Alienated 718 owners
 

As a relative newbie on this board (and other Porsche forums), it has struck me how few posts there are on this board about the 718.

It looks like most owners of the 718 have left this board and are using other forums and, if that is the case, I can only assume it is because they got fed up with the constant sniping on this forum about the engine noise etc.

Am I missing something or is that a fair assumption?

It's a fair assumption. For whatever reason rennlist has decided to not separate the forums to be generation specific like virtually every other make specific forum out there. And yes, every time the 718 gets brought up there's at least a handful of posts that serve to remind everyone that "Porsche has lost its way".

Planet-9 has separated the forums so you may have better luck over there, but don't expect to escape it entirely. There are a few 718 posters on this board as well so I suggest to stick around. I think as time goes on people will come around to it, or at least move on. It'already seems to be happening in the automotive media.

Yup. Fair assumption.

I really wish there was a dedicated 718 forum here. I like Rennlist but the lack of dedicated 718 chat is a bit disappointing.

I won't deny being one of the people that talks up the 981 and being sad over the loss of the flat six. I'm still obsessed with the 718 though. It's sooooo gorgeous (and fast).

This forum does a horrible job of splitting up the sub forums. Should have done it with the 991.2 as well, and only did it for the upcoming 992 when people started complaining a lot. The 718 should have had its own sub forum from the beginning.

I think the 718 is the best looking Cayman followed by the 987 then the 981. It's also the best performing. I've always found the "it's not a real Porsche" to be egotistical BS. Particularly from the rear engine crowd. It kept me from buying a Porsche for a long time until I saw a brand new 987 and I had to have it. I'm so tempted to sell my pristine 2017 Boxter S PDK for a 718 Cayman but I think it's time to move on to a more of a GT for touring. I get my Porsche fix on the track with my TT 2007 Cayman S. BTW most of the track crowd could care less about the engine evolution of the cars. They like any Porsche that tracks well.

The only complaint I hear there about new technology is that PSM inhibits driver development by not punishing bad technique until it's too late!

It's a shame that this forum appears to have successfully alienated anyone who wants to discuss the 718. I trust the "grumpy old men" are feeling suitably smug with themselves.

Look at the sales numbers - they sold less than 5000 718s (Boxsters and Caymans) in 2017 in North America. New model with not all that many owners spread across all of North America. Then they have to find Rennlist and want to post about their cars.
As one of the grumpy old men, after 2 981s ('13 Boxster S and '16 Boxster GTS), I have no interest in ordering any 4 cylinder car for $6 figures +. I would rather get a base 991.2 if that was a choice I had to make. Nothing to do with smugness; I just don't have any interest in those models. I'm sure they're great and better/faster than the 981s - that's (almost) always what happens with PAG over time.
I am on two dealer lists for a 718 Spyder if it's a 4.0 6.

I think it has less to do with that and more to do with the fact that when you mix two very different cars together you're likely to get two very different types of people in the discussion. Easy solution is to just split the forums, but for some reason IB isn't proactive at all on this issue. Sometimes you'd think the mods on this site know little about Porsches, which I know is not true, but it sure feels like it at times.

Yeah, there's the hostility towards 718 owners from other model owners reminiscent of the same hostility we have seen from 911 owners towards the Cayman and Boxster. That's got to be a little part of it, but I believe what the poster above stated is probably more the issue. The car is relatively new and the sales have not been brisk, so there is just not a huge ownership group that have found their way online and our regular Forum contributors.

If there were a lot of prior Porsche owners that were already rennlist members and that are new owners of the 718, that would probably have upped the participation quite a bit. I would guess that of the relatively few people that have bought a 718, many if not most of them are new to the brand though, so they have no current connection or allegiance to rennlist. People aren't going to join a forum where few people are posting about their cars.

That doesn't explain why there are a large number of posts on other forums such pistonheads.com and planet-9.com where there is a combined boxster/cayman forum and there is still a sizeable 718 discussion on both of those forums. It's only here where the 718 seems to have been driven into oblivion.

See my previous post #12 above

It's not surprising and I don't think it's the grumpy thing so much. The 718 is more similar to the 981 than the 981 was to the 987. The only real difference is in the motor. It's too new to have a ton of complaints, it's too new and shiny to have a lot of aftermarket parts.

That being said, as a long-time Porsche guy and former 981 and current 987 chassis owner, the 718 isn't that vitally interesting to me either. I can't really think why I would want to spend more money to buy one when I could spend $20-40K less and get a 981 CPO if what I wanted was a modern, mid-engine Porsche.

That's really why sales have been not so hot, IMO.

Rennlist has never been about the Boxster/Cayman platform.
They are all bunched into one forum and still there are very few posts.
As above, there are many other sites with more mid-engine info.

I didn't start this post to have a discussion on the 718 sales volumes I was just interested in why this forum appears to have almost eliminated all discussion of the 718 whereas other forums (not just ones dedicated to the 718) still have plenty of discussion on there. I'm not passing judgement, it was just an observation and I was interested in why this was the case.