As a serial automotive window-shopper, it’s strange to think that I’ve been writing about used enthusiast car bargains for so long that I can now do market updates. In February of 2025, I wrote a piece titled “You Can Buy A Porsche 911 Turbo For The Price Of A New Mustang GT” because at the time, you reasonably could. So imagine my surprise watching the 996 Porsche 911 Turbo market over the past year and a half. One pristine example just sold on Cars & Bids for a figure that just about made me fall out of my chair: It hammered for $155,666, and it’s not alone.
Before the GT3 stopped being an obscure model for well-heeled trackday addicts and started being a celebrity in its own right, the 911 Turbo was the poster-car Porsche. In some ways, the 996-generation 911 Turbo was a massive departure from its air-cooled 993 predecessor: water-cooling, top-hinged clutch and brake pedals, a structure that shares absolutely nothing with the 1960s, those famously controversial headlights. However, in many ways, it’s quite like its predecessor: all-wheel drive, more than 400 horsepower, feelsome steering, ferocious brakes, only-car liveability. It paired genuine supercar shove with rear seats and an optional rear wiper and windows you could see out of. Small wonder it’s held in such regard by the people who grew up with it.
Despite that desirability to a certain subset of the population, the 996 Turbo has historically been the unloved Turbo. It represented the schism between air-cooled and water-cooled, the unified composite headlights were a love-it-or-hate-it proposition, and the interior was quite plasticky compared to the more hand-built 911s of earlier. Add in relatively high production volumes and the later 997 Turbo bringing back round headlamps while dramatically improving the cabin, and you can see why 996 Turbo values stayed relatively low for a while.
That historic trend seems to be slowing, and the most prominent signal is at the top of the market. That red 911 Turbo I mentioned earlier may have yellow seat belts, but it also had the X50 power kit that raised output to 450 horsepower, the hardback sport seats, the manual gearbox, and just 20,700 miles on the clock. It’s not perfect—there’s some aged weatherstripping and a few little chips to contend with—but it looks like a particularly well-kept example. Still, $155,666 is a difficult figure to wrap my head around.
Roughly two weeks ago, another 996-generation 911 Turbo sold on an online auction platform. This time, it was Bring A Trailer and technically a Turbo S, which bundled the X50 power kit with carbon-ceramic brakes and some commonly-optioned features. This one had 21,000 miles on the clock, and it’s a harder one to value for two reasons: Firstly, it’s a Paint-To-Sample car in Viola Metallic. This special-order rich dark purple is quite desirable, but you know what’s not desirable? This 996’s convertible top. Generally, a soft roof lops up to 30 percent off the value of a 996 because it makes the car heavier, floppier, and more complex to maintain. That didn’t seem to matter, because this example still sold for $168,000.
Here’s another top-of-market example that sold earlier this year, a 2001 911 Turbo with just 17,000 miles on the clock. It didn’t have the X50 power kit or a rare paint code or carbon-ceramic brakes. Even though the red interior’s a tad unusual, comparable examples have sold before and will likely surface in the future. This one sold for $141,000 earlier this year on Bring A Trailer. I can understand spending megabucks on a pristine second-hand car if there is no comparable experience in a brand new car. On the market today, you won’t find anything like an original Mini or an AW11 Toyota MR2 or even an old-school Porsche 930 Turbo. However, there is a brand new Porsche 911 you can buy that’s more like a 996 Turbo than you’d think.
It’s the 911 Carrera T, and other than a lack of four-wheel drive, it’s shockingly similar to the 996 Turbo on paper. You get a twin-turbocharged flat-six, a six-speed manual gearbox, and a curb weight that’s actually lighter than the Y2K-era Turbo. Despite a slight horsepower deficit, it’s even quicker than the 996 Turbo—two-tenths quicker to 60 MPH and three-tenths quicker through the quarter-mile in Car and Driver testing. The steering still gives decent feedback, the seats are leagues better than even the hardback sport seats available in a 996, it makes a good noise, it handles beautifully, and it comes with a full bumper-to-bumper warranty. Better still, it starts at $150,350 including freight. That’s right in showroom-condition 996 Turbo territory.
