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.
A look back at the top 10 posts on our blog from the past year. What German enthusiast autos are you looking for in 2023?…
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Hey, talk about German cars that we never feature? The Smart is up there! From its phone-booth-on-wheels styling to the 1.0-liter 3-pot developed by Mitsubishi and linked to a 5-speed semi-automated gearbox (both introduced for the second generation); well, it’s an unusual car. Making things even more odd, German tuner Brabus threw their hat into the ring and turned up the power for the second generation – slightly – to just over 100 on the turbocharged variant. However, we didn’t get that here. So what did we get from the Brabus version? They also gave it some pretty cool double-staggered wheels, a sport suspension, a sport exhaust system, retuned shifting for the Getrag semi-automatic, and lightly revised styling. They were only available in silver or black, and they were not cheap. Out the door, the drop-top version would set you back over $21,000 plus fees. So what does one of these crazy A451s set you back today?
