Lizard's Lair

Road Trip up Hwy 1 - August 12

I remade my road trip map for my August 12th drive up to San Francisco via Monterey.

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CAYMANY License Plates Found

I bought these plates last year. When I went to the DMV to pick them up, I was asked for the car that they were going on. I told them I hadn't bought it yet. I had to come back with old plates, which I used my old 1985 RX-7. It's original plates, "MANYS RX" were switched to the 2004 RX-8 when it was new.

I have to go to the DMV to make these valid.

Looks good!!

   

 

Caymans on Sale

I was ecstatic when my offer of almost $5000 off the dealer's asking price for my 2007 Cayman S was accepted within a minute. Could I have gotten it for a little less? Maybe, but I would have hated to lose this almost new Cayman S in Lapis Blue. 19,049 is what the odometer read when I cranked up the engine for the first time. I didn't even test drive it. I just wanted to take it home.

I believe there are many more bargains to be had. It's a buyers market and 2010 is the year '07s will be coming off leases. I track my Cayman's using AutoTrader.com. I do poke around other sites, but AT let's me keep 25 favorite cars and 10 saved searches. It tracks when I saved it, and with my naming convention, I track the original asking price.

This 2007 Cayman is currently listed at $29,990 in Cleveland. It's black with the Sand Beige interior. A great color combination. I've had it on my list since November 11, listing originally at $32,990. My car being an S, plus it's CPO warranty is worth IMHO at least $9000 more than this one. This car has 27,000 miles, mine 19,000. That's worth $1000 at least. The CPO warranty, at least $2000 and Cayman S vs. base, another $6,000. I'd offer $25,000 for this one if I were in that area and market. I also imagine that winter is also a good time for bargains in the colder weather states. Less so, here in southern California. It's a beautiful weekend here with temps in the low 80's. Almost hot, not bad for February.

$4500 off! Another heavily discounted Cayman. I've had this car on my list since September 21. Originally listed at $37,559, it's now going for $32,990. This car has 30,000 miles and it's in Florida. A car that has sat at the dealer for 5 months is begging to get sold.

This unusually high mileage Cayman S is a 2008 with 34,800 miles. It was first listed November 3 at $39,995. It's now $35,995. It's an awesome price for a 2 year old Cayman S, though it has the miles of 3 or 4 year old Porsche.

My target prices for used Caymans:

2006 Cayman S - $30,000

2007 Cayman - $27,000

2007 Cayman S - $35,000

2008 Cayman - $33,000

2008 Cayman S - $41,000

2009 Cayman - $42,000

2009 Cayman S - $52,000

2007 Porsche Cayman S, Lapis Blue - It's mine!

I did it. Brought it home last night. I ended up renting a car one-way to pick it up with my brother Dave. My work schedule ran a little late to catch the train at noon. At 2:30 pm, we got a rental from Avis and drove through the traffic and rain to The Auto Gallery, the Porsche dealer in Woodland Hills, CA. Los Angeles traffic is notoriously bad and with yesterday's all day rain, the drive took 4 1/2 hours for 140 miles. We arrived just past 7 pm, their closing time, but David Lang, Sales Manager, waited for us. Within an hour or so, we were back on the road to San Diego.

First off, I want to thank David Lang for his tremendous service. He dealt with me personally and even called me this morning to check that the car and I came home safe. Not only did I feel I got a deal-of-a-lifetime, I got it from an awesome dealership. 

More pics later.

 

2007 Porsche Cayman S

This may be my next car.

 

Is there a glut of unsold Caymans?

As I've been shopping for a Cayman a few months, my searches always had filters like maximum  price and manual transmission to keep the lists smaller. I usually set my filters to show me 100 of the lowest price Cayman for a particular year. I then wondered what is the real market of all unsold Caymans in the US right now.

My findings are far from scientific and my number gathering is limited to what is advertised on Autotrader.com. I use them, because it's easy to save detailed searches and I keep my top 25 car list on there. Here's my list as of today:

2006 Cayman S - 137 available

Here's the cheapest one, $31,995, 31K miles, Auto

2007 Cayman  and Cayman S - 181

2007 Cayman, 9K miles - $29,821

2008 Cayman and Cayman S (used) - 162

2008 Cayman, 5K miles - $37,900

NEW 2008 Cayman and Cayman S - 549!! I checked it twice.

