Planet 9

2006 Cayman S sitting on my local dealer's lot for the last couple of weeks. Been tossing the idea around of potentially purchasing it.

Options + Mileage combo seems too good to be true:

Lapis Blue Metallic
Stone Grey Standard Leather
Sport seats
Heated seats
19" Carrera wheels
bi-xenon headlights
rear wiper
Bose
outside aluminum look package
Self-dim mirror w/rain sensor

1,500 miles. $45K asking price. CPO'd. Original MSRP approx. $70K.

I've looked the car over several times and drove it. The exterior and interior are in outstanding shape and I get the nice warm feeling it was taken care of (further substantiated by the very low miles). The car drives every bit as could be expected and I got that same feeling I had when I first drove my first CS.

Two hangups: Rear wiper and the Ext. Color. No matter how many times I look at the car, so far I can't manage to get myself excited about the Lapis blue. I remember getting that feeling of "wow" when looking at my Guards Red CS ...can't muster the same on this Lapis Blue. Maybe it's because the car has been a bit dusty and is lacking some of its shine from sitting on the lot, but I don't know. Then there's the case of the wiper....I've discussed it in some other threads but I'm starting to get over it. The car just seems to be too good to pass up and I should just get over the ext. color and the wiper (I do like the grey interior). I'm sure all-shined up the Lapis will pop. I think if this car was Guards Red I would have already bought it.

Thoughts on this car and the associated price? I'm thinking I can get a lower price as the one I listed is the as-advertised. Any Lapis-bluers out there that can talk to the color?

thanks,
-carsteve

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2007 Porsche Cayman S
Guards Red over Sand Beige - Gone and missed.

Looking for my next Porsche.

only 1500 miles it should look like new....hell the engine hasn't even pass the break-in point...you would only need to drive it for a day to do that. lapis blue with the grey seems like a nice combo....not too many lapis blues out there and a nice coat of zanio whould really make it pop. Rear wiper....well I'm one of the few people here that like it...I use mine all the time, well not all the time, only when it rains and snows, since I do drive it in the rain and snow. aluminum look package looks nice on the lapis blue as well...can't see this on too many other colors.

I too have the wiper, and while my car is a garage queen for now, the rear wiper comes in extremely handy on those cool mornings when dew covers the glass.

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I love the color Lapis Blue most of the time except when it looks kind of purple under certain lighting conditions. This is one of the those colors that can really change depending on the lighting. I find that the blue stands out in the sunlight.

I also have the rear wiper (came with car when I bought it) and it does not take away too much from the look. I think someone on the forum mentioned about getting some kind of plug if you want to remove it.

Honestly, I would not pay anywhere near $40K for an '06, even with low miles and options do not matter for price, just what you like. You can go to KBB and spec a 06 with low miles with all options and you will not get to $40K. We have a member here who already bought a low miles '07 for $35.5K.

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VIDS
Cayman Turbo 520HP

First of all color is important. Yes, Lapis does really pop when detailed, but if your a "red" guy you might never be happy with it, so think really hard about it.

If you really don't like the rear wiper, just remove and plug. In fact some older Porsches had a plug from the factory if you didn't order the rear wiper.

The rest of the options are very nice. Hate to say it as I have an '06, but the price does seem a little high, but it is almost a new car.

Local dealer here in Cincinnati had an 07 Lapis Blue that was sitting on the lot when I made the move to obtain a new 08 CS on December 30, 2007. They had a very difficult time moving the car & warranty was punched. Sat on the lot another 6 months after I picked up the 08. It's a rare color, yet may be difficult to find the right buyer. As I recall the Lapis Blue color upgrade was widly expensive. $45K seems really optomistic for an 06, regardless of the very low miles. Just my opinion, I could be wrong...

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**** H.

This car came up for sale while I was still looking. I like blue, it makes a good stealth color compared to red. However, I really wanted PASM so didn't pursue it. The CPO has a real cost to the dealer. I've heard 2000-2500 and I would want it on a 2006, especially with low miles since it hasn't been driven enough to make sure everything is OK. Distance from Colorado was a factor as well. I don't think you can really buy a low mile, well optioned, clean CS for much under 40K. All the cheap ones I've seen were strippers and/or higher mileage and no CPO. I missed a couple of nice, well equipped cars in thie 40K range so they do sell for that. I ended up buying a very late 2007 with 5500 miles and equipped with preferred package, PASM, leather sport seats and a couple of other options. It does not have 19 inchers or xenons which is unusual but I prefer the 18's anyway. MSRP was 66K+. I bought it for 39.5K from a Porsche dealer. It does not have a CPO however. Since it has over 2 years of warranty left, I didn't really care.

Buying a basically new car for 40% off MSRP with extended warranty sounds pretty good to me. I looked at hundreds of listings and there are very few in that category.

Dave

Only you can decide if the color is going to drive you crazy. I personally consider the presence of the rear wiper to be a nit. I'd go and give 'em a lowball offer to see where you land.

I agree with your assertions about price and options. 45K is definitely too high but I didn't plan on paying that.

UPDATE: Decided after thinking about it for a while and reading some of your posts last week that I was going to go for it. Went in with an offer of $38K...thought that was very fair. Unfortunately the car had already sold, and "for much more than my offer". Who knows... anyway I wouldn't have been willing to pay more than $40K for the car bottom line. I could have lived with that. It was an excellent car inside and out. Couldn't find a darned thing to even nitpick about, even on the exterior.

