The answer to the question is no. I have been a 968 fan since they came out but I never bought one new. I purchased my 944 Turbo in 1993 and immediately fell in love with the 968s on the showroom floor but I would have to wait until 1996 before I actually took ownership of one. That said, I ALMOST bought one new.

As most know, although the 968s are great cars they were a sales disaster for Porsche. To be fair, they were born at the wrong time, with a recession going on and they were very expensive due to the hand-built production processes that Porsche was using at the time. By the time their short four-year production run had finished, roughly 12,000 were produced for the entire global market. The all-new Boxster arrived a couple of years later with a base price less than the 968 and went on to be a huge success.

Back in the early nineties I was visiting the local dealerships and checking out the new 968. It was fantastic and I wanted one badly but I had a mortgage and two small children at the time and no matter how I did the math I couldn’t make it work. And then, to make matters worse, they went on sale.

It was late in 1995 and one of our favorite local dealers, Porsche of Wallingford, received 6 brand new “leftover” 968 coupes: 3 red, 1 white, 1 oak green, and 1 Wimbledon green, and put them all on sale, $10,000 off sticker. The GM at the time, Ken Cooper, had some type of arrangement made with PCNA. The cars were fairly light-optioned with limited slip and partial leather and MSRPs in the low $40ks. As soon as I found out about the sale I made a beeline to the dealership to check them out. Of course, I had my eye on the Wimbledon coupe. What a color. But I still couldn’t make the numbers work based on my “current responsibilities”. All I could do was look and drool. Of course, the Wimbledon coupe was the first one to sell. Slowly but surely the dealer sold each car over the next few months until only one car remained, the oak green coupe, and then the dealer took another $2000 off the MSRP! Ouch.

Back to the dealer I went. The car had a cashmere interior. I took it for a test drive and hoped my 944 Turbo had suddenly gone up in value, but again, the same conclusion was found. I just couldn’t make it work. I sadly walked away. I would not be an original 968 owner after all but in the end, it was the SMART decision. Sure enough, the relatively new 968s depreciated very quickly and I found myself in a 25k mile 968 just a year later at another $10k off the price of the new car, and it was a cabriolet! And so the journey of used-968 ownership began for me.

It would have been cool to be an original 968 owner and I came close. I run the PCA 968 register and we only have 2 or 3 original 968 owners as members so they are rare in 2022. And the other question I have to ask myself is would I have been strong enough to hold on to my oak green 968 coupe, that I bought new, when presented with the opportunity to purchase that mint green 968 cabriolet? Hmm…