Kirk at Zims

We still have a couple of the factory short shift kits on the shelf.

Kirk

Ed Bighi

Guys, the issue isn't if the short shift is good or not, or if there is an alternative. The hell with those issues. They are personal and subjective. The real issue at hand is the availability of the part. For the life of me, I cannot believe that idiot Wiedeking, or whatever idiot is underneath him, decided to discontinue the kit. While I have been seeing parts being discontinued left and right, as if Porsche is trying to become GM, this single part crosses the line. I was pissed enough last month when I found out that the engine console, which is the bracket that holds the engine to the crossbar, might be discontinued. While I can understand that, since most owners are too cheap to replace parts of that sort, the short shift is a different matter. Folks, this isn't going to end. Again, forget about the issue of the short shift being good or not. The important thing is parts availability beyond the usual alternator and caliper. I already have a sizeable list of NLA items, and some are pretty common. And most do wear out. In fact, right now I need a short shift because I broke mine and re-welded it the wrong way. No, I dont' want to fix it. I want to buy a new one. This matter is disturbing to say the least. After all, Porsche and Mercedes, two companies with restoration departments, never had a habit of discontinuing old parts for the sake of the bean counters. After all, parts availability is one the reasons I drive a 911 instead of an old Esprit or 308. Things are changing under the current guard. Time for an online petition. We should do it now. I have never had to depend on swap meets to get parts. Swap meets were a luxury. If we don't do anything about it, they will become a necessity. And if you think parts like short shifts or engine shrouds are expensive, wait till they become NLA and see what they will sell for at swap meets. And here I was thinking that it was just 996 rear mains and gears that were hard to get. Again folks, time for an online petition.

r911

Well said. But an online petition is meaningless -- post the address for PAG or PCNA and then send written, paper letters (w/o curse words) in.

And, yes, I blame Dr. Wienie King for this. Anything for a buck.

Ed Bighi

The way I look at it, if they want to stop racing, no problem. If they want to build SUV's, no problem. But to stop making parts for the cars they built their company and reputation on, especially considering most of them are still on the road, is a no-no. Especially in light of the fact that the profit Porsche reported for 2004 is around 1 billion euros. Personally, I don't give a rat's *** what their profit is. After all, I am not a stockholder. But with all that profit, I find it disingenuous on their part to not make a short shift kit, 911SC alternator air guide, SC master cylinder reservoir bracket, some engine sheetmetal pieces, engine consoles, etc... I should build a list. Though I doubt I can fill it up as fast as the dreaded NLA's keep coming. And this applies to even the 996 for some parts. They can do whatever they want in my book. So long as they keep making the parts that we need. But to a lifetime Porsche owner and driver, this is very new to me. Porsche's entire way of doing business is changing. Pretty soon, the only difference between them and VW AG will be sports cars sporting flat-sixes. So much for Porsche not getting bought out by VW or someone else. While it would be nice to have someone like Jurgen Barth running the show over there, it's only wishful thinking. But maybe we can all start bitching about the situation. Even if nothing changes, at least we will know we tried. And we all should. Not just those who need a shifter kit. Again folks, the alternative will be someday walking into a junkyard and trying to find the one master cylinder reservoir that is the least brittle. That is what folks who drive other brands of cars have to go through. If Porsche stays Porsche instead of Wiedeking Cars AG, this will not be a concern in the future. So wake up folks. Don't wait until you need a center console or whatever to realize the issue. Let's write, complain, whatever. Let's come up with some idea. Hell, at least speak up about the issue during the next parade.

JCP911S

Ed B... certainly discontinued support on older cars by factory is potentially disturbing. However, let me play devil's advocate.

First, at some point it becomes prohibitively expensive to produce OEM parts. If the tooling for SSK (for example) is $5000, and I willl sell 4 of them, is anybody really going to pay $1,500 for it? Probably not.

Second, the aftermarket is taking up the slack.... the question really is can you keep the car on the road? If quality aftermarket parts are available, the factory does have the choice not to compete... nobody is left high and dry.