Granted, there are some things on the old Turbo you just don’t get on a new 911. The low windowsills, the slightly more generous frunk opening, the nostalgic visuals, and the lack of screens. However, old cars still have their problems. The foam lining the HVAC blend door will disintegrate with time, and that’s a dashboard-out job to do correctly. The coolant pipes were glued in from the factory, and that glue goes with time, necessitating pinned or welded lines. Bushings dry-rot, gaskets weep, even on a 20,000-mile 996 Turbo there’s still some expected maintenance to do if you actually want to use it. Meanwhile, the new car’s still brilliant to drive, and you just fire it up and go.
Meanwhile, a rising tide really is lifting all ships. The often-modified $50,000-ish-or-less 996 Turbos I wrote about in early 2025 are much thinner on the ground. You’re now looking at around $60,000 to get into a similar driver-condition car, and that trend’s only been accelerating in the past six months or so. For example, here’s a modified, rear-wheel-drive-converted 2001 911 Turbo that’s comparable to the modified one in my last 996 Turbo Gavel Gazing update. This one doesn’t have that car’s big turbos, features nearly 18,000 more miles, and comes with the aesthetically challenging early-2001 bumperettes, but it sold for $62,000 on Bring A Trailer back in May. That’s $11,900 more than the black car from late 2024. Granted, you’d still be getting a lot of car for a little over $60,000, but wouldn’t it have been nicer to grab one at $50,000?
Thus, the 911 Turbo I grew up with now finds itself in a changing role. Previously, it was the last 911 Turbo that enthusiasts on a generous-but-still-reasonable budget could buy and drive the hell out of without feeling guilty. Now that top-of-market examples are entering an echelon where they’re seen as investments, and the cheap examples are becoming less and less cheap by the minute. In some ways, it’s the natural order of things when a generation who grew up idolizing a car can finally afford a concours example. Still, it also means that more of us will probably never get to own a 911 Turbo. You can probably no longer buy a stick-shift 996 Turbo for the price of a new Ford Mustang GT, and that’s a bit sad.
Top graphic image: Cars & Bids
BaT and Cars & Bids are not reality, and I believe deeply that BaT is more a money laundering operation than anything else. Values are going up, but these are just outliers.
That generation Porsche had some of the worst interiors in the car business. Toyota Camrys were better built. Look at the M5’s of that generation, they had beautiful interiors. So Porsche was capable, they just didnt care.
Mine is one of the few actual good interiors of the gen, the millennium edition got a special natural brown leather interior that replaced all the plastic with supple brown leather. Quite the good looking interior.
In the early ’90s Porsche was not capable of building a car efficiently while also keeping quality high. The company decided to intentionally shift money directly to engineering as way to save its bacon. Yes, BMW did better at the time, but BMW didn’t narrowly avoid bankruptcy in 1993 the way Porsche did.
The Camry connection is funny because Porsche actually hired former Toyota people to help integrate lean manufacturing and quality practices. So Porsche cared, but it realized that good interiors in crappy cars was not the path to success… the good interiors could come later.
I really struggle to understand the dynamic of “desirable” vs “undesirable” cars of the same make/model. Maybe it’s just my tax bracket talking, but I would be happy with ANY Porsche. Would a Turbo S with AWD and Carbon brakes be more fun to drive on a track than a a lower spec version? Absolutely. But for how most people drive these cars, an “undesirable” model can still be boatloads of fun.
Case in point: My current 3rd car is a 2002 E46 325Ci with an auto and a top that is permanently in the “down” position. Would a 330 with a manual be more fun? M3? Absolutely. Does it make the 325 not fun? No, it doesn’t.
I agree with you, and I think that’s how these ended up rising in value. The base 996s were quite cheap 10 years ago. They became the go-to if you wanted Porsche thrills on a budget and stayed there as the values of older and newer Porsches shot up during Covid. So now as those have come up, it’s obviously pushed the Turbo values up (and I think the Turbo didn’t have the IMS bearing issue which also helped it command a premium).
