I think you bring up a very valid point Geoff - and I can understang JR not wanting to supply ammunition, but he is correct - the air cooled Porsches were bought by more hard core enthusiasts - and they HAD to be enthusiasts considering the purchase price, running costs and marginal accomodation compared to the opposition.
But if Porsche had continued down the "one car fits all" line (the 911), then I doubt that they would have been in business today, or at the very least, would have been taken over by another car company!
But when offering a cheaper alternative to the 911 you are entering a very different buying segment, where the enthusiast (once the mainstream buyer) has now been replaced by a more generic consumer who either doesn't know or doesn't care about the finer details of servicing. maintenance or good driving habits.
So sure, maybe Porsche cocked up, saved the company by selling a cheap Porsche but didn't allow for the type of abuse non enthusists bring into the equation. Then add in the fact that we live in a more throw away society too.
It breaks my heart when I read on some of the Forums where people discuss for dozens of threads why they should push out their oils changes to 20,000 miles or that they have ground down their brake discs to below recommended limits (without any problems) and how crap Porsche is for putting an ECU under the seat where it can get filled with water
Enthusiasts they are not.
And the end results are that serious weak spots surface earlier because Porsche didn't realise who would buy their cheap sports car......