I suppose it's no surprise that like many a petrolhead, spending time cruising the classifieds is not a strange habit. It could be likened in fact to a lady window shopping in her local designer outlet village and coming home with nothing but a receipt from Pret a Manger. When you spend that much time hanging out in the classifieds and coupled with a bit of talk among those in the trade you start to gauge a picture. So understanding the dynamics of used Porsche prices at the current time is not hard, but it does require some clear thinking and a bit of honesty if you are to judge the right price for a potential purchase.
Just like me, you will probably also see a variety of posts on social media from folk wondering why their pride and joy hasn't sold even when advertised at 'below market price' and acting quite bewildered by this situation. Often this belief is supported and upheld by their fraternity, reaction is often a cocktail of denial and head scratching. But were somebody to suggest that said advertised car might be priced a bit punchy, you will literally be marched to Tyburn for suggesting such an outrageous idea.
There is truth though, and it's cold and it's hard.
The recent announcement of the 718 GT4 is not news, we all knew it was coming and sure enough it's nearly arrived. The good news is, it's faster, it's manual, it's got a flat-six naturally aspirated engine and it will be better than the 981 GT4. All very obvious when you say it out loud. The RRP is also £75k, add a few options and yes, it's likely to be just over £80k.
What does this mean for the 981 GT4, the car thats market value went ridiculously through the roof, to the point that people were paying well over £100k for 'the best specced versions' back in 2016. Many of these cars are now fetching sub-£80k and falling still. We are now increasingly seeing 981 GT4s on the market for less than £70k and auction prices looking a fair bit lower, in fact bid prices are often not reaching the perceived market price.
So what I hear you say.. Well, we've established that you can buy a very low mileage (sub 15k miles) 981 GT4 with a good spec for around £68k. Theres one or two in the classifieds and more to be had at auction. This represents sensible money for a 981 GT4, but there's probably a little more to go before the year is out, we'll see low £60k i'm sure.
This invariably has a knock on affect and on to a car that I hold dear, one which i've always said is a better car in many ways than its bigger brother GT4, the Cayman R. Legendary for its simplistic and purist driver focussed approach, no frills but useable, limited but not exclusive. Porsche nailed it with this car, and we all know it.
So the Cayman R was a bargain at £45k at a time when a used 981 GT4 was £100k+, 80% of the car for 50% of the cost, what's not to like. We were literally snapping them up all day long, they were selling over the phone at reputable dealerships provided they were endowed with those 3 most critical items - bucket seats, manual gearbox and spyder wheels. Any other options were nice, but certainly not required to deliver that legendary Cayman R experience.
A Cayman R with those key options and a decent history should be fetching in the early £40k bracket, slightly down on 2016 prices but not by much. If however you are sitting on a car wit no bucket seats, PDK and above average mileage then you probably won't see north of £35k as a private sale in 2019. Now thats a bitter pill to swallow because back in 2016 even these cars were fetching mid-£40k at dealers amid the frenzy. There is currently a less-desirably specced (PDK, no buckets, higher than average miles) black Cayman R on eBay for £35,995 and has been hanging around for a while, it's unfortunately specced and still isn't selling at this price even though it apparently has OPC warranty and FPSH. The market has certainly toughened.
So there it is, current pricing of some of the halo Cayman models are taking a bit of a hit brought on by the arrival of the new kid in town and maybe some nervousness more generally in the premium segment of the market. Hagerty have been reporting a decline in auction bid prices for Porsches for a while and the bubble that we've all been talking about is showing signs of deflating further. All this and I haven't even mentioned Brexit.
What does this mean for a potential buyer of either of these models though, well the world is your oyster. A Cayman R for c.£35k is possible or even a low mileage 981 GT4 for mid £60s - a good time to buy compared to 18 months ago, or should you stay resolute and hold out a bit longer to see where the market goes...