attention-seeking
- White.
- Silver.
I guess my dream combination would probably be blue with a red interior (although this may look a bit too bright), or possibly blue with a sand interior. With the extended leather, natch. Silver with red would be nice too. However I guess I am looking for something of which there were not more than half a dozen sold so the odds of finding one for sale with a history I like are pretty long. For what it's worth my much-loved old 944 has the linen interior which has quite convinced me of the advantages of a pale interior in a small car.
All observations welcome. Even if it is just that I will be looking for a very long time if I am this picky about what I buy!
Does anyone have a definitive list of the exterior and interior colours that were available on the 987 2.7 Cayman? I am deciding that I am more fussy about interior colour than exterior and could tolerate a black car if it had a good colour for the interior. (There is a black one with a lovely red interior in the classifieds at the moment which has quite captured my imagination!) However interior colours I have seen for sale thus far have been as follows;
- Black
- Grey (looks like black)
- Blue (looks like black)
- 'Sand'. Looked better than black.
- Red. Yes. I think I like this.
What other options were there?
For what it's worth, the list of exterior colours as far as I can deduce is very similar;
- Black
- Various greys which look quite like black.
- Dark blue.
- Mid blue metallic. These look good.
- Red. Love it, but my wife thinks it looks far too attention-seeking
- White.
- Silver.
I guess my dream combination would probably be blue with a red interior (although this may look a bit too bright), or possibly blue with a sand interior. With the extended leather, natch. Silver with red would be nice too. However I guess I am looking for something of which there were not more than half a dozen sold so the odds of finding one for sale with a history I like are pretty long. For what it's worth my much-loved old 944 has the linen interior which has quite convinced me of the advantages of a pale interior in a small car.
All observations welcome. Even if it is just that I will be looking for a very long time if I am this picky about what I buy!
Thanks for the replies chaps.
cmoose - that's the 'mid blue metallic' I mentioned, and it looks very good. That would almost certainly be my ideal colour for the outside, but it's a rare one to find. It looks cracking in that picture though.
JimmyP - No, I think a black interior is about the only absolute non starter for me in terms of spec. Really, no no no. I know this rules out a lot of cars. A red exterior would be OK but the Mrs says it's too ostentatious!
Ironically there is one in the classifieds at the moment with a black exterior and red interior (i.e. the opposite of what you suggest) which I think looks pretty good as a combination. It's here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...
Here's the interior:
It looks quite 'bright' or 'sudden' - are they really this colour in real life? I'd think about changing the wheel for a black one (can't be hard, or expensive) to perhaps tone it down a little but it looks great to me in that photo - quote the most attractive interior colour I've seen.
Sagarich - I've not seen a speed yellow one advertised in 2.7 spec. Yes, I'd love one!
cmoose - that's the 'mid blue metallic' I mentioned, and it looks very good. That would almost certainly be my ideal colour for the outside, but it's a rare one to find. It looks cracking in that picture though.
JimmyP - No, I think a black interior is about the only absolute non starter for me in terms of spec. Really, no no no. I know this rules out a lot of cars. A red exterior would be OK but the Mrs says it's too ostentatious!
Ironically there is one in the classifieds at the moment with a black exterior and red interior (i.e. the opposite of what you suggest) which I think looks pretty good as a combination. It's here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...
Here's the interior:
It looks quite 'bright' or 'sudden' - are they really this colour in real life? I'd think about changing the wheel for a black one (can't be hard, or expensive) to perhaps tone it down a little but it looks great to me in that photo - quote the most attractive interior colour I've seen.
Sagarich - I've not seen a speed yellow one advertised in 2.7 spec. Yes, I'd love one!
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