Leader

At dinner with a pilot friend of mine last night (also a Porsche owner), we were talking about the "sub-sets" of special-interest-folks - like private pilots, Porsche owners, etc. - that we all find ourselves in.

I was surprised to hear that there are only about 300,000 active private pilots in the United States. I don't know why I thought the number was higher, but I did. (Maybe it's because I live so close to Van Nuys Airport, the nation's busiest private airfield.)

He asked me how many Porsche owners are in this country - and I realized I had no idea. Has anyone seen a figure quoted as to Porsche ownership in the U.S.? I'd be curious to know what the estimate is.

RonCT

Well, I can tell you this that the percentage of all Porsches ever produced that are still on the road is between 60 and 70%. Think about that for a minute - that's really an amazing figure. Of course I have no idea how many Porsches were ever built, but I read something that a 912 in the mid 60s was the 100,000th, so by now the number has to be factors of that. Just pretend that there have been just 300,000 Porsches ever built and 65% of those are still "active", that would mean there's about 200,000 on the road with maybe 150,000 different owners? Just theorizing hoping somebody with the figures will chime in... The 60-70% active figure and 100k figure are ones I've read.

Likemystoppie?

According to the POLK survey- over 75% of all Mercedes Benz sold in the US are STILL running. German's build some fine cars!

larrytrk

All Porsches built prior to 1975 were subject to rustout. After "75 the 911's and other models were well protected. So, earlier models 356's, 914's, 912's and 911's rusted out and more were probably crushed. The percentage still on the road should be attributed to the later vintage, which probably results in higher percentages!

Edgy01

I think the 100,000 date was later for some reason.

They used to say that 50% of all production came to the USA, no down to about 38% globally. They finished making their 100,000th 955 (Cayenne) recently and many of those are here. Perhaps PCA has an estimate, based upon their membership rolls.