Son is buying a Cayman
 

He's found an 06 Cayman S. On the build sheet it's listed as a Code PAG also known as a launch car. Anybody know more about this? Supposedly it's one of the first 175 Caymans off the line in 05 but titled in the US as a 06 car. Low miles, clean carfax, all books and records from a one owner Porsche guy in Utah, he may be one of us. Any tips from the brain trust? PPI being done at a dealer in Salt Lake.

Very cool. I'd assume it's pretty loaded with options?

I have a launch Cayman S, silver with black interior, good on a PPI and check all records. Not too much can go wrong with them other than the ims but depending on the mileage if it hasn’t happened yet it probably won’t.

yeah it's loaded.

Yeah yours sounds just like his. The one wants has 28K on the clock.

I'd assume it's like buying a model home. Sounds like a great score.

That’s really low miles, check for leaks, oil change intervals, etc.

They need to be driven so the concern would be the ims bearing

I want Porsche to build a Cayman RSR.

Sounds like a nice one. I have had an 08 Caymans S for 4 years and it is a fun ride. Has around 85k miles.

Launch cars usually come in 2-3 "configurations" and are typically not highly optioned.
Also, launch cars don't really command a premium. Of course, that won't stop a seller from trying to use that fact to justify/inflate their asking price.
Personally, I'd rather have a later-run example for any given model year, and would prefer to search out cars with specific options (sport seats, PASM, PCM/Nav, sport-chrono, bi-xenons, hi-fi sound, preferred package +, full leather, etc.). YMMV...

That said, if it's in good shape (pending PPI results) and the price is right, then #YOLO. ;)

ditto. I've got an '08 Boxster S that I've had for 5 years, and it's great. I think I just recently passed 42k miles. It had 21k when I got it.
Interesting, that's good to know. I made out. I bought a special edition, and it's got sport seats, sport chrono, PASM, sport exhaust, a bunch of Sport Design touches (wheels, gear shift knob, front splitters), lots of leather, bi-xenons. I put an aftermarket stereo in which I think was probably a better option that the PCM. I would have kind of liked a limited slip diff, but that's pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

Nice, Caymans are great. Porsche had a launch edition for pretty much all of their recent models. Like Eric said they had a couple of standard specs, though you could add options if the car was special order. It just means that the car was early in the production run, nothing more. I wonder if they don’t have a few standard rapid spec packages to help get the production line up to speed quickly, and/or expedite the dealers ordering for inventory.

Caymans are a great car , fantastic handling and a ride smooth enough to enjoy every day . Nice interior with good seats and decent access to the engine . Get a PPI done and if it looks good let the $$$ fly :D . If possible keep some $$$ in reserve just in case of unseen stuff and/or to get all maintenance up to snuff . Then drive the pi$$ out of it and enjoy .

Some of the very early cars built in 05 are rumored to run the M96 engine still, which we now know is better in terms of IMS bearing replacement than the M97 (as on the 06-08 in theory you cannot extract the bearing without splitting the case) . Would be interesting to know, there is a list of VINs floating around the web.

I had an 06 Cayman S, I loved it, one of the best cars I ever owned - the one flaw I found with it on the manual box anyway was the EGas was hard to modulate on take off, you had either too many revs or a borderline stall.. Pretty sure it wasn't me since that had never happened with its predecessor Boxster or it's successor 911. I tried a sprintbooster, remaps, nothing doing...never got as comfortable with it as I did with 10+ other porsches I owned over the years, but only on take off... On track that car was a joy, you could toss it and it'd never betray you.

Watch for the water pump, mine died at 40K mi only. You can do a lot of work yourself on that car. Best balanced car I ever drove. To be fair my current 991 is another favorite of mine exactly because it reminds me of the Cayman S as far as its sharp turn in, and adds 911 traction out of corners...

Stick in the VIN and see what options it came with.


https://vinanalytics.com/

Mine was an '06 and I would not buy another without getting the IMSB addressed. Fantastic, fun car that handled like a dream. PASM made it a lot of fun. If possible, go for a little later year (2010+), but not the newer 4-cylinders variants.

Agreed, the standard throttle mapping isn't my favorite. I have stalled my boxster more than I've stalled any other car as far back as I can remember including my old '88 911. That said, my car has sport chrono, and with the car in sport mode, the throttle mapping eliminates that issue. I drive the car daily and have gotten to the point where I rarely stall it in standard mode. I swear it seems like my car is working differently off idle, but I assume it's just that I've gotten used to the way it works.