Did The Sportmatic Kill This Sale?

Offered for only one model year, 1968, Porsche’s 911L was an attempt at finding the middle ground in the 911 range after introducing the entry-level 911T. 1968 was also the last year for the SWB body and the first year for the Sportmatic transmission, which this 1968 911L that failed to sell yesterday at $60,000 was equipped with. So was it the Sportmatic that kept bidders away?

While the market tends to frown on automatic Porsches when a manual transmission was an option, the innovative Sportmatic transmission doesn’t drop prices. In fact, the two highest prices paid for a 1968 911L in the past two years both belong to cars equipped with Sportmatics. $96,500 for a freshly restored coupe and $112,000 for a Targa.

When it comes to SWB pricing, the condition is the driver, not the transmission. Our Spotlight car was somewhere between a #4 driver and a #3 “better” driver. It was far from a concourse car and might not come home with a trophy from a local show either, but a car that could be enjoyed thoroughly on back roads without too much headache.

That being said, $60,000 was a fair price for the car which leaves us wondering how far away from the reserve we actually were. Maybe there is a deal to be had in PCAR’s Deal Tank a hair over $60k. If so, well done to both seller and buyer.

The post Did The Sportmatic Kill This Sale? appeared first on The Stuttgart Market Letter.