Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
In yesterday’s Litmus Test article, I broke down a reportedly “excellent” Audi Coupe GT to see if the pricing had actually risen on the model lines. While a few years ago such a car would have likely been a $1,500 example, yesterday bidding ceased at $3,050. Now, that’s actually above the condition Hagerty lists a condition 4 car. So, $3,000 is our baseline for a model that’s reasonably clean but has quite a few needs and some question marks. What price would a much better example command?
At the beginning of this week I featured a pretty highly modified Black 930 Slantnose Coupe that possessed a great deal of menace that would separate it from just about everything else around. The car we see here, a Black 2004 Porsche 911 GT2, might be thought of as a factory version of that aggressive 930. Relative to a 930 Slantnose the styling of the GT2 is actually pretty subdued, but mechanically there are no such limitations as these packed a serious punch with every one of their 477 horses directed only to the rear wheels. For buyers who felt disparaged by Porsche’s use of all-wheel drive in the Turbo, the GT2 provided reassurance that the marque had not gone soft. Its performance bonafides were as secure as ever, even if the GT2 was no longer needed for homologation purposes.
A few weeks ago in my “Avant-off” article, I asked if the premium for the Titanium Package S-Line cars was justified. But comparing a B6 to a B7 can be tough, since there are a fair amount of differences in styling and performance. To equal the playing field more, today I have two nearly identical cars. In this case, it’s a normal A4 3.0 quattro Avant 6-speed against a very similar Ultrasport model. Just like the Titanium package, the Ultrasport package was mostly for looks; you got the Sport Package 1BE suspension, 18″ “Celebration” RS4-style wheels with summer high performance tires, perforated leather 3-spoke steering wheel and shift knob, aluminum interior trim and a quattro GmbH body kit. It was a $3,000 option on top of your already pricey A4 in 2004 and 2005, and came in 1.8T or 3.0 V6 configurations in either sedan or Avant. They’re relatively hard to find, so let’s look at the theoretical premium the package commands today:
With a winter storm heading into the Northeast this evening, I thought it would be nice to end the day with a bit of sunshine and thoughts of warmer temperatures. Enter this 1987 Porsche 944. In the rest of the world, the color of this car was “Lemon Yellow”. But, of course, launching a car in the United States with any hint of the word “Lemon” would result in sales about as good as the urban legend of the Chevrolet Nova (“Doesn’t Go”) in Mexico. So, Porsche called the color “Summer Yellow” here. It was reportedly available only in 1987, which is verified by at least one site. And, at least in my eyes, it looks lovely and is a nice departure from the usual black, red, and silver these sporty coupes appeared in:
I have pretty much made it my goal to feature every Slate Grey 964 that I come across. The one we see here, a Slate Grey Metallic 1991 Porsche 911 Turbo, even is a little more special since it’s not just a standard Carrera and at its current asking price it could be a very good value. Naturally, when value becomes such an important consideration then there are a lot of boxes to be checked to insure that the car is as it is represented to be. On the surface, there’s a lot of promise here as the exterior and interior look in good shape, there are a couple of nice options, and it comes with a good deal of recent documentation. It doesn’t sound like it’s fully documented from day 1, but it’s asking price isn’t really at the level of that sort of 964 anyway. As we’ve discussed with previous 964s, the market has really taking a liking to any 964 variant and the Turbo, whether 3.3 or 3.6 liter, stands to perform very well (pardon the pun).
