Cosmo Kramer

Hi everyone!

I am considering looking at a 2010 Cayman 2.9 with 135,000 miles (wow)! Its a 2 owner car, accident free and has service records and some upgrades. Is the 2.9 pretty sturdy? Anything I would need to worry about? I know 2009 and later are IMS free which is nice but not sure if there are any other trouble spots. It's not heavily optioned, the two nice things it has are full leather interior and painted center console.

I am trying to put a value on it. Owner is asking 21k, and there are other examples advertised with half the miles or less for 3-4k more. I was thinking based on the mileage it needs to be near 18k.

Thoughts?

Macster

With 135K miles and provided a thorough road test finds the engine and the car in good condition I'd have to say the 2.9l engine pretty sturdy.

The smaller engine of a series is in some ways the best engine as it has the most metal in it. Thicker cylinders for instance.

However, a smaller engine has to work harder. Based on my observation it takes around 40hp to move a car down the road, level road no head wind. For say my 2002 Boxster with its 2.7l engine and with an output of around 217hp the engine is operating at around a 20% load.

For my 2003 996 Turbo with its 3.6l engine and with an output of 420hp the engine is operating at around a 10% load.

But given the above it doesn't seem to have bothered my 2002 Boxster engine any. The engine has over 313K miles and still runs just great.

For price I have no current market knowledge. My usual advice is to visit various used car pricing sites: www.kbb.com and www.nada.com; and there may be others these are the two I use and plug in the car's numbers and see what trade in, private sale, and retail sale numbers come up.

The seller would get no more than trade in or wholesale (and probably not even the public numbers as dealers generally pay a bit less than the public whole sale/trade in value for cars) so anything over that is a win.

How much over depends upon many factors but I can't beleive the owner of a 135K mile car is going to have prospective buyers beating down his door.

You have to keep in mind that even if the car checks out with no issues it will develop some as the miles accumulate. You have to budget for these.

(Briefly, and with my best memory of at what miles my 2002 Boxster required an AOS at ~80K miles. New rear wheel bearing at ~100K miles. New O2 sensors at >100K miles. Water pump at 172K miles. Fuel pump at ~200K miles. Coolant tank at ~220K miles. #2 AOS at >200K miles. VarioCam solenoid/actuator at >260K miles. #3 AOS at ~300K miles. New O2 sensors at 305K miles. The above doesn't include a number of smaller items like a radiator ballast resistor, small electrical switches (brake light, clutch cruise control disable, clutch safety interlock, etc.), door lock controller, window regulators, door membranes and of course tons of consumables like oil (every 5K miles), plugs, tranny/diff fluid services, brakes, tires, 3 or 4 batteries, and so on.)

The general rule on used car buying is to have set aside 10% of a car's price to have just in case. With a Porsche and with an older or higher mileage example I'd recommend this be 20%.

Cosmo Kramer

Thanks Macster, your car definitely is the poster child for 986 durability. Thinking of getting a 987 to replace our 99 Boxster, love the chassis just wish the 2.5 had a little more oompf!

Gadsby

I have a 911sc with 396k, all original survivor, it's all relative! A friend had a 06 cayman with bore scoring at 19k.

good luck with it if its a good one! Don't let mileage alone scare you!

Macster

More oomph is nice.

The Boxster chassis is the sweetest chassis in my opinion. What a handler. And the ride still impresses.

The Cayman has the plus of a solid roof.

Had the Cayman been available back in 2002 I would have bought a Cayman instead of a Boxster.

More recently, back in April 2009, I did buy a new 2008 Cayman S. Unfortunately the Cayman S was destroyed in an accident just 4 weeks later. While I tried to replace it with another Cayman all the best examples were gone by the time the dust settled and I had the other driver's insurance check to go shopping with.

I have to admit I'm a bit tempted to get a new Cayman, a 718 model. Base or S I am not sure which. 6-speed or PDK again my mind is not made up. I'd have to test drive both examples. Thankfully I'm so busy with work I have no time to shop new cars. That and because I don't think I want to own 3 Porsche cars concurrently I can't decide which of my two Porsche cars to give up.

You want to buy the best example of the car you want you can find and afford. If this 135K mile example is it then fine.

But you want to be sure. Don't fall in love before you buy the car. Wait until after.

Macster

396K miles is quite impressive. Did you have to have anything done to the engine over the years? I've read of some big mileage air-cooled 911's but often (always?) at least one and sometimes several top end "rebuilds" are required.

(The local Porsche dealer sometimes gets in air-cooled 911's (and once at the dealer I ran into an owner of a very nice air-cooled 911 who I think was ready to sell) and I'm tempted but don't want to buy a car that requires expensive engine work as the miles accumulate.0

Jack-Porsche

Personally, I think that price is too close to other similar vehicles with far fewer miles. the only reason to get that car would have to be a HUGE savings, otherwise there are plenty of low mileage examples readily available

Cosmo Kramer

Don't worry I'm not in love. I have 2 P cars and the 99 would have to go if i bought something. The advantage is I am going to Deals Gap in a week and a half with a trailer and would be able to bring something home to Canada. At least the exchange has improved slightly and I can actually start shopping down south, before it was impossible due to the cost difference.

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/d...6633/overview/

Here is a copy of the listing. Many cars priced in the 24k range with 50-60,000 miles. This would have to be in the teens to make sense. Or an S model with DFI maybe close to this price. If this car was leased (compared to the others on the market currently) the company would have charged 20k in over charges to return it lol.

Macster

Well, I'm no expert on Cayman market prices but plugging the car's details into www.kbb.com and the trade in value ranges between $9.2K to $12.3K.

Private party sale price in "good condition" is $14K. Excellent condition would be $16.6K.

Like I said above I'm not market price savvy on these cars and Kelly Blue Book numbers may be suspect but $20K for the car I dare say is a bit well, optimistic.

Have to point out that no seller ever undervalued his car. Always the outlook the expectation of the seller is quite optimistic and he prices his car accordingly.

Now the condition of the car even with 135K miles may be as good as or even better than some cars with fewer miles but enough to justify what appears to be a very, well, optimistic price?

Cosmo Kramer

Ended up going to a local dealer and purchasing a documented and accident free 2005 Boxster S with 70,000 miles for 4k USD less then he was asking. Still some good deals up here.

Gadsby

i only had it for the last 20k, put a thousand miles on it in last week to imsa race and Oshkosh air show. freshened exterior engine systems, suspension and axles last year and this winter I'm going to rebuild the long block, I have a weak valve spring so it's time. I have all the records from late 80's. Dr's Comuter car in San Diego!

Day 1, drove 2000 miles in 2 days no issues at all!
Had a broken oil breather hose!!
Time to clean it ip
After it was striped Dow