Please don't rush out and do that before discussing it here first.

 

i am now $8000 into my $1000 944

and i havent even started on the interior yet

 

My 3K car has cost me about 300 bucks (odo gear, hatch and hood struts, sunroof gears, fuel gauge, paint and fuel level sensor) since I got it in August. The PO obviously loved the car and had a mound of service records. Only reason he sold it was the mint 951 he found for a steal.

 

A big variable is who does the work? You will save gobs of money doing things yourself....

 

I wish, 3200 to buy, 6K in parts to date, but then have only had the car for two months, and I am adding ALOT of nice to have wish list kind of items, mainly for the suspension but a few others here and there (Euro Fogs, New Tail light assys, CPR V1 Splitter...etc.)

I coulda gotten one hell of a car for the 10K I have spent, but had half the fun working on it....

 

A $6,000 base seems to be correct. I bought mine for 5K and have at least a grand into it in maintance alone.

 

I've been watching the Austin craigslist ads as well -- not that I'm looking for another 944, but I just like to see what's for sale. There seem to be two kinds of cars: those in decent condition that are priced fairly and get snapped up almost instantly, and those that sit unsold for weeks and weeks. If you monitor the ads often enough, you will see the first kind of car sometimes.

You might want to consider going outside of Austin to find a decent car. Here's one in the classifieds that looks very nice, and seems priced fairly:

http://mall.rennlist.com/scripts/fea...uery=retrieval

I'm constantly amazed by some of the stories I read on CL. You see claims like the coolant leaks out but it's just a hose (really the water pump is leaking), the AC just needs a recharge (the compressor is shot), the car won't start but it's just the fuel pump (timing belt broken).

 

Ha, yes, exactly! I had a car that leaked coolant but it WAS just the hose...you know what I did? Replaced the hose that day in about 30 minutes.

Also true for going outside Austin. Downside of living in a college town, quite a few cars that were either hand-me downs or just bought cheap, never maintained and sold. Other downside is that with the high level of purchasers looking for sub $2000 cars, the market gets skewed (at least that is my perception.)

From what everyone has said, $6000 seems like a reasonable budget to have.

 

+1, take a look at www.arnnworx.com for example.

I got lucky, $4,200 on ebay without inspecting it first from a small dealer in Ohio. Found paperwork showing new clutch (maybe 10k miles on it) and it needed nothing major other than routine maintenance, other records pointing to decent upkeep from previous owners

 

I think I have the only real "$1500" 944. Mint car that was a trade in at the dealership... I got really lucky. Of course now I have about 4k in it with modifications and going very **** on the maintenance... but I could have driven it for 15k miles at the $1500 price.

 

I started at about $4,500 for a low-mile car, and immediately pumped in $1,500 for timing belt job and brakes (which I could / should have done myself) and a few small things. At that point, I had a a perfect car with everything functional.

But from there, I re-did the suspension ($2,000 parts, DIY labor) and got new seats ($900 - $500 selling my old ones).

Like someone said, the BEST deal is to buy it from someone who recently put a bunch of money into it. They guy who owned it before me (for about a year) put about $2,500 into it.

 

That is my problem, I keep buying parts until The wife screams at me to stop.

To install but not URGENTLY needed (I have drivent the car for about 1500miles or so since buying it) are:
Water Pump
Timing Belt
Shocks (Koni yellows, factory M474 optioned car)
Struts (Koni as above)
Sperical front bushings (so I only have to align the car once)
Sperical bearing upper strut mount
Euro Fog Lights
New Tail light housings
Dansk Cat Back (Already installed)
New Ball joints
New Wheel bearings
New Shift ****
V1 CPR Splitter
Wiring and relays for custom Euro foglight install
power steering system reseal parts
Compression tester
Leak down tester
TB/WP tools
Newsed rear view mirror
Twist Rims (Actualy owned just before I bought the car)
Hood struts
Rear Hatch Struts

I too am **** about my maintenance, and If I dont know when the wear items were last done I do them anyway, sometimes I end up saving the "old" part as after I take it all apart I find almost new parts that I am removing, in which case I install the new one I bought and save the old one just in case sometihng should happen...

 

My $2k 87 924S cost me $500 for a waterpump and timing belt. Traded it for a $4k car a year later.

 

There are deals out there. For example here is this super clean, low mileage early 944 that has had recent timing belt and Water pump that I would sell for $2500 right now.

 

Joked? I think you're totally right. $6k for Nice. $4k-$5k for good with some cosmetic issues.