I am looking at a 2007 Porsche Cayman with 32K miles on it as a daily driver. My car got totaled the other day and I have to buy something in less than a week. Hard to do research on a lot of different cars and got to cut to the chase.

I would put 15K miles a year on it. (maybe even 20K miles) What is the maintenance cost on one of these? Reliability? Common problems and repairs? And if so, typical cost?

Thanks,
Brian

 

I have read the gen I can starve for oil?

 

Go for it and don't look back. IMO. I just bought an '08 CS with that many miles, and it's a great DD.

 

That's only an issue if you're tracking your car with sticky tires.

 

I would get a S or get a 2009 or newer base, there can still be problems with the IMS bearing with the base model.

 

Great daily car. Friend of mine has an 07 S and daily's his car and has over 70k miles on it and no issues.

 

I like all the reliability stories and am sold. Problem now is the one I was looking at just sold. 2007 Cayman base, black on black, 32K miles, listed for $25K.

Have only this week to find a replacement car (long story but mine got totaled in a wreck).

 

Why the rush? No need to submit a long story.

My advice is to find a way to buy some time. You do not want to rush into buying a used car.

Finding a good Cayman at the right price could take a day or a week or longer.

 

Servicing costs are not gruesome. I can't recall though the prices for the services.

Couple of things:

I advise 5K mile oil/filter services. You can do these yourself and save $100 or more per service. (My 02 Boxster gets 5K mile oil/filter services and its my "daily" driver now since 02 and has over 263K miles on its original engine.)

Rear tires should last 20K miles, easy, unless you are a maniac behind the wheel. Then it is maniac or money. Your call.

Be sure the car is aligned properly. This is important. With a proper alignment I get 20K or more easily out of my Boxster's rear tires, double that out of the fronts. Even my Turbo's last set of rear tires lasted over 23K miles and still had 3mm of tread left when one got holed and had to be replaced. Because it had over 2mm of tread left it was covered by road hazard and cost me nothing to replace!

A bad alignment...8K miles on a set of rear tires on the Turbo. Ouch!

Engine and cabin air filter every 12-18 months and that's being overly proactive. You can change these easy peasy.

Brake/clutch fluid flush/bleed every 2 years. You can do this or have it done.

I get so many miles out of my cars' brakes the part numbers are in Roman Numerals they last that long. Turbo brakes are original and the car now has almost 103K miles. But I do the brakes when needed and it is not hard or that expensive. $250/axle roughly.

Plugs maybe every 60K miles. I forget now. Dealer does these. But many owners do this job and the car survives.

Serpentine belt every 60K miles? You can change this yourself.

A coolant drain/refill with fresh anti-freeze/water every 4 to 6 years is a good thing.

Tranny/diff fluid drain/refill at 90K miles or 60K if you prefer (I prefer). I leave this stinking messy job to the dealer. 0.3 hour labor (Boxster 5-speed manual) and last time I got the tranny fluid discounted to around $5/liter, 'cause I'm handsome and cool.

Other than that... gas. Lots of gas. My 02 Boxster averages around 22mpg to 26mpg with the lower number with more town/city driving and the higher number out on the open highway.

 

There are plenty of these cars for sale on cars.com, cargurus, etc. There is Porsche in your future. Delivery from far away is possible and not too expensive. Happy hunting.

 

Crabman, can you point to one IMS failure on a Cayman? The Cayman has an upgrade IMS bearing and not the same as the Boxster of early 06 and older. I hear this over and over on these forums and no one can ever come up with one. There can be problems if you track your Cayman, very expensive problems but, not as a street car, not like a 60k 2002 Boxster with unmodified IMS.

A Cayman as a daily driver really depends on the person. If you had a Honda S2000 then it's a better DD. If you had a 4 door SUV and have kids then no it's not a good DD. It's a well balanced sports car that is fairly reliable and since you're looking at a used depreciated car should be a fun DD if it meets your needs and will still be worth a money in 3 years.

Make sure the clutch is good and it has all of its service records. You should also have the over-revs history printed out for you if you're buying a manual trans version.

 

does anyone notice a big difference in the 08 to 09 cs? I am very conflicted because there is a lot of money to be saved here if I go with the 08. is it easy to make up that extra 30hp with the money I save from buying an 08 CS.

 

BMP subscribed
also in the market for a car now and been looking into the caymans for a while now.
but any more info would be welcomed

 

also are there ANY differences between 06 07 08's Cayman Ss?
thanks for the help

 

no big differences between those years. 06s have silver on the front splitters but I'd go with an 09s or above if you can afford the difference. As a DD, the first gens are fine but if you really want to track it go with the 09s or newer, better engines and fixed a lot of the issues from the first ones.