Nicole

The 928 died for many reasons.

- First, it never really was alive. It never sold as well as expected, and never was able to carry the company as the 911 did.

- Nobody wanted to buy used 928s. People who can't sell their used 928s will not buy another new one. They'll either keep it or move on to something else.

- The production numbers were so low that Porsche only invested the minimum into the car. Outdated and overly complex components, such as the AC were just so far behind the modern competition. Another reason for luxury car buyers to skip the 928.

- The price was outrageous. For a GTS, you could have bought a condo in many industrialized areas of the Western World. You could get more (new) car elsewhere for the money.

- The styling was controversial from the beginning and remained that until the end. It was not widely recognized as a Porsche, either. Not a mainstream, widely known "look" - not good for most people looking to boost their ego, and not good for resale. It remained a car for individualists.

- Production cost was outrageous; particularly given the small numbers. Too much manual labor required, and too little in common with other models. Porsche simply could not afford to make three models that hardly shared a single bolt.

- They had a better idea what to do than building an unpopular, not profitable car: Building a popular, profitable one, that shares components with another popular and even more profitable car.

- ...

Basically, after 18 years, the 928s time had come. Modernizing it would have cost more money than they could ever recover. Since there were not enough buyers for that price, no other model to share components with, and limited capcity at the factory in Stuttgart, it was pointless to continue.

As much as I love the 928, I can't blame Porsche for killing its production.

Hilton

I think the 944 killed the 928..

Seriously, the front-engined rear drive layout was promising, but it was the same layout as the "cheap" Porsche, and they shared a lot of characteristics for the average person who can't spot a Porsche's model, year and full service history at 1000 paces.

Yes, most people know that Porsche made cars with a "bubble butt" in the '80s, but have no idea that one of them cost as much as several houses.

When put up against the 911 with its strong racing heritage, the "car guys" of the time went with the safe option - it was more obviously not the cheap model, and had some heritage and racing interest.

Porsche didn't really get a say in the decision - they just had to follow the sales figures and explore new avenues (e.g. lower cost shared-platform production with 986/996 identical front ends).

Remember, Porsche's hands were forced by the recession and massively lower sales of all their models, not just the 928; they were fighting for survival.

Leon Speed

Whaaaat..the 928 lives on!! Just look on this forum.

Vilhuer

928 was dead by 1982. Since it could not replace 911 it was doomed before it had chance to really show how good it could be. It failed to replace 911 since it was too different to it. Porsche management didn't realise 911 buyers weren't yet ready for more luxury in late seventies.

By time they would have been ready (mid nineties) it was way too late for 928. Then 911 had been around so long that rear engine layout was simply a must have feature and updated 928 could not function as 964/993 replacement. Besided it was much easier and especially cheaper to make multible models from single 986/996 platform than making totally different 986 and 928 for example.

928's only hope would have been if it had been 10-20% lighter and smaller, less costly and expecially had 280-290 hp engine everywhere. Then it might have been able to kill 911 away by 1980. Especially if Porsche had introduced convertible version by that time also. Since all these conditions were not met 928 was basically living dead for last 15 years it was made.

hacker-pschorr

"New Porsche leadership wanted to protect the 911"

This started back in the early 80's with the 928 & 944.

I said overpriced and other. Every Porsche was overpriced during the 928/944 era, at least towards the late 80's early 90's. I have hte original sticker for my 944S: just under $42,000 for 188bhp 4-banger.

Other - 1996ish was the beginning of new standards for emissions (OBD2) and crash safety. The 928 & 968 would have needed a redesign to meet these. It wasn't worth doing on two cars that were not selling.

Dennis Wilson

Porsche started development of their front engine cars (924 and 928) for two more reasons. 1) The 911 would not be able to pass the proposed 55 mph crash test standards without significant changes and 2) Ralph Naders aggression against rear engine cars (namely Corvair). When Nader didn't come after Porsche (or VW) and the proposed crash standard fell by the wayside (big 3 pressure), the 911 was back and running.

Dennis

linderpat

I have to agree with the racing (or lack thereof) theory. The old adage "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" has always been true, and Porsche didn't race the 928.
I also think the final bell hasn't yet sounded on the front engine, high hp, 2 door GT Porsche. When the new version debuts in a couple of years as expected, and couple that with the fact that fewer of our cars are surviving from year to year, I can foresee a strong demand and a new appreciation for our vintage 928s...just my $.02....

