mkriete

Everyone else who has responded is more knowledgeable than me, but I do want add one point about the cars. The most expensive repairs are related to paint and interior. Based on the pictures, those items look to be in really good condition. For the price, this does not look to be a bad car. If you still have room in your budget, you may consider having Sean or someone with 928 expertise go through the car after the purchase and replace the failing rubber and seals.

Mark Anderson

I've owned many 928's and the ones that I paid good money for with excellent records are the ones that cost me the least over time. It might be the old " pay me now or pay me later"

Imo000

Old and low mileage is just about the worst combination when it comes to wanting to drive a car on a regular basis. Low mileage usually means very little to no major maintenance and that's not good when the car is 30 years old. I've seen this on imported low mileage 928s from Japan.

2002M3Drew

I have four Porsche sports cars - two air-cooled 911s, one 944, and a 928S. The 911s are the simplest cars from a design standpoint, and they are as reliable as tractors. That said, i if the engine goes bad, you are in for a $25,000+ repair in today's aircooled parts prices. The water cooled cars have more electronics, more complicated onboard systems, and more technological advancements that make them slightly less reliable. The little things on a 944 or 928 can cost a lot to diagnose and repair compared with a 911. Sunroofs on 944s, for example, can count thousands to repair properly because of their overly complicated sensors. That said, replacing a motor on an water cooled car costs a fraction of an air cooled 911.

All older Porsches are well built. When you do your own work on them, you can appreciate how the parts fit together (and how they go back together). Buy the best one you can afford and leave a budget for repairs. If by some chance you don't need repairs, you're ahead in the game. Don't deny yourself owning your dream car, though. A 928 is NOT a 90's Ferrari even on its worst day!

And buy the way, newer water cooled 911s are no picnic. IMS bearing issues are feared in those cars. When a 996 motor goes, you have a $20,000 coffee table.

syoo8

Conan,

I've read the entire thread and there are many excellent responses here.

The car in question looks like a beauty.

You will have to do the water pump and timing belt immediately.

I was in a similar situation when buying my first 928S (1986.5) Now I have two. I have spent over $50K in parts for the two cars but I don't regret anything at all. Driving the car of your high school dreams-- isn't that the fun of life?

hacker-pschorr

All things are relative.
With 25 years of 928's under my belt, I stick with 928's because I find them incredibly reliable, well built and easy to work on.

In 2014 I picked up a mechanically neglected 87 nobody seemed to want. Unknown history and a trans that shifted lazy. After a quick inspection & drive by our own Porken on a rainy day, I rolled the dice and had it shipped to Green Bay. Trans fluid was a quart low, took care of that issue. Most would scream bloody murder for even starting such a car, I put a few hundred miles on it before winter then tore into the timing belt. I did inspect it first just to make sure it wasn't a frayed rubber band in there. Everything works except the A/C, intake flappy, and ABS. So far I had to fix a door handle. I did install a rebuild MAF on day one.

My 79 is going on at least 20 years since the last belt / pump was changed. I beat the ever living tar out of this car (it was turned into a track car in 91 and driven very hard, why change what is working). I'm about to pull the trans to fix the 2nd gear synchro. Something I should have done 13 years ago when I bought the car but I was lazy. That's going to cost me now but that's not the cars fault.

2015 I picked up an 80, which was a one owner since 81. Last 10 years pretty much just sitting, always properly stored and repainted within the last 10 years so a very clean car on the outside. Mechanically.....nobody knew. Fresh battery, fired it up and put a few hundred miles on it. I've then replaced the passenger side cam housing gasket (yes, just did the one, didn't even fully remove the timing belt), updated the rubber fuel lines, intake refresh, swapped in a known good brake booster, new brakes lines and rebuilt the calipers. Runs like a champ - so well it ran into a deer last October and is currently stripped for paint! The clutch is randomly sticking when cold but I'm getting good at those.

The sunroofs are a pain in the ***, so three of mine don't have one and the other two I never touch that button (and I'm a sunroof person).
Interior quality....it's an 80's German car without an Audi badge which means dashes warp and stuff cracks. Seriously, why didn't Porsche hire Audi to trim their interiors? 200k miles on my CQ, sitting outside the past 5 years the dash still looks perfect.
Electrical - I keep reading these cars are an electrical nightmare. I'm either extremely lucky or good at diagnosing them (not really) so I'm not sure what to make of that. I did re-wire my Supercharged 81 to a newer 928 fuel injection / ignition system. Very straight forward to re-wire the fuse panel to match. Not many cars can say that (just don't cut the gray wire).


All that being said, I may not be the best opinion on owning and maintaining a 928. The Ferrari 355 I took car of while my father put 17k miles on, was extremely reliable and a delight to work on, even taking the engine out for the routine belt service. I miss that car. It's considered one of the worst cars money can buy according to many "experts". So I'm the odd man out in many of these discussions.

