needaporsche

Hey Folks,

I am looking for my first Porsche and I currently DD a 2014 335i (Intake + Exhaust + Tune mods). I intend to buy an off-lease or used Cayman or CaymanS - after the initial depreciation. I am still learning about the differences and various mods that can be had for both.

My budget is around 50K (obviously, I would like to spend as less as possible)

I am not sure If I should buy the older generation or wait and look for 718. I am in no rush to buy right away, so can wait if that's best. I usually keep my cars for a long time, so would like to be patient when I buy - this is a luxury I didn't have in the past with buying cars of the lot.


I would love to get suggestions from the community on what generations and options I should look at. I want to learn from your past buying experience. If you had 50k to buy a Cayman, what would you do?


Cheers for all your help!

Mister Quickie

The best deal you can get >=MY'09

lvdg

Well, the 981 is the last gen with NA engines. So I think you will first decide if you want to have a turbo charged 718.

With your budget of 50K, you can get a CPO 2014 base Cayman with decent options around 20k miles.

Personally I would prefer CPO because some known issues with these 981s.

needaporsche

Did you put yours up for sale? Link?

needaporsche

I have nothing against turbos, but I think i'll get a better deal with the older gen with more options.

Macster

Curious I just used www.autotrader.com to search for used Cayman 2011 and newer and under $50K and within 100 miles of my location (I'm just a few miles inland from the SF Bay Area) I got 8 hits.

Might add that all were base Cayman models. Not an S among them.

Here's the search link:

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...N7e4W_IWD0qtZi

'course, you'll need to do a search using your ZIP code and out to whatever distance you are comfortable with.

One example really caught my eye: A 2015 in red with just under 10K miles with a CPO warranty listed for $49888. Damn. I'm tempted to go there myself... (This at the same dealer I bought my new 2008 Cayman S back in 2009.)

I'd say given your budget there are what appears to be some very nice candidate cars available. Bear in my that for example that car I mentioned above while the price is listed at $49888 I suspect one could get the car for at least a few $K less. (Used cars have a pretty hefty markup and the dealer has no where near the retail price in the car so he has some room to move.)

For what generations are best generally the newer the better. $50K can buy you probably two early Cayman examples but there is the concern about the longevity of the engine.

For options, my "must haves" are auto climate control. Both my Boxster and Turbo have this and I love it. Set to 72F and forget it from the bitter cold of near or even less than 0F to the blistering temperatures of 119F. Because the compressor is variable displacement one doesn't get teh annoying cycling the compressor on and off to maintain temperature the compressor's displacement is adjusted so just the right amount of compressing the refrigerant is done to deliver the desired cooling.

The parasitic load is very low. At idle the A/C adds just a few tenths to the nominal engine load (as long as the A/C doesn't have to switch into "high" to cool an overheated cabin from say a car that's been in the sun for hours).

I like cruse control. An OBC is nice. Bi-xenon headlights. Rain sensing wipers. Rear window wiper. Auto-dimming mirrors is a big plus.

For my next car I'm seriously thinking of PCCB brakes but cast irons brakes would not be a deal killer to me.

For transmissions I've never driven a PDK so I'd have to get a pretty good road test of a PDK equipped car to make sure I'd like it otherwise a 6-speed would be perfectly acceptable.

I don't care about electronic foo foo stuff so fancy cell phone connection features, garage door opener stuff, etc. I don't care. I might not reject an otherwise good car with this stuff in it but I wouldn't seek a car out with these options either.

While I don't care about heated/ventilated seats when I had my 2008 Cayman S with its heated seats the ladies loved the heated seats. If you have a wife/girlfriend that will be a passenger often or even drive the car check with her about her feelings regarding heated/ventilated seats.

Anyhow, that's all I have for now. Right now I'm going to look at the details on that 2015 Cayman...

needaporsche

Thanks for your comment. Yeah, I have been crawling autotrader, cars.com, auto tempest, CL for cars everyday. At this point, I'm looking around for nicely optioned cars and learning about options available for each year. I am also watching some local exotic car dealers and BMW/AUDI/MERC dealerships for caymans ... I was able to find several 911's which are not posted anywhere but on their own pages. Found a cayman or two, but nothing interesting yet.