Certainly if you are determined to keep the car factory, IMHO with a 25 year old car you are now entering the realm of a restorer and must do the NOS route through flea markets, eBay, etc... but that is a different issue. Personally I don't give a rat's *** whether my parts are OEM or not as long as the functionalty and quality is there. Just a personal preference.

I think Porsche is making decisions for business reasonse, not specifically to torment the owners of older cars... maybe some of those decisions are not good business decisions, but I believe that is the intent.

IMHO it just goes with the territory when you choose to drive old cars.

r911

Oh, I'm sure it is a business based decision. I just think it is short sighted.

What is the best advertising for Porsche?
We can argue about which is #1 but the two top ones are drivers of 30 or more year old cars, and racing. Wienie King is killing off the former now that he has killed off the latter.

Remember nobody _needs_ a Porsche - it is an aspriational purchase.

If, as a potential buyer with no experience, you talked to a guy in an early 911, found out it was 30 years old, and he told you the parts lasted nearly forever, and when they did wear out, you can just buy another... does that make you more likely to buy a new car? Sure.

If he tells you how hard it is to get parts, complains about changes in the companies policies, etc. etc. - what does that tell a potential buyer?

Ed Bighi

Randy, you are correct. A key reason for my getting into a 911 years ago was parts availability. Since I was the type of owner who tended to keep things forever, I wanted not only a product that would last forever, but one that would have parts produced for it forever. I had become frustrated with parts searches for my previous cars. And at the time, the one company that supplied parts like the old Swiss watch companies do for their old products was Porsche. And maybe Mercedes as well. And Porsche was proud of that fact at the time. They even had posters advertising the sheer quantity of their old cars that were still on the road. Everybody cares about profit. So has Porsche. It's just that in the not so distant past they cared about other things as well. And of course, we all got used to dealing with an amazingly gracious company. Now the graces are only directed to the stockholders.

JCP911S

This is WOT, but an interesting issue. I have my pet peeves with current Porsche direction some times, but stepping back, it is extremely difficult to survive as an indepenant at Porsche's relatively tiny size. Ferrari can survive as a price no object product, but Porsche really has to offer value, which means a very tight line between performance, price and cost.

You can criticize W, but remember... at the time he took over at Porsche, they were in trouble. They were comming off the water-cooled revolution fiasco, and struggling with the 964, which was costly to make and really didn't sell very well. Without some hard-headed bottom-line thinking (and some luck) there might not be a Porsche today (or worse, it could be a badge engineer division of Ford or Renault/Nissan).

I don't know, but if it takes Cayennes and a carfully targeted racing program to assure the survival of the company as an independant, that might be a price worth paying.

Ed Bighi

Survival? Again, 1 billion euros in profit for 2004. The company's survivability has been out of the question for a long time now. Ask anyone who has owned Porsche stock since the 993 was launched.

JCP911S

From what I understand, much of that profit was due to trading profits associated with currency futures. Money is money, but for a company like Porsche that sells like 40% or more of output in US, currentcy fluxuations can kill them. So they hedge. That might very possibly be eaten away by trading losses on cars sold to US over the next year.... who knows what the timing is?

Auto manufacturing is a very leveraged business. 1 B profit can turn quickly to a 1B loss if sales drop 20%... not a big delta. Not defending P... just pointing out that this is a very tought business to make money in... the fact that they are still alive and profiting is and indication that they are doing some things right, and as much as we are enthusiasts and emotional about the cars, it is still a business

imcarthur

Oh & remember who we are. We bought USED cars. They made no new car profit from us. We are not their target. The pretty people are. We help profit, because parts is also a profitable business. Obviously, the SSK's curve was heading south.

Ian

Gary R.

The "pretty" people? Bite me.. how pretty is that?

imcarthur

Ok, there are exceptions. One of my buddies just took delivery of a GT3 in the fall. He is the local PCA Training guy so he will thrash it.

But, let me rephrase - 'the majority of their target is the pretty people'

OK?

Ian

Gary R.

Ok... just so long as you know i'm not pretty... though at times I feel pretty...