WyattsRide

Loved the article Jim. I'm a Gen-Xer also (born in '66) but I have to tell you that your Gen-X explanation on collect-ability couldn't be farther from the truth to me. I loved all Porsches as a teenager. As soon as I saw the 928 in the car magazines it became my all time favorite Porsche. That's why I always wanted one....

You wrote-
"Generation X consists of people born between 1965-1980. We are the original latch-key and Honeycomb kids. For us Gen-X'rs, we were in our teens when Dad took us to the Porsche dealership to buy the new 928. The same one we drove to prom. For college graduation, the keys we handed over to us. This 928 we remember fondly. It evokes those senses from our youth. And now we're older, more established, family and 401K underway, career in its prime. We want that 928!"

Sorry, but as being in a middle-class family this could only be a dream! Plus as it goes in "A Christmas Story".

"Some men are Baptist, some Catholics. My Father was an Oldsmobile man"

Jadz928

I read ya, Rick! Same thing for me.

I was only using that statement to convey a point. It doesn't have to resonate with all of us to be true... or to be an example which conveys a broader message.

The real message is 928 nostalgia, which you do have.

syoo8

Jim,

I just read your article. It is succinct, elegant, and fun to read.

SeanR

Great read Jim and I agree with everything you said.

My first automotive love was a '78 Targa and then I remember the first 928 I saw later that year (born 1970) and it was at my dads shop. The love for the 911 lasted only a few months until that day. It was yellow, 5 speed and little did I know at the time it would be the first one I helped do a head gasket job on in the early '80's. Then in 1985 dad tossed me the keys to a 32 valver and sorta taught me how to drive a 5 speed.

Once the S4 came out in 1987 I KNEW I would own one some day and it was almost 20 years later when I got mine.

whatudrivin

Being a Gen-Y, I never knew about the 928 till my girlfriend started saying her family was looking at selling her father's Porsche after he passed. I was interested thinking it would be a 944 or 911 of sorts but when I tried to describe those to her nothing rang a bell. So I went and looked at it and it was a 928 starring back at me. I wasn't sure what I thought of it at first but I dove online to do research and quickly found Pelican and Rennlist which caused me to fall in love with the car. Especially after riding in RKD's car a couple times. Man I love the color of his car. The restoration of this car will take me several years because I just don't make enough money to buy the parts I need all at once. But I will succeed and have a beautiful car when I'm finished. And maybe by that time the prices will be looking up and I will no longer be $10k from a $5k car.

Great article for sure! Gives me a bit of hope.

Jadz928

Great story, Josh!

...And look how in-deep you are with them now. All it takes is a spark to light a fire.

All right... we have another Gen-Y'r!

Thanks for sharing your story.
_________________________________

Thank you all for sharing your stories! I wish I could figure out a neat way to collect all of them and publish.

Maybe I could include them in my next article? Would anyone be opposed to me borrowing your stories from here?

9eighty6

I have really enjoyed this thread and your article. You are most welcome to use my story if you want. I think that putting them together would make for a neat article!

Josh

Ladybug83

Ur welcome to use mine too, sounds cool. Keep us all a breast

Sent from my iPhone using Rennlist

kawi825

Great write up Jim, good to see the positives of the old"slow" variant of these cars. Hopefully my $15k into my $5k car will someday make sense, if not- oh well!

Feel free to use #622 euro for any examples too.

Attachment 802735

yardpro

i agree.....

my first car was a 1980 camaro... those cars were total turds..... heavy slow, MASSIVE under steer, heavy doors that bent the hinges and the doors would not shut after one year.....

I got it in 86, it was in mint condition. my parents paid $3500.00 for it.....

get a good one today and you are looking at almost $20K... that is crazy money.

many of my friends drove torinos, novas, maveris, etc... they were crap cars back then.....

hell look at the price of a nice gremlin.....LOL talk about a junk car....

get a gremlin X with the 360 and they are big money.

Cole

I paid $1,000 for a black/black 1967 RS/SS Camaro in 1987 It was literally "just a 20 year old Chevy" at the time. No more special than a 944 is totay

snoz

I'm early GenX and remember the 928 well from back in the day. The first time I saw one was when it hit (I believe) "Road and Track". It was the issue with the cut away drawing on the cover. I remember thinking it was the most beautiful car I'd ever seen. I still feel that way today. I never imagined I'd ever own one.

I had an 80 Camaro as well. It was anything but slow, but that was after adding a couple cylinders and many more cubic inches. The car is long gone but I saved the engine and transmission.

The Forgotten On

I was born in 96 I found out about these cars from a friend whose dad bought one as a project.
He told me about the car and I instantly became interested as I had never heard of them before, keep in mind this was 3 years ago.

I did some research on them and knew it would be a great car. I had no prior knowledge of water cooled Porsche's before buying my 81.
I went on craigslist shopped around, found one for $1000 with no sunroof and bought it on the spot.

Now it is my DD and I can't wait to see them finally gain some value as people try to relive their past just like people are doing now with 1970 Chevelles and other muscle cars.

dr bob

Watch the values of those 'from my youth' cars, and notice that the ones closest to original seem to hold their value best. Right up there are the $$high$$ 'restomod' cars, with modern updates that folks think they might have done if they'd had the money when they and the cars were new. I suspect that those will be the real collectibles. But... What sort of 928 mods did we feel were needed when the cars first appeared on our radar? Honestly, I couldn't think of anything then. Even the iconic phone-dial wheels seemed perfect on the car. Maybe that's what appealed to me in those early 928 days, a car that was a complete performance-touring package right off the showroom floor. I had a 911 at the time, and a few Lotii, a tube-framed weekend racer, and a couple 'murican cars to get around reliably. The 928 was way out of reach at the time, at least for me. I didn't dream of owning one as many did. It was only later when mine landed on me in 1997 that I started my deeper appreciation for the cars.

So our future collectors market is the group beyond the boomers, as Jim suggests. People that were in their impressionable teens when they first noticed the cars. The filmography hasn't hurt. As that group gains affluence and appreciation for the cars as engineering art, they will start the movement. But so long as there's the bottom market in the $hundreds to maybe a couple $k for barely-running basket case cars, the collectible top of the market will be held down. A few stellar examples seem to grab our attention when Mike Willhoit sells one, or a perfectly-preserved/recondiioned Kermit is sold to a worthy collector. For most of the rest of us, these are still used cars in the eyes of the market. Their time will come, but only when the shrinking supply of good cars and parts/support elevates ownership to a privelege.

Cole

Keep in mind that many of the genXers didn't buy these cars new off the showrooms. They may not have thought they were perfect from the start.

Just like many of the muscle car collectors now didn't have them new either.

We are already seeing "restomod" mods being done to 928s. Better sound deadening, modern stereo features, better wiring, bigger versions of the phone dial wheels being made, gearbox swaps with more gears, etc etc.