I think you have to look at percentage-wise the failure rates of engines, transmissions or whatever on cars. There are lot more minivans built than 911's and I would bet they are abused more. For the most part, these are enthusiast cars that people have maintenance done regularly. and don't wait until their tires fall off for repairs. Regardless, whether the IMS issue is 1, 2 or whatever percentage failure rate it shouldn't happen. Your engine shouldn't grenade with 40k miles on it.

 

I wonder how many high mileage Ferraris, Lambos, and Astons there are out there?

 

Good point! My guess is none and talk about maintenance costs!!!

 

I think that's a tough comparison. Many of us would consider those cars but like Porsche because "typically" they are more reliable for regular use and better built. Especially with the price of some of the new Porsche models approaching that territory nowadays.

Porsche's roots were in a being a true sports car that you could drive at the track on Sunday, then drive to work on Monday...over and over again. The more I learn about Porsche's engineering on the entry level models starting with the 996/986 the more I think that philosophy ended in the late 1990s except for the high end models (GT3, GT2, Some of the turbos, etc).

I thought maybe with the 991 they "righted the ship" again from an engineering perspective, but with the rod bolt issues that the 991 GT3's had and now perhaps starting to see problems with the stock 9A1's maybe they did not.

I'll be keeping my 6-GT3 I guess. :-)

 

I would assume its all about money.
I think Porsche sold about 10000 996s a year in the US. Nissan sold like 30000 or so of their 350z a year in the us. They also put the VQ engine in EVERYTHING, they stopped using the engine 2015 or so. Not sure how many VQs there sre but must be 10-100 more than M96.
So Nissan could proberbly put in a ton more money in R&D of the VQ35DE vs Porsche for their M96. Their ROI must be insane compared to porsche.

Same with LS family, even trucks has LS engines.

Hopefully the Macans pays for 911 R&D!

 

Shouldn't some of that R&D be built into the price though? A Corvette was msrp of 40k and 911 was 75k and that is base. I am guessing some of it is in production and GMs size but I would think some of that extra 35k would go into R&D.