Would You Pay More Than $1 million For This 100,000-mile Porsche?

BY: NIK BERG
PHOTOS: RM SOTHEBY’S, BEN HODARA

Collier AutoMedia proudly brings you Market Insights Powered by Hagerty Insider each month.

The question of how mileage can affect the value of a car is almost as old as the motor car itself. Now we get to watch the answer play out – in quite spectacular fashion.

RM Sotheby’s is selling a 1988 Porsche 959 Komfort for 995,000 Swiss Francs, about $1.07 million at the time of writing, and it is rare for having clocked up 100,000 miles, an average of more than 4,100 miles a year during its lifetime.

Unusual, but we’re not surprised this owner put the 959 through such paces. One of only 292 examples made in ‘luxury’ Komfort spec, Porsche designed this rally-bred supercar for driving at serious speed over any surface thanks to its sophisticated Porsche-Steur-Kupplung four-wheel drive system. This cutting-edge (for the time) drivetrain even came with a low range gear for the toughest terrain, a quirk of not having a six-speed manual transmission homologated for production. With variable center and rear differentials, the driver could also adjust the four-wheel drive system for road conditions, selecting between ‘traction,’ ‘ice and snow,’ ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ settings.

The double wishbone, coil-sprung suspension is also electronically adjustable for height and damping. Power came from a turbocharged 2.8-liter flat-six with 444 hp, power that stretched the top speed to a mighty 197mph in Komfort tune, as opposed to 201mph for the rarified 510-hp Sport derivatives.

RM Sotheby’s / Ben Hodara

The owners of this car have certainly enjoyed its performance. The 959 spent its first 20 years in Germany where it was regularly maintained, before having an exotic break in New Zealand for several years. It was acquired by the current owner in 2016 who shipped it to Switzerland a year later. Since then it has undergone further work to the tune of just over $180,000. With 103,845 miles on the clock, it sold for RM Sotheby’s stratospheric seven-figure asking price.

According to the Hagerty Price Guide, prospective bidders would have to pay $1.4 million for a #1 Concours condition Porsche 959 Komfort, so for slightly more than $1 million, this well-driven example sits in the value range of a #2 Excellent condition example. Hopefully its new owner will continue to add on the miles, just as Porsche intended.