Today’s Dodge is a type of car once called a “captive import” due to its mix of domestic branding and offshore assembly. At its asking price, let’s see if this “all-original” edition captures our hearts. When Porsche introduced the front-engined, water-cooled 928 to the world in 1977, the company envisioned it as a replacement for and an elevation in sophistication over the older 911.
That didn’t happen, and like “New Coke,” the 928 ended up playing second fiddle to its predecessor. The we looked at last Friday showed that the 928 didn’t get the bum’s rush by Porsche traditionalists for lack of trying. Still iconic and beautiful in its own way, as well as a powerful, competent GT car in its own right, the 928 is finally getting its due.
Unfortunately for the seller of our particular car, that due did not add up to the $22,500 they were asking. This opinion was made clear in both comments and the 58 percent No Dice loss the Porsche suffered. Production of Porsche’s 928 spanned three decades, from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s.
During that time, the market for sports cars as a whole and the number of options in performance and price categories grew and changed. By the time the ’90s rolled around, Porsche didn’t just have its German and Italian rivals with whom to contend but a whole slew of new sports cars coming out of Japan that were matching the old guard on power while leaping lightyears ahead of them in performance technology and gee-whiz.
