1. Porsche Cayman
Price range: £7000 – £30,000
The Porsche Cayman sits on many an enthusiast’s shopping lists. And for good reason. Here is a modern flat six Porsche coupe that has the engine in a sensible place, meaning you can take liberties that you just can’t in a Porsche 911 of the same vintage.
The precise six-speed manual brings all the delights of an analogue driving experience, especially when teamed with well-weighted pedals. And it’s agile, keen to change direction and importantly, accesible to the average driver.
Sure, the PDK auto added with the car’s 2009 facelift might grant you access to its engine’s full potential, with lightning-fast shifts, but you also have to deal with hateful little shift buttons positioned on the face of the steering wheel.
Opt for an earlier auto Cayman and you also have to put up with the slow-moving Tiptronic S automatic, an old-school five-speed torque converter. It’s best avoided.
The 3.4-litre 291bhp S (whose powerplant derived from that in the contemporary 911 Carrera) kicked off the lineup, but a more afforadble 2.7-litre with 242bhp was introduced soon after launch. From 2009, the 2.7-litre was replaced by a new 2.9 with 261bhp, while the 3.4 was cranked up to 315bhp.
The 3.4 offers better value for money but suffers from bore scoring, which can be incredibly costly to put right. It’s worth having a specialist perform a borescope to check for the ailment before, or soon after, you buy.
And that’s only relative value for money. Can a Cayman ever be a low-cost Porsche? Pull the other one. There’s no such thing. Porsche has a two-year/20,000- mile service schedule, but experts recommend an annual check-up. New brake discs and pads will broadly cost around £2300.
It is effectively a coupe version of the Porsche Boxster and at launch the Cayman S was around £5000 more expensive than its rag-top brethren. Prices previously reflected that, but now they’re getting closer to parity.
