All generations and engines together · 10,154 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 36k
One of the best coupés and convertibles, by age and by mileage. Watch brakes and lights & electrics. A solid used buy, provided its MOT history has no repeating brakes advisories.
Split by first-registration year. Cars registered in a changeover year can belong to either generation.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press, with how well each report stands up. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
Every Cayman S (987.1 and 987.2) runs the 3.4-litre M97 engine, which has a well-known weakness for bore scoring: deep wear grooves on the cylinder walls. Buyers notice a metallic tick at idle, rough running or frequent oil top-ups, and metal flecks in the oil filter are the giveaway on inspection. It can turn up anywhere from 30k to 80k miles and there is no service fix once it starts, only a full rebuild. Porsche has never issued a public recall or TSB for it, and specialists still argue over the root cause, oil spec, piston clearances or driving style.
The 2006-2008 Cayman uses a non-serviceable intermediate shaft bearing that, in a small number of cases, breaks up and takes the engine with it. Independent specialists put the real-world failure rate at roughly 1-5%, and owners argue endlessly over whether a preventive retrofit (removing the factory grease seal, or a full bearing swap) is worth doing on a car showing no symptoms. Porsche redesigned the bearing for 2009-on cars rather than recalling the earlier ones.
As the M96/M97 engines age, the rear main seal can start to weep oil at the bellhousing joint, and a plastic coolant pipe at the front of the engine develops leaks where its rubber seals harden with age. Neither is usually dramatic, a damp patch rather than a puddle, but both get worse with time and the rear main seal job means pulling the gearbox (and the clutch on manuals) to fix. A failing air-oil separator is often the underlying cause of the seal problem, since it lets crankcase vacuum run too high.
A number of early 718 (982) 2.0 and 2.5 turbo engines burned through oil at an alarming rate, owners reported roughly a quart every 1,000 miles, with no visible leak. The usual cause is the air-oil separator diaphragm breaking down and letting oil mist into the intake, which also shows up as rough idling, misfires or blue-white smoke on start-up. In the worst warranty cases Porsche replaced the whole engine; out of warranty, an AOS replacement is the first thing to try.
On the 718's 2.0-litre engine the turbo sits low in the chassis, so its wastegate actuator is exposed to water and road spray from underneath. Corrosion lets the actuator rod develop play, producing a metallic rattle that's most obvious on a cold start and gradually worsens. It's mechanical, not dangerous, but the turbo itself is not a cheap part to replace if it's left long enough to matter.
Ranked from this model’s own MOT record, then from what owners report.
Saveable checklistThe physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
Drawn from the reports above rather than the MOT data. These are the model-specific ones.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 4,123 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Same segment (Coupés, convertibles & GT), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.