2008 Cayman, 112 miles, MSRP $50,760 - $8,762 = $41,998

Five hundred and forty-nine, wow! That is a lot of excess inventory. I've seen the Cayman sales for the last few months and they are not good. November and December 2008 sales were less than 100 per month. 2008 new Caymans will available for a long time. The 2009 models will be out in a month or 2 and that is adding to the slowdown, not including the current terrible state of the economy. $8000 discounts are the norm. I've seen $13000 off a low mileage demo.

The day after I made this post, one of my favorite car blogs posted pictures of the world auto glut. The original photos with more information is here.

Caymans on Ebay

High mileage, 40K miles, 2006 Cayman S sold for $30,000 on February 15th.

This low mileage, 10K miles, 2006 Cayman S sold for alot, $39,000 on February 14th.

This 2007 Cayman S with Turbo style wheels and only 4700 miles was sold for $40,100.55 on February 14th

This 2007 Cayman with almost 25K miles sold for a great price, $27,900 on February 10th.

This 2007 Cayman S with less than 5000 miles sold for $35000, February 5th. It was nicely optioned, stickering for $67000. That's a hell of a deal!

This beautiful 2007 Cayman S in Carmona Red metallic, sold for $44000, February 2nd with 4000 miles. Hmmm.

2008 Cayman S, 14K miles - $42,500, sold February 2

  I just put a $29000 bid on this 2008 Cayman S in Oregon. I know I won't get it. It's easily $20K under what they may want for it, but it's fun and if by a miracle, one of my bids turns into a real car, then I'd be ecstatic.

I started looking for Porsches on Ebay this past summer. At first, my maximum allowable bid was $15000, because my account wasn't verified with Paypal yet. I already had a Paypal account from my time with the Hotline server, though I hadn't used it since then. My early bidding was limited so I bid on cars to start the bidding. Often, it's the first dollar or $1000. You place a maximum bid, say $9000, and you can be the first bidder. If there is no minimum, then it starts at a dollar. Almost all cars have an undisclosed reserve price that must be met before they will sell the car. There are no miracles like buying a $25000 Porsche for $1000 or something. The cars that do come through without any reserve get bid on by regulars on Ebay.

A way to what cars are actually selling on Ebay is to do a search for what you want, then click "Show Completed Listings". This will list all the finished auctions with green numbers for sold items. I'd say more than 90% of what I look for goes through unsold. My current search has 211 listings.

Here's another one:

Check out the Carrera Red interior!

 

I'm the current high bidder at $1000. My maximum is set to $25,500.

Here's one that actually sold December 26, 2008 for $40,800. It's a 2006 Cayman S with only 1328 miles. It's Buy It Now price was $42,900.

 

Do you like Speed Yellow? I don't.

2007 Cayman, 20K miles, Buy-It-Now $31,800, 1 hr to go, bid $28,000

This sold too, 2007 Cayman S, 9K miles, Atlas Grey - $36,900 on December 29th.

Here's a nice 2007 base Cayman in Blue, 16K miles, sold for $31,100 on January 2

Another awesome buy on a 2007 Cayman S in Carmona Red Metallic, 12K miles, sold December 30th for $36,000! Look at the original asking price, $7275 discount, wow.

2006 Cayman S, 17K miles - $33,500, sold December 6

BRAND NEW 2008 Cayman sold January 16 for $43,473!

2006 Cayman S, 27K miles, Silver - $32,900

The last day of the year brings this nicely priced '06 Cayman S. It's a couple of $1000s under the previous Best-in-Price champ. Here's the seller's description:

Arctic Silver, Special Cocoa Leather, Bi-Xenon Headlamp Package, 3 Spoke Sport Steering Wheel, PCM 2.1, Chrono Package Plus, Preferred Package, Colored Wheel Caps, Self-Dimming Mirrors w/rain sensors, Heated Seats, Bose High End Sound Package $70,465 MSRP..........1 Owner New Porsche Trade-in All the Books and Spare Keys.