Jake951

Porsche is simply not structured to be a low-cost producer. They were not in the 1980's when the 944's were being made and they are not now, although they have gotten better at it. They are an independent auto manufacturer that produces cars in relatively low volumes, which means they can never realize the economies of scale that Toyota, Mazda, Honda, etc. can. They don't have a large parent company behind them. They have a labor force with some of the highest costs on the planet. Porsche is smart enough to realize this, so, for this reason, they stay out of the lower end of the sports car market. Their idea of entry-level is a $50k Cayman, not something in the $25k-$35k market segment.

GCrites80s

Yeah, back in the '50s and early '60s, sometimes the driver's normal cars would break during practice and the drivers would scrounge up anything they could find to make the race including Corvettes, Jaguars, MGs and yes, Porsches. Jaguar actually has 1 NASCAR win.

V2Rocket

A Turbo S already keeps pace with if not passes Boxsters..

me97ggl

There is room for a new 944.

One senario is to produce an even cheaper Porsche than Boxster Cayman.

The recreation of 924! with a 1.4 supercharged-turbocharged engine with a 170-180 hp output!

Then.... People will demand more power from this car, and a 2litre turbo will come into play (924 turbo) and then... a 944 will born with a V6 version

Otherwise if this senario is too much truble and no good for you, then 944 must change a bit of a character. You see Cayman is at the same category (almost) . The New 944 must be roomier. MEaning 2+2 should be a real 2+2 ( almost 4 seater) and not a 2 seater to vary from boxster/cayman.
it could use a 3.2 V6 Engine and a V6 turbo.

Anyhow... i couldnt aford to buy a new 944... so no real interest if this happens or not

billthe3

Even if porsche could, why would they? They are set making a $30k profit or whatever on every 911 they sell, so why bother making some cheap car that they wouldn't make a profit on?

Matt O.

Huh? The Turbo S is not brand new and therefore not direct competition.

I would absolutely take a follow-on to the 924 as the new "poor man's Porsche" with the 1.8L Turbo Audi engine!

I wish Porsche would have been behind the 350Z and if you want to get crazy, the Ariel Atom. I will own an Atom some day. Man I love that car. I want an Atom with a the Cayenne's V6! That would be insane.

cie_lab

Keep this in mind: Porsche is about to gobble up VW. That opens some major doors for something like this.

Matt O.

Would anybody REALLY care if there was another Porsche with an Audi/VW engine? I know the 924 got all sorts of bad press when it came out about how it's not a "true" Porsche. But I think today's world is different.

I know Porsche just purchased the majority shares of VW (I think that's what I read a few weeks ago). So they could theoretically take one of the smaller VW engines, tweak it, slap "PORSCHE" on it and call it a day.

V2Rocket

I wonder what would happen if they put an NA version of the W-16 in the Veyron in the middle of a Cayman.

Spidey944

I work on these 1.8T engines almost every day, one thing that I see that I don't like...

These engine have vacuum line issues, timing belt problems (rec at 105K but not making it past 65k in some instances), interferance motors that customer cost to fix is near $3,000 depending on how many valves you tear up, and not to mention the gobs of turbo lag, ignition coils failing, MAF sensors crapping out, converter failures, cam sensors that you cant change without pulling the front of the engine completely.... the list goes on and on.

Assuming that Porsche uses this motor and does not touch anything, we would end up being more pissed off than we get about our current cars. Our 2.5's are realy a cakewalk to work on compared to the 1.8T engine, produce better power, and accept modifications much better than a vehicle with OBDII controls like VW's VAG software. We would be going though everything wondering why we got rid of our 2.5's.

Now use Audi's 2.7L biturbo, there is where it's at! Hell even offer an AWD model for the northerners....

Mongo

Porsche is not going to make another 4-cylinder motor that is the discplacement we have, I'll tell yout hat much.. Let's consider the issues they ran into when they had designed the 944's engine:

1) The displacement of the 944's 2479cc engine caused serious vibrations to where they had to incorporate technology to reduce the instability of the engine.
2) The balance shaft system incorporated to reduce the vibrations was not a Porsche design, but rather Mitsubishis.
3) Porsche paid a pretty penny to Mitsubishi for this design.

I feel that Porsche won't pursue a 4-cylinder again due to the R&D and the amount invested to make the 944. They are making a lot of money with Cayennes, Boxsters and 911s already that they will not pursue a 'sport compact' model. However, if need be, they will do exactly what they did with the Boxster and put a 6-cylinder into it, putting it into a category that rivals the BMW 3-series and Mercedes C-class and CLK cars.

Hell, Mercedes is a perfect example of why there won't be a 4-cylinder compact car. Mercedes had an X-amount of debates going on about using the 4-cylinder that was force induction, so they decided to use a 6-cylinder in all of their cars, completely dropping the 1.8L and 2.3L Supercharged motors seen on the W202 and W203 chassis C-classes.


All in all, YOU WILL NEVER SEE ANOTHER 4-CYLINDER PORSCHE. Again, if they create a sport compact, it will be 6-CYLINDERS.

Matt O.

That's fine -- 6 cylinders is fine. Just as long as it's front engine.

Mongo

I'm sure it will be. If there will be another model added, I bet it's going to be another V6. It won't use the Cayenne engine because it's too tall, even if the motor is dry sumped. My guess would be a V6 that is 2.3 litres as a base and 3.0 litres for an 'S' model Porsche decides to conjure. Of course this is all theory...

lapex

I know i am a heretic but i really like my LS V8 NA. I would love to see porsche put an aluminum v8 or v6 in a new 944-like platform.

V2Rocket

Use of the Mistubishi balance shaft design cost Porsche $8 per engine sold.