Cayman 987.1 to 987.2S or 981GTS?
Discussion
Guys,
Simple one this. And no concrete answer - I appreciate that.
I have a 987.1 Cayman 2.7 (non-S). Bought at about 97k miles, currently about 140k miles eight years later. Never missed a beat, fully maintained by me. Mainly used as a winter car as my 944 is tucked up in the garage from October to April.
I'd planned to hold on to this car until it fell apart. It's a very unusual spec and I now have it pretty much as I want it (wheels/suspension bushes/audio etc). However a friend's son took a shine to it several months ago and is getting quite serious with offers to buy it. Which leads me to wonder what I'd replace it with.
So, the question: how much better is a late 987.2S than my 987.1 non-S? It would have to be another Cayman.
And another question: how much better is a 981GTS than my 987.1 non-S? Again, it would have to be another Cayman.
Money is not a major object. The question is whether the step up (to either 987.2 or 981) would be worth the extra £ I'd have to put into it. And yes, I know that this is entirely subjective so there is no 'right' or 'wrong' answer.
Things to make it more complex are that I would insist on having a manual model of 987.2 or 981, and I'd be picky about spec. My current 987.1 has everything (I've never seen another 987 with as many options boxes ticked), and I'd want full leather, heated seats, PASM and so on. I'd also not want a car with a black interior and preferably not a black exterior either.
I know the simple and sensible answer is to hold on to the car I already have but the (significant) offer from my friend's son has got me thinking ....
Thanks!
Simple one this. And no concrete answer - I appreciate that.
I have a 987.1 Cayman 2.7 (non-S). Bought at about 97k miles, currently about 140k miles eight years later. Never missed a beat, fully maintained by me. Mainly used as a winter car as my 944 is tucked up in the garage from October to April.
I'd planned to hold on to this car until it fell apart. It's a very unusual spec and I now have it pretty much as I want it (wheels/suspension bushes/audio etc). However a friend's son took a shine to it several months ago and is getting quite serious with offers to buy it. Which leads me to wonder what I'd replace it with.
So, the question: how much better is a late 987.2S than my 987.1 non-S? It would have to be another Cayman.
And another question: how much better is a 981GTS than my 987.1 non-S? Again, it would have to be another Cayman.
Money is not a major object. The question is whether the step up (to either 987.2 or 981) would be worth the extra £ I'd have to put into it. And yes, I know that this is entirely subjective so there is no 'right' or 'wrong' answer.
Things to make it more complex are that I would insist on having a manual model of 987.2 or 981, and I'd be picky about spec. My current 987.1 has everything (I've never seen another 987 with as many options boxes ticked), and I'd want full leather, heated seats, PASM and so on. I'd also not want a car with a black interior and preferably not a black exterior either.
I know the simple and sensible answer is to hold on to the car I already have but the (significant) offer from my friend's son has got me thinking ....
Thanks!
Hi T1547,
Thanks for your posts. They're really helpful comments.
Did you go for a manual 987.2S, or settle for PDK? I am aware that manual versions of those cars are not that common - there aren't any on Pistonheads Classifieds either! Given that I'd really want a manual, plus I happen to hate cars with black interiors, I suspect that I may be some time finding something which would tick my boxes. And that's before I start wanting PASM and whatnot as well.
Thanks for your posts. They're really helpful comments.
Did you go for a manual 987.2S, or settle for PDK? I am aware that manual versions of those cars are not that common - there aren't any on Pistonheads Classifieds either! Given that I'd really want a manual, plus I happen to hate cars with black interiors, I suspect that I may be some time finding something which would tick my boxes. And that's before I start wanting PASM and whatnot as well.
Guys,
Thanks to you all for your replies. They are all helpful and appreciated.
I started this thread thinking that a 981GTS was probably the obvious choice but a bit of research suggests that the 987.2S which was originally thrown in as a makeweight is probably the one that appeals more. I like nimble, I like connectedness and I like mechanical feel. The 987 has more of these than the 981 (although you will notice that I am avoiding calling either a 'better' car.)
The strong wants are thus:
- Manual
- More pep than the current 2.7 987.1
- Hard top
- Just as much fun to drive, if not more
- Non-black colour scheme. (Let me explain this a bit more; a car with black exterior and interior would be a no-no. Black exterior and a pale or coloured interior would be OK. Ideal would be something with a coloured exterior and pale or coloured interior.)
- No significant reduction on the spec of my 987.1 (full leather interior, sports seats, heated seats, probably PASM.)
Finding a 987.2S in this spec could take a while. As people have observed, there are few 987.2S manual cars out there and they don't come up for sale often. Being picky in the other bits of my spec narrows the field down worse.
Therefore the options are:
- Compromise. Settle for a PDK/DSG gearbox. This is an option but not an attractive one. And I'd still be looking at a small pool of potential purchases.
- Look at a 997 (i.e 911 platform) instead. This would mean more choice of cars but I'm not sure it's worth the extra expense and the mid-engined platform has always appealed more as a purist option than the rear-engine of the 911.
- Look at other brands. An Alpine is the obvious choice and has significant appeal. How bad is the luggage space in one? Perhaps I need to have a look at one.
