The Shifting Gear of Desire: Are True Porsche Enthusiasts Being Displaced by Wealth/Status Seekers?
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07turbeaux
- Posts: 73
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BTW our sympathies are reflected in this months Pano.
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07turbeaux
- Posts: 73
- Joined: Thu Sep 08, 2022 10:00 pm
- Has thanked: 10 times
- Been thanked: 7 times
Hey Putsch:
Were you stationed near Tucson. A friend trained fighter pilots there after the Viet experience ended.
Were you stationed near Tucson. A friend trained fighter pilots there after the Viet experience ended.
It seems to me that the shift away from being a relatively small sports car manufacturer to the diversity of products was not just an expansion strategy but one for survival. The Cayenne/Panamera provided significant revenue while the Boxster used a huge amount of 911 parts to build a low cost to produce alternative.
I understand the enthusiast perspective but this could be written about BMW or even Ferrari. Real car prices have had staggering increases and the rise of the collector/trader is not unique to Porsche or even to cars. Just look at Rolexes for example .
When I first started going to the Nürburgring decades ago there were lots of Porsches/BMWs and all kinds of modified stuff. It was cheap and cheerful. Old Porsches and the like weee used cars.
There are cars in my past like the E24 M5 that were cheap used and have become too expensive to thrash at the track. There is also the phenomenon of flipping for orofit in a world of a global internet that has created a perfect market driving prices up.
We all know immediately the latest auction prices/the next new model spy shots/review videos. All this stuff tends to bring in new customers .
The good news is that even at the high end of the market prices will ultimately fall with younger people with less interest in older analog cars. At the recent Mecum Ferrari auction I was struck by the very top cars where a Ferrari Enzo was almost half the price of a 250 GTO in the same auction. Younger people value the cars of their teenage dreams, not stuff from the sixties as much.
As we move into the future it will be increasingly difficult to work in modern cars with a great deal of the complexity of ECUs,sensors,connectedness etc. As it is a relatively modest accident which sets the airbags off and damages the headlights for example can write a car off.
Of course there are lots of people who buy a car for status, just like the Rolexes above but as far as I am concerned that is their business. We are all different. I have always bought cars to drive them and not worry about resale. My oldest car now I bought new in 2002 ,my oldest Porsche arrived new in 2007. I have had many adventures and continue to do so..
While it is undoubtedly sad that we have had an explosion of cost this is a reflection of an increasingly perfect market which will adjust as the economy does. I am inclined to think we are in an increasingly unstable world and a recession /stagflation is coming. When that happens prices will adjust.
Further the advent of China outside of the US is just starting and they will eventually enter the high end with good products at much lower prices. I am in Mayfair London as I write this and there among the performance:luxury dealers I came across a new BYD showroom. I predict that Chinese cars will have a least a third of European market in ten years. In the end Porsche will have to either build price competitive product or retreat to being a niche manufacturer which will cause a war with stockholders.
I feel lucky to have lived through a very exciting time with cars. Of course each new generation tends to raise the same comments which are how much the latest car is less a pure driver’s car which leads me to believe that Porsche made its best cars in 1948 and it was all imcreasingly inferior product ever since:)
I understand the enthusiast perspective but this could be written about BMW or even Ferrari. Real car prices have had staggering increases and the rise of the collector/trader is not unique to Porsche or even to cars. Just look at Rolexes for example .
When I first started going to the Nürburgring decades ago there were lots of Porsches/BMWs and all kinds of modified stuff. It was cheap and cheerful. Old Porsches and the like weee used cars.
There are cars in my past like the E24 M5 that were cheap used and have become too expensive to thrash at the track. There is also the phenomenon of flipping for orofit in a world of a global internet that has created a perfect market driving prices up.
We all know immediately the latest auction prices/the next new model spy shots/review videos. All this stuff tends to bring in new customers .
The good news is that even at the high end of the market prices will ultimately fall with younger people with less interest in older analog cars. At the recent Mecum Ferrari auction I was struck by the very top cars where a Ferrari Enzo was almost half the price of a 250 GTO in the same auction. Younger people value the cars of their teenage dreams, not stuff from the sixties as much.
As we move into the future it will be increasingly difficult to work in modern cars with a great deal of the complexity of ECUs,sensors,connectedness etc. As it is a relatively modest accident which sets the airbags off and damages the headlights for example can write a car off.
Of course there are lots of people who buy a car for status, just like the Rolexes above but as far as I am concerned that is their business. We are all different. I have always bought cars to drive them and not worry about resale. My oldest car now I bought new in 2002 ,my oldest Porsche arrived new in 2007. I have had many adventures and continue to do so..
While it is undoubtedly sad that we have had an explosion of cost this is a reflection of an increasingly perfect market which will adjust as the economy does. I am inclined to think we are in an increasingly unstable world and a recession /stagflation is coming. When that happens prices will adjust.
Further the advent of China outside of the US is just starting and they will eventually enter the high end with good products at much lower prices. I am in Mayfair London as I write this and there among the performance:luxury dealers I came across a new BYD showroom. I predict that Chinese cars will have a least a third of European market in ten years. In the end Porsche will have to either build price competitive product or retreat to being a niche manufacturer which will cause a war with stockholders.
I feel lucky to have lived through a very exciting time with cars. Of course each new generation tends to raise the same comments which are how much the latest car is less a pure driver’s car which leads me to believe that Porsche made its best cars in 1948 and it was all imcreasingly inferior product ever since:)