When was the last time you saw a 992-generation Porsche 911 on the road?
Compared to all previous 911s, the 992 is a rare beast in anyone’s books. There simply aren’t all that many around, especially compared to the 997-generation of 911; it seemed every tenth car you saw on the road was a 997 of some various guise.
This isn’t a coincidence, however. The ubiquity of the Porsche 911 is no more, indicative of a wider industry shift towards price increases and production reduction.
For a long, long time, the Porsche 911 was the perennial seventy thousand pound car. There was little that could match the 911’s combination of performance, sort-of practicality and subtlety. The 997-generation that ran from 2004 to 2013 was a runaway success: Porsche sold over 200,000 of them, which for a sportscar is very impressive. One of the reasons for the number of 997s is that the car is a bit of a self-congratulatory reward from Porsche to themselves for staving off financial ruin in the 1990s.
In the 1990s, Porsche’s finances were not good. Hamstrung by a confusing line-up of cars, many of which either used bespoke components, or used designs that had not changed meaningfully in decades, left Porsche near bankruptcy. Fortunately, with help from mass-production masters, Toyota, Porsche managed to develop both the brand new 911 – the 996 – and the ultra-successful Boxster, so that they used a lot of shared components. This stabilised Porsche’s finances, enabling them to design the Cayenne which really sorted out the balance book.
The price of the 997-generation 911 when new was around £63,000, and there were plenty of cars to go around. Come 2013, and the release of the 991-generation 911 and the asking price was £71,000 for a basic 911. Compare this to the current retail price of a new 2023 992-generation Porsche 911 of £97,000, which excludes options; most nicely spec’d 992s will probably sit on the showroom floor with a price tag closer to £120,000. In one generation, the Porsche 911 has transcended an entire price tier.
This is not an accident. There are more and more wealthy people in the world today, and Porsche, the proprietor of an already strong second-hand market, has capitalised on this by making even ‘normal’ 911s far harder to get hold of. This ensures the 992-generation cars maintain excellent second-hand prices, which in turn keeps the whole market buoyant. Porsche’s changing approach to car production, and an expanded model range which includes the Macan and the Taycan, means 911s are built in batches to reduce retooling time and costs when a cabriolet body shell comes rolling down the production line. So, if you order a Porsche 911 Targa 4 GTS, then you’ll be waiting until orders for enough other Targa 4 GTSs are placed before yours gets underway.
This results in far fewer 911s making it the market, and customers will have to fight for build slots not just for the fabled GT department 911s, but for normal cooking 911s. This can be best observed when going to a Porsche Centre. I guarantee any 911 on the forecourt will be for sale at a price that is significantly over list. Those that want a 911 today will have to pony-up the cash, and for others not wanting to have to pay overs, will have to embark on their own battle for a build slot.
As such, the 911 is now firmly in junior supercar territory in terms of worth, future worth and in terms of difficulty of acquiring.
If we look down the performance car ladder, the 911s place has been supplanted by the new BMW M3/M4. The M3, much like the 911, was the poster boy for cars at its price range. The BMW M3 was the forever £50’000 – £60’000 car, sat just below the 911 in terms of prestige and quality. But now, the latest M3 has a base price of £81,000 before options, with the in-vogue M3 Touring worth up to £110,000 which beggars belief. Unlike the 911, the market has plenty of M3s for sale, and this leads to the question of whether the £80,000+ price tag will translate into strong second-hand sales or in a few years will we see £40,000 – £50,000 G80 M3s.
But this is the way of the world. People are buying cars differently, and the world’s obsession with having the latest and greatest ‘thing’ also affects cars. As a result, we are seeing all the rule books being rewritten, and the performance car takes another leap up in price.
Better get checking those classifieds.
Kerbside 