Re: 1989 Price Lists

[Christopher I Ralph]

The following has recently been posted by Richard Hamilton on the 911 3.2 Carrera Forum but will be of interest to owners of 1989 944s:
http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=757781

 

[944 man]

Sixty-odd views and not post saying thank you! Very interesting, thanks.

 

[T3rra]

Great thanks. 944 turbo is half the price off 911 turbo. And 16" wheels have ultra low profile tires 50. Sirguset green top tint windscreen is a turbo feature

 

[loc944]

Thanks to Richard for posting this and Christopher for linking it. I have been wanting this info for my '89 2.7lux since I bought it over ( years ago. Off to calculate how much it was including option. Alan.

 

[J4CKO]

Wow, cheers, mine is a 91 S2 cab, always reckoned they were about 30 grand new, must have been nearer 40, christ, allowing for inflation that would be almost 80 grand now, more expensive than a Boxster is and creeping into lower end 911 prices, the original owner must have been minted. We got a new Golf GTI the same year, MK2 8 valve (I won it) and that was £10,435 on the road, so a 944 was three times the price even for the cheaper coupe, the cab was five grand dearer, madness !

 

[944 man]

I remember that the Boxster was over £10,000 cheaper than the 968 that it replaced - which is why Porsche struggled to sell only 12,000 of them!

 

[GlennS]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting.

 

[MartinRS2K]

Here is the price list for the 944's in May 1990 with Options and the costs of the options []

 

[colin944]

That's amazing!!!!! my car with the spec it was would have cost £37,909.47 when new. That's a whole load of cash..I wonder how much that relates to today?

 

[GlennS]

ORIGINAL: colin944 That's amazing!!!!! my car with the spec it was would have cost £37,909.47 when new. That's a whole load of cash..I wonder how much that relates to today?

I totalled my S2 (with options) to £39,321 which one online inflation calculator puts at £77,069 in 2013 terms. That would make your £37,909 @£74,300.

 

[Mike_Pollock]

Mine was about £31K

 

[Ewan]

My turbo adds up to £46,332 with extras shown on the Certificate of Authenticity. Using Glenn's formula, this comes to £90,810 at todays money. And I have to say I don't think they'd sell many if they relaunched it that price now!

 

[944 man]

Remember to add a sunroof to those prices. A compulsary option rip-off from PCGB.

 

[MartinRS2K]

Mine presuming there was no discount was £46,661.46 [:-] But I was told that Porsche were reducing the price of 944's in late 1990 and early 1991 to clear them out before the 968 was launched. I have a brochure from Evans Halshaw in 1991 advertising discounts which I will upload tomorrow.

 

[WBray]

This is pretty awesome! Does anyone know the cost's of having proper rear seat belts as opposed to lap straps and a de-cat? As they are listed as options on my cert of authenticity but they don't show up in either of the standard or option sheets there.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

My turbo adds up to £46,332 with extras shown on the Certificate of Authenticity. Using Glenn's formula, this comes to £90,810 at todays money. And I have to say I don't think they'd sell many if they relaunched it that price now!

Not a fair comparison, as cars have changed so much in what you get for your money over twenty years, and what they cost as a proportion of household income has changed so much. There was a really interesting cost analysis recently (if that's not an oxymoron [&:]), where they compared fuel costs from an old Cortina, through the Sierra, Mondeo-Man of the nineties, and up to date with the current Mondeo. Fuel costs are actually lower by far than they were with a '70's Cortina, just that we only see the headline price, and the Daily Mail's scare-mongering, and not the real amount an average person spends as a proportion of an average income. Cars were just so much more expensive back then, and options were more "essentials", so premium cars tended to be bumped up massively. Remember, that was an era when even a radio was an option, let alone air-con, ALB, PAS, sunroof, electric seats, headlamp washers etc. I remember my Father spending a fortune on a coin holder in either one of his 944s or a BM of the time, but it was a valuable option as parking meters needed coins, and (younger forum users turn away now, lol) you needed coins for phone boxes. I think you'd be more accurate to treat late '80s 944 list prices as nearly the same now. If Porsche were to release a front-engined RWD coupe, slotting in well below the 911 of today, and assuming the Boxster/Cayman didn't exist? I guess it would have to be c. £40K, rising to £50K-plus for the Turbo version? It'd probably be less, in reality, and built to a smaller, lighter spec. The recently cancelled VW/Porsche roadster was a pretty simlar prospect to the original 924, the concept now being built by Toyota and Subaru, of course. Bearig in mind the recessions of the mid '80s and early '90s, it's incredible they sold any late 944s or 968s. We might be feeling the pinch now, but in 1987 I had my first mortgage, at nearly 4 times our joint income. In 1988 it went from 7% to 15%, with one of us unemployed. Work that out, if you have recently bought your first house and have a fixed-rate 3.25% deal! []

 

[Ewan]

But that said, Paul, the 944 turbo was more expensive than the standard 911 of the day. Given that a sensible spec standard 991 is now about £80k, the figure given by Glenn's formula is not so far off. The 944 of the current range is surely the Cayman. So a 944 lux (Cayman) would be about £40k, a 944 S2 (Cayman S) would be about £50k, and a 944 turbo (if they made a Cayman turbo that was more expensive and faster than a standard 991) would have to be at least £70k, and probably more.

 

[timmyturtle]

I would love to see the 91 price list. The 944 wasnt really a "poor mans Porsche" at all

 

[944Turbo]

I have a magazine article somewhere on the 944 turbo circa 1990 that concludes that while the 944T is an excellent all rounder you could have a new lotus esprit turbo and a new golf gti for the same money. Tony

 

[944 man]

I was reading the 944 Turbo S/SE vs Ferrari 328GTS Performance Car article earlier (by chance) and the Lotus Espirit was £12,000 cheaper and the 328 was only a shade dearer.