PSportoVeloce

I'm writing an academic paper about Porsche, their production techniques, and their use of Japanese consultants Shingijutsu to avoid bankruptcy during the early 1990's.

One of the issues is the compromise between brand identity and controlling manufacturing costs.

It would be great to get a ranking of which generations of 911 better epitomize Porsche's brand identity, in the eyes of you, Porsche owners. Since I'm dealing with the period in the 1990's and later, please limit your ranking to the 964, 993, 996, and 997 only.

Thank you!

Moe Sal

I am a satisfied 997 owner myself, but the 993 stands out in my mind and many others minds as truly representing the spirit of porsche (from the models you refer to above). Many have criticized the subsequent 996 and 997 as "going soft", interfering with the raw feel which the 993 (the last of the air cooled) represented.

p-cardriver

Of the ones you list, 993 is the best of the air cooled and 997 is the best (so far) of the water cooled. I think the brand identity was set long ago with the original spyder, 356 and 911 and is maintained, managed and enhanced at the Porsche level, not at the individual car level.

lthatch

The 993 was my first, second, and third Porsche and will remain my personal archetype of the marque. But I love my 997 and have no desire to get rid of it for another 993.

wetstuff

I have the impression my Porsche PhD is not signed ..for not having a 993.

OCBen

Your poll didn't come through. Try again.

Better yet, if you are really interested in getting a decent sampling of opiinions for a fair evaluation for your paper, I would post the poll in the "General Porsche Discussions Forum". Posting it in this forum, or in any of those other models' forums, will only guarantee you a biased sampling - not the kind of information you can draw any reasonable conclusions from.

richc

I'm a fan of the 993 - my '95 is the only of the dozen I've had that I miss. I traded it on a '99 996 when they first came out (I ordered one of the first ones) and it without a doubt it remains my least favorite. I've had two 997's and both have been solid cars. Witht he exception of that '99, my experience has been these cars get better with every generation.

Maxsar

I was talking to a native German 993 owner today at a trade show here in Dusseldorf. I also had an 85 aircooled 911. We both agreed that the sounds coming from the aircooled engines were much more enjoyable than the sounds from the later models. So from an emotional perspective perhaps the older models are more "Porsche".

That being said, I wouldn't trade my 997 for his even for a pile of money. So in that way I am loyal to the 997 and what it represents. A reliable near supercar.

GreggT

Wow....interesting topic......like to read the piece when it's done.
So, you are you running with the premise that AG actually decided to control cost at the expence of loosing brand identity?......personally I think that's a leap.

You are aware that Porsche was already seeing an upside with the 993 (before they jumped into the deep end with the 996), are you not?
The 996 (and the posture Porsche took in the late 90s toward building trucks, pulling their name out of major werks sponsored race efforts, and changing 911 'significantly')....all affected not only brand identity, but also re-directed the marque to, in many cases, a slightly different demograghic.

That new demo, has developed it's own Porsche brand identity.....yes, benefiting from the old but much of it new.
Just my opin.........but regardless of your view, it has to be viewed as a very intersting time for the company......and should occupy at least a chapter in some business book somewhere.

Le Chef

993 is my favorite for "purest DNA" of recent 911's, beyond my all-time favorite the 2.7RS/

PSportoVeloce

I'm not quite operating with that as a premise, I'm looking to enthusiasts to see how they feel about that matter. This survey is posted several places, including places where other model owners frequent a lot, to get the widest possible data.

Yes, from my research, Porsche turned its first profit after the introduction of the new techniques in 1995. This was the result of a lot of early changes in production introduced by the Japanese consultants. Read more here about those: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...52C0A960958260

PSportoVeloce

also:

Good points have been raised by all relating to the data acquisition techniques I'm using. It is worth mentioning that I'm trying to get data from enthusiasts, not the general population, which is why this survey is here.

Some clarifications about the paper:
This paper is not about brand identity. This paper is about production techniques. I am trying to observe how the new production techniques changed brand identity, not exhaustively explore brand identity. That's why I limited the choices to cars that were built during and after the new production techniques (i.e. 964, 993, 996, 997). This question is actually just a small part (roman numeral IV, part c) of the entire paper.

OCBen

Sounds like you missed my post.

I suggested you post your survey poll here:

https://rennlist.com/forums/general-porsche-discussions-forum-73/

...which is an enthusiasts forum, and not the general population.

And it would help if you construct a poll to that effect. It is easier to get responses from people when all they have to do is click an option instead of typing out their responses and posting them up, not to mention ease of data collection.

PSportoVeloce

thanks! this is now available in poll form here for those wishing to vote: https://rennlist.com/forums/general-porsche-discussions-forum/433664-please-vote-on-which-generation-of-recent-911-has-the-strongest-brand-identity.html

OCBen

Good job!

Now you might want to post a notice like this one in each of the other forums of interest to point them to the poll, if you haven't done so already.