cayman2011

I have had a number of cars and my 2011Posche Cayman has had some problems I would not have expected with a premium car company.
Sagging Headliner would expect this in a 70 Nova but not a newer Porsche
Painted plastic panel inside the car that easily scratch showing the black plastic below the pain
Sun faded Tail lights that look so bad they have to be replaced the they are not cheap
Just a sad state of affairs for a high end company. I expected better. clearly quality is not job 1

Kitc2246

The Cayman and Boxster are their entry level car. There was little interior updates from the 986 to the 987. The 986 probably saved Porsche from bankruptcy. I had an 09 Boxster and now a 2013 Boxster S which I bought in Nov 2019. IMO the 981 interior quality is updated compared to the 987 and 986. My 2013 has full leather so have avoided the door card warping issue.

Rich_Jenkins

Yeah my 2003 BMW E46 interior looked pretty sketchy after 10 years and 100K miles too. Drooping headliner, C panels coming off, leather abraded (that one was on me, though).

The headliner didn't come down on my '14 981S when I owned it, thank goodness. But I was glad to trade it in, as I'm sure it would have done so eventually.

manifold danger

Please find another 10 year old car that magically resists all forms of wear and fade as you suggest?

As the one other person to post already pointed out, there are other "luxury" marques that fare far worse...

NVM, lost me at your suggestion that a 2011 is a "newer" Porsche.

You know what else was new in 2011?

9eight7

Delete...

ekam

OP should try owning a Ferrari, Lambo or Aston Martin. Go ahead, check their forums and see what kind of problem they deal with.


Porsches are actually very reliable sports cars.

cgfen

Very true
At one point I owned a 3 pedal 360 Modena.
One day I opened the door to find that the leather headliner, ~ 4' X 4' had fallen completely of the roof and was laying on the seats.
Fairly common issue for the foam between the head kier panel and roof to degrade and fail.
Dealer cost to repair? > $1500.
I bought a piece of foam and a can of spay adhesive to fix, cost = $60.00.

DriverDaily

I always thought headliner issues were more to do with climate and storage than using better adhesives or materials. I can't think of a brand I haven't seen a sagging headliner in. Same goes for cracked taillights.

Other brands from that era have ubiquitous problem across thier lineup like like BMW's broken air vents or orange LCDs with dead regions. As far as I'm aware the IMS bearing was the one big thing for Porsche and they did fix that by 2011.

Turbodan

you should be happy your engine hasn't blown up yet. you would complain that you did not expect that from a high end luxury sports car. Didn't think you were talking about interior parts.
for the lenses you must be able to respray them with a transparent paint and fix em up. there is a shop that does that for 964 lenses, look for them.

TMc993

Dude! Your car is not "newer." Barack Obama was president when your car was built.

What is it with people whining about the build quality of their decades old Porsches all of a sudden? If it was a Toyota you'd be bragging on what a great car it was.

Just sell it and ease your pain....

Marine Blue

The 911, Cayman and Boxster share interiors for both the 987 and 981 so technically all the quality issues seen on one are also seen on the other models. It has nothing to do with the Boxster being an entry level model, anyone who says that hasn’t seen the manufacturing process.

Some of the issues we are now seeing have to do with European laws that require and or encourage manufacturers to choose materials and adhesives which are not harmful to the environment. So the sagging headliner is likely due to adhesive that is environmentally friendly but not nearly as robust as what we saw in the past. This applies to pretty much all the European manufacturers although personally I do think Mercedes does a better job and uses better materials.

The painted/rubberized coating that Porsche and many other manufacturers used is without question a cost savings measure. It looks great when new but ages quickly and is not resilient at all. But again this is not just Porsche, its pretty much every manufacturer out there except maybe Mercedes.

As far as the lights, UV will quickly degrade most modern plastics unfortunately and I’m not sure if its due to cost savings measures or plastics which are more environmentally friendly but again this is pretty much all manufacturers. If you keep the car out of the sun the lenses will hold up fine, mine still look exactly as new with 20k miles.

sectachrome

How many miles on your car and how has it been driven and stored for the last 10 years? Not saying it’s a perfect car, but it’s been used for 10 years. Wear and tear happens.

rk15000

I agree on this...OP hasn’t told us enough info about his/her car, how it was purchased, maintained, etc.

One thing I will say about these cars, especially buying the ones that are older/used, is that people are fanatical about them, to the point where people’s expectations get so inflated and unrealistic it’s crazy. Everybody wants to get the deal of a century, and it’s very easy to get consumed by the purchase process, the brand, and all the hype. It brings a lot of joy, but also can bring a lot of stress if you’re not careful.

I’ve cursed at my car a bunch of times. I’ve also driven it with a huge smile on my face in spite of that.

Bottom line, it’s just a car. A very special car from a very special brand, sure, but it’s a machine and it’s gonna wear out just like any other.

Ultimately it’s up to you what you’re willing to accept, and if this car isn’t for you, you can say no to it. That’s cool - I don’t hold that against anyone. Some people are Porsche diehards, others BMW, etc...it’s all good.

Best of luck to the OP, and I hope they take the time to search around the forums for help. I think a lot of people will be surprised to learn that issues like this can be fixed for less $$$ than initially expected and help preserve these great cars (which are still just cars )

Ale_72

It has all the common problems of a 10 years old car that was not a time capsule car (in that case you'd have had still problems, just different).
If you think other brand/model have a better satisfaction/price ratio, do not get mad on this cayman.
Sell it and buy something that gives you a better experience, overall.
Life is too short to own cars you do not like.

Tuscanito

Add to that warping door panels, water pump failure. Padm failure, PDLs failure, cracking headlights, etc. Pure Deutschland quality, totally not acceptable for the money they charge you.