Quote:
Originally Posted by kk2002s
Same here. Looking back a year ago, in this area 50k+ mile cares were mid $40k, now mid $50k
Perfectlap - no denying there is a history for the 986 but there is such a large disconnect to it's origins that I can't think of the Boxster/986 as an evolution of the 550.
I have to wonder though, if they had continued the mid-engine roadster from the 550 to today, maybe Porcshe would never had to rely on Toyota to fix them
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Any other brand in a similar situation would have admitted that there was no fundamental difference between the 550 and 986. BMW, Audi and Mercedes would have skipped the whole Porsche marketing exercise of Introducing "Boxsters" and "Caymans" and just announced they were bringing back the 550 while adding M Powered or AMG engines to drum up sales hype. But Porsche had to use the strategy of a Porsche roadster to save the 911and Porsche without giving that roadster more prestige or performance. 550's sell for astronomical sums compared to Carreras and big power in a modern day midengine platform would have taken the shine off time sheets of the flagship Carreras. The way to pull this off was to detune the engine, and pass it off as a lower price option for a first time Porsche buyer. But the strong economic climate in the U.S. market wasn't asking for a cheap Porsche. They were asking for an all new Porsche, one that looked nothing like a traditional 911 or was engineered like one. For a small 2.5 engine it was an expensive car value wise, yet Americans jumped in with both feet because those who could afford one had plenty of cash at the time. The success of the first 986 meant they could pull off both saving the company without up staging the 911 history and performance. Development on the 996 continued while all the Boxster orders put the factory back in full swing. And only now, some nearly 20 years later are Porsche finally dispensing with small displacement engines in the 981 Spyder and dropping the whole Boxster 986 marketing ploy for the 917 branding. and technically all this is only happening because VW want to show the old Porsche guard who potected the 911 at all costs that ultimately VW prevailed as the winner.