Why Do Two Porsche Bucket Seats Cost More Than An Entire Boxster And An Entire Cayenne Combined?

It’s been years since the air-cooled Porsche 911 market reached escape velocity from the means of average folks, but that doesn’t mean the Porsche market is done cranking yet. From inflated GT3 values to unloved 968s becoming collectable, the Porsche appreciation train just won’t stop. For instance, you could pay nearly $20,000 for a pair of seats. Yes, a pair of seats. What the hell is going on here?

There are two varieties of thrones that make up the upper echelon of modern Porsche seats — the carbon-backed buckets available in the 997-generation 911, and the carbon buckets available in the 991 generation 911. Both were available on high-performance models including GT3s, and both now command insane asking prices on the second-hand market.

Take these 991 GT3 bucket seats, for example. On Tuesday, they sold on Bring A Trailer for $17,420. That’s not a typo. That’s a five-figure price tag for a pair of seats, and the orange striping in the upholstery means that they’re likely best suited to people with orange cars, or greyscale cars with orange graphics. That shrinks the target audience, doesn’t it?

Taking things back to August, this pair of 997 sport bucket seats sold on Bring A Trailer for $20,000. Yes, a pair of seats that costs more than a Nissan Versa or a Mitsubishi Mirage. Wilder still, the photos of the seats aren’t that great, and the leather upholstery has started to get a big baggy, particularly on the driver’s seat.

Here’s another example, a pair of 997 sport bucket seats that sold on Bring A Trailer in July for $21,500. Sure, they might differentiate themselves from the majority of carbon fiber seats by including side airbags, but we’re in new car territory for a price of used seats. It really makes you wonder, is there some sort of general underground seat mania that we don’t know about, where these Porsche seats are actually low down on the ladder?

Nope, it’s really just these Porsche seats that’ve gone simply freaking mental. For context, a set of Euro-spec Ferrari F40 carbon-kevlar bucket seats recently sold on Bring A Trailer for $9,400. Not even five figures for seats from an iconic and exclusive seven-figure car.

Fuck it, let’s go one step further. Here’s a manual 1999 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet that sold on Bring A Trailer last month for $14,497. That’s an entire 911 for less than the cost of a pair of these seats. You can’t drive a pair of seats to work, or take them around a track, but you can do all that and more in an entire Porsche 911.

In fact, the 996-generation 911 held its side impact airbags in the doors, so you can really just run whatever seats you like without throwing airbag codes. Pick up a pair of Recaros, or Sparcos, or Sabelts, or Tilletts if you’re feeling extreme, they’ll hold you in place alright. Oh, and if you do so sensibly, you can have an entire 911 with a body-hugging pair of seats for less than the cost of a set of Porsche OEM carbon buckets alone.

Or, let’s say we take this to the absolute extreme. If you shop around carefully, you can pick up an entire Boxster and an entire Cayenne for what a set of these seats costs, and have one killer two-car solution for, again, the price of two seats. Let’s start with the Boxster. Since it’s a weekend car, you’ll likely want a reasonably nice 986 rather than a ragged example, and here’s one. It’s a 2002 model with just 31,000 miles on the clock, and although it might not be the most desirable color combination around, it seems to be well-kept. The hammer price on Bring A Trailer? A reasonable $12,850. If we’re going by that $17,240 pair of 991 buckets, that leaves us with $4,390 for a Cayenne. Tight, but still doable.

See? This 2005 Porsche Cayenne S is listed on Craigslist in Florida for $3,850, and although it may have a whopping 185,000 miles on the clock, the spec is excellent and the condition seems plenty good enough for daily beater duties. Better yet, it rides on standard coil-sprung suspension, meaning air suspension is a potential headache you won’t have to deal with.

So yes, you can buy an entire Boxster and an entire Cayenne for the price of a set of modern Porsche bucket seats. Admittedly, I must say they are good seats, but the pricing we’re seeing is absolute insanity. Mind you, the only way Porsche can keep a lid on the market is by grabbing a slice of them and building a batch of seats, so these crazy prices are unlikely to stop anytime soon.

(Photo credits: Bring A Trailer, Craigslist seller)

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