A Cayman For 90s Boxster Money

January 18, 2023

While manual first generations Porsche Caymans tend to hover around the $25,000 price mark, add in a Tiptronic transmission, and the average drops about $5,000. But then start to add miles, like this 2007 Cayman with 191,000 miles, and the price heads south fast. But how far south does it go?

In the Tiptronic Cayman market, we’ve seen a few sales over 100,000 miles with the lowest being this example with 136,000 miles selling for a market low of $11,700 on Cars & Bids. That being said, one would expect our Spotlight car with almost 60,000 more miles to sell for much less, but not the case. It sold for $15,250 yesterday on Bring a Trailer. Why?

Well, if you follow our rule of buying a car’s history and not the car when it comes to higher mileage examples, you understand. You see, our Spotlight car was a two-owner example out of California that was literally daily driven by a little old lady for the last 15 years. During her ownership, the car was meticulously maintained by Porsche Carlsbad and was most recently fully serviced by Redline Automotive in Orange, CA.

Yes, the car has stone chips, the windshield has a small crack, and the paint protection film on the sides is yellowing. But we all know we’ve seen rougher cars with a quarter of the miles this one has. Plus, the car is accident-free although there is no mention of previous paintwork.

So who made out in this transaction? Definitely owner #2 as she got to drive a wonderful Porsche for the last 15 years (she’s 72 now BTW). And I’d have to say the buyer made out here as well. What would you rather drive for $15k? This or a clapped-out 944 or 928? Well-bought for a car that you can get in and add even more miles to. I hope we see this resurface over the next few years with another 100k on the clock.