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| In my workshop |
TOO MANY PORSCHES
I receive Panorama Magazine from the Porsche Club of America. As is usual with Pano - and other Porsche-centric publications, on one of the first few pages there is a score card of Porsche new car sales for the previous month/quarter/year. In these reports the recent and consistent increases in Porsche sales are celebrated, with mention of new record numbers of cars being moved.
To me this is getting really, really tedious. The more Porsches are sold, the more diluted the brand becomes; the less unique it is; the less value my car has - to me monetarily, as well as on an emotional level. It's just not as special any more.
Why, therefore, is this run-away growth celebrated in enthusiast publications, all the time? I don't get it, but I can understand that VW is happy to rake in more money from all the new cars, and I can imagine, also, that it plans to introduce pick-up trucks, minivans, and maybe scooters with the Porsche name on them. After all, its biggest market is now China, where they sell mostly Cayenne SUVs.
It's all about money. The thing is that there are people like me who own older Porsches; who work on these themselves; who have, perhaps, less interest in the latest super-duper gizmos. My car goes plenty fast enough to get me into all sorts of trouble as it is. Anyway, my car (seen above) is an honest, mechanical beast that leaks a little, and that needs continuous care to keep it going well. It's an engaging proposition, caring for a vintage Porsche, but for me, at least, I don't want at the same time to be engaged in swooning over the fact that new Porsches have bloated their numbers on the road. The latest 911s are high-performance luxury GT cars, not so much raw sports cars anymore. I heard that Porsche is considering putting a button on the console that will automatically drift the car through a corner while you talk to your broker on your cell phone - hands free.
Well, those 992s, etc., won't last very long before the gizmos and plastic bits start falling apart, but my light-weight 911 will still be snarling along, as the 992s turn to dust.