The figures below were computed by an earlier build of the
analysis and do not carry
later corrections to it. Refreshing this case file recomputes them from the same cars.
BaT files wheels, seats, engines and memorabilia under the same model page as
the cars. 10 such listings were
removed before any figure below was computed — e.g. No Reserve: 19×8.5″ and 19×10″ BBS Wheels for Porsche 987; No Reserve: Porsche 997 GT2 Carbon Bucket Seats; No Reserve: Rebuilt 2.7L M96 Flat-Six for Porsches.
A 657-sale record shows the 987 Cayman has quietly re-rated: median sold price is $31,000 all-time but $34,000 over the last 12 months (+18.3%), with a $79,618 Cayman R and a reserve-not-met engine-swapped S in the same fortnight showing exactly where the money goes and where it doesn't.
$22,750 ·
$36,000 ·
$34,000 ·
Median sold
$31,000
571 sales
Typical range
$25,250–$39,000
middle 50%
Last 12 months
$34,000
+18.3% year over year
Sell-through
87%
86 reserve not met
All-time high
$100,000
The market
The 987 is one of the deepest data sets on BaT for a modern Porsche: 657 completed auctions, 571 sold, an 86.9% sell-through. That is a liquid market — reserves get met — but the spread is enormous. Median sold price is $31,000, mean $34,248, with the interquartile band running $25,250 to $39,000 and the extremes at $8,200 and $100,000. In other words, half of all 987 Caymans trade inside a $14k window, and the tails are almost entirely explained by model variant (R, Spyder-adjacent halo cars) and by mileage.
The trend is up, and it is recent. Calendar-year medians sat at $22,900 (2017) and $25,575 (2019), pushed to $32,074–$35,419 through the 2021–22 bubble, then flattened for three years ($32,875 in 2023, $31,000 in 2024, $30,523 in 2025). 2026 has broken out: median $36,250 across 68 sales, and the trailing-12-month median of $34,000 against $28,750 the year prior is +18.3%. The read is that the analogue, mid-engine, naturally aspirated, hydraulically-assisted 987 is finally being priced as a collectible rather than as a used Porsche — and that the base-car floor is rising faster than the top, because the top was never cheap.
The four most recent sales are a tidy microcosm. Two nominally identical cars — 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed at 20,000 miles ($36,000) and 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed at 64,000 miles ($34,000) — landed within $2,000 of each other, which tells you something important: 44,000 miles of difference was worth almost nothing once documentation and preparation were factored in. The 64k car arrived with a fresh $6,000 service (water pump, thermostat, AOS, belt, intake gaskets, new PS4S) and paint-meter readings; the 20k car had no PPI at acquisition, no borescope, a decade-long documentation gap, and aftermarket 20-inch Champion wheels with a 305-section rear. Commenter Bavarianchops put it bluntly after the hammer: "If not for the lack of service and the wheels, it would've done 40K but 36K isn't bad…. the wheels are just wrong." Preparation and paperwork are now worth as much as the odometer on these cars.
At the top, 15k-Mile 2012 Porsche Cayman R made $79,618 — roughly 2.6x the all-time median and within $7k of its $86,675 original MSRP — against a comment from Wmurray6400 that he'd just paid $70k for a 38k-mile black one. The R is effectively a separate market. At the bottom, 3.6L-Powered 2007 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed failed to sell at $27,750 despite a 345hp X51 3.6 swap, PSS9s and Elephant Racing arms — a reminder that on the 987 the market pays for originality and clean paperwork and actively discounts complexity.
Every completed auction. Filled = sold, hollow = reserve not met. Line = median sold price per year.Median sold price per year; the vertical line spans that year’s low to high.
What moves the price
Cayman R variant premium +$45k over the model median (roughly +130–150%)
15k-Mile 2012 Porsche Cayman R sold at $79,618 against an all-time model median of $31,000 and a 2026 median of $36,250. andy7777 in that thread enumerated why the R is genuinely different — "less sound insulation, the ECU is different, it has aluminum doors rather than steel, and most obvious for the drive, it has bespoke shocks/springs and matching sway bars." Wmurray6400 corroborated the level with a private $70k purchase of a 38k-mile example.
