cobalt

So my son has found a base cayman he likes and wants to dump his stage 2 Audi A3. He has about 10 track days mostly at Watkins glen under his belt driving our tuned 981BGTS and understands the drop in power but recalls learning to drive on our base 981 B years ago. 5 speed only so it seems hard to find. It was either this or a 09 and newer 987S. Seems these are harder to find as well.

Heading out late morning tomorrow to look at a 14 well optioned base in a very nice color combo, IMO the right wheel package and a lot of options. Far more than my GTS but has Sport chrono and all the electronic upgrades. I will check it for over revs etc but seem to doubt it will be an issue. Car was sold from Ohio appears to be one owner weekend driver. Just curious of opinions on value. I follow the air cooleds and I see my BGTS is worth more today than a year ago but a base and all that is going on is it worth a slight premium for miles and color? What are thoughts on future market. He doesn't need to jump in but even I must say it is a looker. We are already over budget so any constructive opinions would be appreciated

Tom R.

Tony,
I wanted to sell my Silver 07 Cayman S in April. I went to one of the KBB stores through autotrader and got an offer that didn't make upgrading to a friends Cobalt 07 Cayman S with a 3.6 worthwhile. Then in July I was on cars.com and i answered their questions. The offer was 15% more and was just enough to get me to do it. I dont think the KBB place was intentionally lowballing me. My conclusion is the market has improved and at the same time is unstable. Go with your gut.

CaymanCarver

That's fantastic. Sounds like you're continuing to help guide the development of his driving skills.

Good decision to move from that A3 to the Cayman 981.
Assuming this will be his daily driver the 981 is definitely the right way to go.

Remember the 981 was recently named one of the "Greatest Of All Time" drivers cars by Car & Driver.

Also, don't count out the PDK.
Driving the PDK in Manual mode is a total gas and would probably help hone his driving skills further.

Sounds like you know what to look for. Over-revs, clean maintenance history, 4 year service interval done, condition of door cards, condition of headliner.
If there's no evidence of the 4 year service interval being done => at least a $5K discount.

For the right car it would be worth a slight premium for low miles.. color not so much.
A very slight premium though.. because of the current market and the near field economic climate.

IMHO the future market is headed down and there's already been signs.
e.g. I've been tracking twelve 2015 GTS's below $60K since early July.
The only reason to pay any premium would be for a CPO Warranty.

I'm expecting there will be a large and sudden influx of inventory to the used market in the 4th quarter and beyond.

My overall recommendation right now (in mid August), is to hang back and wait a couple/few more months and continue to watch the market.
Today's market average for a 981 Base Cayman is ~$35K and I expect to see this drop to the low $30K's fairly soon.
I don't see it dropping into the upper $20K's though.. it's too good of a car to justify that kind of pricing.

cobalt

Thanks guys,

My sentiments exactly although I remember being young and excitable so I figured I would indulge him. He is set on a manual and all of our cars are stick except the macan, audi and Raptor. I agree the PDK is in another league than the tip cars and or any auto but I have to agree with him about rowing gears. i would prefer he wait and find an S as I suspect prices on these will be coming down as well. Although the air-cooled market seems to still be on the rise for some models in pristine condition. I also see a lot of 718's in similar price range since these are becoming unloved. A lot of car for the buy in and easy to tune for considerable more power.

This is the only one I found so far with sport chrono which I am not so sure will make any difference but I like in my BGTS. No need to have CPO since I have the ability to fix anything on these and have access to wholesale pricing. It also will be ending soon since it is a 14. He is currently working in a shop and is capable of doing tire changes to full clutch jobs etc and assists on anything from Porsche's to Ferrari's. A cobb tune on a base isn't going to get him the torque of an S or GTS which I am afraid he will tire of the base quickly although he says no.

I wasn't expecting this so quickly but it is a nice diversion so I figured let's take a drive and see. At least he can see what a nice base is like and go from there. IMO they are priced about $4k over where they should be and if they aren't willing to come down we move on. I appreciate and didn't consider the 4 year service as a bargaining chip. I found that the service is a bit overkill and he can do it all himself. Funny no mention of walnut blasting the intakes although I found the S/GTS engines don't need the intakes cleaned like many direct injected cars today at least with so few miles but that is something he can do himself if needed.

I also have a low mile factory sport suspension and red calipers if he wants to upgrade and access to SOUL exhaust if he wants some more sound but now we just start heading further down the rabbit hole on a base which IMO makes little sense.

on my way I will report back.

ekam

On a manual car you get the Sport button and when engaged you get more sensitive gas pedal and more slip angle before PSM is engaged.

cobalt

I know that from my BGTS but didn't feel as much of a change in the base. The car was absolutely gorgeous looked like it came off the showroom floor. Not one single overrev or blemish. They weren't interested in budging on price which I highly doubt they will come close to so I left an offer and if they decide to act on it in a few weeks when it doesn't sell at the asking price I would consider it. It was a fun day although he is bummed but realizes it makes no sense to overpay at this time.

The search continues but he has decided he wants blue after seeing this one. .

Anyone with a nice blue 981 cayman nicely optioned looking to sell for reasonable money please let me know.

Marine Blue

The car market is a bit crazy at the moment and I’m curious if/how long it will last. I don’t recall demand ever being as high as it is now.

cobalt

I agree but base cayman at near to close to a higher mile S I would rather see him spend a little more and get the S. In the long run he will appreciate it especially if he plans to track it. I hate to say but a base 718 seems like a bargain right now and I can tune and put a nice sport exhaust on it for not much more. Very easy to get HP out of a turbo engine and tune vs a base 6 cylinder. No doubt come winter I suspect that at least in the Northeast the market will fall come colder weather at least for cars that are relatively prevalent and a lot in that price range.

I have a 90 C4 I can put him in but would be a winter project car for around $30k I figure another $10k to get it where I would be comfortable and a lot of my time.

Pep!RRRR

Just to be clear, you do get a Sport button in a base Cayman without Sport Chrono. You do not get Sport+, however, with a manual transmission this offers practically no benefit. In my opinion, based on my car with over 120 track days, a base Cayman with manual and X73 suspension is tough to beat. I also have a tune, center radiator, Girodisc rotors and FVD Brombacher exhaust. Also added camber plates in front to improve tire life (which is still ridiculously low). Another pretty awesome upgrade is the Numeric shifter with cables.

cobalt

I had a base 981 boxster I tracked for the 6 months of ownership and I agree for the street it was all the power that anyone needed. On track it was a bit too slow for me and I put down faster times in my stockish 964 C2. Although even my 981 BGTS with Cobb tune X73 sport suspension and a lot of extras including wider rubber is no match for the majority of the GT4/GT3's and other dedicated track builds we get. I was no faster in it than I was in the C2. My son has driven Watkins and both NJMP tracks and IMO has a natural talent already setting down some decent times in the BGTS but I don't like him driving the car without more safety equipment. He has a hybrid hans which is a help.

I found a local 981CS manual I hope will pan out. It isn't as pretty as the blue but I think the power should be a consideration since he is already accustomed to it and is a better foundation to build upon. It has double the 10k miles of the base and asking is about the same so I hope I don't find issues and is just someone looking to unload the car.

I understand his interest in the color and wheels but that can always be addressed. I suspect someone will buy into the color and condition but I can't justify a premium at this time unless it were an S.



I had looked at a few base 718's I see they don't get a sport button in base form.