I'm still giving thought to either a 944 or 951 as an extra car to have some fun with and that might eventually end up with my son driving it (yea I know, not a good idea)
Anyway, I was wondering what are some of the common failures or major expenses you run into. It seems I read somewhere in Excellence that it's critical to replace the timing belt by a certain point or you are in for major problems. True? Any reason the 951 is more or less expensive to repair/maintian other than the possibility of the turbo going out? TIA for responses.

 

Yes the 951 is more expensive. Its not just the turbocharger, there are lots of extra pieces required to turbocharge an engine, and thus the car ends up being more complicated and more expensive to fix and maintain. I'm not an owner yet, but I've asked myself a lot of the same questions. Are you willing and able to do the work yourself? Thats a huge factor. Prepare for ~$95/hr for your maintenance otherwise! Honestly, is YOUR TIME worth more than that, its just grease!

Some common issues I've heard of are the power steering pump & fuel rail leakage (although if the car applies hopefully it has been fixed under recall). Many things that go wrong are simple regular wear items that need to be replaced, no getting around it. The older the car or higher the mileage, the more parts are worn out and the more replacing you're going to be in for. What you need to avoid is cars that haven't been taken care of properly. Because not only do you have regular wear items needing to be replaced, but you have things that should have lots of life left that are dieing and causing other parts to fail. It's a huge mess and a lot of people POUR money into their cars that way.

This depends on your area, but my advice is to plan on spending about $7,500+ on a 951 for about 80-100,000 miles roughly.

 

Timing belt is critical, plan on changing around every 30,000 miles (I know, many go to 45,000, but is it worth the risk?). The belt itself is around $15 and can save you from hundreds to thousands of dollars in repairs. To do the two belts (balance and cam), change the rollers and adjust everything shouldl only take around an hour at most.

Turbos are a lot tighter in the engine compartment, making repairs more tedious, but not impossible.

Clutches are another trouble spot, in terms of time to repair. Check out the 944 FAQ page, http://www.connact.com/~kgross/FAQ/944faq.html, for more info. They are great cars and a lot of fun, if you will commit to performing the required maintenance on time.

 

Thanks