Have We Reached Peak Porsche?

I got lucky, but I had some foresight. I bought my 356 C Cabriolet 20 years ago this year for $13,500 as a college graduation present to myself. It was the most I could borrow on a “personal loan”. It was barely worth that much at the time (mid west car with bondo). A wise old man passed on buying it and said to me, “It’s a young man’s car, buy it, but do it correctly and you will be rewarded. Do not screw this up”. He was right. in 2014 I finally finished a 12 year restoration (life got in the way). Finishing the car was hastened by these rising prices. I spent the final bucks to take this thing to completion because it was becoming so valuable. Now it’s complete and flawless and 1st class all around but it’s nerve wracking to drive and park the car in the open because of these values. The smile I have on my face is the same whether it was a $13,500 ’20 footer’, or a $250,000 show piece. It would be nice if more people could spend $13,500 for the smiles. I wouldn’t change anything in my story, but I think there are enough people out there who could appreciate it the way I do, but it’s out of reach for them.

LOL, I suppose the 996 will be a collectors item too some day, just like the Dino, 308 GT4, Porsche 356, and trends with the 912’s, once panned, now loved…….. Buy the early cars (with the better dual row IMS!) because they’ll mark the Significant turning point in Porsche history where water cooled performance was first embraced. For only pennies on the dollar now, right? 😉

While the rest of you are debating the future prices of the 911, I think that I’ll go for a nice country drive in my ’73 T. Cheers!

Christie’s was led to believe that the car had belonged to Steve McQueen while actually it was purchased by his production company for the leading actress of “Le Mans”. Provenance was still great but the high estimate could no longer be justified so it failed to sell.

Has the market confirmed that a great condition 2.2T shouldn’t be worth close to 300’000$? yes, and thank god for that.

The climbing value of long hood 911’s /912’s has been both a blessing and a curse for me. I have owned my 66 912 since the early 80’s. I purchased it for $4000, put another $2000 into “fixing it up” and drove it a year before it developed a huge, gushing oil leak. I decided I had to keep it because I had more money invested in it than I could sell it for, and because who knows when I could afford another Porsche, so I parked it at my parents home and planned to fix it as soon as I could and get it back on the road. Student loans, starting a business, getting married and starting a family, raising kids, etc., etc. all created a situation where I just didn’t have the time or disposable resources to fix it. Now nearly 35 years later it’s still sitting in my garage and I am finally getting around to “fixing” it. With values where they are now, I can actually do a proper restoration and not end up upside down when I am done, provided I do most of the work myself – the blessing. Unfortunately, with the rising values of 911’s, the parts that I will need to purchase have likewise exploded in cost – the curse. Once I am done, I think it will be worth a significant amount of money, at least to me, but I don’t plan to sell it, so really the rising values ultimately mean nothing to me. All that said, I thing values have peaked. Most enthusiasts already have their cars, most investors have already purchased and sold their cars at a nice profit and now the flippers are trying to cash in but are learning they are a little to late to the game. As it’s written in Ecclesiastes, “to everything there is a season” and I think production Porsche’s, (except the rare and special cars) have had their season.

Last year I bought a 997, and almost every day I’ve wondered if I should have spent that money on an air-cooled car instead. On one hand it’s great to have a valuable car, but on the other hand, I don’t really want a Porsche that I’m afraid to drive.

Gawd i can only hope so !
Having been blessed with the opportunity to own two 356 models and one 911 Targa ( with the dreaded plastic back window)
I loved all of them and would gladly trade a limb or other body parts to have them back , but sadly as a retired elderly gentleman they have all gone in to crazy price land.
Me thinks the market will correct itself soon ( like it did with certain specific Italian brands) a few years ago.
Perhaps a more sane and just market place will allow a real sports car that can be driven on a daily basis ,
or at least regularly ,to come back to a more affordable level and more of us can once again re-live a bit of our youth 🙂

I certainly hope so, the 356 and 911 prices seem absolutely absurd for cars that aren’t that rare, and don’t perform that well (and yet I still think are great!) I wouldn’t mind trying to get a driver quality 356, but the Porsche market would have to crash pretty hard to get me interested again. I guess there are always the replicas….

New to the Porsche world, with a 99 Carrera, I thought the pristine example I bought was actually under priced for what I got. Even though it’s not the sought after air cooled 911 I dreamed of in my youth, It sports a great AC, trip computer, cruise control, and all of the creature comforts, the perfect daily driver. I consider it to be the perfect 911 entry point. I am sure that these cars will one day be as prized as the older models. Well maybe not that high. Not that it matters, though, I just enjoy every second I’m in it. I’m just so happy the other owner decided it was time to sell!

I was fortunate enough to find a clean, 2-owner ’76 back in May for less than $20k. She needs some TLC, but is completely stock and the head studs are okay, so I’m happy with the purchase. While the wife indulges my passion for cars for the most part, we’re not wealthy by American standards, so showing her the trend in 911 values certainly helped me justify the purchase to her and that we probably wouldn’t get hurt if something bad happened and we needed to sell it. Yeah, she’s a keeper.

Regardless of what the future value of this car may be, I think I’ll follow Mr. Thompson’s advice: “…just forget about it and go for a drive.”

Words to live by.

Porsche built cars in relatively high volumes, they have moderate displacement and power, and have a humble cousin in VW so it is a bit surprising to see them at the current level. That being said I negotiated a high price for one this year because relative to other cars I would care to own (certain special Alfa and Ferrari) the Porsche was affordable. I plan to enjoy it, drive the heck out of it, and if I decide to make a change in a few years it will sell whatever the market is. The best early 911s, and S models and to a lesser degree E models will still be somewhat rare and the best of anything commands a premium. The population that actually grew up with prewar and early postwar cars is no longer a market force so only the best of those will be strong. The population that grew up with these cars and recall them fondly is large and there is a great deal of wealth there. As such I don’t see these going down a whole lot any time soon though I would not expect anything like the appreciation seen from 2012 to now.

With iconic Porsche cars like the 356 Speedsters easily showing up north of $300K I doubt the early long hood 911’s are going to see a drop anytime soon. Steve McQueen’s car not selling is not proof of anything except someone unwilling to pay a mark up on an old 911 just because it was celebrity owned.

Growing up, I always dreamed of a 911. Grown up now, ‘ve been working hard for many many years, always was thinking “some day.” But every time I took a peek, air-cooled 911s price was going up and up and up, and you know what, when I finally had enough money for it, fuck, I gave up. You determine what its worth to you. To me personally, no air-cooled 911 is worth today’s asking price (it’s so mad that 912’s price is catching up with it, too, frankly, that’s even madder).