catamount

I've found a 1986 944 Turbo with 81,000 miles that from all indications is in very good condition or better. It certainly has may of the "right" mods to make it a more sporting drive. But my biggest concern is a 20 year old 944 even one that has been well maintained up for daily driver duty to the tune of 50+ freeway miles a day without becoming a money pit to maintain.

For those that do use a 944 Turbo as a daily driver what's been your experience with maintanance, fuel economy, etc.

Of course the usual rules would apply to purchasing said car mainly a PPI. :-)

Phi1720

A 944 will become a money pit regardless of how much you drive it. I personally do not have a turbo model but rather an n/a. I've had it as a DD for 18 months now. Of those 18 months, it has spent 4 months in strorage over last winter, and probably another month on jack stands doing repairs. I don't have a 2nd car and just use my bus pass/bike when its out of action.

My roomate does have a turbo. I can't comment on his repair times but I can say that it isn't driven daily and he does have a jeep at his disposal in addition to the turbo.

Daily driver? Sure, if you have a backup car IMO.

Also, think of doing an 80/20% budget when purchasing a 944/951. By this I mean take your set budget. Use 80% of it to purchase the car. Use the remaining 20% for off the bat repairs ie. timing belt possibly tires or anything else that just needs to be done. This practice has been talked about a couple times here on the list and seems to work well for those who use it.

Hope this helps and don't let it make you shy away from the 944/951 community. The cars are a blast and ownership can be extremely rewarding.

Finally, welcome to rennlist!

Scott

alordofchaos

I use my '86 na as a DD from about April to September; currently has about 119k miles. Pull a steady 30 mpg. Your turbo should get you 20~28 depending on how much time you spend on boost, traffic and road conditions, etc. they are well built cars. I'd be mostly concerned about allowing enough warmup and cooldown time, especially if you've been on the turbo hard.

I agree with scott; you'll want a backup car (or winter car, if you live where they salt the roads in the winter)

edit: my daily commute is about 25 hwy miles one way, so I also do around 50 miles a day.

yellowline

Don't know about a 951, but an NA can make a good daily driver with a few upgrades.

I'd recommend the Rennbay headlight harness, which is heavier-duty wiring than stock. Your lights will be far more reliable from that point on. I melted headlight and ignition switches randomly one night, because of the poor wiring.
I'd change the DME relay and buy another to keep in the glovebox.
I'd address the voltage regulator on the alternator. It's a wear item, and 81k miles isn't much, but your alternator won't charge without it.
Regrease the CVs on an afternoon when you have nothing better to do. They're regular maintenance items, but are not treated as such.

Things like these are simple items of preventative maintenance that you can do on your own time. They will keep you from being disgusted with a 944. For maybe $200 and labor (all jobs here are easy, at least on an NA), you'll have a far more reliable car. Service the belts, make sure the clutch is good before you buy, and maybe it could work out.

sharky47

I have an 87 944 that I bought with ~90k on it - it has `112k on it now and is my daily driver. My daily commute is about 20minutes through the country, so no stop and go - really a nice drive and easy on the car.

GodSpeed

my 1985.5 has almost 300,000 miles on the clock and after redoing the head when i bought it, it runs great. i use it as my DD, but i also ride my motorcycle about 1/3 of the time too. sorry i dont know much about the turbos but my na keeps going with just the regular maintainance. i think the reliability go down the worst when people just ignore the maintanance

4re308

I used my 944 Turbo S for a daily driver for over a year and loved every minute of it! Now the same car has a LOT more horsepower and it not my daily driver anymore. The car is very reliable!!

Marc Gelefsky

I drove my 88 951 as a daily driver for almost 9 years and around 200K miles, it was a great car.

schnellfahrer

I use my modified 944 Turbo (300rwhp) as a DD from april to october.
I get ~25mpg, but that's 90% city driving.

xsboost90

ive been driving my turbo to work three or four days a week since i bought it. Just as reliable as an NA, just has a couple more extra parts on there to keep in good condition. Not sure why pple say they are unreliable, ive had a couple turbo cars that i drove constantly. IF you keep them maintained before they break, you dont have to spend extra to fix them.

- better gas milage than my 05 f150!

johnny1423

i use my 951 as a DD year round.
Though I only drive it an average of 3 days a week(I travel out of town the rest).
I found that the car actually became MORE reliable the more I drove it.
Driving it, as opposed to it sitting, keeps all the critical components lubed and smooth....
The other factor is "mods"...
The more stock...usually the more reliable the car is(less stress).
Stick to the known "rules"
change the oil regularly, keep up on ALL maintainence, learn to work on the car yourself, learn what NOT to try yourself, find a good shop to do the stuff you cant.....and DRIVE!!!!!!!
ask your self..where else can you get that much for $10k or so?????
Spend that money on a used Honda,Toyota, or Nissan and you will be bored everytime you sit behind the wheel.
One other thing...depreciation....the biggest expense of owning any car is depreciation.
Buy something else, and in 2/3 years it has depreciated in half. Buy a 951 and keep it maintained, you will be surprised on what you can sell it for....dont get me wrong, you will NOT get your money back, but in the long run you will do better spending on upgrades and maintainence, rather than losing it in depreciation....
good luck..

Rock

Mine has been demolished in the ***, and I still drive it everyday. Runs great! Stick the middle finger up to the people who say theyre unreliable.

alordofchaos

I think there are two kinds of people who say they're unreliable:
1) those who have never had one, but remember all the bad press that turbos got in the late 70's/early 80's about being unreliable
2) those who start up their turbo car, and within seconds of startup, race into the highway at 6,000 rpm because they enjoy the rush of speed. After a hard run, the get to work and shut the engine down without letting it cool down, and let the oil coke up in the turbo. they get the estimate from their mechanic, decide it's not worth the money to repair/maintain it, because the car is "unreliable"

Trucho-951

I don't use mine as a DD, but I do drive it on the street and the track as much as possible. I can say that I'm glad I have other cars, beause as relaible as the ol' 951 is... when it needs maintenace it can be down for a while. For example, changing the alternator in my 78 Vette takes me 10 minutes, however, in the 951, it can take? Well, let's just say that it won't be pretty the first time you do it...

Timming belts every 30k miles ain't so bad, but then again some DD commuter cars can go over 100k miles between belt changes. Oh, yeah, and the clutch replacement, well... let's not even go there..

M758

I used an 84 as DD for about 2 years and daily drove my 951 for about 1 month and 4k miles.

The cars did run better as daily drivers, but while they work they are old cars. So if you have one of these as you ONLY form of transport it can be very expensive to maintain them. Have back up for use when spend 4-5 days on waterpump/t-belt job. This makes the job less stressful and much cheaper than taking the car to a shop.