In Which Your Author Is Set Straight By The Porsche Club Of America

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

Earlier today, I published an article regarding the newest Porsche Club of America auction. Shortly after it went up, I received an email from Vu Nguyen, PCA’s Executive Director. In this email, Mr. Nguyen managed to refrain from calling me an idiot or implying that I could not read contest rules. But this is what he did say:

Just wanted to clarify (and hopefully make your prize decision easier) that the winner of the Grand Prize uses the vehicle spec listed as a starting point. Winner’s [sic] can change, within factory available options, the spec of their car. Unlike most raffles, PCA specs a fairly loaded vehicle so that the winner doesn’t get stuck with a base model. If you choose to spec a lesser cost car, then PCA actually gives you the difference. If you spec a more expensive car, you just pay for the difference in cost.

He then went on to say that PCA would be happy to provide me with the white manual Cayman S described in my article. But wait a minute. If I can run this cash register all the way to $99,000…

Visit my dream Cayman S on the Porsche website. Featuring:

  • Paint to sample 1973 Lime Green, as with my old Audi S5
  • Natural leather interior in Espresso, with full Carbon Fiber trim
  • Premium Package Plus, LED headlights, 18-way seats
  • High-gloss aluminum exterior trim for that vintage look
  • Sport Suspension and Torque Vectoring
  • Fire extinguisher
  • Burmester sound

Now that is a frog I could live with. I’d just have to also live with not being able to keep up with Mrs. Baruth on a racetrack… but you’d be surprised what a low-power mid-engined car on Hoosiers can do. So what if it sounds like a WRX, right?

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • Varezhka I have still yet to see a Malibu on the road that didn't have a rental sticker. So yeah, GM probably lost money on every one they sold but kept it to boost their CAFE numbers.I'm personally happy that I no longer have to dread being "upgraded" to a Maxima or a Malibu anymore. And thankfully Altima is also on its way out.
  • Tassos Under incompetent, affirmative action hire Mary Barra, GM has been shooting itself in the foot on a daily basis.Whether the Malibu cancellation has been one of these shootings is NOT obvious at all.GM should be run as a PROFITABLE BUSINESS and NOT as an outfit that satisfies everybody and his mother in law's pet preferences.IF the Malibu was UNPROFITABLE, it SHOULD be canceled.More generally, if its SEGMENT is Unprofitable, and HALF the makers cancel their midsize sedans, not only will it lead to the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST ones, but the survivors will obviously be more profitable if the LOSERS were kept being produced and the SMALL PIE of midsize sedans would yield slim pickings for every participant.SO NO, I APPROVE of the demise of the unprofitable Malibu, and hope Nissan does the same to the Altima, Hyundai with the SOnata, Mazda with the Mazda 6, and as many others as it takes to make the REMAINING players, like the Excellent, sporty Accord and the Bulletproof Reliable, cheap to maintain CAMRY, more profitable and affordable.
  • GregLocock Car companies can only really sell cars that people who are new car buyers will pay a profitable price for. As it turns out fewer and fewer new car buyers want sedans. Large sedans can be nice to drive, certainly, but the number of new car buyers (the only ones that matter in this discussion) are prepared to sacrifice steering and handling for more obvious things like passenger and cargo space, or even some attempt at off roading. We know US new car buyers don't really care about handling because they fell for FWD in large cars.
  • Slavuta Why is everybody sweating? Like sedans? - go buy one. Better - 2. Let CRV/RAV rust on the dealer lot. I have 3 sedans on the driveway. My neighbor - 2. Neighbors on each of our other side - 8 SUVs.
  • Theflyersfan With sedans, especially, I wonder how many of those sales are to rental fleets. With the exception of the Civic and Accord, there are still rows of sedans mixed in with the RAV4s at every airport rental lot. I doubt the breakdown in sales is publicly published, so who knows... GM isn't out of the sedan business - Cadillac exists and I can't believe I'm typing this but they are actually decent - and I think they are making a huge mistake, especially if there's an extended oil price hike (cough...Iran...cough) and people want smaller and hybrids. But if one is only tied to the quarterly shareholder reports and not trends and the big picture, bad decisions like this get made.
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