Genuinely low mileage on a standard S — but only when documented premium +5–15% versus a 60–70k car, far less than buyers expect
2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed at 20,000 miles made $36,000; 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed at 64,000 miles made $34,000; No Reserve: 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed at 71,000 miles made $30,000. Tripling the mileage cost only about $6,000. The 20k car's premium was capped by its missing service history and wrong wheels, per Bavarianchops.
Fresh, documented preventive service (water pump, thermostat, AOS, intake gaskets, tires) premium roughly the cost of the work, sometimes more
2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed (64k miles, midnight blue over sand beige) carried a November 2025 service bill of about $6,000 covering water pump, drive belt, air-oil separator, thermostat and intake manifold gaskets plus new PS4S. Four44 flagged that the same car sold on Cars and Bids for $28,000 less than a year earlier; it then made $34,000 on BaT. The service and presentation captured essentially the whole delta.
Original-spec wheels and tire sizing discount roughly -$4k on a $40k car, per thread consensus
On 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed (20k miles, arctic silver) Dan_in_Reno wrote that the 20-inch Champion wheels with "245 front and 305 rear likely haas an unfortunate impact on this car's handling attributes... that's too much rear tire for a stock cayman... It will push badly." Bavarianchops estimated the car would have reached $40k on stock wheels with better records. Note the seller's reply — "I never experienced any handling issues" — did nothing to help.
Engine swaps, tunes and emissions non-compliance discount unsellable at market; RNM below the 25th percentile
3.6L-Powered 2007 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed — X51 3.6 from a 2004 996 Carrera, Softronic tune, SAI delete, roll bar, PSS9s — stalled at $27,750 reserve not met, beneath the model's 25th percentile of $25,250-to-$39,000 band midpoint and far below the 2026 median of $36,250. The seller conceded it "cannot pass a California emissions test."
Documented accident history / repainted panels discount unclear in isolation, but compounding
The same 3.6L-Powered 2007 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed carried 2010 Carfax damage with a repainted left front fender and front bumper cover and no detail on structural involvement. By contrast both 2006 Cayman S cars that sold advertised clean Carfax reports, and the 64k example supplied paint-meter readings confirming all-original paint.
2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed in midnight blue metallic over sand beige leather drew explicit praise for the combination and made $34,000 at 64,000 miles, only $2,000 behind a 20,000-mile arctic silver over black example. Suggestive, not proven, on a two-car comparison.
PDK on a Cayman R (does not appear to hurt) premium neutral to mildly positive on R cars; unclear on S cars
15k-Mile 2012 Porsche Cayman R is a PDK car and still made $79,618. HelpMeHelpU, another R owner: "I am normally an MT guy but I bought a CR with PDK and absolutely love it. The PDK fits this car exceptionally well." The manual-vs-PDK question cannot be settled from this data — the transmission subset analysed is only n=3, all manual, median $34,000.
Mileage against sold price across the 4 deep-analysed cars.
Known issues
majorCylinder bore scoring on the M97 flat-six
raised on 2 of the 4 cars deep-analysed, and the single most-requested inspection in both S threads
On 3.6L-Powered 2007 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed the seller published a 2025 bore-scoring inspection showing light scoring in cylinder 2, and HSWEBB asked directly: "Is the ticking I hear in the Functionality video the beginning of bore scoring noise caused by the light scoring in cylinder 2?" The seller attributed the noise to "exhaust or injector" without a technical explanation. On 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed (20k miles) shanman5678 asked for oil analysis specifically to screen for bore scoring; the seller offered only "clean oil with no metal" and never produced Blackstone results or a borescope.
