As much as the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring was theoretically produced in an attempt to curb the insane mark-up prices on the 911 R, it seems like they didn’t produce enough. Based on the recent prices, a lot more people want GT3 Tourings than are out there. As for the 911 R? Good luck even finding one. If they do turn up, bring a barrel of money. Several barrels of money. This example up for sale in Houston with 158 miles? Do I need to even so more?
Say what you want about the Porsche Cayenne, but without its emergence in the early-2000s, there would be no special Porsche cars that we all enjoy. The easy-to-produce SUVs that platform share with the other VWAG SUVs was not only easy to scale, but saved a ton of labor costs as the majority of it was built at the Volkswagen Bratislava Plant in the Slovak Republic, rather than in Germany that is just used for final assembly. Because of this, Porsche now had the cash to dump into RS cars, Speedsters, and other fun things that Porsche really weren’t forced to build. Just to put it into perspective, Porsche sells as many Cayennes as they do 911s, 718s, Taycans, and Panameras combined. The Macan? Same numbers. So the next time you see a 2006 Cayenne Turbo chugging around with a blown out suspension and blue smoke pouring our the tailpipes, give it a little thanks for funding the 997 GT3 RS 4.0s that exist because of it.
A few years before TDI-gate broke, Volkswagen did something that seemed to me to be quite strange. The MQB-based Jetta had launched in 2011 and carried over the then-popular turbodiesel. With a boatload of torque, the TDI was reasonably sporty to drive, returned around 40 mpg on the highway, would clip to 60 in about 8 seconds, and had a base price of about $24,000 in 2013. But the same year, Volkswagen introduced a new hybrid version of the Jetta. This had a turbocharged and intercooled 1.4-liter inline-four mated with an electric motor and a 1.1-kWh battery for a combined output of 170 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque. While the TDI could be had in six-speed manual form, the hybrid only came in DSG 7-speed guise, and it was rated* at 48 mpg on the highway, would do 0-60 in 7.9 seconds, and had a base price $2k higher than the TDI.
So at first glance, the hybrid seemed to offer a reasonable return on investment; for only a small up front price, you got 20% better mileage right? Not so fast. In the real world, the TDI would return better mileage than the numbers suggested, while the hybrid returned worse….a lot worse. Real world testing suggested that on the highway, the more slippery Jetta only got about 38 mpg. Considering the technology thrown at it, that was pretty horrible. After all, my twin-turbocharged inline-six 135i, which was not designed with fuel economy in mind at all, will return over 30 mpg on the highway at 70 plus mph. On top of that, the hybrid didn’t sound as sexy as the TDI did (strangely) to a lot of people, and, in hindsight and considering the buy-back credits, the TDI was a much better purchase. How about today?
If I could find whoever spec’d this car out, I would give them a firm, but polite, handshake to thank them for bringing this car into the world for all of us to enjoy. This 2016 Porsche 911 GT3 RS up for sale in Northwest Germany is finished in none other than paint-to-sample Irish Green, and boy does it look amazing. Even better, the madmen at Manthey Racing put a few little special touches on this.
Where have you gone, 911 R? In terms of value, of course. The most heavily speculated Porsche 911 in a long time had a wild ride of instant value rise up to $600,000 and sometimes $700,000, only for it to crash and burn after Porsche announced a GT3 Touring with a 6-speed manual. Suddenly, we were seeing sale prices on 500-mile cars for only $35,000 over sticker, not $350,000. Still, there are few enough 911 R examples out there that dealers can collude to keep prices high, until a private owner needs money and decides making $50,000 for doing nothing is good enough. Today’s example, a car with 2,000 miles up for sale in Florida, still has a giant asking price.
One of the most anticipated Porsches in awhile, the 718 Cayman GT4, is finally starting hit dealer lots. Also it seems like owners already want to get rid of them. Naturally, that leaves us all wondering what will happen to the prices of the 981 GT4s. Some say prices will drop as current GT4 owners dump them for the new one, while others think prices will hold steady given their low production and specialness of them. Personally, I think it will be a combination of the two, with prices softening a tad, but not necessarily the huge drop that potential buyers are looking for. As of today, 981 GT4s seem to be as steady as ever. Yes, the higher mileage ones with modifications and track time have taken a little bit of a hit. But the totally stock ones with low miles are holding very strong. Case in point, this example in Sapphire Blue up for sale in Florida.
The 2016 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS might go down as one of those “special” cars. Well, I guess it already is, but it is more of an end of an era. The 2016 model year was the last of the 991.1 cars before switching to the twin-turbocharge 3.0-liter with the facelift. That means this is the last of the naturally-aspirated 3.8-liter which admittedly has been around for a long time, but for good reason. You pair that with the almost-a-GT car GTS, and you have something special. Go even further and option with with the 7-speed manual and paint-to-sample in Mexico Blue? I’d say this one is “special”.
Oh, Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG, what have you done this time? When this 2016 first caught my eye, I thought it was a gaudy vinyl wrap installed by some shop that took up residence in some old garage six months ago. However, this isn’t a vinyl wrap, this is paint straight from Mercedes-Benz. The color is called designo Desert Sand, and I give them credit, this looks like desert sand. To go even further, it has a matching desert sand interior, and they didn’t go lightly on that either. As wild as it is, the previous generation is now old news with the new G terrorizing curbs at the local mall in the nice end of town. So what happens to the values of this crazy AMG G-Wagens? Well for this specific example, it might be a little different.
Hard to believe though it may be, 2020 rings in the reign of what will certainly be the new benchmark for small hatchbacks – the Golf Mk.8. The Mk.7 redefined the driving dynamics and performance of the category with what is generally hailed as the best VW chassis to date – the MQB platform. So it’s time to start looking at these models as potential values while we wait for the next GTI to bow.
The Mk.7 introduced a new strata of GTI trim levels. The base was a S, which gave you the Tartan interior, the turbocharged 2.0TFSI motor cranking out 210 horsepower, LED foglights, Bluetooth and a 5.8″ touchscreen, 18″ alloy wheels and a review camera. In other words, it wasn’t exactly a stripped model, and as such it’d cost you over $26,000 to get into one. Moving to the SE got you leather and a sunroof, along with automatic headlights, premium Fender radio and rain-sensing wipers. The top-tier Autobahn package further added navigation, power seats, and dual-climate control – by which point you were knocking on the R’s base price if you had fully optioned out your GTI.
So the one to get was the S if you could live without a sunroof, since it gave you the best look and the most bang for a buck. But there was a secret – the Performance Package, which gave you a further 10 horsepower and a limited-slip differential in front, along with upgraded brakes. Click one more option – the Lighting Package – and you got adaptive HIDs. This Pure White over Titan Black/Clark Plaid cloth 2016 had just that set of options, and just 5,500 miles since new:
Hell hath no fury like depreciation on a Maybach. A few years ago I looked at a Maybach 57s that, in terms of pure insanity to buy and maintain, was probably at the top of the list. Not only was the technology already badly dated, but it has some truly eye-wateringly expensive parts on it like a watercooled alternator that can only be bought used for $8,000. Today, I have another Maybach that is probably in the same boat as the car from over three years ago. This 2016 S600 has everything you could want out of an ultra-luxury car including two little pillows for you nap on or have the world’s most posh pillow fight with your backseat companion. The reason I am looking at this example specifically is because despite it being a 2016, it has almost 118,000 miles on. You know what that means in terms of price.
