Purchase price vs. resale price, possibly shooting ourselves in the foot? Options

[jwalters]

I am sure I am going to get much banter, good, bad, and ugly for this post. But I just have to bring this up.

It is about all the talk I read about appropriate purchase prices of any teener.

It seems as though a great multitude of people are hell bent that a teener should never cost anybody more than maybe 2k.

Yet the parts for this car is easily on par with a full-on Porsche 911,928, etc. Particularly the engine--it is a vw unit developed ( in conjunction with Porsche??)--I could easily rebuild a flat six for the same if not much less than the cost of a higher power / reliable IV model.

We as a group are spending an absurd amount of time and greenbacks to get our cars to our personal level--yet the consensus I read is that after all this is done the cars are worth absolutely s*#t compared to the comparables. In my humble opinion this needs to stop, I see much foot shooting going on here. Do we as a group really want to invest all of the above and then by our own methods and verbalizations intentially keep the cars ...ahem..."CHEAP"?

Now do not get me wrong--I am all about "affordable" , but would rather see "affordable" vs. CHEAP and LESS than it could / should be.

I have an newer issue of "Excellance" and they are reporting the 914's are on the rise--We as a group have it within our power to change this trend for the worse if carefull thought is not applied to what is being said, sold, and bought.

I do not want to pump 10k into my car from rustoration, upgrades, only to only get maybe 2k for it if I was in the need.

I realize that right now I would be hard pressed to get what only I have in it, not to include my personal labor hours, which so far has exceeded 500 easily at a shop rate of $55.00 an hour---the OTHER Porsches do tho...............

I see too many nice cars for sale and people asking what they are worth and then saying that same nice car that is in good repair should only be " $900.00,,Tops" This is not going to cut it--we should be following the examples as set out in our newsstand advocate--"Excellance"

Just think about this for a moment before spouting off------I see much shooting of the feet in here--lets get smarter--and help the market adjust our beloved to the affordable level--not the out of reach level--We need parts that are of high quality, yet not priced exorbitantly--do you want to sell 10 at a 100.00, or 1000 at 50.00?? For every person that can afford a 10k type IV motor, there are possibly hundreds if not thousands who cannot. Just not dirt cheap to begin with an excellant example and then pour another thousands into it to make it our own and then get nothing for the fruits of our labor...........

It makes me sick to read about some poor schmo that bought a 2.5k rebuild cause that is what he could afford, and then have nothing but problems with it--then get berated about: " Told you so"..when the type 1 crowd can have 200+ hp for LESS THAN 3K----------I might just put a type 1 in mine and save 7k, or more--

Just as an example: For the time and money I am putting into my car--I could have easily purchased a late 70's-early 80's 911, rebuilt the motor, put good wheels and tires on it--and probably a minor interior / exterior upgrade--and easily sell it for more than I bought it / upgraded it for--------

I want to thank all of you that manufacture worthwhile products AND also price them accordingly---some others out there could possibly do some homework----We need to help the market as a whole with resale values----3000 members (almost) in a small community as the 914 is, is strong JEDI......yes, we are strong.........

If I have offended anybody I do not apologize--this is a forum for adult lively discussion--I would ask no less from anybody else. This post is NOT to any one person(s)--it is just a discussion.

But if things do not begin to change before I dump my talents and cash into this--I will go the 911 route


Point is: " I should not put 10k plus into my car and then expect to get for it what I am reading in here!, which is crap.........."

[KaptKaos]

Why I like my 73 1.7

1) I always liked the simplicity of aircooled Porsches. Just seemed "right" to me that a car would be built like that.

2) I always liked the relatively light weight and good handling. A hallmark of earlier Porsches, at the time labeled "Giant Killers" because of their ability to beat cars with much more displacement in races.

3) I do not want or need: power windows, power door locks, power sunroof, air conditioning, GPS, automatic climate control, heated seats, heated mirrors, foglamp washers, power seats with multi-person memory, or any of those other modern conveniences. I prefer my car to be a raw experience.

4) Nothing else looks like it. That's not to say that its pretty, cause its really not, but it is unique. I call it interesting to be polite. When you drive to work, keep an eye out for interesting cars. There are fewer and fewer each day.

5) I really like that my car has no center console, makes it feel very roomy and comfortable inside.

6) Targa top. I hate replacing convertible tops, takes me 4 or 5 times to get them to fit right, and they still really don't. No such issue with the targa and you still get the open motoring experience.

Basically, I fell in love with the speedsters of the 50s. Now I am not that old, but there was something so pure and honest about them, that I really appreciated them. In looking for a classic car with similar attributes, you are very limited in choices. If you like aircooled motors and their unique sounds, open tops, with a decent level of performance, what can you get? Well, you could get a Karmann Ghia, which is a very pretty car, more expensive than a 914 in most cases and has a lower level of performance (stock). Or, you could get a 914 with all of the good stuff a Ghia doesn't have (tach, disc brakes, 5 spd tranny, fuel injection, mid engined, targa top) for less but its not as pretty as a Ghia.

I guess the real bottom line is this: The 914 was not well received in its day. I have most of the articles from R&T and C&D from the time. The Fiat 124 was, by far, more appreciated by those magazines. The fact that 914s are still popular and sought after today is a testament to the marque (ok, 1/2 a marque for you narp folks), and that the cars were really very well engineered and manufactured and that people were able to see past the "short comings" that the car rags of the day sighted and fell in love with them anyway (like me).

Regarless of what we do or say, 914s are becoming rarer, and by that fact alone, more valuable. I do not think that there is much that we can do, other than to love these little cars. Their value will go up, I see no sense in trying to expedite that. Its not something I want to sell, so why should I care?