Check: Insist on a fresh borescope of all six cylinders (not just an oil report) plus a used-oil analysis from Blackstone or equivalent looking for ferrous content; listen for cold-start ticking that persists past warm-up.
majorIMS bearing — and the fact that 2006–08 M97 cars have a non-serviceable unit
raised on 2 of 4 cars, and a standing question in every 987 S thread
On 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed (20k miles) fly_guy asked whether the IMS bearing had been addressed and bore scoring documented; the seller replied that the 2006 M97 bearing is non-serviceable and that independent shops told him it "is not a concern" — an assertion, not evidence. The 64k-mile 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed listing leaned on the M97's larger bearing versus the earlier M96 as a positive. Separately, the 3.6L-Powered 2007 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed had a TuneRS direct oil-feed kit fitted to its swapped 996 engine — a tacit acknowledgement that this is what owners spend money on.
Check: Establish the exact engine/bearing generation from the VIN and engine number. On non-serviceable M97 cars there is no retrofit path short of engine-out teardown — price the risk in rather than hoping. Check the oil filter and pan for debris, and ask for any oil-feed retrofit documentation.
moderateWater pump, thermostat, air-oil separator and intake manifold gaskets as a recurring service cluster
documented as replaced on 3 of the 4 cars
2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed (64k) had water pump, drive belt, AOS, thermostat and intake manifold gaskets all done in November 2025 for about $6,000. 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed (20k) had its water pump replaced in March 2020 — at 20,000 miles, i.e. age-driven rather than mileage-driven. 3.6L-Powered 2007 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed needed exhaust manifold gaskets, a front O2 sensor and a radiator cap in 2026, plus an LN Engineering thermostat and a 996 Motorsports air/oil separator.
Check: Ask for dated invoices for water pump, thermostat, AOS and intake gaskets. If none exist and the car is past ~60k miles or ten years, budget the work — the market has shown it is worth roughly what it costs.
minorSagging headliner and failed window regulators — heat-exposure wear items
explicitly addressed on 3 of 4 cars, twice as a selling point
3.6L-Powered 2007 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed had both a headliner replacement (2024) and a right window regulator replacement (2024). 15k-Mile 2012 Porsche Cayman R was marketed on "perfect headliner condition (critical for FL heat exposure)" — the fact that this is a headline strength tells you how common the failure is. 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed (20k) was described as "immaculate with no headliner or door panel issues."
Check: Press the headliner along the rear edges and at the B-pillars for separation; cycle both windows fully, listening for regulator groan and checking the auto-drop function when the door opens.
raised on 1 of 4 cars, but the DME report is a routine bidder demand on 987s
On 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed (64k, midnight blue) Spokayman parsed the report in detail: "The overrev report is overall not too bad on this car... the last instance of this was about 19 engine hours ago... but even Porsche will allow some of that in their CPO cars," and separately, "Range 4 & 5 overrevs can cause damage but in this case shows only 1 spark plug firing each... an (electrical?) anomaly and not actually real. It also occurred many hundreds of hours ago, at hour 812 of 1643 total hours." That is a knowledgeable commenter's read, not a factory determination — but the recent Range 1–2 event was never explained.
Check: Get a printed DME/overrev report ranges 1–6 with total engine hours. Recent Range 1–2 events matter more than old ones; single-plug entries in Ranges 4–5 are usually electrical artefacts, not real events.
moderateTuned cars that cannot pass emissions inspection
1 of 4 cars, and it was fatal to the sale
On 3.6L-Powered 2007 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed the seller disclosed that the Softronic tune deletes the secondary air injection file, that the car "cannot pass a California emissions test," and that reversal requires a new tune from Softronic. Block-off plates were fitted. The car did not meet reserve at $27,750.
Check: Ask directly whether the secondary air injection system is intact and whether the ECU is stock. Confirm the car has passed inspection in a state with a testing regime, with paperwork.
moderateLong-term storage with negligible use masquerading as "preserved"
1 of 4 cars, but the pattern shows up across low-mile 987 listings
On 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed (20k miles) NHS1 questioned the last ten years of ownership and whether fluids had been changed; the seller said the car was kept to preserve mileage but driven regularly, yet only roughly 2,000 miles were added in a decade and no contemporaneous records covered the first ownership. Tom_F2 asked whether a PPI was obtained at purchase; the seller confirmed none was.