Macster

Like to say a good used car is where you find it so you have to look *everywhere*.

Also, while I like to shop globally I like to buy locally. I like to be able to check out a used car.

BTW, I did some research on that red Cayman. It does have auto climate control and a CPO warranty with coverate to 100K miles or until Feb 15, 2021, whichever comes first.

But I thought about it and can't decide which of my current cars to get rid of and I don't want to own 3 Porsches at the same time so I emailed the dealer contact I've changed my mind and am no longer interested in buying a car at this time.

Also, I like ot point out the next best thing to driving a Porsche is shopping for your first or next Porsche. I envy you and you chance to shop for a "new" Porsche.

Happy shopping.

needaporsche

Ha ha Thanks. Yeah, I have not had the luxury of shopping for car in leisure before, so I am going to take my time shopping around on the weekends. I intend to buy locally as well. Red is not my color, so I am going to skip that one. I can find 911s and boosters in all sort of colors and price ranges ... but seems like there is a cayman drought. It's the driving season now ... so I can imagine that no one wants their car gone now.

Macster

Red is ok by me.

In driving a red car for 40K miles (and ignoring the 4 short months I owned a titanium metallic 2001 Z28 and the 4 short weeks I owned a speed yellow Cayman S) the only car in which I never got pulled over in is the car pictured below.

'course, if you can't stand red...

needaporsche

Cayman Base - with 19 inch wheels and convenience package.
Out of warranty as on June 1st
2014 Model but purchased in 2013
Manual Transmission
29k miles
Last owner put ~1K miles - Rich Guy, has a fleet of cars, this one is parked in his vacation home. He would not even wash or dust off the car before showing it to me.


There are few minor paint dings barely visible on the from bumper from rock chips - one scratch on the side of the from bumper took the top layer off but since the under coat of paint is still there, it's not visible.

I test drove the car and drives like a champ. The owner thought the car was under warranty, but I just checked and it is not. I should get it mechanically inspected but will do that when they accept the offer of 42k - it's listed for more.

So would you bite the bullet for 42k?

Macster

I'm not up on market prices for 2013/2014 base Caymans so I can't say $42K is a good price or not.

It "feels" a bit high though. Easy to say but with some justification. I have yet to find a car seller who does not hold an optimistic opinion of what his car is worth and arrives at an asking price that reflects his optimism.

My usual advice is to use www.nada.com or www.kbb.com and with the car's detals get its trade-in/wholesale cost and start your negotiations from there.

Before you talk price though you want to get up to speed on what services the car has had and when and from this then know what services are due and adjust your offer price accordingly.

Of course you want to be sure the car's worth owning at any price so you need to thoroughly check the car out.

I won't repeat myself other than to say you must spend time at the car wtih the engine running and then in the car on the road first as a passenger with the driver driving the car as you intend to use it -- a good mix of driving -- then after a test ride switch seats and you drive the car over the same route and drive the car the same way.

Afterwards a comprehensive used car check out then if you still like the car and believe you can buy it for an agreeable sum of money arrange for a PPI. This gets the car in the air so a careful check can be made for any issues from underneat the car. Leaks is at the top of the list. But signs of accident damage/repair, recent/extensive "wrenching", things out of place, etc., are important to notice as well.

needaporsche

Thanks, this car is long gone now and the hunt is on to find another one now. I would have pulled the trigger, but it took me a4 day to decide and someone came in and purchased it. It was racing yellow and I didn't factor that into the mix when calculating what I should pay for it.

Mike127

You can find a decently optioned 2014 CS for under 50K. The base will likely be slower than your 335..

LAST 4th of July I got mine for $48K + tax (51ish out the door) with 24k miles on it. PDK, Sport Chrono, infotainment, 20" wheels, PDLS, sport wheel and seats. no CPO though (i'm in my last month of warranty).