PorscheDoc

That is exactly right. Depending on the dealer, techs are good back about 8-10 years in general. In addition, working on newer cars means you don't have to deal with rusted parts, broken bolts, etc, making the job go quicker.

pnbell

If you can afford to take your 944 to the dealership for service... You should buy a Better Car!

Ha ha!

andys-944

People can be snobs and dumb people normally are snobs Porsche certainly thought of the 944 as a real Porsche, and as has been said already it pretty much saved them from bankruptcy or being bought by VW (which has now happened).
As for real Porches being rear engined then the 962's and other race cars weren't Porsche's.
So I guess my avatar isn't a real Porsche, it cost over $1 million and no I don't own one just worked on it.

TexasRider

As an addendum to my first post on the "real Porsches" I was at the dealer yeaterday to get some parts for my not-a-real-Porsche 951. I got to talking to the managers for a bit. They flat said that without the Cayenne, and the Panamera, and some of the Boxsters, that they would be filling out paperwork for Hyundai . There would not be doors to open for the few 911 guys to walk through.

techartisan

NOW these 3 are NOT REAL Porsches. Ours have nothing to fear in legitimacy as long as a few of these are still puttering around....

carbongecko

i guess it just individual dealer ships because i have had porsche shops say no and some say yes, i liked the fact that i got turned down from one dealership and as i left a 930 pulled upto me at a light and wanted to show off and i shut it up with my 951. so doesn't the 944 body have as many trophies as the 911 body?

odurandina

i'm enjoying this ownership experience a lot. driving, fairly easy mantenance schedule and making changes (with a little help from my friends).... add to that, good parts availability from multiple sources = a lot of fun + who cares what Porsche thinks of my car.

whalebird

The sad truth is that it's not the cars that the shops don't want to work on, it's the customers that these front engined cars bring with them.
Myself being a porsche tech for over 20yrs(factory/dealership/motorsports), these cars are largly a pain because of their owners. Do keep in mind though, that a 944 or any varient is one of the most expensive cars you can own, certainly one of the most expensive Porsches.

odurandina

this.


from 'What will be the collector cars of the 80's' thread on OT....

https://rennlist.com/forums/off-topi...f-the-80s.html





sad, but true..... i had the 944 way in front of the 911 because of the handling (944 was also a breakthrough car)... but Gator also has a point... if the build quality of of the 924/944/968 line was more up to par with the *911, it's possible that people would respect our cars just a little more.... maybe.



*i think the 993 is the saviour of the 911.

MAGK944

If this list was rated on build quality there would be no Ferraris or Lotus there and the Audi Quattro Turbo would be top of the list. I always thought that the 944 was over engineered.

TexasRider

Why is this Whalebird?

Because the maintainance is not done? Or they dont want to do it? Or pay for it? Or neglect? Other?

Why is it "one of the most expensive'? Because of breakdowns? Or design? Or maintainance again??

I would like to hear it from the horses mouth and know once and for all.

Thanks.

whalebird

A little of all of the above. A 951 can be very expensive; water pump/tb every 30K - I know it's not needed, but often a water pump will go between TBelt jobs. A new belt can upset an old pump. Throw a clutch in there... There is always a litaney of crank sensors/wheel bearings/electrical stuff that may either be design flaws, or their reletive abuse on board a Porsche(location to heat and elements). Yes the demograph of 44 owners is not favorable to the cars. I will be the first to sat that the 44 series of cars was highly developed in a short period of time and are (were) complex cars. The price of admission is low, but maintenance is astounding and parts just keep going up as they become more scarce. I don't offer this as a critiscism...I own a 924S. But I can pull open a random file drawer in the shop, grab the thickest one and it is inveriably a 951. The NA 944 aren't as bad, the 924S is a pretty good little car, and a 968 is pretty damn good also. But looking at it, Porsche spent uber-money developing the 44 and after the 951, took another approach. They simplified the cars systems with the S2 along with the beefier chassis developed for the turbo and finally got it right with the 968.
These are tricky cars for sure and great drivers, but require no less of a commitment from their owner than any other Porsche or exotic.

odurandina

after 68 k miles running, my 968's maintenance costs have been a joke. on the low side.

TexasRider

Thanks Whalebird.

Yeah mine is a 1986 Turbo. I had some ideas about running this car in the Targa Newfoundland before my navigator got on a string of Space Shuttle launches. It got a complete rebuild. It was and is expensive. And now I am almost done with the whole car. With just the suspension replacement left to do and then it is about 80%-90% new as far as mechanicals go. The block, pistons, and rods and the transaxle are still the same. Most of everything else is new. My body and interior were about excellent. Everythng works and works well. 91,000 miles.

Maybe I better be writing up an ebay listing while I can.

The thing is I have seen guys drop $30 or 40,000 in a 911 motor. Of course there is not much else to them.

KuHL 951

I think the truth is it's a combo of both the age of the vehicle and ownership profiles. The 944 and 951 seems to attract the 'first Porsche' crowd because they look so nice and are still affordable at first glance but they kill new owners that thought they were getting into the P-car game for cheap. The 944 today is still the classic vehicle to cause slow death by a thousand cuts because it has so many issues that only a seasoned DIY owner can resolve. I had great luck with mine because I kept up on maintenance, read Rennlist/Pelican/Clarke's Garage religiously and did all my own work...without these resources I would have been at the mercy of local shops and that's an ugly picture.

In short I can understand why local Porsche dealers have written off the 944 just like BMW quit caring about the E30 when it was probably the most bulletproof line they ever built IMO...economics 101!