The question we see most in the forums is “what Porsche should I buy?” How about a Cayman? 🛒
As noted earlier, the grafting on of a turbocharger more than compensated for the 718's switch to four-cylinder power. Planting the throttle in the midrange of the old six-pot car could be an exercise in waiting for something to happen, but the turbo's characteristics put a stop to all that, especially in the S, where booting the manual in top gear from 60mph would get you to 80mph more than a second sooner than the same process in the identically torque-endowed 981 GT4.
718 servicing was built around a one/two-year 10,000/20,000-mile schedule depending on the type of service. An intermediate service - oil and filter change and visual inspection - typically costs about £350 at a good independent. You'd need at least £150 more than that for an OPC. The interleaving 'maintenance' service - a more detailed check with more filters changed - comes in at around £450-£500 at an independent and getting on for £650 at the OPC.
GT4s built between the end of January 2021 and the beginning of March 2021 were recalled by Porsche to sort out a batch of non-spec conrods that could crack under hard use, causing bottom-end noise, stalling, power loss and potential oil leakage from damaged engine blocks. Engines that had already been run were exchanged in their entirety for new engines. Those that hadn't been run were given new conrods and a shiny new 10-year engine warranty.
Experts - or magazine road testers at least - suggested that the best Cayman chassis had the adaptive sports suspension and the limited slip rear diff that came with Porsche Torque Vectoring. The 2019-on Cayman T gave you all that stuff and more and proved monumentally fast on the right road. The selection of roads that fell into the 'right' category widened considerably in most 718s but especially in that car.
The Cayman's total boot capacity was 422 litres, which was actually more than a Golf's, but it was in two compartments front and rear, so if you were transporting something large you had to saw it in half first. In early 2019 there was a recall on over 14,000 982 Caymans and Boxsters to fix a luggage compartment bracket that could puncture the fuel tank if you were unlucky enough to experience a particular type of collision.
Everything in the cabin should feel strong and well-built, because that's what it was like out of the factory and that's generally how Porsche cabins stay. In terms of rattliness, our own Mike Duff will tell you that the later car was a lot quieter. There have been some instances of misreading fuel indicators.