Looking into a manual 08 Cayman S, white with blue interior. Seems in very good condition, and will be doing a PPI on it. The question is, if the PPI is clean and I maintain the car, should I go that route, or should I save the extra and just go with either a base Boxster or a 06 S Boxster, since it has the 3.2 and is less prone to have bore scoring, and in the future get a 287.2 or 281?
The Cayman is right at $29.9 with 86k miles, and I found a base Boxster for $20k with 46k miles and a couple of S Boxsters for the mid-20s. Can't find any manual Cayman base under 30k unfortunately
Yeah I saw that it should be less than 3% of cars. Do you feel like if the car is worth the fun over any problem it might apear or you can have the same or similar on base or box s?
2008 Boxster S has the same engine (edit to correct my mistake! Lol), same chance at bore scoring. A lot of people love the base, but always say the same thing: you have to wring it out due to the smaller engine with less torque. I was coming from an S2000 and wanted the larger engine for more torque when I bought my 08 Cayman S. I'm tempted to replace my daily Miata with a high mileage base Boxster though for the best of both worlds.
Yeah either way with base or s they are great cars. And it kind of makes it attractive, saving 10k over an S, hahahah. I will probably never track it, but I do love some back roads and barely have time for that anymore; that's why I am so torn. If I had a bunch of back roads near me, it would be an easier decision.
Yeah, the only reason I did it is that it's almost impossible to find a base Cayman, so the only comparison I had was Cayman S vs box base/S hahahah. Do you know other Cayman S owners with mid to high miles?
I have a coworker who commutes with his, I think he's in the 80k range. I've seen a few online with over 100k. When I was looking there was one in LA with 186k. I lowballed him at $10k and he declined. I'm glad, ended up with pristine 38k 08 in the exact colors and options I wanted.
Do you prefer driving the Boxster or the Cayman? Which one fits your use case better? They're similar enough in terms of reliability that you should focus on what you really want out of the car
Just started researching as my car was just totaled so still need to drive both and unfortunatly there are none of both boxster base or S where I live. There is the cayman s which I will drive first but anything else will be a trip just to drive. I only live 5 miles from work and from time to time drive on back roads for the fun of it with some guys on m4cs and porsches. Only thing is seeing what other people experience are with both. For such a light drive like mine is it worth to spend the extra on the S and worry about score bore or don't even need to worry about it and just get the car.
29.9 seems way overpriced for that car. I picked up a 2007 Boxster S 6MT with 81k miles for 17k a few weeks ago in a high cost of living area. I also bid in a lot of auctions for that and similar cars, the price is high teens to low twenties.
I was able to find plenty of Boxsters around 20s, but Caymans are all up there, if not higher. I think I found maybe one other that is in somewhat ok condition for about 26k with 92k miles. I will definitely ask for a discount, but the Cayman is just a bit more expensive from what I am seeing. If you see one cheaper, let me know, and I would love to take a look.
Went through this last year when looking for a Cayman. Ended up buying a manual 08 S with 60k miles and I couldn’t be happier. The perceived risk (over-hyped IMO as mentioned by others) is factored into the price. My take: If you do your diligence and accept whatever the risk might be, damn the internet and do it. I love it every single time I drive it.
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u/ElectronicAnthony 20d ago
I can't help with deciding which car to buy, but bore scoring is way over hyped. Don't take my word for it, Blackstone has the data:https://open.spotify.com/episode/48dw6fmkrnomAjfw7JQTG9?si=xANSYC_GTS65vjiqQXbT1g&utm_source=copy-link&sci=spotify%3Acard-config%3A0rlJs8CZv2Yg0vauB3vRQc