Alright, NOW How Much Would You Pay?

Someday, in that distant future, when I finally get around to publishing my book, there is a strong chance I’m going to open it with a list of all the ways in which I have abused my 1995 Porsche 911 Carrera. Not in the modern douchebag-showoff sense of driving a Huracan in the snow or driving an Aventador in the snow or driving any other Lamborghini in the snow for a YouTube video only to have the thing fastidiously concours-detailed the minute the GoPros stop rolling. More like in the sense of just using it as a regular car for 60,000 or so miles. Driving it in the rain, the hail, the 100-degree Midwestern summer heat. Leaving it outside random girls’ houses in every kind of neighborhood imaginable, overnight. Using it to carry tires and oil drain pans and children. I’ve watched my son ride his bicycle directly into the thing and shrugged it off. I’ve dropped the clutch at 5,000 rpm, hundreds of times.

My 993 has been a part of my life for more than a decade and a half now. It doesn’t get around much anymore, but that’s more because I’ve been out of town more than I’ve been home this year. Meanwhile, the most amazing transformation has occurred in the car. When I got it, my 993 was a “new-ish Porsche.” Five years later, it was a “used Porsche,” something that a top-ranking Porsche PR person was quite scathing about on Facebook when he referred to me as “a used-Porsche buyer who doesn’t affect anything we do.” Five years after that, it was a “classic Porsche.” And now it’s a “liquid asset.” I could sell it tomorrow and buy a new Corvette Grand Sport. I probably should do that.

But if my car is oh-so-valuable even after it’s been misused for a thousand dumpster runs and autocross entries and late-night make-out sessions, what would a car that hasn’t been through all that be worth? Put aside the “Nice Price Or Crack Pipe” thing. I’m talking about a main dealer here, one with an admirable record of pricing and valuing cars. Care to guess?

The hierarchy of 993 values goes like this, from cheapest to most expensive:

• Any Tiptronic car. These are selling at a $15,000-20,000 discount now. It’s now absolutely a sound financial move to do your own G50/6 conversions.
• Carrera 4 Cabriolet.
• Carrera 2 Cabriolet.
• Carrera 4.
• Carrera 4S.
• Carrera 2. You’ll occasionally find somebody who says the 4S is worth more than the C2. Those people are idiots, C4S sellers, or (usually) both.
• Targa. They were sales poison when they were new. Now? A good one will leave you no change from a $75,000 bill.
• Carrera 2S. This one puzzles me. These cars are wide-ass understeer machines with pedestrian running gear. But they’ve always fetched good money.
• Turbo.
• Turbo S.

There are rarer 993s out there in the Euro market, but they are sufficiently rare as to each have a negotiated value based on provenance and Special-Wish specs.

A few years ago, I spoke with the owner of an exotic-car dealership in Cleveland who had two 993 Turbo S units in stock. Both with under 1,000 miles. At the time, he wanted $249,999 for one or $399,999 for both. I thought he was crazy. Turns out he was just looking into the future.

Champion Porsche has a 993 Turbo S in decent shape, with 25,000 miles. Before you click the link, take a guess at what they’re asking.

Okay, go click.

What did I tell you?

$499,900. It’s a well-equipped car, but it’s in no way unique or unusual for a Turbo S. I’ll be watching this one to see if it sells.

Should you, the TTAC Millionaire Next Door, pull the trigger? Hell no. You’d have to be an idiot to buy that car. For $250,000, literally half the money, you could buy:

• A brand-new Viper ACR 1 of 1, which will also be valuable in the long run but in the short run is as much faster than this 993 Turbo around a track as the aforementioned Turbo is faster than a Toyota Camry V6;
• A 993 Carrera 2 for the aircooled lulz;
• A Kawasaki H2 motorcycle. which is faster in a straight line than EVERYTHING;
• A beat-up Cessna 152, which can actually fly.

That’s my opinion as a driver and Porsche owner. From an investment perspective? I really couldn’t say. It seems unlikely that this will ever be a million-dollar car. But if you’d asked me ten years ago, I would have told you that this Turbo S would never even make it to $100,000. And I’d have traded you my 993 even-up for a used C6 Z06. So what do I know?