stoked944

I was looking into buying a 951 the other day.I did test drive it, it was so sweet, cuz i've never driven a turbocharged car before. I'm already addicted! Everything went well with that, but the next day i got a ppi on it, and that came out bad. The shop told me i shouldn't buy it, and they are a porsche familar shop (accelaration). They said it needed motor mounts, a arms, needs resealed for oil leaks, and the exhuast manifold needs replaced because of leaks as well. Now if you could give me some advice. Do you think that if i can get it for 4500 it would be worth it? Those problems don't sound too major to me. Do you think the shop was right when they said not to get it? I'm not sure. I mean i was thinking that motor mounts are normal for 944's, and a 15 year old car is obviously going to have oil leaks, and maybe need resealed, (timing belt?). The only thing is the exhaust, if i am correct i think its leaking at the headers, and the guy gave a price of 3100.00 to fix that with labor and all. Do you think he was talking about replacing the whole exhaust? Your help would be greatly appreciated. And if you think it would be worth it to get it, let me know .THANKS.

UDPride

Buy the best maintained Porsche your money can afford. Everything else is just details. A more healthy Porsche means a more healthy, longer life in most cases. Its also great corroborating evidence that the car has lived a cushy life an dhasnt been abused. Unless you are Perry951 or a certified P-Car mechanic, buy the car w/the least amount of problems. If that means you might not find the color you want, so be it.

Randy_J

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by UDPride:
<strong>Buy the best maintained Porsche your money can afford. Everything else is just details. ............. If that means you might not find the car you want, so be it.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">agree completely!

ahofam123

If you plan on working on your car yourself, I would say that this 951 may be good if you can get it at a good price. The front seals will be easy to replace and wouldn't cost much, the motor mounts will cost $200 for a pair and can be installed without too much difficulty (if the oil pan gasket is bad, that should also be replaced while you are in there). I haven't had to deal with the a-arms or the exhaust manifold, so I don't know the difficulty or the price to replace those.
If you plan to have a mechanic work on your car though, then I aggree with Randy and UDPRIDE that it will be cheaper in the long run to buy a good condition 951.

Brian McCoy

The control arms/ball joints are $200 from SSI (if they have them) or $175 from.. umm.. ****, I forgot the lister who's got a business going. Simple enough with basic handtools and you can even manage to do it without requiring an alignment too.

Can't help on the rest...

Everything I've ever heard says to buy the best condition P-car you can afford and not to try and get infolved in a 'fixer upper' cause that's just financial suicide. Little things just start adding up and you either tighten the belt or give up and loose your shirt on resale. That said, I bought my 951 knowing it needed 2 major things (ball joints, unknown fuel leak), and a small army of little things. $250 and 4 hours solved the ball joints and fuel leak ~ but I got lucky.

Whatever you decide, good luck. Couse, you could buy mine..

Peckster

IMO, There are good ones and bad ones, and a cheap bad one is no bargain. You can put a serious money into it and end up selling it at a big loss.

Don't buy the first one you see. The more you see, the better you'll probably do.

qoncept944

Fixing a cheap 944/951 is a LOT more expensive than buying one in great condition.

danny951

I agree as well.. I bought my 86 for $6500 and ended up putting around another $6k before I sold it. I had a lot of problems with the first shop I took it to thought and had to redo the a/c 3 times.. VERY frustrating.. (cost an extra $2000)
I sold it 10,000 miles later for $7500.. Could have probably gotten more, but wasn't patient.. I actually was pretty lucky with my car.. bought it with 120k on the odo, didn't get a ppi, but only had problems with the a/c and I did some upgrades (that's about $2000 of the $6000). I did do new belts, rollers, and front seals.. but even then, it still had one small leak in the back that would have just cost too much to get to.

I say get the cleanest car you can afford.

Knowing what I know now about these cars (still not much) I'd do it different this time and spend more up front on the car, get a ppi, and keep it longer.

Devia

If you can do alot of the work yourself, it would be worth it; I'm very pleased with my car that I resurrected from being tossed into the junk heap, but then I may have been lucky.

I've easily spent nearly every other day during the work week to get her whipped into shape; check out my Project: Kijo thread.

But that was because it was the only way I could afford to get a Porsche, but I did get the color I wanted, but it boils down to either your personal time, or money.

I am fortunate enough that there are fellow Rennlisters that have been willing to help me in person.

But if you can't work on your car, please do yourself a favor, and buy a car that someone else has taken care of the details; as you can see, some of these gentlemen did so, and didn't recoup their investments; ergo, those deals are out there, to your benefit.

- Julie

Lee Zook

The difference is being able to work on it yourself. I bought my 86 turbo for $3700 back in December. I knew it needed at least an oil pan seal and I planned on replacing all the water hoses and intake hoses (148K miles on it). I had a record on major items being done (turbo, timing belts, brakes and a few other things) but some of the minor was missing. I started doing the seal work about a month after I got it. Did it all my self. Did the oil pan, front seals - wern't done at the belt change at 145K, balance shaft housings seals, etc... It is back on the road and running prety well (down about 4 months). It ended up missing some heat shields and other misc parts which I have replaced. I am probable into the car an additional $1600 or so. It also needs a little attention to the interior of which I am working on.
This is a great place for information and help when you run into problems.

thomschoon

I would be more concerned with motor/clutch/tranny condition then the things listed. While everything is expensive to fix, opening a motor costs a heck of a lot more than the A-Arms.

qoncept944

Being able to work on a the car yourself will definately help a lot, but even so, it's still not a cheap car to work on. Buying a cheap peice of crap will cost you more quick.

ahofam123

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by qoncept944:
<strong>Being able to work on a the car yourself will definately help a lot, but even so, it's still not a cheap car to work on. Buying a cheap peice of crap will cost you more quick.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Blindly buying a cheap Porsche will lead to great costs but if you have a good PPI, maybe even two, and don't go overboard on buying a project car, then buying a car in need of a little TLC can be advantageous.

SidViscous

"but I did get the color I wanted"

Bare metal? You should have been looking at Deloreans then.

<img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

jabbadeznuts

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by qoncept944:
<strong>Fixing a cheap 944/951 is a LOT more expensive than buying one in great condition.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Agreed. Unless you have VERY deep pockets, I would walk on this one. Keep looking and BE PATIENT.