Reviewing previous owner documents in the course of organizing everything and setting up a new record-keeping system, I notice that the Blue Curse (today’s appellation) originally cost its first owner $27,175 in July 1985. Okay, that’s rather interesting.
So, I visited the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ site — where the Consumer Price Index is tracked — to calculate the effect of inflation. So, as it turns out, if that 944 could be purchased in today’s dollars, it would cost right at $59,000. Interestingly, the current Porsche that arguably would be the closest equivalent (no, I should say counterpart) to the 944 base NA would have to be the base Cayman, which starts at $52,600, according to porsche.com.
My curiosity extended to my 1966 911, which was purchased new for $7,840. That guy would cost about $56,500 today according to the BLS/CPI. However, its counterpart today, the base 911 Carrera, starts at $84,300, as shown by porsche.com. So, looking at that one with a little backwards interpolation, I can see that today’s 911 outlay should have been able to buy something worth $11,700 in 1966! Well, that’s not quite enough to have purchased a new 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB ($14,000+), but you could probably have bought yourself three ’66 Corvettes, or four ’66 Mustangs.
We do know that today’s Porsches are not at all the same cars as these earlier ones. But I know what I would be buying today if I wanted a new one!
(And, in case you’re wondering, the current base Boxster starts at $50,400.)