Check: Reconcile claimed use against invoices — dated oil changes, tyre manufacture codes, brake fluid intervals. Look for hardened suspension bushings, flat-spotted or date-expired tyres, and clutch/brake hydraulics that have sat.
15k-Mile 2012 Porsche Cayman R was flagged in the listing analysis for having heated sport seats rather than the standard lightweight buckets, "adding ~100-120 lbs and removing weight-saving design intent." It did not stop the car making $79,618 — the Turbo II forged wheels, which andy7777 noted are "unusual and almost never seen," appear to have offset it.
Check: Confirm which seats the car has. Standard lightweight carbon buckets, no air conditioning and no radio are the purist R spec; heated sport seats add roughly 100–120 lb by the listing's own account.
Borescope all six cylinders before you bid, and get the images. On the M97 this is the single check that separates a $34,000 car from a $12,000 engine bill — and note that the seller of 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed (20k miles) declined to produce one even after bidders asked.
Pull the DME overrev report and read it by range and engine hour. Range 1–2 events within the last few dozen hours mean the last driver was abusing it; single-plug Range 4–5 entries are usually electrical noise.
Establish the engine generation from the VIN and engine number, and be clear that 2006–08 M97 cars have a non-serviceable IMS bearing — there is no bolt-in fix, only engine-out work.
Send used oil for lab analysis (Blackstone or equivalent). "Clean oil, no metal" from a seller's eyeball is not the same thing.
Demand paint-meter readings on every panel. The 64k-mile 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed supplied them and beat expectations; 15k-Mile 2012 Porsche Cayman R had them requested three hours before close and never supplied them.
Confirm dates on water pump, thermostat, air-oil separator and intake manifold gaskets. Absent invoices, deduct roughly $5,000–$6,000 — the exact figure the midnight blue car spent in November 2025.
Check the headliner for separation and cycle both windows fully; regulators and headliners are the 987's two most predictable interior failures, both replaced on 3.6L-Powered 2007 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed.
Verify the wheels are correct factory items in the correct staggered sizes. Aftermarket 20s with a 305-section rear cost the arctic silver 20k-mile car an estimated $4,000.
On any tuned car, confirm the secondary air injection system is present and that the ECU is stock, then ask for a passed emissions certificate. A SAI delete makes the car unsaleable in California.
Check tyre date codes on low-mileage cars — the Cayman R's Pirelli P Zeros were mounted in June 2020 and had covered maybe 2,200 miles by sale; that is a set of six-year-old tyres regardless of tread depth.
Ask for both keys. One key, as on the 64k-mile 2006 car, signals incomplete history and costs real money to remedy.
Search Cars & Bids, PCARmarket and prior BaT listings by VIN. The midnight blue 2006 had sold for $28,000 on Cars and Bids under a year before making $34,000 — Four44 spotted it, and you should too.
Ask the seller
Do you have borescope images of all six cylinders, and when were they taken? If not, will you allow one at my expense before the auction ends?
Can you post the DME overrev report showing all ranges plus total engine hours?
Has the IMS bearing ever been addressed, and if this is a non-serviceable M97, what evidence do you have of its condition — oil analysis, filter inspection, sump inspection?
When were the water pump, thermostat, air-oil separator and intake manifold gaskets last replaced, and can you produce the invoices?
Will you provide paint-meter readings on every panel, including the roof and both doors?
Are these the original factory wheels in the original sizes? If not, do the originals come with the car?
Is the ECU stock and is the secondary air injection system intact? Has the car passed an emissions test in the last twelve months, and where?
Has the car ever been on track or at a driving school? Why is there a roll bar, if fitted?
Is there any Carfax or insurance record of damage, and which panels have been repainted?
How many miles have you personally driven it per year, and can you show dated oil changes covering that period?
When did you buy the car, from whom, and for how much — and did you have a PPI done at the time?
Does it come with two keys, both manuals, the window sticker and the full service book?
On a Cayman R: does it have the standard lightweight buckets or the heated sport seats, and which wheels are fitted?