A 20-something-thousand-dollar base 996 is great when the alternative is a $50k Turbo. Once the base ones climb to the 50s and 60s, it’s not a surprise that the Turbos have climbed with them.
If I’d had a garage 9 or 10 years ago, it’s possible I’d have a high mileage base 996 in the stable now. But alas, that ship has sailed.
There is a bit of a difference vs an M3 in that you don’t have to worry about the catastrophic failures you probably can’t do anything to prevent with a 996 Turbo that is always nagging with a regular Carrera (they instead have more nickel and dime stuff that the narrow body cars do not); which is probably why the market for even the rattiest 996 Turbo Tiptronic cabriolet never bottomed out anywhere near the Carrera-based cars.
Sweet. Should be no time before the RWD, Tiptronic-equipped 996 Cabriolets (with matching hard top!) climb in value.
I’ll be sitting pretty. </s>
I don’t think they’re necessarily expensive now. BaT still has a bunch of recent examples of maintained driver’s examples in the 60k range, which is more than they were before COVID but not dramatically more than they were when I bought my Carrera in 2022. I feel this is just two low mileage cars in very desirable colors (meaning any color combination that is not black/black or grey/grey that most 996s were ordered in) that were also both X50s.
The real out of control market are 996 GT3s; which used to be about 15% more expensive than 996 Turbos but now tend to trade hands at 3-4x the price of them.
Random comment:
When I was working for PAG 10 years ago, they told us during the introduction days, that the average buyer of a new Porsche earns roughly around 14k Euros per months AFTER tax.
I don’t remember the exact number. But for the average…that is totally crazy. Especially if you know how much money is gone due to tax and so on here in Germany.
That may sound extravagant, but that’s likely to be about 300K/year, which I’d love to receive but isn’t that uncommon in many fields / roles.
Yes, should be somewhere around 300k per year. But the impressive part is, it is the average. And this was back in 2016, when one of the best selling products were the Cayman & Boxster & Macan, which all were rather “affordable” in comparison and where most likely also bought a lot by people with saleries way below these numbers.
If it was about the special vehicles like GT3 RS and so on it’s a different story, as they are extremely expensive and the owners most likely very rich.
I’m honestly not that surprised. Other than the original Boxster no recent Porsche has been affordable enough for your above-average but still un-married joe to choose as their one and only car so they were always a second car proposition. If you can afford to maintain your normal family car which is likely to also be rather nice and then splurge on buying a Boxster or Cayman as a toy, you’re very well off.
I get your point. Still, considering the rather “fair” price of them and the Macan and the fact how many units were sold especially of the Macan, I am still surprised by this number.
Anyways…still don’t get the hype around this brand. Was an interesting time working for them, but I simply did not fit in there. So it was a good idea to say goodbye at some point.
I’m not sad about these economic realities for myself… I’ve grown out of my youthful desires to own a 911. Or really any Porsche for that matter (though some tiny part of me still occasionally toys with the idea of rationalizing the purchase of a first-gen Cayman).
But it’s for enthusiasts in general that I mourn. With the buy-in for a new Porsche sportscar so lofty, the pool of potential buyers is limited to the very upper tax brackets, and that surely excludes so many car guys (and gals) that would be fine and worthy Porsche enthusiasts and drivers.
Yes, there’s always used… you don’t need to remind me: every car I’ve ever owned except one I bought used. But with so many new Porsches starting at six figures+, the desirable used Porsche sportscars have climbed towards too-expensive as well (barring the older, less-daily-driver-suitable stuff best reserved for hardcore DIYers).
It’s all just kind of depressing, that’s all.
I’ll shut up now.
Same as it ever was.
I remember when Ferrari 250 GTOs were selling for about half the price of a new C3 Corvette. I also remember that a new 911 or 914/6 was the same price as the Corvette.
Yeah, I’m old.
