Place Your BETS! Does The Porsche 911 Have A BRIGHT Future Or Will Sales Start Losing Steam Over The Next 10 Years?

I think Mark Twain's quote is relevant here - "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated".

Porsche will keep refining and reinventing the 911. There will always be folks who want a car with the lineage and characteristics of the 911.

Well said.

With the many advantages of electric car(low COG, instant torque, balanced weight distribution, etc), traditional sports car will face a strong headwind, as almost any MFR will easily make something that we call 'sporty' today

RR will remain unique in the whole market, but many MR sports cars will be having hard time. R10, 718, A110, and Lotus just might be victims IMO.

Agree. While the sports car market in terms of models will shrink, high end sports cars with great performance, heritage and status (Ferrari, Porsche) will survive. Maybe only one low end model (MX5 perhaps) may survive to satisfy that segment. Its the middle range which may struggle the most to exist. Personally I believe hot hatches will grow significantly in popularity based on performance, cost and utility as well as being less effected by increased government regulations and taxes.

My guess is that the 911 will be around longer than some of Autospies' readers. Porsche's investment in the Taycan will be amortized over the other models and some version of the 911 will likely become at least a hybrid and maybe even a full EV. My next 911 will be a 992 GTS Targa.

Given how olde (sic) some of the geezers are here, that is a true statement.

Old is a condition, not a choice.

True but as people get older some put the blinders on and do their "Well Sonny back in my day we rebuilt transmissions on the kitchen table." routine. They are alive but because they have frozen in their thinking they may as well be dead.

My father was out of my life from when I was 3 until I was 23. My mother was around but not really parenting. Both sets of grandparents were horribly dysfunctional. I was raised by four men who were past 60 that saw that I was intelligent and a complete car nut. The ONE thing they stressed was NEVER to say "Well Sonny, back in my day..." but instead to ask the young how they would do it and then make it a teachable moment.

Being their car wash jockey, lawn mower, stuff mover, annoying task doer, and so on not only taught me a lot, but also taught me to combat old-fartism whenever it is seen.

Because of them I got the education I am thankful for, can make a to-kill-for martini, have access to and inherited some wonderful cars, but most importantly the roadmap for not doddering off to the 4:00 o'clock dinner at Dennys.

I have never been a Porsche person and don't quite understand what people find so great about the 911. It obviously has its fan base but I am puzzled by its longevity.

When the 928 came out, I thought it was revolutionary and an apt successor to the 911 but here we are 30 years later.

I am also puzzled why Porsche won't sell a Panamera coupe/cab. For all of VW's shameless platform sharing and tooling amortization (and a good degree of inter-brand cannibalization that accompanies that) I wish Porsche would sell a Panamera Cab. I'd buy one in a second.

I"m with you I don't need a 4 door and a 2 door Panamera would be cool. Perhaps it might look too much like the 911?

The 911 is one of the world most special cars. If anyone has driven one, it is remarkable in its quality, performance, and the way one feels in the car. I was knocked out by it on my 2 week test drive. There is no question that this car will be with us for a very long time... unless GM buys Porsche and turns it into a Cobalt.

Make mine the 911 4S Targa... ugh.

The ONLY reason the 928 no longer exists is because it outperformed the 911 of the day and Porsche just could not let that happen. For the same reason, they cancelled the 914-6.

It would be foolish to bet against the 911. I think there may be two very different versions in the future, with full on EV models and ICE/Hybrid models. Totally different cars, probably built on different production lines but both with the familiar 911 look and performance,

I'd buy a Panamera coupe in a heartbeat. It would be one of the best GT cars ever made.

I have a 997.2 Carrera GTS. It is indeed a special car. I also used to drive a 1985 Carrera Targa. Until you've experienced the tactile and aural sensation of driving a 911, it's hard to understand why folks are so endeared to them.

The air cooled had this amazing sound that I could identify by ear as it approached the house coming up the hill.

The GTS while much more refined and less involved, is just so much more capable. Plus the widebody rear haunches are sex on wheels.

Some folks mistakenly believe Porsche does not change. However, I am quite excited about the new 992 generation. Improvements in the engine, the suspension, the interior and mild exterior mods make the car irresistible.

I'm just bored to death with the 911 caricature look on EVERYTHING they make. I would like Porsche more if they showed any stylistic signs of life like they did with the 914/924/928/944.

MD: I read your posting above, about how you were brought up. What a shocker that even you can be humble ... let me go read that again

Don't confuse "humble" with "vulnerable". LOL

I fell in with some guys that were very entrepreneurial in their spare time with their hobby: cars. I wanted to make money off the books, but selling drugs was out of the question because of the damage it has done to most of my family. So I washed cars, started them, drove them around the parking lot, kept the tires aired up, the batteries charged, and so on. Mowed lawns, did cleaning, at one point I even cooked.

The guys were attorneys by trade and were as tight as brothers. They knew a lot of the smarmy details of the "Lords of Bakersfield" era when all sorts of crookedness happened when they were young bucks out of law school and were told to defend people who were dead-to-rights guilty and to get dismissals or acquittals...or else.

The martinis were great, but the talk was better.

The Lords of Bakersfield was like a local mafia that existed and all sorts of bizarre things went on: murders, drug trade, prostitution, etc. and the men involved just paid attorneys to make things right. Saul Goodman is real. Trust me on this.

I found out that one of them also knew my father briefly from having represented him pro bono, but when I was washing cars, they had not put two and two together, so I was astounded at the connection and also glad to get some of the backstory on my father. My father did his share of low-grade criminal activities with drug dealing being among his evils.