Walk away when
Sellers who dismiss a specific technical question rather than answering it. On 3.6L-Powered 2007 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed the response to an audible tick next to documented cylinder-2 scoring was "could be exhaust or injector" — that car did not sell. On 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed (20k) the response to marque-specific tyre-sizing criticism was "I never experienced any handling issues."
Requested paint-meter readings that never arrive, particularly late in an auction — the pattern on 15k-Mile 2012 Porsche Cayman R.
"No metal in the oil" offered in place of a borescope, on a bore-scoring-prone engine.
Very low indicated mileage with a documentation void. Two thousand miles added in ten years, no PPI at purchase, no records for the first decade — that is a storage car being sold as a preserved car.
Dealer cars that reappeared within twelve months of a cheaper sale elsewhere. Buy the service invoices, not the flip narrative.
Engine swaps and ECU tunes on 987s. The market's clearest verdict in this data set: a 345hp X51-swapped S with top-shelf suspension could not clear $27,750 while two stock 2006 S cars cleared $34,000 and $36,000.
Unexplained notations in the service history — the "decline on several spots of the big dealer servicing" that Wilkesf15 asked about on the Cayman R and that the seller waved away with "everything works and no service is needed."
A roll bar plus performance suspension plus a seller who says track history is unknown.
Only one key, no window sticker, no book pack — small individually, cumulatively a signal that the car has been through hands that didn't care.
Budget
Base and early S cars, driver-grade: $22,000–$28,000. That is the 25th-percentile zone ($25,250) — expect 70k-plus miles, deferred water pump/AOS work, unknown borescope status, cosmetic chips. Budget $5,000–$6,000 on top for the standard service cluster, which is exactly what the midnight blue 2006 Porsche Cayman S 6-Speed spent in November 2025.
Strong, sorted 987 Cayman S manual: $33,000–$40,000. This is where the market actually is in 2026 (median $36,250, 75th percentile $39,000). At this money you should get a clean Carfax, all-original paint verified by meter, a documented DME report, both keys, correct factory wheels, and fresh water pump/thermostat/AOS/gaskets — i.e. the profile of the two cars that made $34,000 and $36,000 in late July 2026.
Best-in-class standard car: $45,000–$55,000 for something exceptional — sub-30k miles, one or two owners, rare colour, full records from new, borescope-clean. Above that you are into variant territory. A Cayman R with sensible miles is $70,000–$80,000 today (a 38k-mile car privately at $70,000; 15k-Mile 2012 Porsche Cayman R at $79,618), and the model's all-time ceiling of $100,000 sits with the halo variants, not with S cars.
2.6x the all-time model median of $31,000 and within $7,057 of its $86,675 MSRP. The R is a distinct, low-production, hardware-differentiated variant (aluminium doors, bespoke springs/dampers/bars, unique ECU) and this one paired 15,000 miles, two owners, a clean Carfax, a perfect headliner and rare Turbo II forged wheels. Wmurray6400's disclosure that he'd just paid $70k for a 38k-mile example anchors the level as real rather than a bidding accident. Do not use R results to value an S.
Reserve not met at $27,750 — near the 25th percentile ($25,250) despite a professionally installed 3.6 X51, Bilstein PSS9s, Elephant Racing arms and a Borla exhaust that together represent tens of thousands in spend. Three separate problems stacked: documented light bore scoring in cylinder 2 with an unresolved tick, an emissions-illegal SAI delete that eliminates California buyers entirely, and 2010 accident damage with repainted fender and bumper. The lesson is that on the 987, modification money is not recoverable and each disclosure compounds.
Above the 2026 median of $36,250 only marginally, which is the point — a 20,000-mile two-owner car should have been a headline result and instead landed $2,000 above a 64,000-mile example. Bavarianchops's post-sale read: "If not for the lack of service and the wheels, it would've done 40K but 36K isn't bad…. the wheels are just wrong." An underperformer relative to its odometer, and evidence that documentation now outweighs mileage.