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2007 Porsche Cayman S
Guards Red over Sand Beige - Gone and missed.

Looking for my next Porsche.

After reading all the posts here, I think it comes down to this:

1. 45K is a lot to spend for an '06. If you spend that much, it should be EVERYTHING YOU WANT.

2. Not mentioned is the fact that this color is as hard to keep clean as black. It shows every streak, swirl and scratch and speck of dust.

3. You didn't mention the options. Which wheels? Does it have PASM? etc. All these things cost a lot of money on the new car and could justify the price.

But, if it's the wrong color for you, DON'T BUY IT. These cars are lust objects. It should make you crazy with glee. If you just think "I wish it was red" when you look at it, you got the wrong car. I'd pass unless it was very cheap, and it's not.

I think it's a nice color but I passed on one of these. It has the standard Cayman 18" wheels on it, which I think make the car look cheap. It didn't have PASM, which I wanted for our bad roads and didn't have Sport Chrono which I wanted for fun.

CPO is a nice warm fuzzy feature. I would sort of feel tied to the dealer for service etc. With an '06, I figured I'd be doing a lot of my own maintenance and building a repore with a local shop rather than the dealer. I don't plan on using the dealer unless there is a warranty issue. I read up pretty well about the cars before buying and I think the weak spots only come out during track use, not daily driving. They seem to be pretty sound cars. I plan to eventually shore up these weak areas (power steering overheat problem) (Oil separator issues) and buy a second set of wheels and track my car now and then.

Instead of buying a very low mileage car (7K miles), $43K, I bought a low mileage car (16K miles) with all the stuff I really wanted and a few things I didn't really need for about $39K. There is not a thing wrong with mine save a couple scratches under the car in front from scraping some parking lot curbings. It's got 19" Carrera S wheels (nice!) PASM, SC+, PCM2.1 (Nav), sport steering wheel, heated seats and Bose. It's silver (E-Z care) and has standard black interior which I like and which will hold up very well.

Some people like the fancy leather. My experience is that it makes the car almost too precious to drive and that it shows more marks and things. (Who am I kidding? If it had natural leather for the same price, I'd have still taken it and would be bragging about how great it feels.)

Standard black interiors are a little hot when left in the sun, but they don't show dirt, just require a little extra vacuuming on the carpets.

I think I'm much happier that I passed on the first one. This one is better for me and was cheaper to boot.

-Six

There is a subset of buyers that get pretty excited about ultra low mileage so it doesn't surprise me if the car sold for 40+. Personally I think paying a lot for ultra low miles only makes sense if you plan to keep it ultra low. I tried to buy a car with 19K on it before I found my 5500 mile car but I think I paid little if anything for the low miles. You will find the right car.


Dave

Consider "losing" this one a blessing. It didn't sound to me like this was what you wanted.

I put a ceiling of $40K on my shopping because there are plent of good ones out there for that money. I knew I wanted to make some improvements on whatever car I got, so this leaves me an allowance for extra wheels and a few tweaks.

I made a list of things I really wanted on the car (read the FAQ on this forum for descriptions of all the options including the wheel options..although it's not complete) PASM was a must for comfort and I was very curious about Sport Chrono and think the little stopwatch looks cool on the dash (vanity!). I didn't care about HID headlights. I don't like self-dimming mirrors (feel like I'm in a cave at night). We have 2 Garmins, so NAV was not a priority. Bose was not a priority either, but I wanted at least the Sound Plus or whatever it's called...better stereo than standard, but not Bose. Heated seats would get a lot of use on a Boxster, but on a Cayman I don't think there important. I certainly haven't used them yet. Homelink is something I can definitely live without. I thought auto climate might be nice though.

Make a list...Including COLORs that you like.

Check eBay motors as well as the ads on this forum. A lot of ads on eBay are legitimate dealers just trying to get international exposure for their higher end used cars. The dealer I bought my car from was very meticulous preparing the car and had it inspected at the Porsche dealer, had detailed it to a level I wouldn't have thought possible and knew the previous owner and history. There are lots of good cars out there.

The car I got was not my first choice in color. It's silver and my first choice was the other blue...the brighter blue, not Lapis. (close to the color of my old car). I ended up with HID lights, heated seats, Homelink and Bose, but I feel like I got those for free. Bose isn't bad when you stuff the subwoofer with poly batting. I also got these beautiful 19" Carrera S wheels. They make this car look special. They're a little rough on our roads and 18's would probably work better for me but I really will have a hard decision to make if I sell them.

We flew in and drove home. It was a great and memorable trip through the Blue Ridge Mountains etc. The "transfer tag" from GA cost only $3 and was good for a month. I wish I could keep buying those, but I did the tax and title registration at the DMV when I got home. 7% tax on the price of the car plus a title transfer fee.

-Six

Thanks for the responses. There was a lot of stuff so I just picked a few points to respond to:

-If you check the original post I did list the options on the car. It had a nice set of options.

-Actually did make a list of colors...ranked as well...you'll notice Lapis isn't there...however over time I came around on the color. It still doesn't make my list but all other factors added up to a feel good feeling and by the time I made the call with an initial offer, I really wanted it.

http://www.planetporsche.net/cayman-...binations.html

-$45K is a lot I agree, which was why I offered much less.

-carsteve

__________________
2007 Porsche Cayman S
Guards Red over Sand Beige - Gone and missed.

Looking for my next Porsche.