What makes an S cost so much more than a base?
Rennlist Member
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 284
Likes: 81
From: Wilmington
Porsche has always played the acceleration game, which is everything in high performance cars. It is what you are paying for. Ever wonder why Porsche doesn't put a 911 engine in a Boxster? Well, you can't have baby brother out performing the fleet leader.
Four years ago I went to buy a Macan Turbo S and stumbled on an article by Motortrend comparing it to the M-B GLA45 AMG. In fact, Macan owners were outraged that the article was even written let alone the fact that MT concluded that the GLA was a better car. In all performance parameters the GLA matched the Macan (although to be fair, the Macan is a much larger vehicle than the GLA). The MT editor who wrote the article concluded that the GLA beat out the Macan because it was 'just more fun to drive'. So, I went and drove the Macan, it was nice, but more like a caddy than a track car. The deal on it was $90K, which put my wife into shock. Then I drove the AMG. What a difference! It took me back to the first time my dad took me to drive go-carts. So much fun. Anyway, I bought the AMG for $70K. Over the last four years, I've noticed that you are paying for two things in a high performance car: acceleration and handling. Porsche is the king when it comes to manipulating those two parameters into profit.
That all said, I used to tell the M-B guys that the biggest problem I had with the car was the hood emblem. The AMG has mystique only within the stodgy world of M-B and a lot of those folks have no idea what it is. Porsche, on the other hand, has no such identity issue. My Targa 4S knocks almost a second off the 0-60 time of my AMG. It is even more of a go-cart and there is no problem with the hood emblem. Of course, the 911 was twice the cost of the AMG.
Four years ago I went to buy a Macan Turbo S and stumbled on an article by Motortrend comparing it to the M-B GLA45 AMG. In fact, Macan owners were outraged that the article was even written let alone the fact that MT concluded that the GLA was a better car. In all performance parameters the GLA matched the Macan (although to be fair, the Macan is a much larger vehicle than the GLA). The MT editor who wrote the article concluded that the GLA beat out the Macan because it was 'just more fun to drive'. So, I went and drove the Macan, it was nice, but more like a caddy than a track car. The deal on it was $90K, which put my wife into shock. Then I drove the AMG. What a difference! It took me back to the first time my dad took me to drive go-carts. So much fun. Anyway, I bought the AMG for $70K. Over the last four years, I've noticed that you are paying for two things in a high performance car: acceleration and handling. Porsche is the king when it comes to manipulating those two parameters into profit.
That all said, I used to tell the M-B guys that the biggest problem I had with the car was the hood emblem. The AMG has mystique only within the stodgy world of M-B and a lot of those folks have no idea what it is. Porsche, on the other hand, has no such identity issue. My Targa 4S knocks almost a second off the 0-60 time of my AMG. It is even more of a go-cart and there is no problem with the hood emblem. Of course, the 911 was twice the cost of the AMG.