Porsche’s Price Tag Is Just the Start

Thanks for the Porsche review (“The $54,000 Question,” June 12). The exotics are always the most interesting. I owned a 1988 Porsche 944 before the combination of high insurance and maintenance flattened me like pea gravel.

Automotive writer Paul Dean didn’t mention one of the other reasons Porsche sales have gone down so badly: Insurers hate insuring Porsches and Corvettes.

Carriers are afraid to insure these cars, even though a $40,000 Porsche has the same value as a $40,000 Mercedes-Benz. Optimum insurance for a 45-year-old married male with family on a 1991 Corvette is about $360 a month, but on a Mercedes-Benz of the same value ($40,000), it is “only” $190 a month. If the Mercedes is wrecked or stolen, it costs as much to repair or replace as the Corvette.

My 1988 Porsche 944 cost $21,000, the same as a Honda station wagon. Yet insurance was more then two times higher then the Honda. How can this be? No carrier was ever able to explain that to me.

I had two carriers insure me and then months later cancel me simply because after periodic reviews of policies, they elected they didn’t want the Porsche.

R. WADE BYARS II

San Bernardino