Porsche 718 Cayman
Why 8.5: Mid-engine balance, honest money, nothing to signal. Median annual mileage in listings is the highest of any Porsche sports car — these get driven.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The 2.0 turbo flat-four has the uneven firing interval every boxer does, so there is some offbeat character at idle. But it turns coarse and boomy under load, boost negates the 7,500 rpm limit, and it replaced a flat-six — the most criticised note Porsche has sold.
4-cylinder · turbocharged · 7,500 rpm redline · rated 4.2 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €59k (2016) → €44k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
There aren't any — strict two-seater.
Porsche's child-seat preparation option brings an ISOFIX bracket and a key switch that kills the passenger airbag. Standard sport seats on the base Cayman don't conflict with it.
Porsche 718/982 child-seat preparation option (Tequipment documentation)
The long version
Buy a Cayman and you have already admitted the 911 badge was not the point, mid-engine balance was. That crowd tends to keep cars long and drive them hard, which is why resale reads like a normal depreciation curve instead of a speculative spike; nobody is flipping a Cayman for auction-house money. It collects Smiles per Dollar because the driving experience outruns the price tag, and Endangered Stick for the same reason as every manual Porsche these days: buy it before the option disappears. The GTS and GT4 trims get tracked; the base cars just get driven, constantly.