Jadz928

Hey fellas,
Pretty new to 944/951 world, but figured I would break the ice.
Trying to get an idea on fair pricing for a Turbo I'm looking into.

It's a 5 speed, with lower miles (but not uber low). It's in fantastic condition both mechanically and cosmetically. Paint is flawless and original, no accidents.

Latest Excellence buyer guide (which I know may be bunk) reads a little over $10K on the high side, with what appears to be $2-3K depreciation the past few years.

Let me know what you guys think. I will try my best to answer any questions.

JohnKoaWood

Where in Richmond? I am in Stafford, but will be in Richmond for a few days, and am usually there at least once a week or so..

The 10K cars are almost perfect, with few if any mechanical or cosmetic defects.. I have seen in person one car which I truly considered worth more than the 10,5 asking price.. the pricing depends greatly on the over all condition, options, and previous owner tampering with the car.

FWIW, I bought my 87 Turbo for $3200, and drove it 15K miles in a year before finally pulling the motor out for rebuild at 210,000 miles.

I would be more than happy to assist with check out of the car if you like.. I have been on, in, and under a few of them here and there...

Excelerate

I've seen several in the $5k-7k range that we mechanically very solid (recent tbelt, water pump, rollers, etc) but had cosmetic issues (paint chips, cracked leather on the interior, rattly hatch) with pretty low miles. In my opinion, it seems like the excellence pricing is pretty close to market - it would take at least the difference between lower cars and higher cars to get the less expensive ones in equally good shape as a $10k or more car, easy.

divil

Ah...I went through all this recently!

That value sounds about right. To give you an idea of what you should be able to get for that price range, I recently (last week!) paid $10,700 for a 1989 951. That is the S model with some improvements over the 86-88 version - to upgrade an 86 to the same standard would probably cost a few thousand. It's mechanically great, and the body and paintwork are flawless. Also 100% stock, no mods whatsoever. It does have high mileage though. I would say that I probably paid a $700 dollar premium due to the fact that I was buying from a very long way away and therefore did not have quite the bargaining power I would have had if I could see the car and negotiate in person.

When I was searching I saw a few '86 models that were claimed to be in extremely good condition, low mileage, albeit with the usual chip mods, offered for $7500-$8500. They sold quickly.

Anything for less than that, that I've seen, needs work and will probably be a 'project car'.

I recently saw an '86 in unbelievably clean condition with < 60K miles being offered for 10K on eBay. That was the best priced car for the miles that I saw in all my searches.

IMO, for 10K it should have something rare going for it - high spec model (like mine), or very low mileage, or showroom condition.

Jadz928

[QUOTE=JohnKoaWood;8449934]Where in Richmond?...QUOTE]

Stratford Hills (Corner of Chippenham/Forest Hill)

Thanks fellas. I will catch up with ya'll after work today.

divil

eBay is a useful tool for finding out what cars actually sell for. You see inflated prices all the time on sites like autotrader and the final price is private between the buyer and seller.

Here is a nice very low mileage '89 951 that will sell today for at least 11,700:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...#ht_500wt_1138

Here is a list of recently ended auctions for Porsche 944s. The ones in red didn't sell, and the reserve & highest offer are shown. The ones in green sold for the price shown:
http://motors.completed.shop.ebay.co...sche&Model=944

(you get that report by clicking on 'research Porsche 944' on the top of an existing item listing)

Shawn Stanford

I paid $16k for mine two years ago. It's an '87 that is in absolutely immaculate original condition, obviously garage-kept and well-maintained by the PO. It had 52k on the clock when I bought it (66k, now). I could have probably found one cheaper, but this one was literally up the street from me and I was fresh back from Afghanistan at the time. No regrets: I love it and I haven't seen one as nearly as nice anywhere in my area.

ChrisJ951

I paid $13k for mine in August. It is an 86, and it had 38k on the odometer when I got it. It was rare for 2 reasons aside from the extremely low miles. A. It didn't have a sunroof and B. is was the Charcoal metallic color. It had a vitesse chip in it but otherwise stock. I have since modded it with the items in my signature. I know some don't like heavily modded cars but I won't be selling this car anytime soon, if ever, so to me, I loved what I had, just wanted it to go faster.

divil

I love that finish. One of the best colours for a 944 in my opinion. Mine is in red just like almost all the others. It's probably the only thing I'd change if I could.

dpoul34

And I'm looking for one in Massachusetts and not having the best of luck. Though don't want to part with my 87 NA either!

Jadz928

Thanks everyone for the comments and advice.

I agree it can make more sense to buy one already sorted at a premium (or high end of the range).
I understand it's easy to quickly get upside-down in maintanence, and the time it takes to get one up-to-snuff.

I would want one with lower miles, original, and with some level of collectability/rarity.

I like the pearl white earlier 951's, the S2 cabs, and 968 coupes. All with manual trans.

The pearl white 951 would be a fun match for my pearl white 928!

67King

Well, they certainly are rare! There's a thread on here somwhere about the Pearl White ones. I think the estimate is under 20 were made in 86. I think that Summer Yellow is the rare color for 88. I have a Glacier 89, supposedly only about 10-12 of those were made (another member here has one, and a third is sitting in a barn in the midwest without a title - someone here tried to buy it, as well, but it never worked out). If you really want a Pearl White one, you may have to pay a big premium to get someone to sell. You may do a search for that Glacier in a barn and see if you can track down that one. I'd consider selling mine, but it needs paint and a little body work, and it is probably worth more to me than what anyone else would pay for it.

Back to the original subject. I paid $3850 for my 88. It was 2 colors - white and blue, as the owner before the guy from whom I bought it let his kid paint it, and his kid did a really bad job prepping the car (so the paint was peeling). It also had no radio, wipers didn't work, needed new tires. 131,000 miles. Body was solid, interior was darn near perfect. I found out later that the front end had been taken apart, but not fully put back together, as a lot of parts were missing (ducting, bolts holding down stuff, etc.). I think that it was probably a $3500 car, but I'd been looking for a long time, and thought the premium was worth it.

This is just my opinion, but I think most people here over-value the cars, often pretty substantially. Look at the ebay link posted above, that is a much better reflection of the market. I tend to be the opposite, I probably under-value the cars (e.g. a recent thread, most people thought the car was okay at $6K, I thought $2.5-$3K).

Jadz928

I'm not sure I would attach a premium to a rare color - if that was the only thing significantly rare about it. Now if it was a rare color, like pearl white...
and the car was one of the six promotional '86 951's (w/the pearl white Fuchs IIRC) then sure, premium away. But not just for color.
My pearl white 928 is one of 3 known, but I would say its only real value when listed FS is it may attract a few more phone calls.

I would like to here other's opinions on this.

Furthermore, I'd be curious about other rare 944/951/968 options that command an actual $ premium. M030 suspension?

Particularly curious about 86-88 951's.

67King

Sorry, I was really only trying to say that there are so few of them that you can't expect one to pop up for sale as you could with a more common color car.

Jadz928

I read ya, bro!

Yea, I'm just curious what makes for a rare car 'round these parts.