Tom in Austin

The front engine cars were doomed by high production costs. Porsche had to change to more automated manufacturing and higher volume production, which came with the Boxster and meant the end of the "old way".

928 actually did share a lot of components with other models, but if you've ever worked on a Japanese car of the same vintage, it's very apparent how complicated and labor intensive Porsches are. Many items on Japanese cars are integrated into single assemblies that can be quickly and easily connected. In a 928, you find systems of similar functionality made up of many small parts held together with many fasteners that can go together several different ways, only one of which is correct (for example, consider the 40-odd small hoses under the intake!).

AO

Personally, I think it was a lack of marketing. But to be fair they had a chicken & egg situation. They had already sunk a lot of money into the car and they were probably budget-limited for marketing until they sold more of them.

They should have raced the car and done more grass-roots marketing efforts. The relatively-high price point is a weak excuse in my opinion. If they had made it desirable enough, people more would have bought it.

The funny thing is just as they are getting ready to launch the Panamera, they are facing almost identical economic conditions. The US is in recession, fuel prices are climbing, global markets are... well... uncertain. It will be interesting to see if the Panamera suffers a similar fate as the 928 did.

linderpat

I was thinking of that too. Are they always a dollar short and a day late to the party? If this one doesn't work, they'll likely not try a front engine GT car again. They were late into the SUV market too, but that one did work for Porsche...

Mike Frye

In order to save space I won't quote all of the great responses, but I think Nicole has most of the right answers.

Andrew, good point about the Panamera. The timing is just wrong. Two years ago they could have established a foothold along with all of the other high HP GT cars. Now they're just coming late to the table, after the 'bubble'.

I think the single biggest factor was the initial version (which was influenced by the global economy/environment).

It never recovered from the initial impression of being fat and slow. If it could have been introduced into a growing economy like the late 80s (when it was the true supercar it always should have been, gobbled up by everyone who wanted a unique powerful GT car) with close to 300hp as originally designed I think it would have taken off and would still be in production today in some form or another.

Nicole's point about having no resale market has been quoted elsewhere and I think that was the second biggest issue with it.

MGW-Fla

I agree that successful racing would have helped the marketing tremendously, even if to have it receive more notice & acceptance. I think for the everyday car guy, they still get confused with the 944, they looked too similar to those not knowing the cars. The 944 was seen more & known more. With the 928 being so much more expensive than the 944, yet having many similar appearances, that had to hurt some. Just like the 996 & 986 sharing the same front clip. I still can't tell the difference when a 996 cab approaches on the road till I can see the side of the car. I had a Porsche salesman tell me that was a big complaint when attempting to sell some potential 996 buyers at the much higher price. He said, "The front of my 911 looks like a Boxster, yet I'm paying a lot more for it" was a common statement. Porsche surely made certain the 997, Boxster & Cayman all have a different front look, even if similar. We all may know a 928 versus a 944 in our sleep, but we're addicts of course!

I have a neighbor who was an active sports car race fan in the 70s-80s. He stopped by last year when I had both of ours in the driveway. He thought they were 944s. He'd never seen ours up close. He was blown away to find out that Porsche even made an 8 cylinder car, especially way back when. His jaw dropped when I popped the hood on mine. He said he never saw these at the track so he never gave them much thought. He only saw 911s & 944s & not really being a Porsche person, thats the cars he recognized as Porsches. He was also dumbfounded when I told him the base sticker on my '85 was $50k & the '91 was $75k! The price of the car made it very exclusive. If a 911 was viewed by the general public as a rich man's sports car, then the 928 being typically priced $20k more than a 911 certainly made it even more exclusive. And at the time, there was no confusion with anyone when you saw a 911, you knew what it was.

The 928 was way ahead of its time. It was hand built with many features leading the industry. And it was priced accordingly. The market for Porsche surely had to be the upper tier of Porsche/Supercar consumer. They are the only ones who could afford it. Look at all of the famous people who have owned them. Some of those potential customers didn't want to spend megabucks to buy a car that looked too similar to the model two rungs down the Porsche ladder. Resistance from the 911 fans didn't help. Most importantly, the lack of profitability in Porsche's bottom line was the ultimate reason. Views of expensive maintenance have caused us to benefit by the current resale prices. It allows us all to own a classic supercar.

morganabowen

That is an excellent description of what I understand jinxed the 928

RyanPerrella

Larry is that your new girlfriend.....nice!

Shane

Sales did Harv, you should have bought more of them...