Thankfully, he is now settled down, off drugs, productive, and sane...years later.

My "grandfathers" impressed upon me that living trying to appear humble can be its own form of codependence and dysfunction. They were very Machiavellian in the way they approached the world and saw things and that (1) fascinated me and (2) was my impetus for studying psychology.

They rankled people, watched the reactions, and THEN determined whether or not the person was a keeper or not.

I'm very much like that. Canadiancomments and Truthy are two people--to name two that is--here that I rankled (and still do LOL) and have decided are guys I really like and would have in my home in a heartbeat even though they are so opposite me in so many ways.

You're one of the people I enjoy here a lot as well as is xjug1987a...and some others.

I'm now down to only one of the "grandfathers" left who is also the one that mentored me by far the most. He wanted me to become an attorney and in essence be the son he never had, but I didn't want to do law. He agreed to put me through school, so I completed a PhD in something unrelated to law.

Ironically, what I do for a living depends on NONE of my degrees...directly.

My wife's Italian ancestors butted heads with some of the Lords of Bakersfield in a kind of turf war. The stories my grandfather-in-law can tell are hair raising.

My boys are total hellions like me, so I will be getting karmic payback, rest assured. And Jed--our "inherited" teenager--is in some ways the "me"

...that needed rescuing from a bad situation.

Getting back to the 911 I think it will outlast most competitors. It will do so for the same reason it does today. It is practical, it is easy to see out of and you can use it every day. You don't need to contort your body to get into one. The 911 is the Porsche brand and Porsche will never abandon it. People complain it is too conservative or not exotic enough. They miss the point. Yet at the same time its different enough having the engine in the back and it being a flat six. That made it practical and unconventional at the same time. The 928 did not do well because in the end it was too much like other sports cars with a V8 engine in the front. It was not unique enough. It engine sounded too much like an American V8(Nothing wrong with that in retrospect). In fact the press dubbed it the German Corvette. That stigma did not do the 928 any favors. However at the time in the late 70's and early eighties American cars were not exactly held in very high favor. Clearly and technically the 928 was light years ahead of the 911. It was the first car to offer the "Weissach" rear suspension system to offer more stability and counter the trailing throttle oversteer that the 911 was famous for. The question is if Porsche had kept the front engine configuration would it still be a viable maker of sports cars today. In my opinion the answer is "NO". Porsche made 2 attempts at the front engine configuration in the 928 and 944/968. In the early 90's they were on the verge of Bankruptcy. Going back to their roots in rear engine and mid engine was the right choice. Of course going with an SUV was also the second brilliant stroke to keep them going. For the future and the fact that Porsche has come out with the 918/hybrid eventual electrification will be accepted by the buying public. The only other car that has the same branding cache in my opinion is the Mustang. It is also the everyday high performance car with a usable trunk and usable rear seats. When it becomes a hybrid with eventual full electrification it also will be fully accepted by the buying public.

Porsche was on the verge ob bankruptcy because their entire product line was ancient and outdated. They had not invested in new product. The 911 was a 1963 model bandaged to hell and back. The 968 was the second rework of the 924. Porsche put very little effort behind the 928. Thus, Porsche's situation was (1) a crisis of leadership and (2) due to outdated products NOT a repudiation of F/R sports cars that were not 911 caricatures.

Wrong. I could not disagree more. Porsche improved on the 928 and the 944/968 during their lifespan. The 928 had continual engine upgrades. The GTS in 93 and 94 had 350 HP. The 944 was upgraded from VW/Audi suspension components to Porsche suspension components. The 944 was turbocharged, it then went to a 16 valve in the 944S, then S2 and finally the 968. Historically like the 356 and early 911's, Porsche's typical habit was one of updating and improving. The fact is the 928 never sold well because it was never completely accepted as a "True" Porsche. Porsche's reputation was made for their rear engine and mid engine cars and their racing successes were based on their good handling and great braking that lasted throughout a race. Their engines were small but reliable. You know as well as I that their race cars were nicknamed _"Giant Killers". The 928 was a complete departure towards a more usual front engine sports car. Further large part of their problem was in their handmade production process. For the money they were charging they were no longer able to make a profit unless they could learn to become more automated. That's when they turned to Toyota to learn the just in time production process. Further sharing 50% of the platform between the 911 and Boxster saved them a ton of money. If Porsche truly believed in the front engine sportscar why did they not share more componentry between the 928 and 944. Why did they not develop a V6 instead of an inline 4 from the 928 engine. Both of these cars became too Expensive to make and Porsche did not have the audience that they had for so many years as a maker of rear engine and mid engine cars. A 928 was certainly a better built car then a Mustang, Camaro or Corvette. However too often it was lumped into the same boat. Over time American V8's became more powerful and could easily match the horsepower of a 928 for a lot less money.(Upgrading the 928 further would have made it even more expensive) The Mazda RX7 and the Datsun Z could easily match the 944 in the 80's. They also cost a lot less because they could build them for less cost. In reality the 911 represents Porsche's identity going back to the original 356. The 928 and 944 do not. The Boxster/911 clearly do.

Boy-I'm such an idiot. Darringer I allowed you to bait me into this argument. Sorry but I'm not going any further. The alcohol for New Years Eve has finally worn off.

Take your blood pressure medication and depending on your time zone, the senior citizen dinner is ready at dennys.

@mini22 just save a copy of your text for next time MD repeats the same comment :)

Never get into a mug fight with a pig/conservative, you'll have mud all over you and the pig will just enjoy it.

More hate speech from you. Take your medications.