The Porsche Cayman ladder: which one to buy at every budget from £15k to £180k

Across the last fourteen days the finder has run 53 searches, and one car keeps surfacing more than any other. Not the E46 M3. Not the F430. The Porsche Cayman. It now makes up the single largest cluster of variants in our library, with assessments spread from £15,000 all the way to £180,000. That makes it one of the very few cars you can buy at almost any budget without ever leaving the model line.

Most people pick a budget first and a car second. The Cayman lets you invert that: pick the car, then pick your rung. Here is what the data actually says about each one.

£15,000 to £30,000: the 987 is still the value end

The bottom rung is the 987.1 2.7 manual (2006 to 2008), assessed at £15,000 to £22,000, scoring 61.3 and flagged early in its cycle. Add the 3.4 and you get the 987.1 S manual at £18,000 to £28,000 with a score of 63.0.

But the strongest numbers in the whole Cayman family sit slightly above that. The 987.2 Cayman S (2009 to 2012) came back at £19,000 to £30,000 with a score of 79.2, and a separate assessment of the 987.2 S manual at £28,000 to £42,000 scored 82.2. That is the highest score of any Cayman variant in the library. The 987.2 brought direct injection and a proper six-speed, and it sidesteps the intermediate shaft bearing worry that hangs over earlier flat sixes.

This band is not an accident. It maps almost exactly onto what people are searching for. The most repeated UK search in recent data is £15,000 to £35,000 with manual or analogue gearbox and usable / drivable selected, followed closely by a £20,000 to £45,000 band with the same two criteria. The 987.2 S lands in the middle of both. If that sounds like you, the under £25k collection is where to start.

£38,000 to £80,000: the Cayman R, and why the numbers disagree

Here is where we should be honest rather than tidy. The Cayman R (987.2 manual) has been assessed repeatedly, and the runs do not agree. Price bands have come back anywhere from £38,000 to £80,000. Scores have ranged from 49.3 at the pessimistic end to 74.3 at the optimistic one. Cycle labels split between early and mid.

That disagreement is the useful signal. The R market is not settled. Roughly 1,500 cars, lighter, louder, and with the right options it trades well clear of a tired one on the same plate. Buy the car and the history file, not the badge. If you want the same recipe without a roof, the 987.2 Boxster Spyder manual scored 75.5 at £22,000 to £32,000 in one run and £35,000 to £60,000 in others, which tells the same unsettled story.

The quieter, more grown-up pick in this band is the 981 Cayman GTS manual, at £48,000 to £62,000 with a score of 70.2 and a mid-cycle label. Less drama than the R, more car than the S, and the last of the naturally aspirated six-cylinder Caymans before the flat four arrived.

£55,000 to £100,000: GT4 territory, with a cycle warning

The 981 GT4 is the one everybody wants, and the data reflects that in a way worth reading carefully. Across assessments its band runs from £55,000 to £96,000 and its score from 51.4 to 73.1, but critically the cycle labels include late and peaked, not just early. The GT4 has already had its run. It is a magnificent car and probably a safe one to own. It is not the same asymmetric bet as a £25,000 987.2 S.

£75,000 to £180,000: the 718 GT4 and GT4 RS

At the top, the 718 Cayman GT4 manual scored 78.5 to 79.4, is flagged early in cycle, and sits at £75,000 to £140,000. It is very likely the last naturally aspirated, manual, mid-engined Porsche of its kind, which is exactly the last of its kind criterion that keeps appearing in six-figure searches. Above it, the 718 GT4 RS scored 69.6 at £145,000 to £180,000, also early.

What to actually take from this

The library has 57 Cayman and Boxster variants assessed, and the pattern across them is consistent: the strongest scores cluster at the cheap end, not the expensive one. The 987.2 S at under £30,000 has scored higher than the GT4 at three times the money, every time. That will not feel intuitive if you read auction headlines, but it is what the numbers keep saying.

Two honest caveats. These are cars, not instruments. They rust, they need £1,500 services, and a cheap one with no history is not a bargain. And a score is a view on how a car sits in its cycle, not a promise about what it will be worth. Nothing here is financial advice.

If you want the version of this that is tuned to your budget and your criteria rather than ours, run the finder. It takes about a minute. You can also browse the manual collection or everything we currently rate as early in the cycle.