Fanning the 911 R's flames: PH Blog
Why don't we just ignore the 911 R?
I'm torn, I have to confess. I don't think I've ever encountered a car that simultaneously inspires so much enthusiasm and outright hatred towards the brand that built it. I remain startled at quite how cross the people who feel they've been denied the right to spend £140K on a new Porsche seem to be, which inspired our April fool earlier in the year saying Porsche had responded by halting Macan and Cayenne production to free up capacity to build more. A ludicrous idea but enough to inspire some angry calls to dealerships and ensure I wasn't the most popular man in Porsche sales departments on the day in question.
For all that I still think the 911 R is a car worth talking about and, dare I say it, celebrating. Some will argue that's complicity in the hype machine and another puff of air into ballooning prices for 'special' 911s. But making a fuss over cars like this, the Aston Martin GT8 and - at a more attainable level - the BMW M2 is about more than the machines in question and instead fighting on a broader front for the kind of cars we like. The kind of cars we thought manufacturers had stopped building.
If the brands in question ignored the tastes and aspirations of the mainstream buyers who sustain their bottom lines and just built the kind of cars a noisy minority happen to like talking about they'd never survive. That we've made enough of a racket they're willing to build a few of them is something of a small victory, even if not everyone gets to enjoy the spoils at this rarified level. The hope is that it registers with the boards and engineers signing off future models, platforms and powertrains, with a contingency for building a few manuals and enthusiast specials factored in where it might not have been before.
So, with apologies to the haters, we will still write about the R. And if you don't like that it's quite easy to avoid - it's the one with the stripes on.
Extra volume means more profit, so it can't be financial. They have spent the money developing it, so the more they can sell surely the better. It's pretty much bespoke so they won't be left with loads unsold by making a large batch that is unwanted.
So, why? Why do it this way?
It would be great if PH (or any other car media) spoke with Porsche and got their reasons for it. I would like to know, just for interest's sake. And it might take some of the flack off Porsche if they told us and we could understand.
Meaning you can finance any Porsche, no matter how ludicrously priced for a "sensible" monthly figure. Safe in the knowledge some muppet will pay over the odds for a used car at the end of the deal.
These dream cars like the R, are simply high-end aspiration devices designed to drive sales of Porches regular models. Like an RS6 is to the majority of sale that are a 2.0TDI S-Line with 20" wheels.
This car bubble we're in will all fall on ints face soon enough. Especially seen as young people just don't have the car-fanantsism pre-millennials had. What happened to 50% depreciation in 3 years? Now they're selling more new cars than ever, HOW can used prices remain strong.
They can't is the simple answer. It'll be like the rush on Northern Rock soon. I used to love Porsche. But I hate everything about them now.
Not a trick question - I know very little about them.
I still pine for a 911. I recall Rowan Atkinson's article on the AM Vantage of the 80's, where as soon as they left the factory their residuals sky rocketed. Ten year later those same cars could be had for a quarter of the price.
Considering it is likely that a recession will hit sometime in the next two years I would say to many to hold out buying until then.
b) to provide a poster child which can be wheeled out at events such as Goodwood
c) to generate media articles such as this one (groans).
They will then try and sell higher margin cars on the back of it.
I think the car is a sad parody of the Porsche brand and one that one started its decline from 2011.
i.e. its the 911 the engineers want to build and sell to enthusiasts but Porsche management won't let them, they would sooner sell something inferior for a higher margin.
They should build the car and sell it to whoever wants to buy it. Make it expensive, but make as many as the market determines IMHO
Well, like the football sticker thing, rumour gets round that a specific one is rare and valuable, it creates a buzz and Porsche are manipulating it like Panini did back in 1982, its the same bloody thing with some minor (in the scheme of things) variations, so they are playing the punters like there is no tomorrow, Panini could print equal Ray Wilkins and Jose whatever, but they dont, Porsche could make all 911's R's but they dont, to build the mystique and want for that one, to create publicity.
Then there is whether the car is actually any good, of course it is but it isnt perhaps the second coming some would have us believe, its a Porsche 911, its a car.
Then there is the Veruca Salt Factor "Daddy, I want an Oompah Loompah", i.e. you want what someone tells you you cant have.
Then there is it being a version for the Cognoscenti, having a 911 is good enough for a lot, but actually I really need the ultimate one, stripped out and ready for a track it will probably never see.
Then there is getting something that other people dont have.
Porsche know that if they produce too many of them if will negatively affect the whole situation, they are masters at it and dont want to kill the Golden Goose (second Willy Wonka Reference in one post !)
I have seen this with my kids, buy a few packets of something like crisps, hot property, will fight over them and make a big deal, buy a big box, they have a few and then get bored and if there is no competition fromt he other two they lose interest and they go stale, its just basic human nature, Porsche are playing buyers like there is no tomorrow.
My thinking, if you cant afford or cant get hold of one (I cant afford one) would be to perhaps not listen too much to how magical it is, look for alternatives, go your own way, make some choice modifications to another model that you enjoy, 140 grand buys a lot of enjoyment !
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