I’d always wanted a 911, and I got the chance years ago to pick up a 996 a little past the nadir of their price. I love it dearly — it’s my daily driver — and wish it would just stay the ‘affordable’ 911. I love being able to find parts, I love the aftermarket that exists to solve the mistakes of the engineers, and I love the other weirdos who have chosen this gen as their car. Cars were made to be driven, but people snapping up examples chasing some sort of investment that they’ll leave untouched in their garages are ruining it.
I’m old enough to notice this as a cycle, when I was a little kid, 60s muscle cars were dirt cheap, while hot rods were for the wealthy. I’ve watched that hump move up through the decades, and now the cars of my young adult life are hitting their peaks. I do think the cycle is speeding up, but that’s maybe just me struggling with time perception which is hard.
I think it’s sped up too. Muscle car boom didn’t really hit until the early ’00s as I recall, just in time to pull the rug out from under me and my buddies getting into hot rodding, but that’s like 30+ years from when those cars were new. Now we’ve already been seeing cars barely past the 20 year old mark appreciating (e46 M3, GD WRX STi…) Maybe I’m just cherry picking a few of the worst offenders but it does seem like the depreciating –>rock bottom–> appreciating cycle is happening faster than it used to.
I love mine other than the lack of heat because all the foam is gone!
At that mileage, it seems like prior owners got little to no driving enjoyment out of owning these. We’re talking about 1000 miles/year (less in some cases).
That makes these particular low-mileage examples investments. Investments that take a full garage bay and require insurance, registration and maintenance.
MSRP invested in a fund tracking the dow would be worth almost $700k today, with no expenses along the way.
I know that’s a crap way to look at a car, but we’re talking about 20 year old cars with 20k miles on the clock – which is also a crap way to own a ‘car.’
I can personally vouch to how this happens.
Simply put, you’re working a ton. If you add spouse and kids on top? Oof, the amount of time you have to go for a proper drive is even less. When you consider that where you’re earning the money to buy these things, you’re in more urban areas where the good driving roads are usually even further out.
If I want to go to genuinely great driving roads, it’s ~2.5 hours from closing the door of my home until I’m at the start of a great road. Legit. So I’ve 5 hours of overhead just to have a really great time in the car. It sucks, but that is reality.
I get it, but the 996 is a usable car. I’d expect to at least drive it to work or on the weekend a few times along the way – even if you can’t fully stretch its legs.
If you have the money to let it sit, you can afford to fix the odd scratch.
Commutes in a special car aren’t special.
I say that as someone who COULD daily his RS, but won’t.
For the reason that stop and go at 15mph isn’t fun in ANYTHING.
That’s not theory. I have countless photographs of the trip gauge from years ago. Where I’d be in the car for 45 – 65 minutes, and have an average speed for the trip under 15mph. if not under 10, and that’s on highway. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. When I had the option to not do it anymore, I JUMPED at the chance.
I hate car commuting so much, I don’t EVER use cars as a conveyance.
I will WALK before I get in a car to go somewhere, and actually do just that.
Car is used when the distance is genuinely significant (outside range of mass transit), or for actual fun, special, drives. That’s what keeps it enjoyable, something to look forward to, and makes every drive feel at least a bit special.
—
I’ve a non-car person acquaintance who owns a Prius but also mostly walks/transit, and he sums it up perfectly:
Rando drive in the mountains? He loves it. Most people do. Driving around a dense city or on congested highway to gas-brake-honk? Eff it. Ain’t worth it.
I could literally walk to work in 50 minutes (done it a few times on the way home), but it usually takes me about 1:10 – 1:20 to drive at the times I was scheduled. I’d only do this if I needed to leave work and immediately hit the road.
Wow, really depressing when you think about it the other way. Public transit averages about 10 mph, walking is about 4, and driving averages 3mph.
When I lived closer to Cambridge, MA, I used to take a long walk right after work every day.
When I got onto Mass. Ave on the return home I would keep track of the cars that turned up the street I needed to head home (and for them, towards interstate), and “race” them. This was a remaining 1.5 miles, which would take me about 26-27 minutes to walk.
