You Can Buy A Brilliant Porsche Cayman For The Price Of A New Civic

It’s often fun to dream of what depreciated high-end car you can buy for sensible money, until the brick of reality shatters the window of your dream with a long list of reliability downsides. For instance, the 996-generation Porsche 911 is the most affordable entry point into rear-engined Porsche ownership, but the risks associated with the engines in those cars can be scary. So what if you’ve always wanted a tin-topped Porsche but don’t want to deal with 996 stuff? Well, a first-generation Porsche Cayman could be exactly what you’re looking for.

Sure, it might not have quite the same direct lineage as the 911, but I’ll tell you a secret — from the floorpan forward, it pretty much is a 911, save for styling tweaks. Same suspension geometry, same frunk trim, same major structural design. Oh, and because it’s still a proper sports car, it’s a special driving experience in its own right.

Plus, you can get into a first-generation Cayman — chassis code 987 in Porsche-speak — for far less than you might think. In fact, they’re still at a price point where there’s an overwhelming amount of choice for less than what a new Honda Civic hatchback costs. Sensible five-door hatchback or genuinely great Porsche sports car for the same money? Tempting, tempting.

What Are We Looking At?

Porsche may have launched the Boxster in 1996, but it took the brand ten years and a whole generation to put a fixed roof on it. The Cayman was arguably the sweet spot between a 911 and a Boxster, offering the former car’s coupe rigidity (150 percent better torsional rigidity than a Boxster, to be precise), but the latter car’s more affordable price bracket and delectable mid-engined balance. In short, it’s sports car mastery, with a flat-six in the middle, a transaxle in the back, feelsome hydraulic power steering, and gobs of grip. The result? An instant must-have car that, in S trim with the right options, could lap the Nürburgring quicker than its 911 Carrera big brother. Best of all, even if your name isn’t Walter Röhrl, you can still revel in the captivating intuitiveness of the Cayman’s chassis. As per Motor Trend:

Dynamically, though, the Swabian reptile is sensational, impressing most with the fluidity of its motions. On the road, you might play with the Sport button to fine-tune the ride, but on the track, PASM automatically selects the tautest suspension setting. As long as you drive it neatly, this car almost never sheds its composure. A ragged side to its behavior appears only when you start to overdrive it by braking too late, missing turn-in points, and stepping on the gas too early, which leads to initial understeer, impromptu oversteer, and noticeable tire wear. As long as you don’t mess up your inputs, however, the Cayman S will reward you with intuitive responses. The steering simply transfers the blacktop into the palms of your hands in a quick and unambiguous, responsive and progressive, well- damped and yet totally unfiltered manner.

We’re talking about one of the true great driver’s cars of the 2000s, and one that’s shockingly easy to live with. Not only do you have a hatch to access the rear cargo area, you also get a frunk, and cup holders, and climate control. The seats are comfortable, the driving position’s spot-on, and the cabin’s quiet enough to have a proper conversation in. You can easily daily drive a Cayman like a normal car, and that’s something you can’t say for a lot of mid-engined cars of the time.

Initially launched in 295-horsepower 3.4-liter S trim, a 245-horsepower base model joined the Cayman party a short time after launch. From there, 2009 saw the launch of a big revision, with new engines, a new transmission option, and updated styling. In the 987.2 Cayman, Porsche’s dual-clutch PDK automatic gearbox joined the party, the base model got a 2.9-liter engine with 265 horsepower, and a new 3.4-liter engine in the Cayman S saw output climb all the way to 320 horsepower. Finally, the lightweight Cayman R appeared in 2011 as a feather in the 987’s cap, a 325-horsepower salute to the platform. While you definitely won’t be buying a Cayman R on the cheap, you might be shocked by how little other variants go for.

How Much Are We Talking?

Seriously, you can buy a 987 Cayman for new Honda Civic money. A 2025 Civic Hatchback Sport starts at $28,545 including freight, and you can totally get into a Cayman for less than that. Take this stick-shift 2007 model, for example. It recently hammered on Cars & Bids with less than 36,000 miles on the clock for $28,000, and it seems reasonably well-kept. Sure, there’s a tiny bit of expected interior wear, and a couple of scratches underneath the front bumper, but it looks as you’d expect for a low-mileage but driven car. As a bonus, it has a clean Carfax, and plenty of receipts for maintenance items that wear with age, such as the coolant expansion tank, serpentine belt, and washer fluid reservoir. In short, bits that get brittle over time in a low-mileage car have actually been attended to.

