I remember when this car came out. I was driving in a crappy Chevy from Boston north to Nashua, NH. I was in my early 20's and remember seeing this car for the first time. It was a yellow cabriolet with what appeared to be two beautiful 20 something women driving. I not sure what made the bigger impression. The car or the fact the two beautiful women waved at me. I remember what the car looked like though, however I couldn't tell you if the women were really as pretty as I thought.
Love these. Market value here in the states has gone up to the point that they’re no longer the bargain of say five years ago. I love the big size four cylinder engine and it’s character. Surprisingly torquey too. Oh well someday maybe lol
I own a '95 968 6-speed and I absolutely love it. I sold the '97 911T (probably should have kept THAT one), the 968CS (Euro spec), both 944's and the 924 after driving the 968. Aside from the 911's turbo-induced greatness, the 968 coupe does everything else better. People who don't know any better often ask me if it is the "new" Porsche. Funny. You should see their faces when I tell them it's 20 years old!!! My 968 has made many long road trips to Parade and Escape events all while delivering a quiet, comfortable ride + nearly 30 MPG with the A/C on. It's a blast on the track as well as on the street. I will never let this car go.
I owned a 968 cabriolet and eventually replaced it with a Honda S2000. I prefer the S2K, but the 2 cars have some similarities. The variable valve timing in the 968 is a lot like VTEC (though it kicks in at around 4000 RPMs). One difference is that the 968 requires a lot of expensive regular maintenance, such as replacing the timing belt every few years. Ultimately, my 968 suffered from so many mechanical problems, plus overheating, that I was glad to get rid of it.
I have a 968 and a guy with a Honda S2000 struck a conversation with me at a gas station one day. It was a great conversation on comparison between our cars. He was pretty surprised on how much more maintenance the 968 required compared to his S2000. I use my 968 a few days on a weekly basis these days. I work on its basic maintenance on my own. I keep at least $2k-3k for any maintenance that requires equipment or technical experience that I don’t have. Right now the 968 community is waiting on Porsche to solve an issue on parts availability for its timing belt tensioner.
As the owner of a 924 (the grandfather of this car and the first modern front-engine Porsche) I still want one of these so bad. It's near impossible to find one with a manual and if you do the prices are crazy and they've usually been beaten to death. Most are automatic convertibles. Yuppies.....
I had a 944 end of the eighties (metallic wine red) kept it til 92/93 when I moved up to a new 968 (metallic silver wi full grey leather) kept it til 2004 when I moved up to a 911 4S Cab. Tiptronic Slate grey wi beige leather, navy roof (also came wi hard top for winter which I stored in a spare bedroom - never used.) Sold 911 in 2009 when my 2 boys could not fit in back. If I could bring one back to the future and find one of these on my drive tomorrow, it would have to be the 968. Relatively comfy even long journeys (911 - Not), siting low and legs outstreched, not bent, reasonably economical....fast.....top speed....handling.....noise levels....all mod-cons (for then) a.c., p steering, electric windows, and a massive boot wi seats down and boot cover cloth removed. I once bought and took home 2 sun-loungers in 968, (Grosfilex) did not fold much either! Loved the pop out headlights (as opposed to the pop up on 944.)
I have a few nice 80s Porsches, but there's always a sweet spot, where the price goes up on certain years and models as it gets older and the price goes up the newer it is, I got a 97 Boxster midnight blue loaded for 5,800$,98k miles. it's a buyers market for everything right now. maybe 10 years ago you could find a perfect 944 for 5k but now they tripled. to see the car next to a new 40k car is what makes me love it so much...because if you lined up 100 new cars that are 40k each,most the people would go right to the 5,800 $ Boxster lol
I have a 944 Turbo, It is an absolute beast with a Lindsey dual port waste gate and a manual boost controller. Of course it needs to be chipped to use the extra boost but my god this thing is a blast to drive!! These cars are way under valued in todays market!!
Tell Rock Auto I bought all my ball joints and other parts from them because you do retro reviews. 2000 Town Car parts at rock auto are Legit 50% off of what you would pay at Advance or Oreillys. Look it up.. fast shipping as well. I can be a sales person for you Rock auto LOL.
Part of the sales problem for this car may have been the stigma of a 4 cylinder engine, despite how brilliant it was...”you paid how much? And its only got a 4- banger??” Perhaps If Porsche would have developed a inline 6 or V6, it would have sold more. I think a 90 degree V6, ( like the 928’s 90 degree V8) being a low profile engine, could possibly have worked nicely in that engine bay.
probably, but Porsche was with serious money problems and that's why I developed an evolution of the 944, one of the most successful there was, afterwards, thanks to the Boxster, it could get out of the red numbers, and now we see the successful company that it is.
Anthony Alvear : yes You are probably right, it was cheaper to use 1/2 the 928 powerplant than to develope a new V6, unless they would have used a Porschified version of the VW V6...but I know, that would have been another heresy they barely got away with on the 924...and yes it warms my heart to see Porsche thriving as they are today. Stats show they make more profit per vehicle that any other mfg. They deserve it.
