The Truth About Cars 914 Article Options

[Ferg]

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http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/porsches-...po/#more-362120

[VaccaRabite]

Sure. But compared to, say, the 924 or 944 (ie - the other cheap-o NARPS), the 6 year production run is really short for a "successful" model.

And, yes, 115,000 is a lot of cars. But 20K a year is not, on the grander scheme of things. It is only barely viable - especially if it is poaching from the higher margin cars like the 911. If the 914 was considered a successful platform, Porsche would have continued to manufacture them and not moved to the 924 platform.

Zach

[Tom_T]

Sure. But compared to, say, the 924 or 944 (ie - the other cheap-o NARPS), the 6 year production run is really short for a "successful" model.

And, yes, 115,000 is a lot of cars. But 20K a year is not, on the grander scheme of things. It is only barely viable - especially if it is poaching from the higher margin cars like the 911. If the 914 was considered a successful platform, Porsche would have continued to manufacture them and not moved to the 924 platform.

Zach

Zach & All - I respectfully beg to differ, but I think Porsche would be gleeful to have a model selling at 20k a year added to their current line-up, as it would be better than ANY of their current models! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

Look at the current sales numbers for Porsche at this article (link below), then compare it to those for the 914 in the info section on here. They're only at 22k to 27k for the past 2 years' periods for all models sold in the US/Canada by PCNA - assuming year-to-date nos. in the chart at the link below is 1/2 year - 6 mos. IIRC the PCNA share is 40-50% of worldwide sales today, so double them up again. And the Boxter/Cayman sales even worldwide are half of the 914's 71, 73 & 74 best years at over 20k!

Porsche really is not a high volume producer even now - 35-40 years later, even for all their high-faluting (sp?) plans over the years! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/porsche-r...nk=MW_news_stmp

FYI - Porsche moved off of the 914s because they lost the line at the Karmann Plant to other VW models IIRC - not because they were abandoning the aircooled 4-banger 914, & they kept aircooled 911s well into the 1990's anyway. Our 914s actually were a far more successful sports car than the Nader-esque Naysayers like to portray! If they'd continued with it after 76 MY & after the VW-Porsche JV broke up, then taken the 4's & maybe later re-intro'ed the 6's & further developed the cars as they did the 911/930 & "other NARPs", then it would've probably outsold the water-fronts (924/944/968/928) & still been around as survivors today in a "New NARP" IMHO waterboxer form! .... oh wait, they do have that - Boxter/Cayman!

BTW - their new Pres/CEO is talking a new entry level Porsche with lower mileage to meet CAFE standards with high volume sales - in addition to moving the 918 Hybrid to production. So they may actually do a "modern" 356 or 914 back-to-basics sports car sometime soon.
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