Used Porsche 911 Cabriolet 2005 - 2012 review

High-mileage Porsche 997 Cabriolets are down to the £20,000 mark, or for £25,000 you can pick up an early Gen 1 car with about 70,000 miles on the clock. Manuals are more popular than the early Tiptronics and the Carrera S is favoured over the Carrera, all of which is reflected in prices. Gen 2 cars start at £35,000 for a car that’s covered about 90,000 miles, while £40,000 opens up the door to a lot of 911s with good histories and sensible mileages.

For a GTS you’ll need to spend at least £60,000 but with these holding their value well you could stand to lose less in depreciation in the longer term. 911 Turbos cost from about £54,000 for an early one, rising to close to £100,000 for a late, low-mileage Turbo S.

Insurance and road tax aren’t cheap; expect to pay at least £300 per year for the latter, and that’s if you have an early Carrera. Later models come in at more than £500 per year.

That service intervals are every two years or 20,000 miles might sound like it’ll ease the financial burden, but in reality each service can potentially run into a four-figure bill if a couple of extra bits need doing above and beyond what’s normal. A replacement clutch alone is about £500, for example, and with these tending to last for about 50,000 miles there will be a lot of cars on the used market that need the work doing.

One way to save money is to find a good Porsche specialist to maintain your car rather than using the official dealer network.