Production Figures, It's all relative, baby. Options

[lapuwali]

In another thread, Hammy noted this:

QUOTE

That worries me. Only 119k 914's made?

This is actually a big number for Porsche for the period of time the car was in production. Only 80,000 356s were made over their 15 year production run. About 35K 912s were made in 6 years of production. In the first 6 years, only 30K 911s were made. Yet for the 6 years of 914 production, nearly 120K cars were made, which was a rate way higher than Porsche ever made for any other model up to that time.

People forget just how small a company Porsche was at that time (still is, really). As recently as 1998, total production was still under 40K, which includes the Boxster as well as the 911 (these are fiscal year, summer '97 to summer '98). I couldn't find any production figures, but I'd be willing to bet that no more than 150K Boxsters have been made to date (about 7 model years). During most of the production run, more 914s were made each year than 911s, meaning there are fewer '75 and earlier 911s in the world than 914s.

Porsche's figures dwarf those for any of the real exotic manufacturers (including Ferrari), which are frequently only 100s per year, at most. Lotus went for years making 100-200 cars per year. On the other hand, GM made more Fieros in 1984 (first year) than all of the 914s made in their entire run, and GM considered the Fiero a sales flop.