freeman

As you can see from my Avatar, I have owned many 911 Porsches since 1987. Yes, I had minor trouble with the 1987 and 1989. The air conditioner in both spit chunks of ice at us during the summer. The 1995 993 which I kept for 18 years, the 2013 991 C2 and the present 2015 991 GTS have been joys to own and drive. There were few minor problems with each.. Moreover, the tires on each lasted far longer than expected by the press.

So, I do not understand my pleasant experiences with my 911's and such horrible tales submitted to Rennlist about 911's. Must we rethink abuse? I think not since I have taken each of my 911's around Tail of the Dragon with unlimited zeal and raced on tracks then driven home..

Aside from my 1974 2 liter 914 which was my first new Porsche and a nightmare since I replaced injectors monthly, all my 911's have been perfect and I had no problem selling any of them.
Does anyone have an appreciation for such mishaps and explanations?

I have loved all my Porsches and cannot replace anything since the 1974 914 with anything other than a Porsche. . . Please tell me of any reason to not replace a Porsche with a Porsche.

911-TOUR

Amen.

Speed Metal 951

Agreed.
Though I still cant give up my 914
And feel it necessary to have a 2.7L 911 around too.

chuckbdc

Agreed fully.

But I have fond memories on my 914 2.0. It was "perfect" once I isolated the fuel line that the factory placed close enough to a heat exchanger to vaporize the gas and shut down the engine on really hot days and require a 20 min wait or a hosing down to restart.

Porsche is a whole lot better in the way it deals with emerging issues these days. One the half dozen factory service campaign calls during my first year with the 2012.5 991 was to isolate a fuel line!

Every one of the 911's I had since the 1974 has been better than the last, and my 991.1 has been the best. No rubber centered clutch replacement, or oil lines installed for chain tensioners, or pop-off valves on the air box or stainless steel heat exchangers to reach "perfection".

Penn4S

I am on my 13th Pcar and can't find any reason why the 14th would not be another. Have really enjoyed these cars, even those with some issues, more than any other car I have owned. Started my driving as a kid with Triumphs, TR3 and 2 TR 6's, now those had issues, and then moved to a few Italian small sport cars (Fiat and Alfa) before moving to German cars.Don't see another car that gets me as excited to drive as mine does. Don't know what the bellyaching is about.

snake eyes

I've owned a corvette, Lotus exige s260 Sport...a porsche 911... another porsche 911.... and yup guess what? another Porsche.

why?
THEY DON'T BREAK...

THEY WORK ON THE TRACK WITHOUT MODIFICATION

digits

Excluding a few well known offenders, most car manufacturers are doing a fantastic job building cars that are reliable and trouble-free - and have been doing so for decades. Yes, I've had cars from generally reliable manufacturers that gave me trouble (I had to continually replace the distributor cap in a 90's Acura) and other cars that ran for years without ever causing any trouble. When people have a problem with their car it upsets them far more in this decade than it would have, say, in the 1970's when it was par for the course. These days, excluding really small companies, the difference between a manufacturer that is considered a builder of reliable machines and a manufacturer that has reliability problems is just a few percentage points. The negative anecdotes are given more weight now than ever before, yet they are really just the anomalies. Moreover, cars have become far more complex and we demand the same level of reliability from the bluetooth phone pairing as we do from the drivetrain. When your car makes you mad, this kind of forum is the place you complain about an issue because it's the next best thing to leaving a 1-star review on Amazon. Here's mine:

5-stars. So far, 2 years and 25k+ miles total on my 2 P-cars and they haven't left me stranded. Oh, and they drive okay, too. A++++ would buy again.

snake eyes

Agree with you on quality..
But not many manufactures make a car "track reliable".

Go to a track day aka DE day anywhere and see what cars are out there.
I'll tell you it will be a billion miatas and a ton of porches.

chuck911

Two reasons, freeman. One, this is the internet. Extremely uncommon things reach an enormous audience with ease. And two, improvements Porsche has made over the years, vast as they are, are nothing compared to the changes in the market. Back in the day the typical 911 buyer was an engineer or other professional, who had to do a ton of research to even hear about Porsche, then more to learn why it might actually be worth money that could buy a house, then more still learning enough to be able to perform a lot of maintenance, since odds are no mechanic within a days drive had ever seen one, let alone knew how to work on one. Now the typical buyer clicks a few times, is concerned mostly with researching color, ride height and exhaust note, and expects Lexus levels of ride comfort.
A contributing factor I guess is Porsche, and the 911 in particular, just might be a little too good. I mean, seriously, what is the title of the authoritative book on the history of Porsche? "Excellence was expected." The magazine all about Porsche? excellence. That's not a typo. It is so expected they don't even capitalize it!

RRDnA

I think its quite simple - in the sports car range they offer something for everyone from a 981 Spyder to 991.2 GT2 RS. In effect, everyone can find their own personal sweet spot. Superimposed on this is the ability to customise a vehicle to your own personal taste. Fundamentally, the driving experience is broad - you really can take a Porsche sports car to the track and pick up the groceries on the way home. They are surprisingly flexible.

They are basically so good that virtually every other car you drive loses the mental comparison test.

Papa Fittig

Slightly different perspective here.
After 3 911s I can say that when I bought my 1st one it wasn't because of Porsche's reliability. In fact I was prepared to pay $$ for maintaining the car. I bought it because of the character and the joy of driving one.
Many of us have experienced reliability issues with German marques (Audi, BMW and Mercedes). Coming from that experience and having read the quote from Dr. Martin Winterkorn (who is a physicist) during his Audi helm time about his #1 goal for Audi being to meet and succeed BMW reliability first and then go after Mercedes (BTW I think he did it) I did not expect a stellar reliability from Porsche.
However, over time I get to realize that among other manufacturers Porsche might be one of the better ones reliability wise.
Still it's not reliability which drives me to get a Porsche after a Porsche.