I had two of these, a red tiptronic, and a stunning polar silver six speed....... Which I really, really regret selling now (this was about 12 years ago). I've also had 944 turbos and although the rush is different, the 968 is just a better car with more usable power. It's amazing to think a non-turbo 4 cylinder back in the early 90s could run a low 14 second 1/4 mile. Not fast by today's standards but 30 years ago that wasn't bad at all. But the one thing that really stands out is the absolute billet like structure of these cars. I think even today the way the doors close is the standard to which every car should be. It's like they chiseled out one solid piece of rock, and motorized it! Awesome cars
Add to the comparison with the Vette: The Chevy has a shit interior and fit and finish all around, and no rear seats for the kid(s). I get the desire to compare a Vette with a 911, and it is exhausting, but with a 4 cylinder coupe?
@@crujones5319 ….we were responding to kind of an inside joke about John Davis….he always complains if a car doesn’t have an oil pressure gua*encore a voltmeter….
Porsche really does make some really nice vehicles. This is also a very good looking car inside and out. It's just their price that makes them hard to reach, new anyway.
Chris, I sure hope you are right. As Cayman's popularity continues to increase, and as Porsche continues to focus more effort on the Cayman platform, it seems like the venerable 911 has indeed been perfected to the point that it is too costly for Porsche to throw truckloads of money at a car that will not provide a sound return on the corporate investment. That said, it looks like the air-cooled 911's are in the throws of supreme valuation these days. It would appear as though the 924, 944, and 968 should be ready to stand with 928 as the new "gotta' have it" Porsche classic, within the next several years. Regardless, I am keeping my 968 whether its value increases or not. Cheers!
I've never seen one of these in the wild I've seen a bunch of 944s driving around even more 928 parking people's garage is not running due to fuel injection issues but I've never seen a 968
I remember in 1991, The 300zx was selling like Nintendo keeping 944 sales low, so Porsche Evolution the 944 to 968, once the Supra & RX7 came in the seen in 1993, it was over for the front engine Porsche.
Like I said, The Z32 was selling like Nintendo, over 39,000 Z32's sold in 1990 (1 year) in the US Alone. 1992 to 95 Porsche only sold 4,300 are so 968's US in only 3 years, 2,100 of those were soft-tops. The Turbo 944 has big following & worth more in resale than any 968 period.
944 Turnos are not worth more than 968's. Sorry to disappoint. In fact, 968's are worth more money than the car that replaced it as well (early boxsters)
@@SANYUR That's all over the place. RX7 was on the streets at the same as the 968, which the latter was already designed in 1989. 1991 944 sales had nothing to do with it.
@5:10 how come when American cars have carry over interiors from prior years its ‘dated’ but when a foreign car does it its ‘dont fix whats not broke’. The gauges look like that from a Ford Taurus/Tbird and Mustang. Not hating just observing.
FYI: before you buy one of these vintage Porsche be sure to go to a Porsche Owners Forum to discover the problems and costs of indulging your desire for sports cars on a budget.
It was based off the Porsche 928 V8 engine, using one bank, presumably to cut costs and give the image of fuel economy (less cylinders = more economy in the public mind). It's also the largest mass produced four cylinder in a modern car, AFAIK.
Beauty lid Ben!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok so that comment went over some peoples head....try again guys....not sure why people on the comments for these videos constantly throw around "your not a driver" ect like little kids...strange to me...whatever you say guy who didn't get the comment he replied to!
in case anyone else doesn't get the comment, I was making fun of how they compared it to the corvette and said the vette was better in every way as sort of a side comment....which I found was strange considering it was a review of the Porsche only. Felt like GM paid them to do that.
+bob loblaw The 968 is considered one of the best Porsches out there by Porsche engineers! It's the final perfect stage in an two-decades long evolution. It was engineered in a time that marketing and sales people had no say in Porsche developements, just engineers. It's build quality and durability are unmatched, even among many other Porsches!
anajay78 yessr it's a bad boy I have the 16v dohc 3.0 in my 944s and it's my favorite four cylinder, and the best four cylinder ever created period in my opinion. Early version like mine is 215 hp and the later version in the 968 has 235 hp I don't think there is a more powerful normal aspirated production four cylinder made even to this day. Any other four cylinder hittin those numbers is supercharged or turbo charged. I would love to turbo my 3.0 lol it would easily be over 300 hp
The normal aspirated 2.0 liter engine in the Honda S2000 made 240 hp, but was lacking torque compared to the heavier Porsche 968. The Porsche is a better car in my opinion, but Honda still had the hp/liter game won.
Back in the time, we could buy an honest to goodness track car with a MANUAL :) That "new" Toyota Supra, Chevy C8, Mustang Shelby 500... I'm not buying it!
I was surprised when I learned about this car a few years ago... seems like a good Porsche but $40k in 1992? That's real money even now (2020), and well, it's not a 911.