- Do something else. Other cars in the household are a 944 (which I love and which is staying put) and an older Fabia, which my wife uses to go to work and is generally practical. However this is coming to the end of it's life and I was looking at BMW i3's to replace it. Perhaps an alternative to the Cayman Conundrum would be to replace the Fabia with something practical and fun (Golf GTI being the starting point because I am boring) and replace the Cayman with something more balls-to-the-wall like a Caterham. The obvious downside of this is that we would then end up with two summer-use cars (Caterham and the 944), but the Fabia replacement would tick the all-year-'round-fun box so we'd probably cope.
Hmmm. Decisions. (Of course, the obvious decision would be simply to stick with what I have as the existing 987.1 Cayman is great in many, many ways. Perhaps I should do this instead and keep the money in my pocket!)
Thanks again for your help. I'll keep this thread updated with decisions!
Thanks to you all for your replies. They are all helpful and appreciated.
I started this thread thinking that a 981GTS was probably the obvious choice but a bit of research suggests that the 987.2S which was originally thrown in as a makeweight is probably the one that appeals more. I like nimble, I like connectedness and I like mechanical feel. The 987 has more of these than the 981 (although you will notice that I am avoiding calling either a 'better' car.)
The strong wants are thus:
- Manual
- More pep than the current 2.7 987.1
- Hard top
- Just as much fun to drive, if not more
- Non-black colour scheme. (Let me explain this a bit more; a car with black exterior and interior would be a no-no. Black exterior and a pale or coloured interior would be OK. Ideal would be something with a coloured exterior and pale or coloured interior.)
- No significant reduction on the spec of my 987.1 (full leather interior, sports seats, heated seats, probably PASM.)
Finding a 987.2S in this spec could take a while. As people have observed, there are few 987.2S manual cars out there and they don't come up for sale often. Being picky in the other bits of my spec narrows the field down worse.
Therefore the options are:
- Compromise. Settle for a PDK/DSG gearbox. This is an option but not an attractive one. And I'd still be looking at a small pool of potential purchases.
- Look at a 997 (i.e 911 platform) instead. This would mean more choice of cars but I'm not sure it's worth the extra expense and the mid-engined platform has always appealed more as a purist option than the rear-engine of the 911.
- Look at other brands. An Alpine is the obvious choice and has significant appeal. How bad is the luggage space in one? Perhaps I need to have a look at one.
- Do something else. Other cars in the household are a 944 (which I love and which is staying put) and an older Fabia, which my wife uses to go to work and is generally practical. However this is coming to the end of it's life and I was looking at BMW i3's to replace it. Perhaps an alternative to the Cayman Conundrum would be to replace the Fabia with something practical and fun (Golf GTI being the starting point because I am boring) and replace the Cayman with something more balls-to-the-wall like a Caterham. The obvious downside of this is that we would then end up with two summer-use cars (Caterham and the 944), but the Fabia replacement would tick the all-year-'round-fun box so we'd probably cope.
Hmmm. Decisions. (Of course, the obvious decision would be simply to stick with what I have as the existing 987.1 Cayman is great in many, many ways. Perhaps I should do this instead and keep the money in my pocket!)
Thanks again for your help. I'll keep this thread updated with decisions!
Guys,
Thanks for the comments. There's a bit of an update.
The friend (well, friend's son) came over for a very amiable lunch, walk-around the car, ruffle through history and paperwork, eyeball at the pile of spare parts I have for the car and a drive, and despite me doing all I could to dissuade him he has decided he does want it. (The make-or-break point was whether he could fit an ironing board in the back; he's an army officer so does quite a lot of ironing of kit. An ironing board was found in our laundry room and it fitted a treat!)
There's no rush to find the replacement as he's in no rush to buy, but I now need to start looking for something to replace it with. In practice, I may well sell him the car in the next coming couple of months as I can then use the 944 during spring/summer and look for a new 987 at my leisure. However I do need to start looking.
So ... 987.2, S, manual. Not black/black (I could cope with black outside or black inside but not both). Good condition.
Not worried about mileage. Needs to have heated seats, sports for preference.
Nice to have would be full leather and some bright colours; the grey exterior and red interior of my current one is perfect.
If anyone has any links to suitable machines then post them here .... thanks!
Thanks for the comments. There's a bit of an update.
The friend (well, friend's son) came over for a very amiable lunch, walk-around the car, ruffle through history and paperwork, eyeball at the pile of spare parts I have for the car and a drive, and despite me doing all I could to dissuade him he has decided he does want it. (The make-or-break point was whether he could fit an ironing board in the back; he's an army officer so does quite a lot of ironing of kit. An ironing board was found in our laundry room and it fitted a treat!)
There's no rush to find the replacement as he's in no rush to buy, but I now need to start looking for something to replace it with. In practice, I may well sell him the car in the next coming couple of months as I can then use the 944 during spring/summer and look for a new 987 at my leisure. However I do need to start looking.
So ... 987.2, S, manual. Not black/black (I could cope with black outside or black inside but not both). Good condition.
Not worried about mileage. Needs to have heated seats, sports for preference.
Nice to have would be full leather and some bright colours; the grey exterior and red interior of my current one is perfect.
If anyone has any links to suitable machines then post them here .... thanks!
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