Manual Cayman Only Costs $7,500, but There’s a Catch
Seller says this crispy manual Cayman has a clean title and ‘runs beautifully’ despite its exterior sharing attributes with grilled cheese.
Everyone wants a killer deal on a Porsche. We’ve seen some folks buy cars in seriously bad shape, like the recently-covered mudded and flooded Cayman GT4. Now, we’ve got another Cayman that’s going to need some serious TLC for your viewing pleasure. This one, however, seems like a less detrimental process than that GT4. Best of all, it’s got a clean title, allegedly.
This 2007 manual Porsche Cayman is for sale on Facebook Marketplace with an asking price of just $7,500. For those in the know, that’s an absurdly good price for a manual Cayman of this era. Typically, you’d see them in the mid $20,000 to $30,0000 range depending on mileage and condition. The issue, though, is that this car appears to have been close to a fire. Very close to a fire. If you’re making a checklist of what will need replacing, go ahead and mark “everything” for the exterior category. While our first impression was that this is a chaotic asking price, it’s starting to make a little more sense the more we think about it.
Is This a Low-Key Deal of a Lifetime?
Taking a look at the interior pictures might just convince you, too. Though the seller does not specify exactly what happened, it appears that the car was inside a structure that caught fire. The seller says that it has a clean title “with insurance assignment.” Presumably, that means the next buyer could rebuild this car and retain the clean title. In addition, the listing says that the engine “runs beautiful.” Though, he does not specify whether it moves under its own power. He also says he suspects that once the melted plastic and damaged paint are removed it’s “going to look a lot different.” That’s certainly one way to put it.
All that aside, though, it does leave one wondering how bad it really would be to bring this thing back to life. A glance at used parts on eBay shows around $1,000 for used OEM xenon headlights, a few hundred bucks for used OEM tail lights, and a few hundred each for bumpers. From the pictures, it looks like the body panels themselves are relatively okay and are just going to need sanded and painted. There’s almost guaranteed to be some associated wiring issues, but overall, this seems like far less of a restoration effort than a lot of people have gotten themselves into in the past.
It’s also worth remembering that there’s a chance of water damage, too, from firefighters extinguishing the fire. Ultimately, it’s not something we’d recommend buying sight unseen. If you’re brave enough to take it on and get your hands dirty, though, this might be a great chance to get a relentlessly good deal on a Cayman.
If anyone from Rennlist happens to take it on, please outline the restoration on our forum! We’d love to see just how bad this thing is. More importantly, we want to see it come back to life!
Photos: Facebook/Anthony Gargulinski