Editing Porsche 914 (section)

== History ==
=== Pre-development ===
[[File:Porsche 914 and VW Type 34 Karmann Ghia.jpg|thumb|Porsche 914 at right and the car it replaced at the top of VW's line, the [[Volkswagen Karmann Ghia#Type 34 Karmann Ghia|Type 34 Karmann Ghia]], at left|left]]
By the late 1960s, both [[Volkswagen]] and [[Porsche]] were in need of new models; Porsche was looking for a replacement for their entry-level [[Porsche 912|912]], and Volkswagen wanted a new range-topping [[Sports car|sports]] [[coupé]] to replace the [[Volkswagen Karmann Ghia#Type 34 Karmann Ghia|Volkswagen Type 34 Karmann Ghia]] coupé. At the time the majority of Volkswagen's development work was handled by Porsche as part of an agreement that dated back to Porsche's founding. Volkswagen needed to contract out one last project to Porsche to fulfill the contract, and decided to make the 914 that project. [[Ferdinand Piëch]], who was in charge of research and development at Porsche, was put in charge of the 914 project.

In 1966 and 1967, German company Gugelot Design GmbH began showing a proposed design for a sports coupe built with technology developed in partnership with [[Bayer]] to several major car builders, including Volkswagen and Porsche. Some sources have suggested that the Gugelot proposal, suitably adapted, was the origin of the design of the 914.<ref name="ludvigsenbook"/>{{rp|555–557}} The rationale is that an outside design would be able to please both Volkswagen and Porsche without appearing too similar to either of the partners' existing products. Later sources have rejected this idea. While acknowledging that Porsche was aware of the Gugelot design, they assert that the 914 design was done in-house at Porsche, and is primarily the work of body engineer Heinrich Klie.<ref name="excellence-may2011"/>{{rp|95–98}}<ref name="mp-jan2018"/>

===Joint venture===
Originally intending to sell the vehicle with a [[flat-four engine|flat four-cylinder]] engine as a Volkswagen and with a [[flat-six engine|flat six-cylinder]] engine as a Porsche, Porsche decided during development that having Volkswagen and Porsche models sharing the same body would be risky for business in the American market, and convinced Volkswagen to allow them to sell both versions as Porsches in North America.<ref name="jal-jul2018"/>[[File:Porsche 914, Cockpit (2016-05-01 Sp 3b).JPG|thumb|Porsche 914 dashboard]]On March 1, 1968, the first 914 prototype was presented. However, development became complicated after the death of Volkswagen's chairman, [[Heinrich Nordhoff]], on April 12, 1968. His successor, [[Kurt Lotz]], was not connected with the Porsche dynasty and the verbal agreement between Volkswagen and Porsche fell apart.<ref name="cms-jul2018" />

In Lotz's opinion, Volkswagen had all rights to the model, and no incentive to share it with Porsche if they would not share in tooling expenses. With this decision, the price and marketing concept for the 914 had failed before series production had begun. As a result, the price of the chassis went up considerably, and the 914/6 ended up costing only a bit less than the [[Porsche 911T|911T]], Porsche's next lowest priced car.

The 914 was ''[[Motor Trend]]'''s [[Import Car of the Year]] for 1970.<ref name="mt-jun2006" />

Slow sales and rising costs prompted Porsche to discontinue the 914/6 variant in 1972 after producing 3,351 of them.

Production of the 914 ended in 1976. The 2.0&nbsp;L flat-4 engine continued to be used in the [[Porsche 912#912E (1976)|912E]], introduced that year as an entry-level model until the front-engined four-cylinder [[Porsche 924|924]] was introduced the following model year.

The 914/4 became Porsche's top seller during its model run, outselling the Porsche 911 by a wide margin with over 118,000 units sold worldwide.