AMCPILOT

I'm interested in opinions concerning the future market for 944s and 968s. I'm not asking about increasing values per se, but rather, who will be the ones looking to buy these cars in say 5 or 10 years? Will they be sought after, or will they become orphans?

There are a lot of great cars that Porsche has made since they stopped production on these cars. I wonder if we've now passed the time for broad appeal for these cars (I own a 944 Turbo and 968, so know they are great)

odurandina

i was driving road trips of hundreds and thousands of miles as a kid. and i wasn't doing anything particularly out of the ordinary..... i was hanging in Glendale discussing this very topic with a mechanic about the future of any and all types of cars that anyone would want to own and drive. despite all the car shows on Discovery and whatever other channel/s, far too many young kids are deadbeats; non-functional beta zombies, with near-nil ambition or the desire to turn a wrench. they don't care about cars, and barely seem interested in mobility for that matter. they move around much less. i can't relate to young people at all.

despite that i might not turn the wrenches much myself, i did my share with other cars and built hot rods. i did my fenders and front nose. that was a fun project that most kids from the upcoming generation probably wouldn't do.

so the answer to your question is; no one. that's my theory as to why 944s and 968s are changing hands or going defunct. the front engine cars prior to the Panamera all probably all doomed. ......and so are countless tens of thousands of other so-called collectible cars. i've been saying it for years on this forum; the nuclear winter/cataclysm of just about everything not a 911, Ferrari or extremely classic muscle car is coming.... and then they might be next.

morghen

Interesting question.
Nobody i guess.
Or very few odd people.
More will be scrapped after we go belly up, meaning married with kids and hemoroid plagued.
These cars will be more rare and with emmision regulations tightening up i think very few will be left on the roads.
The "milenials" or whatever they are called are not car and build people and i guess they are next in line for spending their money and surely they will not spend them on old tech like these cars.
These cars are only alive because of our nostalgia and love for building/maintaining something.
These values are not the same for the upcoming generation.
I would say they are more about looking cool, colorful led lights, demanding free stuff and being depressed crybabies in private.
i think they will have to spend their time and money fixing up themselves not some old cars.

pfarah7

Odurandina: I completely agree with your assessment. Maybe I'm getting older (52) as I've rarely come across a young adult possessing some level of work ethic or general respect for our species, much less our environment. The day is rapidly approaching where these generations will be running everything so enjoy folks!

In the mean time, we have the fun, the memories (and the scars) of participating in this hobby/sport and no one can take that away. I realize things change, that's in keeping with an evolutionary society, so let's embrace what's to come while remembering what we've accomplished and experienced. No garage queens!!! Drive the hell out of them!

Of course, these are only my thoughts...

autosea

I live in Seattle and at the age of 60 I see the writing on the wall.
I am getting quickly squeezed out of the city. One of my concerns is the storage of the cars and the price of shop space has risen so much and also the demand for this sort of stuff is just not there. I see the same thing with boats. Most of them are owned by a generation that is just about to old to be boating and not quite ready to get rid of them.
I have 6 944 based cars including my PCA race car. At any typical PCA race most if not all of the racers have grey hair.
Ballard which is a city in Seattle has all but givin the roads to the young .
There are so many breweries and distilieries . You cant even drive thru the town without getting someone pissed at you for not seeing them as they suddenly walk into the street with their media devices plugged into their ears.Meanwhile the new GT2RS has another small band of nuts that will pay $250K over MSRP.They are in another world and probably didnt get that kind of welth working on 944s

thomasmryan

my kids (24 and 25) 'mechanic' but they are hooked on Mercedes wagons for the moment, gas or diesel as 914s are out of their price point. (the youngest can rebuild a 722.3 auto so he might be scarfing up 928s).

both get nervous sitting in the passenger seat if I get up into the digits with gear or gears to go.

V2Rocket

I will be 28 next month.
I've had my 944 for 12 years now.
There won't be any more owners, for this one.
And should this one go by one way or another, it will be promptly replaced by another.
I live and breathe for the 944...

MAGK944

Probably museums, I doubt anyone will be owning or driving a car in 10-20 years time. Driverless cars will come to you when you need one and take you where you want to go. No garage, no insurance, no repairs, no maintenance, no parking, no gas, no hassle.

odonnell

Millennial chiming in. I've noticed a lot of young guys own 944s too. Maybe it's the lower buy-in price, but there's also a faction of young people who take pride in having interesting/classic/retro cars. A lot of my buddies in TX with these cars are in their 20s or early 30s

I bought my '83 at age 19, after working my *** off every summer since I could legally work. I'm 24 now with a "professional job" but I still work on the cars and drive them. Unfortunately a lot of people above are correct that this isn't a normal thing for young guys...usually their goal is the newest car you can possibly afford and it's a bonus if you get a sporty looking one.

While I see that a lot of people my age aren't engaged in automotive hobbies, I've noticed my age group generally respects people who venture into this kind of stuff. To own and drive a classic, you put up with a lot of illogical things just to have a car with primitive technology, a manual (seen as annoying), potentially dodgy reliability, more than potentially no air conditioning, and it's still probably slower than a modern hot hatch. But, there's at least respect for the passion even if they're passive to it.