Almost every time, I beat the car I was tracking.
I’m in that boat myself. The first 3 years of owning my RX8 I put 72K miles on it, then I moved to Chicago and have been averaging about 2000 miles per year split between tow/winter car, and this when it’s nice outside and not trafic’y. During Covid that dropped to about 1000 / year as I work from home, and when I stopped racing Lemons 2 years ago I would naturally drive probably 25 miles per year, but seem to average about 200. The only thing I can’t walk to as far as stores I need to go within 1/2 a mile is a welding supply shop, but fortunately they’ll deliver a tank to my apartment and swap it out if there’s another “real” delivery in the area. At least of the 20K I’ve put on it in the last 20 years about 1/4 of them have been on track, (because I now can afford to) and I should probably start reselling my used fluids as I change them so often regardless of milage.
One of these years I’ll learn how to stop over-using comma’s. It doesn’t look like it’s this one.
Tanks of welding gas delivered to your apartment?
Some of the gases are pretty innocuous I suppose, but using them in your apartment ?
There’s a detached 2 car garage behind this 2 flat of which I have full control of all for the low-low price of
$400/mo.(oops, that was a while ago, it’s now $500/mo).I also never have transported a welding tank in any of my cars as I don’t feel comfortable with the ~150 cu ft of gas inside of it sharing the same 100cu ft of space with me inside of my car. I’d always borrow or rent a pickup.
The welding shop we took stuff to that a needed more care than weld some mystery scrap, hit it with a 13 pound hammer, and if it didn’t break it was probably fine was always fun. Mainly because guy that did the welding had a PhD in history and my dad would get sucked into something about Genghis Khan, stirrups and Mongolian weather as effects grazing . He had inherited it from someone in the family who had knocked over so oxygen tanks. One of them made a nice round hole in the side of shed and B both sides of the Quonset hut next door. Apparently the scary thing was the other two bottles that only broke the regulator stems off enough to send it pinwheeling around the shop crashing into everything twice. Apparently that was just too much. “Punch a 10 inch hole through you and you’re dead, that spinning around and crashing into things looks like it would really hurt”
Seemed reasonable to me.
if you’ve never seen it before, here’s the mythbuster’s video where they knock the valve off, and the tank goes not just through their barrier meant to catch it but also the building.
https://youtu.be/9KDK9lGKJDI
These cars haven’t ever seen a year of weekend car mileage, even.
You had those three years of driving it before the mileage dropped off because of life changes (it happens).
These cars were brought in to lives where they were never used and continued at the same level for two decades. If that were me, I would either admit to myself that I don’t like to drive it and get rid of it or I would hate that I didn’t have the time to drive it and get rid of it so it wasn’t around as a reminder.
It’s like they were purchased with the intention to never drive them.
Now I doubt I’ll ever have a Porsche even if I win a billion dollars in the Powerball lottery as they aren’t that special or good looking to me. As a person who appreciates originalty Porsche has been making the same 911 it’s entire run. Now I do like the Boxster but I have to say the 996 is my 2nd favorite Porsche even though it isn’t much different from other 911s. Heck the human race evolves faster than the 911. And even if everything I mentioned is not enough climbing into a Porsche is harder than putting on a wet suit dry with no talcum powder
Climbing in is as easy as falling. Now, climbing out? That’s the difficult part.
Put your ass on the seat, grab hold of the steering wheel and put your right foot in, then put your left foot in.
Granted some people turn it into a strange exercise although the real inventiveness is in the egress if you are wearing a skirt and want a plausible excuse for exposing yourself.
I guess they figured out a fix for the IMS shit, which is another reason 996 values had been so low LOL
Also, it looks less bloated compared to modern cars including even the 991/2
The 911 turbo doesn’t seem to have the same issue with the IMS bearing, since is continuously lubricated by engine oil.
Like the GT3, the 996 Turbo uses the Mezger engine and doesn’t have an IMS bearing.
FWIW on the M96 engines found in non-turbo cars: LN Engineering has had a known good IMS fix for a couple decades now.
