Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
If there is a Porsche in an interesting color, you know I’m taking a look. Today is no different with this wonderful 1980 930 Turbo up for sale in The Netherlands. This widowmaker checks in wearing Viola Metallic, which is a color we’ve seen many times before and will probably keep seeing given how great it looks. The asking price on this one? Probably not as crazy as you’d guess.
I’m not sure what to make of the Porsche Panamera. Does it get a pass because it is a Porsche and we find things we like about it and ignore the rest? Or is it just a good car that coincides with what we like about Porsche? Probably a little bit of both, but since its launch in 2009, it has always been more of an afterthought in the Porsche lineup and even more so with the introduction of the Taycan. Now that they are very much just “used cars,” is it worth looking into over the competitors from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi?
I know looking at the Mercedes-AMG GT lineup is a little confusing, because what isn’t clear about having eight different trim levels of the same car, but considering Porsche currently has 26 (!) different 911 variants, I think we can sort this out. The base AMG GT, if you want to call it that, was launched back in 2014 and offered a nice package. In the same way the base Porsche 911 is a nice package. But once you start comparing it to the higher trim levels, it doesn’t seem like a great value when you can have more for just a small amount of money. It’s the same way the large-size french fry is only .30 cents more than the medium. You’d be crazy not to buy the large, but the medium exists and people do buy them. However, there isn’t a market for 5-year-old french fries the way there is for 5-year-old cars. So why for basically the same money would you get the lesser trim when the next level is literally right there? People still buy those medium fries.
Time for another edition of “Very niche knowledge of German car facts that almost no one will know.” We of course all know about the 2002 Volkswagen GTI 337 Edition that was sold in the US to celebrate 25 years of the GTI, only for it to be one-upped by the GTI 20th Anniversary edition literally a year later to celebrate 20 years of the GTI in the US. The interesting thing about the 337 Edition was all 1,500 in the US and all 250 examples in Canada were only offered in a single color: Reflex Silver Metallic.
However, the 337 was itself a reaction to a special model in Europe called the 25th Anniversary Edition, because while that was true for Europe and not true for the US. In addition, Europe had two more color choices in addition to Reflex Silver with Tornado Red (clear coat peeling was no extra charge) and today’s color – Diamond Black. To go even a step further, the right-hand drive UK cars all had a special plaque on them that individually numbered each car but for some reason, they put the plaque on the fuse box cover that can only be seen when the door is open. I wish I was making that up.
Always read. I can’t say that strongly enough when it comes to buying cars from private parties and even dealerships. I know everyone just looks at price and then everything else can be judged from that, but often a single sentence can throw everything into a mess if you aren’t careful. Just like we have today with this 2016 Porsche Cayman GT4.
At a quick glance, everything seems in order with this one. A little over 18,000 miles with an asking price of $90,000. I thought it was a little high, but it was probably in the ballpark. Then I saw a single line in the description…
