I simply don't get it..., The demise of the 914 was because why? Options

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

During my lunch break on Friday I stopped in a nearby tobacco shop for a Trinidad (the cigar, not my girlfriend (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ) and the store had a BUNCH of magazines so I checked some out. One particular British rag, 911 & Porsche, had a sexy Martini 911 Turbo on the cover. I bought it. One thing I really like about the British rags is that they are liberal with their color photographs, unlike American ones.

First, there's a very cool article on Porsche tractors and now I want one (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif) But, second, the below insert caught my eye. For a vehicle with continuous praise for handling and race-car features, was it written off simply because of drooping sales? Granted, the 4-banger engine was the only [in my mind] weak link but the six...oh, the six!...was what made the 914.

And this rubbish from the affictiandos (which seem to comprise primarily of 356 & 911 owners) that the 914 wasn't a real Porsche -- why? Simply because of the 4-banger (then is the 912 considered a "Not A Real Porsche")? Because of the VW powerplant (356ers are more VW than Porsche, at least the early units)?. Honestly, what are their reasons? It didn't win [enough] races?

I think they are simply envious (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

[Dave_Darling]

Why did they kill the 914-6? Because the Six sold for almost as much as a 911T, which had more power and was faster. And which Porsche made more money on--the cost to Porsche of building a 914-6 was very noticeably higher than that of building the low-end 911T! And they had to sell them for less.

Why did they kill the 914-4? For all of the reasons mentioned. The price was too high in comparison with other sporty cars on the market--particularly when you looked at the straight-line performance, which is all most of the contemporary magazines (and a lot of people) seemed to care about. It was getting tougher and tougher to get decent performance out of the motor while meeting the new smog regs... At least, without spending a whole lot more money than they were willing to spend! VW wanted the production capacity back. A certain (powerful) faction within the company had decided front-engine watercooled cars were the future. The joint-marketing company was turning out to be a royal pain to run and was losing money. There were too many people put off by the "VW-Porsche" badge that the car had in Europe, where it was made. And so on...

Sales really were sliding when the 914 was killed off. Porsche could have evolved the car and probably had good sales for a while longer, but they thought they knew where their future was--in the 924 and the 928. And they were pretty cash-poor at the time, because they had to buy VW's share of the 924 project out--so there wasn't any money to redesign or even freshen-up the 914.

Lots of reasons the car was axed. Too bad...

--DD