The 996 turbo engine doesn’t have the IMS issue, because the cams are driven off the crankshaft.
I considered buying another 911, but bought the bullet proof S2000 instead. Zero unscheduled maintenance on the Honda.
I hear that replacing the IMS with an LS does the trick. Weighs less too.
Always the answer, isn’t it? 😉
The sad part is that this isn’t the normal bubble of “my childhood dream car” or “I always wanted one of those” This is unfortunately more fueled by hedge funds and speculators artificially pumping these up. The good news is that means that a collapse will be sooner and they’ll come back down to reality
Remember the American Muscle craze? Notice how that’s long corrected?
Yeah, well, it’s been Porsche for a while. The correction is coming. Eventually.
Want a fun and more modern American muscle car for normal money that won’t break the bank, and won’t drop a dollar in value? Buy a late S197 Boss 302 in a fun color.
Want a fun and more modern Porsche that’s well built, sounds great, fast enough and handles? Buy a Type 981 Boxster S with a 6-speed manual and PSE in a fun color.
Yeah we’ve been hip to the 981s here in Autopia for a while. That being said, I’m going to have a hard time choosing a well loved Porsche over a C8 when the time comes. Yeah, no manual no care, etc…but I’m not passionate enough about rowing my own to value it over a mid engine NA V8 sports car that my local Chevy dealer or really any indie mechanic at all can service.
It’s a weird intersection of Miata appeal (low running costs) and the used Porsche appeal that I’m struggling to overlook personally. I’ll be very interested if folks around my age agree when it comes time for us to buy weekend cars or if being seen in a Corvette is still a bridge too far.
I feel like I’ve seen a few undriven early Miatae hit the auction sites in the last ten years or so. That’s one I really can’t understand.
Storing away a Miata as an investment for three decades to sell it for 2/3 the price of a new Miata seems entirely pointless.
Good…takes the interest off the good ones.
Granted, you’d still be getting a lot of car for a little over $60,000, but wouldn’t it have been nicer to grab one at $50,000?
No. All the reasons I didn’t buy one at $50k are a little over 20% worse at a little over $60k.
Lol despite their immense wealth the average person dropping 6 figures on a weird used 911 is a fucking idiot. The market is completely nonsensical at this point and entirely driven by vibes. If a marketplace can be dramatically affected by Doug pointing out the quirks and features and putting a positive spin on something then it’s a deeply unserious market.
IMHO all of the reckless consumption around Porsches is largely driven by the idea that THEY’LL NEVER MAKE ANOTHER 911 QUITE LIKE THIS ONE AGAIN, THEY’RE COMING TO TAKE THE KEYS TO YOUR GAS CARS, etc. Then they make another 911, it’s widely hated upon launch because it “isn’t as good as the last gen one”, old unloved 911s become desirable, a couple of ultra wealthy doofuses decide to spend $150,000 on 996s, the cycle repeats.
Maybe I’m wrong (I often am!), and maybe I’m trying to speak the market collapsing into existence so I can one day have my own 911, but to me this house of cards is wobbly…and at the end of the day Porsche can tell you they’re exotic cars all they want, and you can believe it with all your heart…but there are a lot of these things out there and they’ll never have the badge cache of genuine exotics.
There are 25 911s and every Cars and Coffee and the average Joe can’t tell the difference between a base one and a GT3RS…not to mention they’re not the cars drawing crowds either, the Lambos, Ferraris, McLarens, etc. are. While that isn’t an issue for us sickos I do think it’s an issue for a lot of the people with such massive quantities of disposable income that 911 speculating is a hobby.
But who knows. I’m not an expert and the average Porsche employee wouldn’t even piss on me if I was on fire once they took a gander at my checking account.
The sad irony here is that the frothy used market does nothing to lift up struggling VAG/Porsche. Or maybe they make a little on OEM parts?
