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If you ask young and old drivers to rank the top-10 production dream cars, the Porsche 911 would be on the list, perched near the top. My particular dream is the Carrera S Coupe. While I love a convertible, and I have owned several, the summer days of Texas convert most trips into a sweat-soaked, oven-baking experience. You arrive red as a beet and smelling like the great outdoors. A coupe with air conditioning for me.
What makes the 911 so special? First of all, the body style has lasted through decades, back to the progenitor Porsche 356, first manufactured in 1948. My supervising professor owned a classic version. I could only drool.
The Porsche 911 is unique in being a rear-engine car. Did I mention that it flies? Porsche drove the latest 400 hp S at 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds, but Porsche is notoriously conservative. Even a duffer like me can pass 60 mph in slightly over four seconds (it takes one shift of the clutch). Top speed is 187 mph. I tried 125 mph in my Mustang Cobra. I dared 130 mph in a Mercedes on the autobahn from Berlin to Innsbruck. I have not approached 187 mph in any vehicle.
Porsche enthusiasts swear their babies hold their value. As a physicist, I prefer data over unction. I took my current values from NADA’s “Good-Condition Expected Retail Price.” I assumed a driver would drive 10,000 miles each year. So, I looked up the NADA retail of a 911 S coupe from each year model, assuming an odometer of 10k per year. I verified the original MSRP through MSNauto. I then calculated the value as a percentage of the original MSRP and plotted it. While this has some shortcomings, it does take into account price increases and thereby accounts for inflation.
Here is the data.
The data show that the Porsche 911S coupe depreciates about 10% per year and finally reaches a bottom at about 30% of the original MSRP. At first glance, this does not sound too bad. If you could buy a car for $30k and sell it in ten years later for $10k, you would think that was an okay deal. Of course, a new Porsche 911S coupe costs a grand and some change. So, a depreciation of $10k per year is not pocket change to most. It is a Porsche dream car, after all.
Oh, by the way, it is two syllables, Por-shah, not Porsch. Don’t be an uneducated ninny.