Anyone know this car (or dealer)? - Page 1 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

Hello all... This Cayman has caught my eye: http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/p... I'm planning to test drive it shortly. If anyone recognises it and thinks there's anything I should know beforehand about the car or dealer, please let me know (PM please if it's not good news). Any obvious gotchas with the spec that I should be aware of? Also, if anyone has any good advice on what to look out for when test-driving a 981 in particular I'd be keen to hear it. I read the Cayman buying guide but it seems to focus on the 987 and I'm not sure how much of the detail will apply to the 981. In case it wasn't obvious, I'm completely new to Porsche and drove a 981 for the first time a couple of days ago (very impressed!) so all advice will be gratefully received. Thanks.

The car is already three years old and has had two owners in its 17,000 miles. I'd be very cautious about paying £33k. It was probably sold new for around £40k and cars typically depreciate about 15% a year. There's a risk that YOU may face very heavy depreciation if you were to want to sell it in a couple of years. You can keep the warranty running but it's not cheap. IMO they are pricey at the moment because they are the first 981s getting into the used market.

Note: The brand new base Cayman is still listed with on the road price just under £40k. I can't help thinking it looks better value, unless you're desperate for a 6-pot.

Ozzie Osmond said: IMO they are pricey at the moment because they are the first 981s getting into the used market. Yes, looking at the few manual 981s around they do seem to be quite pricey, at least compared to the new price of the base car. But I'm discovering that the wonderful world of options makes it very hard to compare price and judge value for different cars - being practical I suppose the important thing is what the options are worth to me, since I'd be planning to keep it for a while (more than two or three years). Maybe the 718 introduction will have a short-term effect on used 981 prices as well, for those who want the flat six engine. (Which, once heard I don't think I could easily decline...)

The asking price is a little steep as there a couple of similar cars at around that price from OPC's which offer a full two year warranty. They have held their value well, but remember the owner who sold it probably got 3-5k less for it. Thing is if you want one then that is the price you have to pay - but I would buy from an OPC unless it was considerably cheaper.

thumb5 said: being practical I suppose the important thing is what the options are worth to me, since I'd be planning to keep it for a while (more than two or three years). Sounds sensible to me. No point paying for options you don't want. Options usually depreciate more quickly than the car to which they are attached. Don't forget things like tyres - on a used car if they're half worn that's quite a slug of cash that's gone missing - about £500 at OPC prices. Similarly discs and pads wear quite quickly, aren't cheap to replace and aren't a warranty item.

The car is way too expensive. £27500 would be about right.

Ozzie Osmond said: Don't forget things like tyres - on a used car if they're half worn that's quite a slug of cash that's gone missing - about £500 at OPC prices. Similarly discs and pads wear quite quickly, aren't cheap to replace and aren't a warranty item. Good point, thanks. By the way, I'm coming to this from having run a Maserati 3200GT for ten years so I'm pretty familiar with expensive and hard-to-find parts...hoping a Cayman will be a saner ownership experience.

Seems very competitively priced to me. I've not seen many Cayman 981s advertised for less than this.

av185 said: The car is way too expensive. £27500 would be about right. For reference I very nearly recently bought a 981 Boxster PDK from a specialist for 30k, it had done 40000 miles so imagine this should be priced similarly although that car was very well priced. Edited by Thorny on Monday 2nd May 20:32

Boxsterjon said: Seems very competitively priced to me. I've not seen many Cayman 981s advertised for less than this. Yes, agreed, there's limited asupply. However, buyers at these prices may suffer cash depreciation just as heavy as if they'd bought a brand new car. When I've talked with OPC they tend to say their "Approved Used" buyers are customers who don't to wait for delivery of a brand new car and are willing to pay a premium for the benefit of immediate delivery.

Seems expensive to me for a 2.7 Cayman, surely there is far better priced / specked cars out there for less? But a wanted add up you may be shocked!

Ozzie Osmond said: The car is already three years old and has had two owners in its 17,000 miles. Neither that mileage or two owners are anything to worry about, average ownership of Porsches is apparently less than two years in UK

Thanks everyone for your replies. It had struck me that used prices seem rather high relative to new prices; Ozzie Osmond seems to have explained that.