icat

Reserve is set at $500,000.

No, I haven't been drinking - just exploring on the Internet. I was thinking about a muslecar as a new project, and being found of 'Cuda's from the early 70's I though I would begin my search there. I found a "nice" 24+ owner Challenger (same basic car as the Cuda for those who didn't grow up in the 70's) with misisng motor, rusted panels, no interior, and lord only knows what else for the low low "Buy It Now" price of $9,900. Reserve was set at $5,000.
I figure if that piece of crap is worth 10k - then my 951 must be worth at least a cool mil. So I'm selling now. You guys are the first to know and I might even give you a Rennlist discount.

hacker-pschorr

Cuda - rare and tons of baby boomers cashing in $million 401k's are after them. They are 3/4 in the grave and have nothing to loose - spending the farm.
944 - becoming the car of choice to employed high school kids that want a Porsche.

The truth hurts - the first auction I was at where a 67 Vette sold for over $250,000 I almost had a heart attack. If the 944 ever reaches this kind of level of collectability - it won't be for another 15-20 years.

Good news is, the more high school'ers buy 944's, crash'em, blow them up, or fail to repair properly will really drop the number of good cars out there. So in the next 15 years there will be so few good 944's ours should be worth more!

Mighty Shilling

give ya my 924S for it...it's more rare than a 951, so it's worth more.

RMills944

I agree with hacker's reasoning that less 944's will be out there, but that also brings about more parts cars

Tom R.

sell you my bird for 20k, it runs and the top comes off.

jenket944

Damn! I should have bought your house when you offered to throw in the turbo for free....

But then again, I've got an '88 turboS and the somewhat rare 2.7L '89...so I ought be up, what...2.5 million?

icat

True. But as we all know, there were not that many 951's built in the first place. If - and only if - rarity is the benchmark of value, then the remaining 951's (as many have already been destroyed, crushed, or just simply lost) should command higher prices than they do now. If I recall my numbers, there were something like 13,000 951's of ALL years imported into the US. Of that number, roughly half were 86 models (most likely all Guards Red .
Of course the whole point of my post is to encourage discussion on value verses rarity. And to let everyone know you can beat the rush and pickup mine while it's still priced at 6 figures - give or take 10k.

joseph mitro

at least you're optimistic.

jenket944

Of course on the other side of the coin of rarity is desireability, or the 'demand' portion of supply and demand. Just because our cars are rare will never, by itself, make them more valuable. It makes it more likely that they will increase in value, but the demand has to generate it. And until the 944 becomes a true rare and hightly sought after Porsche, we probably won't see much change in their value. Like hacker said, a lot of the market is high schoolers and that's great because it keeps interest in the series by getting the young guys and gals interested but it doesn't do much for the collector market.

icat

OK - let's look at desireability (is that word and if so did I spell it right - I digress - sorry). If one looks at the current state of the musclecar market you can find several examples of cars that were not even popular in the 70's going for outrageous prices when in restored condition - and if it's a rusted out hunk of junk - those go for around 2 grand as well.
OK, what's the point of all this. Our cars have a popularity that is consistant with other known collector cars. As such, the value SHOULD rise over time. Time being the key word here. The question is this - how long until we see the turn in value.
In 1984 I let a 73 Dodge Challenger in good shape (but needing a little work) go for $500. The car had no body damage, a 340 motor, and a good interior. It needed a tune up and a repaint. That car today would evidently be worth around $7,500 (or more). Over the next 20 years the car has out performed the stock market. I would think we would want to make sure we didn't let our Porsche's go too soon for too little.

Matt H

I dont see this trend coming as you guys would like. The problem for the 944 is that the Boxster will soon be within spitting distance in price. It is newer, a whole lot more fun to drive than the NA, and will probably have a whole lot less mileage.

However, all of that being said, the value of 914s has risen 400% in the last 5 years. When I was in college you could have picked up a real good 914 for next to nothing, say 1K dollars. Now the good ones are in the 7K range.

Of the 944 series the only cars I can see with any real value are going to be totally unmolested Turbos and pristine 968s. Everything else will never appreciate in value.
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tifosiman

I agree with Matt. Also, one thing to consider is the whole "rust never sleeps" thing on 914's. Their numbers are dwindling rapidly, so much so that there are very few nice examples left. When was the last year 914's were made? Was it 1976? That was 28 years ago. We may need to wait until the year 2017 to see what the value of a good N/A or 951 is at that time (I bet that many would not have turned into rust buckets even that far into the future).

Tom R.

Using your theory my S2 should be worth more than your 951 since more 951s were made. So in the interest of fairness I will offer my S2 for a mere 1,200,000. Hurry.

What Ive noticed with the muscle cars (and I try to follow the values pretty carefully) is that the mopars suddenly and against all expectations jumped like crazy. The benchmark was chevy, vettes camaros and chevelles.

The rarest of the rare have gone for crazy dollars, the more common have not. My 68 with a 350 doubled over the last five or six years. after owning it for 28 years I am ready to let it go to another home. I dont see it going up more than 50% over the next few years.

On the other hand, I think there is a lot of upside for a 69 trans am, 72 (strike year?) trans am/formula.

I dont think there will be significant appreciation when it comes to 944s. too many were made, and while my firebird doubled in value over the last five years, at 20k I will still be losing money. with a 944/51 the costs to refurbish will cost more than the appreciation, and like Jeremy said, they dont rust so they aren't simply disappearing like so many other cars.
Yo

hacker-pschorr

Tom, good call, the 16V 2.5 944S's will be worth more than 951's as well.

Jay W

Ha
I was on the other end of a challenger sale in 1985. I bought a 1970 with a big block in need of paint and some interior work for $500. Believe it or not I still have it and now its worth at least $7000 even though the paint job I did in 1986 needs to be redone! Gotta love those baby boomers!