Verdict
The 987 Cayman is now an appreciating analogue Porsche with a liquid market — 86.9% sell-through across 657 auctions, and a trailing-12-month median up 18.3% to $34,000. For a knowledgeable buyer it remains the best value in the modern Porsche canon, but the price gap between a documented car and an undocumented one has collapsed to almost nothing, which means the informed buyer's edge is now entirely in inspection. Pay $34,000–$39,000 for a stock, borescoped, records-complete S manual with correct wheels and both keys, and you are buying at market with the risk retired. Pay $25,000 for a car with no borescope, no DME report and no service invoices and you are underwriting an M97 rebuild you cannot price. Avoid swapped and tuned cars altogether unless you want them at a heavy discount and never intend to resell — the record is unambiguous that the market will not pay for someone else's build. If the budget stretches to $75,000–$80,000, the Cayman R is the variant with genuine hardware differentiation and demonstrated price support, and PDK is not a penalty on it.
The statistical base is strong — 657 completed auctions with 571 sales, ten years of coverage — but the deep-analysis sample is only four cars, all sold within the last two weeks of July 2026, and three of them are 2006–07 Cayman S manuals. That skews the qualitative findings toward early M97 cars: bore scoring and the non-serviceable IMS bearing are genuine early-car issues but should not be applied wholesale to 2009–12 9A1-engined cars, which are a materially different and generally more robust proposition and are simply not represented here beyond one R. The transmission breakdown is worthless as supplied (manual n=3, no PDK sample), so I cannot quantify a manual premium on an S — treat any claim about it, including mine, as untested. The mileage-versus-price scatter is likewise n=4. The colour-combination premium rests on a single pairing and should be treated as a hunch. Finally, the commenter observations quoted — Spokayman on overrev ranges, Dan_in_Reno on tyre sizing, Bavarianchops's $4,000 estimate, andy7777 on R hardware — are unverified opinions from strangers; they read as well-informed and are internally consistent, but none is a specialist inspection report and the $4,000 wheel penalty in particular is one man's arithmetic, not a measured comparable.
Bidding patterns
Screened the bid ladder on 4 auctions for
ladder-building, self-raises, low-history closing bids, and accounts that repeatedly bid on the
same seller's cars without winning. Nothing stood out.
Well-executed and comprehensively modified 2.7 Cayman with honest seller engagement and strong bid price, but incomplete post-2022 maintenance documentation, non-serviceable 17-year-old IMS bearing, catless headers, and dual Carfax damage reports (2013/2014) present material risk that sophisticated buyer accepted at final price of $22,750.
Incomplete maintenance documentation post-April 2022 · Catless headers without emissions compliance path disclosed · Incomplete maintenance trail: large gap (26k miles over ~2 years) between last documented service (April 2022) and sale with vague claims of in-house maintenance; no records provided · Catless headers create re-sale friction and potential compliance issues in states with emissions testing
Impressive X51-swapped platform hindered by bore scoring, emissions lock-out, and unresolved engine noise—premium for the upgrade but reserve protection suggests buyer and seller still far apart on risk-adjusted value.
Bore scoring detected · Cannot pass California emissions test · Emissions compliance issue restricts resale to out-of-state buyers only · Engine swap from 2004 911 Carrera (77k miles on donor) paired with 987 electronics and software—complex integration
A well-preserved 2006 Cayman S with concerning gaps in first-ownership documentation and unresolved IMS uncertainty, ultimately held back by non-original ill-fitting wheels and a seller who lacked formal inspection diligence, yet still achieved strong market value on handling reputation and low mileage alone.
Non-original wheel and tire setup · IMS bearing concerns unresolved via formal inspection · No formal pre-purchase inspection when current owner acquired car in 2016, despite age (10 years old at time) · First owner never identified; gap in ownership documentation for entire first decade
Well-maintained, cosmetically excellent 2006 Cayman S with strong provenance and recent major service, but prior rapid sale history and ongoing overrevving incidents suggest proceed with extended PPI and mechanical inspection before closing.
Car previously sold on Cars and Bids less than a year ago for $28,000; now sold for $34,000 after $6,000 service—suggests potential rapid flip · Overrevving history indicates previous driver(s) with poor mechanical sympathy
Compiled by Porsche P.I.
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