Am curious what your thoughts are on where the values of these cars are going.

I'm not a follower of the market, but I can remember this generation of 911's as trading in the $50k's or so +/- seemingly not that long ago.

Do you think they've flattened and will hold steady? Or [ ]?

Is it a 30's-40's year old demographic that drives the value, or others? Since I'm in that 30's-40's demographic, this was among THE car of my generation's youth, and maybe we want to relive the dream, much like the yuppie (& older) generation craved the muscle cars of their era.

Question is, how many people are driving the market and are willing to pay to relive that dream? I've spoken with guys who collect muscle cars, and they've said it's going to be hard to fathom a teen today who in 20-30 years, once they're in a better position to afford it, wanting to buy a Challenger or an Olds 442 for the kind of money that has been sunk into them recently.

 

Keep in mind that it's not only a generational thing but an air cooled Porsche thing. The older air cooled cars are getting harder and harder to find because Porsche people apprecaite that era. In their mind, a Porsche is air cooled. As more and more of those cars disappear the values will no doubt go up. That's my two cents. I'm wanting to hold on to my 86 Turbo for that reason as well as the fact that they have much more soul and are much more fun to drive than the newer models. I had a 996 Turbo for years and would choose my 930 over that car any day.

 

The 930 has a soul, I always wanted one.
Once you drive one you'll know.
I've had a 996c4s, a 997tt and now a 997tts.
The slantnose is head and shoulders better IMO.
Lately I've watched the market tick up, many are going back to Europe.
In five yrs they will be impossible to find.

 

First, to awnser your question, I beleive that at worst, they will not lose value.
An origional example today, will be worth the same next year as this.

Aside from the low production #'s, their racing history and, "tongue in cheek" SEX APPEAL, they share the build quality that got lost with the introduction of the water cooled cars. You can't compair these cars to the musel car market,
(they made more blk. 442's than 930''s} that come in and out of vogue.

Like TT surgeon, I have also owned water cooled Porsches including a 996 twin turbo. I am an engineer, and I love well engineered cars. The 996 is a well engineered car, but it lacks the soul of a 930. No power any thing, steers like a J Deer tractor in traffic, but God Almighty ther realy is no substitute.

Kick the tires and light the fires

 

My 2 worth
Good unmolested cars are getting fewer and fewer.
There are many of those cars going back to Europe as in euros they are cheap.
Seems a never ending fascination with this topic - people who want one of these cars will buy one, regardless of price - those of us that have them SHOULD drive them and not get too obsessed with "loosing" x dollars because of a few miles - my Audi has lost $10 000 since I bought it new 2 years ago, but so what - that's the cost of driving. Its done 14000 miles.
If I put another 14000 miles on my 930 I know for sure it will not be worth $10 000 less than I paid for it.
Let the oil warm up, service it regularly and drive it like you stole it, otherwise why bother - depreciation be damned!
As a post script - anyone really thing a 2012 Challenger will be around in 30 years?

 

We dream and dream of what our cars might be worth some day, or might not be worth. Who really gives a damn. I bought this car to drive, to keep alive, to care for and admire, and to put some smiles on my face regardless of how many miles I stack up. Screw it, life is waaayyyy too short not to enjoy to the fullest what you have today. If I wear this baby out and some pecker head wants to low ball me on a purchase price, then that's the price I've paid for years of enjoyment.
Oh...I forgot...this is supposed to augment my retirement. Guess I better stop driving it. :-)

 

Testing grounds, Need more boost . . . . .

 

Right on!
Never understood saving these cars for the next dude.

 

You are augmenting your retirement. You keep working to pay for stuff on it and then you get to save some of it. For a while anyway .

The good ones of these have been 40-45-$50,000 for a while. That should say soemthing. Will they just jump to 100,000 ? Probably not. One thing is of course Porsches are not inexpensive to maintain. And they will require it. So you spend $7,000 on it. And then tires. And brakes. And more. And other. Will you get that back. Not really likely.

However there are always the very few. They have very little miles and are immaculately maintained. Sure those may bring $100,000 but there are only a few.

I know a Mach 1 Mustang like the one I had went for something like $50,000. I said I should have kept it. Of course when I figure the maintaince, insurance, parts, storage etc for years ...Hmm $50,000 might be a loss ! It sounds great next to the $3,000 sticker.

Same as I did a Corvette with a buddy once. Frame off restoration of a big block Vette. I think the year or two before they had been $80,000 or so. We said yes lets go half and half and do it and make $20,000 or $30,000 or more. Well prices fell. We had $50,000 in it quick. I think we had $60,000 in it. Had to store it in no dust. Could not drive it. Anyway I think we got close to $60,000.
I still see them around in pretty nice condition for about that price nearly 20 years later. I did just see one on ebay though for $110,000. I bet it is still there.

I read in one of the books that at one of the the Rennesport Reunions they were in a cart looking over all the attendees with Mr. Porsche. They asked doesnt this make you feel great. All those are your cars, aren't you proud. He said he was sad.

He said " We made these cars to drive, not to polish."

 

informative responses, thanks!

and yes, add in insurance, maintenance, etc., and as an investment it's probably breakeven at best...

return on investment with these cars, i would expect, is best realized in the form of happiness.

my own car (a z06) has tanked in value, but i could care less since i'm never selling it. no hablo mark-to-market!

 

Well there is one upside that I can add.

You can probably use the car, enjoy the car, and if you keep the car up well you can hold the value and see if does appreciate along with what you have in to it. So at least it will maintain which is a good thing.

I know back when I was young-er , and got started buying the European cars such as BMW etc. The sales pitch was does not depreciate or as much. Uhhhh.. I found out different quickly. Next pitch was had to get a higher end model. Uhhh... nope. Next pitch ...get a more higher quality car Mercedes, Porsche. etc. Uhhh....nope. Dont put a lot of miles of it was my partners answer .... nope. They are mostly all just cars and even more so now in todays world.

But overall I do think these will be maintainble values and at least allow the upside. They are in line to reach that window sooner too. And they may have the best bet to increase, other than the Carrera Turbo GT I saw at the dealer yesterday . But for $450,000 to see I would take the 930.

Now if you have the Pearl Essence White 1994 Turbo Carrerra I bet it will be valuable . If you have one, please contact TexasRider . There will be some cars for sale at his house too.

 

I have never owned a car that was as much fun...and that is worth something. We made it one of the top ten cars (and 2 bikes) that were a blast to drive and will probably appreciate. check it at www.vconcours.com . ignore the numbers get a fast one and enjoy....

 

My 87 930 is the best car I have ever owned. Bought it brand new and just turned 50K. Did all the Andial mods years ago and to this day when it hits 1.0 bar it still flat gets it on. I had it lowered and set up professionally and that helped the handling a lot. Still had the road feel like a real sports car. The new one's are nice but not the same feel.

 

I'm guessing that the prices of these cars have bottomed, but it really doesn't matter. I bought mine a year and half ago with 70k miles on it thinking that I could drive it about 3k miles a year for five years or so and sell it for around what I paid for it. Well, I've already put 9k miles on it, I LOVE this car, to hell with the miles, I can't see selling this car. It's a keeper along with my 88 M3.

I'm with Nesposito, TT Surgeon and Mark H.

 

What about '78 and '79 models?