martin944

I found one that looks promising, I will put the car through a PPI before I buy it. quick questions for you seasoned owners, are they pretty reliable, and can they be used as daily drivers?

jgporsche

mine was a daily driver for the PO for over 10 years. i drive mine every other day.

Big E

My dad and I picked one up as a project about 4 years ago - at purchase it sorta ran (would start, then stall within 10 minutes), the tranny and clutch were shot, and the body looked pretty beat. PO had it for about 3 years, put on maybe 5k miles, and had been sitting for at least 9 mos. when we bought it. He had a stack of receipts from him and owner before that at least an inch thick, including one broken cam chain that cost about $6k in like '97.

Once we fixed all that stuff - engine problem was the crank sensor - it has been a great car. It's done at least 10 autocrosses in the past couple of years, more than that when you consider that most of the time both my father and I run it, one track day, and has been very solid overall. They're fun cars, in some ways more fun around town than my 951.

I think as long as you keep on top of both the normal maintenance issues and the ones unique to the 16V cars, you'll be happy.

Jay W

Drove mine breakdown free with small fixes here and there for 2.5 years as a full daily driver. Then the timing belt broke when it got up to 42,000 miles. I have over $1000 in parts and machine shop labor so far to fix the head myself. Great car, just replace the timing belt at 30,000 like people say.

martin944

Thanks guys! I appreciate all the info.

gtroth

I drive mine ~64 miles every day rain or shine, sometimes snow (with snow tires) , and it's great.

But it is old (mine has ~125K miles), so lots of little things will crop up that will need attention (all the usual old-car stuff, plus all the non-S 944 stuff, plus the S's chain tensioner). Once it's sorted out, though, you'll let yourself depend on it I think.

If you enjoy doing some automotive work and aren't too strapped for cash, this car (or even a non-S) might be perfect.

Best of luck on the PPi. What is the asking price?

martin944

asking is 5k. 1 owner 90k miles.

Dr.Porsche

gtroth,

Perhaps you could go into some more detail about the S's chain tensioner. I thought that was a good thing.

Thanks

Porsh-uh

Be VIGILANT about the timing belt and make sure to have the timing chain and timing chain tensioner inspected by someone who has experience working on the 944. Other than that, the car is fun to drive and will serve you very well. And post in these forums a lot. You will learn a ton about your car.

109er

Been using mine for a daily driver for four years (as of August 18). Had to replace the clutch in 2003 (normal wear item), muffler/exhaust last month (normal wear item), shocks/springs (chose to upgrade), and also knocked teeth off of my timing belt because I got some bum info about when the belt should be changed (I was told 60K... this was not true). The last-mentioned repair required eight exhaust valves, new chain and belt tensioners, etc... lotsa money.

The belt issue aside, it's been very dependable and of course quite fun to drive! So long as you keep up with the maintenance and be sure to work with knowledgable people when doing maintenance, you should be golden. Good luck with it!

Lynn