pcarfan944

I also agree it is fair, I just looked at the numbers and jumped to conclusions with my first post before I even read the article. I should know better.

Dan in Pasadena

You know what? we're all "car-guys" (or we wouldn't be on this site) and the bottomline is that theresults of this magazinbe comparison test is a win-win for guys like us. All the "it's a Chevrolet so it's crap" or it's a Porsche so it's inherently better" types of arguments, though understandable to us P-car guys, just doesn't hold up under any reasonable measure.

Corvettes (though I like them overall they are not my cup of tea or I'd spend time on some other web board) ARE some guys cups of tea...and the competition between the Vette designers/builders and the Porsche designers/builders just benefits us all. Kudos to our American car builders for knowing the bar has been raised and they have to step up...they have. Good for them, good for us!!!!

hacker-pschorr

It did take Chevy almost 30 years to realize the 928 was a better way to do a front engine V-8.

vette4lyfe

i dont get it? do u mean it took porsche 30 years?

UDPride

Interesting thing is they make a deal about the much higher price of the Porsche, but in reality its not more expensive at all. 911s routinely lead the market in resale value, whereas Corvette are among the absolute money pits of resale value and cost per dollar to own after depreciation. So, in reality, the Vette may be the more expensive car to drive after 4-5yrs. You can find 5yr old Vettes for dirst cheap. They ARE great performers, but they are a dime a dozen and dogs in the market unless you have a one-off like a ZR1 or something that brings a moderate premium.

Serge944

I dunno... The older 911's kept their value; however, the new 996 and 986's can be found for dirt cheap as well.

Wayne Hutton

I've read the article and I think price does matter. The Vette is a great value and fun to drive but will never give anyone the same perception as a 911. People know what Porsche stands for and look at you a little different. I only have a 944 and my coworkers think I'm rich and it's the fastest car around. That being said, a guy in the market for a 911 isn't going to be looking at Vettes or care about resale. The income level one needs to purchase one of these leaves a lot of discresionary income to throw around. And only 944 guys, like me, would be thinking about parts, repairs, and resale. Just so everyone knows my take on this, if cost were no object, I'll take the 911. But if I'm spending my money, I'd have to go with performance per dollar.

sweanders

Well, with that kind of thinking we should just wait until the 997 turbo or GT3 comes out as well.

hacker-pschorr

I mean the transaxel setup - same as the 944 series - was used on the C5 and now the C6 Corvette.

hacker-pschorr

I agree, when the new ZO6 and/or C6R come out, going head to head with the 997 turbo and/or the GT3(whatever it will be called GT4?) will be an excellent comparison.

grants_968

Keep in mind that the contemporary Corvette with its transaxle design is a knockoff of the 924/944/968 series.

Being "a car guy," last Friday I went with wife and a "car guy" friend to look over the new C6 that had just arrived at a Chevy dealer.

The Chevy salesman had been well briefed on the C6 vs. 911. When I mentioned that the C6 had a transaxle design as my Porsche 968, he insisted that it was not similar at all. "The Porsche has the engine in the back while the Corvette has the engine in the front." Like, I don't know which end my engine is in. Otherwise, nice guy. Well I said, the engine of my Porsche is in the front and the tranny in the back like the Corvette, and is also water cooled on top of that. Remember, Chevy sales people also sell trucks, vans, sedans and sports cars. He looked at me in disbelief, like I was trying to pull one over on him.

The C6 looks to be a great sports car. You "car guys" care about the comparable performance of the C6 to other sports cars. Women see the world a bit different. My wife liked the C6, but for very different reasons than I liked the C6. What she liked best was the adjustable steering wheel, adjustable memory seats, and a body shell whose "memory" would make it immune to minor dents.

bader$

While corvettes do have an initial resale drop. after about 4 years they stablize. 93-95 vettes are still in the 20-25000 range for a good example. excellent ones go for more. I agree that the drive-train layout is obviously taken from the 944 series, the car is balanced well and quality ihas improved dramatically. My former employer has a 2002 Z06 with a magna charger on it (474rwhp) and he has put 45k on the car and had no real drive train issues. the only real problem he has had is the front spring breaks, an issue chevy is aware of and trying to address. Oh yea keeping tires on it!

dualblade

i think we'll all agree that style is objective. certainly as many people like the vette's shape as the 911. my biggest problem with the above statement is the engineering. is there some specific engineering that porsche does better, or is it what i like to call "perceptual engineering", where the car is automatically assumed to be better because it's expensive and german? i don't remember too many corvette owners complaining about rear main seals.

or how about the 996 and boxter having such terrible cars in their initial years? if you look in the 996 forums, all you see is people saying to buy something 2000 or later because that's when they fixed some of their problems. porsche still hasn't admitted officially that the rear main seal is an issue, just like they didn't admit they supplied a substandard quality wiring harness in the 993's until members of this very forum forced it out of them. perhaps we can say that porsche quietly fixes their cars over the model line until they are eventually almost engineered well (except for a major engine failure component - rms - that is costing owners thousands in labor when it strikes out of warranty)

putting together two things that i know:
1) porsche has the highest profit margins of any company
2) the corvette is sold at a loss because of it's halo car status
i'd be willing to bet that the engineering and parts costs are pretty similar. the difference in the price of the car is due to the profit margin that porsche wants to make. probably the only excellent engineering on porsche's part in the 911 is working so hard to overcome the inherent problems of the rear engine configuration, a design they are now stuck with because of enthusiast demand.

hacker-pschorr

Slow down there tex, the 928 pre-dates the 924 by about 5 years with that design. First running prototype of the 928 drivetrain was in 1973.

Serge944

Very nicely put.