Some good points in this thread about who you hire to work on them is spot on. Realistically, any independent shop with a plethora of experience on classic cars in general should be able to figure out the 928 as long as they are patient and are open to asking questions. The problem is, many such shops are so arrogant they dive in thinking nothing of the complexity of the 928's and fark something up.
Take doing an alignment, nothing complicated about a 928 alignment if you take 10 minutes to read the WSM. There is a "trick" to setting up the car on the alignment rig. Don't follow this, the toe will be way off (even though the machine says it's correct).

So bottom line IMO is the 928 has a lot of little quirks the person working on them needs to be aware of, but overall they are an incredibly built and over engineered car that is much underappreciated by the general car world. That last part is the biggest problem, decades of being cast aside by the "car elite" has led to most 928's being neglected and worked on by mechanics who treated them like a generic Volkswagen. Had the 928 been an instant success and appreciated, most would have been properly taken care of and the reputation would be drastically different.

Good luck and welcome to the family if you pull the trigger.

docmirror

The IMS has a solution(it's actually called the "IMS solution") for about $850 and a long weekend of time, that nightmare is done. However, I do get your point. None of them are flawless. But - now that I own both, I can tell you with some confidence that the early 996 is light years beyond the 928 in reliability and performance. Maybe not light years, but significant. Also, and more important, in every major city in the world you can find a 996 indy mech to work on your car. Take a 928 in, and you'll be paying them to learn on your dime, and your car. Also, the cars are selling sub-$20k now, and if the IMS does go, the roller is worth a few thou, so nice job overstating the cost. Suppose the 86 928 shells the engine? What's that chassis worth?

docmirror

Harumph, harumph, harumph.
(emphasis added)

Good to see you again Scott! Howz the music biz?

Wisconsin Joe

^This.

First off, welcome to the Shark Tank. You will not find a better, friendlier, more helpful, more knowledgeable group anywhere. The collective knowledge on here is immense. Anything you need to know about these cars can be found here. Either by searching or asking.

Second - These cars are not nightmares. They can be reliable and incredibly fun cars that can be driven anytime, anywhere.
BUT...

They are ~30 years old. Any 30 year old car will require work. If you read through the forum, you will see what the common issues are. One thing to keep in mind is that this is a place where people bring their problems more often than their triumphs. So it would appear that the car is less reliable than it really is.

As H/S noted, they have a reputation for electrical issues. But (again with the "but") the electrical system is pretty straightforward. Nothing is integrated. The only computers are the ones driving the ignition and fuel injection. A basic DVM and the schematics, along with a reasonable understanding of basic electrics (say High School shop class) are all you need. Again, it's an old car. Grounds need to be cleaned, wires corrode, insulation gets hard and "crispy."

The rest of it is "parts bolted to parts." Nothing special or exotic. Some of those parts are not cheap, but most are available. Keep in mind that it is a car that originally cost as much as a small house when new. No matter how cheap you can pick one up for, that fact never changes. Which, as H/S noted, makes for neglected cars. Someone buys one for well under $10k, then finds out he needs to spend that much to bring the car back to "decent" shape.

If I were you, I'd pass on the one on BaT. It looks pretty nice, but it has virtually no miles on it. These cars do better when driven on a regular basis.
That one is far more of a "park it and look at it" than a "drive it".

You would be far, far better off finding one that has "mid-high" miles (say near 100k), but has been properly cared for. It won't cost as much, you won't be afraid to drive it, and it's a lot less likely to surprise you with issues.

rbrtmchl

This is one of my favorite posts by James Bailey that I think answers your question:

hacker-pschorr

You left out cantankerous, crabby, heavily opinionated, and damn it.....get off my lawn!!!!

Hymodyne

After working on triumph motorcars from my teens to a few years ago, I finally was able to get my hands on a 1979 928--my dream car.
I'm pretty much hooked now, just a few months into ownership, engine and body are both on stands as I prep her for primer. The engineering and craftsmanship is superior to what I learned to be the norm at the end of the Standard/British Leyland run of sports cars in the same period.

James

Daniel5691

Hi!

I am going to respectfully suggest that you don't get into the 928 scene.

2002M3Drew

There isn't argument about performance - it has been a long time since the 928S ruled the performance world. My other V8 Porsche - a 2006 Cayenne S - I think would crush my 928 in a stoplight race. But that's not the point of owning a 928S in 2017.

You cannot compare the 996. Collectors cars are about exclusivity and low production numbers. They made some 60,000 928s in 17 years of production. They made that same number in year two of the 996. They made more than 175,000 996s by the end of its sixth and final year of production, and then they made a similar number of the superior successor 997. That's a lot of cars. The newer cars will never have the collector status of the older cars for that reason, and also because they simply aren't made as well. Their interiors, exteriors and mechanicals are nothing like the older cars. Watch the videos on 928 and 911 production in Stuttgart - they were largely handmade. What do you think a 40 year old 996 will look like? It will look like whatever it was recycled into, most likely. That said, there is no question that the 996 and some 997s are a great performance bargain. Apples and oranges.

Landseer

Pretty much need to follow the forum on a frequent basis and enjoy the maintenance, else be in close proximity to a 928-specific enthusiast that does work for others.