WitchDoctor

Jake (Barry), and Justin,

Music to my tone deaf ears! Bless you both.

-Brent

flatsixnut

This is exactly why the resale value of so many cars are crap. A very good friend of mine has less than a year left on a lease for a VW Phaeton. These cars are right there with an S500, and just as nice. I think the car brand new cost around $110,000. You can pick up the same car used for less than $30,000....why?...because nobody can afford to fix the over the top electronics the car has. The people that can afford to fix are buying brand new, not used...thats a huge reason for high end cars selling so cheap used. Once that warrany goes...so does the price.

WitchDoctor

a buddy of mine is a vw tech, and he complains with no end of frustration about vw unreliability, and the infuriatingly frustrating difficulties with fixing them.

I grew up loving bugs...heheheh. And other vw's. But I won't dare get one now. And as VW works hard, in some ways, with these fanatastic looking/performing cars, they work at cross purposes, undermining themselves in just the way you describe.

I'd so love to have a Golf or Jetta as my next daily driver, were they reliable.

I guess I'll just have to satisfy my VW-philia with my 911, and be happy with that! Such a hardship.

Poor me.

And on Monday, I'll be driving up north of Edmonton. Probably have to drive my 911. Poor me. Oh well.

I'll grin and bear it. Emphasis on the "grin.".

Guns951

Something looks anemic from the rear...tail lights aren't great, aren't too bad either though. It lacks that allure...that "something" we all love about these cars. The hood and front bumper area at the very nose looks off...looks "plasticy" if that makes sense.

On the maintenance point, it won't be too long before we're cramming aircooled twin turbo'd 3.8's in there for a reliable motor!

Peter Zimmermann

The true beauty of your '81 becomes apparent when it breaks, which won't be often. You will be able to put it on a lift in your garage at home and fix it, or take it to your favorite P-car wrench. It won't have to be uploaded, downloaded, or sideways loaded, and you won't have to get loaded when you get the estimate. You can pull the cylinder heads and replace the studs, but if something fails in your 996/997 engine, plan on engine replacement at many more thousands of dollars than those studs cost. I'm pretty sure that your current crop of well-heeled P-car owners could care less about COAs, matching build numbers, or hitting something hard enough with the front end to require radiator replacement. They probably don't care when something goes wrong with their Immobilizer, and it locks them out of the car. They probably don't care if the car breaks, because they won't keep it longer than the warranty. They won't be growing comfortable with these new/newer cars, like a favorite pair of bedroom slippers. Instead, they'll run it through the car wash, and have it detailed every couple of months - and never wipe it carefully with a clean cloth loaded with Meguiars. A friendship will never develop, like we have with our cars, and they don't care - the new car is expendable. It will be a rare shop that will have a $25K computer on hand that will read 997 fault codes, and an even rarer one that will actually work on the cars. Everything is geared toward getting the cars back to the dealer, where you can't talk to the technician who will work on the car. For an enthusiast, in most cases this will not be acceptable, no matter how cheap that 4-year old, expendable car is. I don't see any mystery at all as to why our wonderful cars are holding value, and many are still being used daily/regularly.

WitchDoctor

Hey Pete,

Your thoughts are not only encouraging, but downright poetic. Definitely, Pete, you have a knack for capturing the passionate aspects of Porsche-related "affiliative behavior".... Relationship.

fasteddie99

I didn't think it was possible to feel better about my '87. Thanks, Pete!

Edgy01

I'll always miss what I considered the true classic 911s,--those of the 911SC era. Those were solid examples of fine German engineering, particularly the 1981-3 years.

jakeflyer

Well said. And when you take this friend into a repair station, you wantta meet and talk to the person who is going to do the work. You want understanding regarding what and how. The service buffer between the wrench and the owner may be functional for many situations but for the owner who really cares for his car this creates a wall of distrust and distaste. I am fortunate to go to a small Chevy dealer in a small town. The service write up is where the work is done. I can talk to my man if I want to. My P guys are also accessable to questions. Trust and communications. pretty basic, why are we loosing it??