And driving manual? Most can't. But they still think it's cool, in a legacy/nostalgic sense. They wouldn't be so silly as to actually buy a manual car

There's also a lot of "man I wish knew how to work on cars" in my age group. I'm not going to say the previous generation did a poor job of exposing their children to hobbies that involve working with your hands. But, growing up, the most "normal" things for a young guy to do in his free time were video games, wasting time online, or being involved in academic/extracurricular/athletic activities. Unless you took a vocational shop class in school or your friends/family were into cars, most of us didn't have external exposure to automotive hobbies unless we took interest on our own.

I've noticed my age group also places a higher value on college educations, almost a social status symbol. But, at the expense of looking down on honest blue collar jobs. Who needs skilled labor? You do, because you don't know how to work with your own hands. There's a huge problem in America right now, where school counselors are encouraging students to pursue white collar jobs, and propagating the idea that a college degree is standard fare... you NEED one to get any job worth having. Like I said above, I'm not going to say it's the parents' fault. But the pressure on the youth to pursue college as a base-case plan, as well as pressure on the schools to affirm this narrative, comes from somewhere. It's probably also the media, economic incentives from colleges, and the government (remember, they have a vested interest in being able tax you for more).

Regardless, there's a lot of pressure to pursue a career but not very much pressure to pursue WORK. A degree is just something that most people do. And working with your hands is seen by us as "something I would see on Dirty Jobs. I would never actually do that."

I'll end the ramble here. But in closing, these young guys secretly admire and respect you folks who are crazy enough to partake in our hobbies. Many openly wish they had learned technical skills growing up, or at least ventured into other "useful" hobbies instead of playing video games. But there's just no room in today's culture for that.

odurandina

i had an '87 944S in 1990. and was in an ancient '94 968 in 2008.

so many 944 enthusiasts over the years never followed the natural progression from 15-20 year old 944s and S2's to 15-20 year old 968s. as in really didn't (follow it).

the 968s cost only a few thousand dollars more in such cases, but this would have been just following the price points of the 944s of a few years previous. the 968s though somewhat heavier, overall, are better cars imo, gave back a lot in terms of the better engine, and transmission, way more top end, real actual headliners (those headliners), better brakes, and far-superior engine management.

i found that to be, strange.

MAGK944

This is true only maybe in the US. Certainly in the UK, Europe and most ROW, a manual is the first vehicle of choice and everyone knows how to drive them. Automatics are not desirable whatsoever unless maybe in a large luxury sedan like a 7 series BMW or Jaguar XJ.

jderimig

I owned by 84 since September 1983. I got it when I was 25. I put 40K miles on through about 1993 when I was single. Got married, had kids and the car just sat. I was too stupid to sell it. Kids are heading to college now, gave me a lot to time to refresh everything on the car and now I plan to enjoy the hell out of it, it has 43K on the clock now.

In my opinion there will always be small collectors market for these cars, not a very large one but there will not be a lot of supply so the market will balance. There will be a desire to own a Porsche from the era when Porsche was a sports car company (even if its a tranaxle because the general car collectors wont care). However the car will need to be or restored to factory configuration. Not very much upside but not a lot of downside either.

If your 944 doesn't fit this bill, then drive the wheels off it.

alex.rhodes

If you can keep 4 of them running I have 4 kids that will want one. They help me with mine and are interested in owning some sort of Porsche when they grow up. A friend of my oldest thinks my 944 is the coolest car in the world and loves getting to ride in it. I think being exposed to it at a younger age ensures the Porsche bug takes hold. I got my first one when i was 2 and have been hooked since.

joekr1

I’ll chime in.. First euro sports car I was ever introduced to was a 944. I’m now 47 years old, just bought my 944 and it’s a fixer upper. Replacement engine is inbound to my house next week and I’ve already got the Excel spreadsheet going for all the costs for everything else I plan on doing to the car..

I don’t think these cars are going to become orphans, but rather will be looked at as a lower price of entry Porsche. I never expect they’ll appreciate like 911s do, but I didn’t buy it as an investment. It’s a project for me, a vehicle that I could have never afforded in my 20s or even 30s.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get all the repairs done by the first Cars and Coffee in March. Until then I’m grinding away at work for extra commission for my new project car!

willrobinson

Some of you older guys should take off the rose tinted glasses. Your not the first to lament the youth of today and probably won't be the last 🙄

Socrates (469–399 B.C.)
QUOTATION: The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

As an early millennial (30) I still think there is a steady future for these cars, given there is still large interest in much older cars who's original buying generation are either very old or gone. Adults always fondly remember the cars of their childhood and I think.
The only thing that may slowly erode is daily use as these cars fall further behind the comfort/economy/performance of modern vehicles and that is unfortunate, however global population still grows and people like to stand out and these old things are quite cool, perhaps even 3D printing etc as it progresses may make parts cheaper and more available and that might be great.
For me I intend to keep mine as a daily for the foreseeable future and I have fairly big plans for modernisation, I've started with the engine and the latest Haltech ECU and associated sensors.
Long live the 944