914 is a really nice car, mid engined and as small as that engine is it is a hoot to drive. It was also quite cheap at the time.

No, it is not. It's a poor implementation of a great concept.

I've driven one for a bit and I thought it was quite ok given the time it was developed in. A 911 from the same era would park you backwards in traffic if you tried the sort of thing with it that a 914 would be happy to do. Especially the /6 are neat (but unfortunately very rare). The main drawback they have is that they are super unsafe, but this goes for almost all cars from that era.