Looking for something a bit newer with more mileage and a lower price tag? How about this manual 2009 Cayman that sold on Bring A Trailer back in September for $24,000? These 987.2s are rarer than the earlier models, but this one sports the 2.9-liter flat-six, and had under 87,000 miles at the time of the auction. With a few desirable options like the mid-level sound system, heated seats, and the rather sensible choice of the base 17-inch alloy wheels, this looks like an enjoyable machine to eat some miles in.

Then again, maybe 265 horsepower isn’t enough for you. Well, there are plenty of Cayman S models out there, such as this 46,800-mile 2006 example that recently sold on Cars & Bids for $25,750. Going off the original window sticker, it features $5,505 in options, including 19-inch wheels, Sea Blue floor mats to match the interior, Porsche Exclusive silver seat belts to match the Arctic Silver Metallic paint, and power seats. With a clean Carfax, a six-speed manual gearbox, and the tasteful upgrade of a Borla exhaust, this looks like it could be a seriously fun driver-shape sports car.

What Can Go Wrong On A 987 Cayman?

Since Porsche offered two rather different series of the 987 Cayman, let’s focus on the first one first, starting with three little letters that’ll strike fear into the hearts of aspiring Porsche owners — IMS. The intermediate shaft bearing was a known failure point on 996 911s and 986 Boxsters, and with the 987.1 Cayman featuring a similar engine architecture, surely it’s affected too? Well, not quite in the same way. See, all 987 Caymans were built after the switch to the final IMS bearing, the big single-row unit, so the failure rates are incredibly low. Watercooled Porsche experts LN Engineering estimate a one percent failure rate, which renders it an exceedingly rare issue. The overwhelming majority of cars will be just fine, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to worry about.

See, 3.4-liter Cayman S models are known to suffer from bore scoring, physical abrasion of the cylinder walls that can lead to excessive oil consumption and the need for a complete engine rebuild. However, there is one way to avoid this — just go with a 2.7-liter base model. In a 2023 forum post on Porsche board Rennlist, Charles Navarro of LN Engineering wrote that “Even after all these years, I’ve still never seen a base model Boxster or Cayman with bore scoring.” Considering these guys are the authority on M96 and M97 engines, that’s a solid vote of confidence.

Alright, so what if you pick out a 2.7-liter Cayman? What can actually go wrong? Well, not much. It’s a good idea to replace the water pump every six years or so, and the air-oil separators (think fancy PCV system) are known maintenance items, but the big one is that shifter cables are known to break, due to the angle they sit at. It’s a pain to replace these, as they’re really snaked through the rear bulkhead, but it’s not a financially ruinous proposition. Figure about a grand including labor if you want to upgrade to sturdier Numeric Racing cables. Overall, if you pick the right variant, these are fairly reliable cars, going against the grain for used German performance machines.

For what it’s worth, the 2009-onwards 987.2 Caymans are even more reliable. No IMS bearing in the back of your mind, a substantially lower prevalence of bore scoring on S models, and sadly, pricing to reflect that. Still, having more solid options is a good thing, right? It’s also worth noting that regardless of which model you choose, a saggy headliner is a known issue, so it’s worth working reupholstering of the roof lining into your budget.

Should You Buy A 987 Cayman For The Price Of A New Civic?

If it’s a base model with either the 2.7-liter or especially the 2.9-liter flat-six, absolutely buy a Cayman. A fairly reliable, totally liveable mid-engined two-seat coupe for sensible money feels like something worth owning, even if Porsche parts are more expensive than Honda parts. However, for the S models, more power comes with more risks. Regardless, if you’re tempted, I’d definitely recommend a good pre-purchase inspection if possible. The right car with the right history and the right maintenance records could be a fantastic experience, but the wrong car with the wrong history and no record of maintenance could be a world of hurt. Still, if you take your time and stay on top of things, you could buy and run a Porsche for less than you think, and that’s a pretty tempting proposition.

(Photo credits: Cars & Bids, Bring A Trailer, Rennlist)

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