Also, the problem with all these supercars is that no one drives them. I would rather drive Skyline Drive in any rental car (including the current Mitsubishi options) than sit looking at my car in the driveway. I don’t understand owning a fun car that you do not drive… but, maybe that is a me thing
I think for a lot of buyers, these kinds of cars are primarily symbols of what they as people might be, rather than objects to be utilized. “If I own a sports car, I’m a sports car kinda person” rather than the reality of “if I own a sports car, I’m the kinda person…who owns a sports car.” It’s hugely disappointing once it hits them I suspect, and driving them loses appeal.
Epictetus the philosopher may have expressed it earlier, but Buckaroo Banzai put it memorably – no matter where you go, there you are.
I thought that was Naughty by Nature.
… and I thought it was a cringy line from Austin Powers.
Although I do look often, I can never see myself paying the 911 tax. There is always something more interesting at a more reasonable price, and I don’t want to consider resale value every time I put actual miles on a vehicle.
Maybe I’m weird, but denying myself the pleasure of driving a car I own is not pleasurable. It seems like automotive masochism to own a 911 turbo but not drive your 911 turbo.
Buying a 911 makes someone feel like a car enthusiast or even connoisseur, and that feeling makes the car desirable. It doesn’t have supercar looks or draw supercar attention at Cars and Coffee, and that’s the point: you buy a 911 Turbo or a GT3 or whatever because you can tell yourself that you’re an enthusiast who appreciates a subtle supercar. Meanwhile, any clout-chasing cheesedick can buy a Lambo and slap their Instagram logo on it.
That’s why it’s also important that a base Carrera and a GT3 look the same to a casual; buying a higher-trim 911 is a subtle statement of status.
These used valuations are silly. But I can genuinely believe that most people are buying new 911s because they want to enjoy a really nice, really fast car that doesn’t scream conspicuous consumption.
You’re on to something here but I think this was more the case with Porsche maybe 20ish years ago. While I’m on the younger side (mid 30s) and can’t say I have the level of connection to their history that a lot of the old heads (said with affection) do, there was absolutely a time when a Porsche was the gentleman’s (or gentle whatever pronoun you desire) choice for those reasons.
I personally think that time has passed and they’ve very much found their way to the conspicuous consumption/clout chasing crowd. A GT3 is now a household name car, whereas in the early 2000s it definitely was not. Tons of rubes (said without affection) line up to lease base Macans in droves so they can post them on social media with “rise n grind” captions.
The 911 (and I say this as someone who likes the 992 more than most) has become a GT car that anyone can hop in and drive fast. There used to be a learning curve to driving a 911, and a lot of the earlier turbos had a well earned reputation for being widow makers. Now anyone with money can run into a dealership and hit 60 in 2 seconds over and over again in a Turbo S. Etc.
I think they went from being a genuinely unique, weird, “if you know you know” brand to being purveyors of roughly the same luxury schlock as everyone else plus a handful of great but hilariously overpriced sports cars…and the subtlety ain’t what it used to be. Whether that’s a bad thing or not is up to you.
Let’s say I’m a 50-year-old cardiac surgeon whose kids are old enough to drive themselves. I’ve got $200k to spend on a new car that livens up the hospital commute and handles spirited cruising on the weekends. It needs to feel not just nice, but special, in the same way that the watches on my dresser look and the wines in my cellar taste.
If not a 911, then what should I get?
The problem with a fun commute usually isn’t the car it’s the road. An engaging tactile fun car for a weekend drive is probably a horror for a commute.
Let’s just say that you’re not exactly fiscally frugal in terms of long term ownership costs and consequences like just about every doctor I know except for one 50-year-old pediatric cardiac surgeon that seemed to really like Ford SUV’s almost as much as he liked his boat and lakehouse he inherited. Never mind – he just chose other places to be financially irresponsible…
Probably the most special feeling and looking car you’d be able to get is an Aston Martin to be honest.
Yeah I’m old. Some of the current Porsche owners are really cringey.
The old stereotypical Porsche owners would get together and talk about the coefficients of expansion of different metals, or the zinc content of oils. The stereotypical MG owners club just wanted to have sex. I wonder if that’s still a thing?
bingo.