Do people really think the 914 is ugly? I never thought so. Options

[scottsilvertt]

Do people really think the 914 is ugly? I never thought so.

I have seen far uglier cars...many of them. Even most cars today are not worth a second look.

I remember it coming out as a kid. So many had poor things to say about the 914. My older brother was Chalon crazy. (he liked the car on his own with no outside influences)
Sadly, I listened to friends and the press...and was too young to form my own opinion.

What had people not liking the car?

what's not to like:
the pop up headlights...about as cool as it can get
the trick removable roof.
the two storage spaces
the engine in the middle? who does that, its amazing.
the simple, never out of style interior.
the lightest seats in the world.
the Italian style door handles. flush and wonderful.

I think of it as another little 904.
a good red one looks like a Ferrari to me.
a friend of mine had a gold, low mileage second gen , angled shaped, Dino (from around 1976). yes, it was neat, but I like the 914 better.

I cannot get enough of the car. I'm more fascinated with it more today than any earlier decade.
I mean the car was incredible at Le Mans.

I knew a guy who said he had over 20 of the cars...and could look at them all day.
what an amazing car that was 50 years ahead of its time.
I can't think of a single high production car, in all history that was more unique, and stayed unique for decades.




spending time with an airplane, and what color is this??


4x4 in the mountains of Europe

[gulf908]

I always thought the front end of the Karmann prototype looked well done but we couldn't have this version looking nicer than a 911,could we ?
just my 0.02c worth . . .

cheers
Dennis (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Superhawk996]

I always thought the front end of the Karmann prototype looked well done but we couldn't have this version looking nicer than a 911,could we ?
just my 0.02c worth . . .

cheers
Dennis (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif)

This is what’s funny about the subjectivity of styling.

One man’s improvement is another’s degradation. There is no way I’d own a 914 if they had gone with that prototype design.

Often times a great design evokes a Love/Hate polarizing response. As long as the “love” demographic is sufficiently motivated to buy - it can be a successful business case.


Example: PT Cruiser design - evokes a very strong love / hate response. The program was only supposed to be about 40k units annually and it was only supposed to be a 4 year program with a predictable loss of demand toward the end of the 4 years. Program planning and marketing didn’t know what to think about such a quirky design. Was it a car, a truck (it was for CAFE purposes), or a small van sort of thing? By the time it launched, demand was at 200k units, a second assembly line was contracted out of Europe. Ultimately it was in production for 10 years and it was a cash cow for Chrysler, DaimlerChrysler, and then Cerberus / Chrysler LLC. Love it or hate it, there were more than enough lovers to make it a wildly successful program.

The 914 was like that - love it or hate it, it outsold 911’s.

[wonkipop]

I always thought the front end of the Karmann prototype looked well done but we couldn't have this version looking nicer than a 911,could we ?
just my 0.02c worth . . .

cheers
Dennis (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif)

This is what’s funny about the subjectivity of styling.

One man’s improvement is another’s degradation. There is no way I’d own a 914 if they had gone with that prototype design.

Often times a great design evokes a Love/Hate polarizing response. As long as the “love” demographic is sufficiently motivated to buy - it can be a successful business case.

Example: PT Cruiser design - evokes a very strong love / hate response. The program was only supposed to be about 40k units annually and it was only supposed to be a 4 year program with a predictable loss of demand toward the end of the 4 years. Program planning and marketing didn’t know what to think about such a quirky design. Was it a car, a truck (it was for CAFE purposes), or a small van sort of thing? By the time it launched, demand was at 200k units, a second assembly line was contracted out of Europe. Ultimately it was in production for 10 years and it was a cash cow for Chrysler, DaimlerChrysler, and then Cerberus / Chrysler LLC. Love it or hate it, there were more than enough lovers to make it a wildly successful program.

The 914 was like that - love it or hate it, it outsold 911’s.

i'm with you on the headlight visible so called prototype @Superhawk996
awful. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif)

i'm calling (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bs.gif) that its a karmann prototype.
i'll lay $ down now, much as you want, its just an air brush touch up visualisation.
(these days they CAD model and render).
probably done by h klie circa 1972/73 to investigate whether the 914 would be a dog if they dropped the pop up expensive headlights. after viewing the airbrush no doubt the VW executives and porsche representives agreed to look elsewhere for value management savings. which might have been the negative intentional purpose of said airbrush?

good thing they never did it or i would never have bothered to go to so much trouble to have a 914. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

[Superhawk996]

probably done by h klie circa 1972/73 to investigate whether the 914 would be a dog if they dropped the pop up expensive headlights. after viewing the airbrush no doubt the VW executives and porsche representives agreed to look elsewhere for value management savings. which might have been the negative intentional purpose of said airbrush?

good thing they never did it or i would never have bothered to go to so much trouble to have a 914. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

You are probably right on the cost saving investigation.

It’s funny to me that a design starts with pop-ups but as soon as they can, OEMs start looking for the cost savings of fixed lamps.

I had a 1st gen Miata that had pop ups. 2nd gen came out with fixed lamps. I didn’t like the styling at all. Those fixed lamps plus the usual weight gain removed it from my consideration list.

For some reason I’m drawn to pop up headlamps. I always thought the 928 was a neat way to do them but I really prefer them to be completely hidden like the 914.

@wonkipop