looking to buy my first porsche. people say that the entry level budget cars are the 944's.
can anyone tell me which i should be looking for? the pros and cons of all.
some people tell me that the base is to slow and i will get bored with the car. the turbos are hard to find that have not been abused or turned into race cars. what about the s2? does that have power? those are also hard to find it seems.

all info is welcomed and appreciated.

 

Budget is an important factor, how much are your going to spend? Base has good power for back roads, turbo will kick you in the pants, and I assume an S2 is somewhere in between yet I haven't driven one.

 

I recommend that you do a Search for the vast amounts of information already provided. You don't state your budget and these cars can cost from as little as maybe $2k up to $15k or more. Buy the cleanest and best you can find for your budget and get a PPI done. Also, records are a plus.

944 Base is SLOW. 944S2, (stock 944 Turbo, and 968 are all "peppy" , and a modified 944 Turbo can be made to be fast .....all by todays standards. You don't have to have high horsepower to have fun, though. It all depends what you are using it for. Most of the time , a 944 Base will suffice.

Whatever you spend on the car, figure on spending that much again maintenance and upgrades within about 5-7 years. These are not cheap cars to maintain.

 

thank you for the information. does anyone know of any 944's for sale? i will check the ads but if anyone knows of one directly that will be great.

thanks again.

 

There is an absolutely beautiful '84 Base 944 with 7,500 Mi. on E-bay right now. They don't come any nicer than this one. Expect do some preventative maintenance if they don't have any history on it but you couldn't start with a nicer example. Good color combo as well. No, I'm not affiliated nor do I have any interest in the car. BTW, The first thing to know about Porsches? There is no such thing as a cheap Porsche. GL.

 

A base 944 in good order is a great car.They are not that expensive to maintain,especially if you learn to do a little yourself. Timing belts and water pump every 5 years doesn't seem horrible to me.Tons of used parts and websites for new and used easily found in my experience. Turbos are a lot more money to maintain because they have so many more parts and the exposure from years of turbo heat seems to wear a lot of parts out.S2 and 968 are beautiful but cost more if something bigger goes wrong.Less of these cars made so parts harder to find also.If you are just starting out I would recommend a base for a few years.Then you will know if you are a Pcar fanatic like the rest of us.

Just my 2 cents.Good luck.

 

Where are you located? If you're nearby come take my 944 for a spin.

 

By the way you type (and grammar), I'm going to guess that you will not be able to afford to maintain the car if you plan to use it as a daily driver.

Despite the relatively low entry price on lower end cars, it's still a Porsche, and unfortunately has a higher cost of ownership, unless you do the majority of your own work (then it's just parts that are a little more expensive). Good luck with whatever you choose, we'll be here to support you!

 

to hobojoe- what car do you have and how much do you want? can you send me pictures at arista888@hotmail.com

 

Here is an interesting post from another forum with a good breakdown on the different options for purchasing. Worth a read.

http://www.944online.com/cgi-bin/for...26;start=14#14

 

Honestly, my S2 is more expensive to maintain than any of my dad's 911s (impact bumper versions). My dad just did a clutch disk, the disk itself was $165. I'm currently doing mine and it's $411. There's lots of things that are more expensive on a 911, but they're less complex. No power steering, no cooling system, no hydraulic clutch. Less things to go wrong. So if anyone says that 944s are the cheap Porsche, they've never owned one!

That being said, I wouldn't get the base. Eventually (if you're like me) you'll want more power. The turbo is supposed to be more of a hassle to work on/own, but I wouldn't know personally. The S is rare, uses the 2.5L 16v in a base body. The S2 is also rare, about 5k coupes and 5k cabs. Uses the 3.0L 16v engine in the turbo setup. Nice flat torque curve, more driveable for in town due to lack of turbo lag. The S2 is somewhat close to the turbo (stock of course). There's more options for performance modifications with the turbo though, with the S2 there aren't any cheap upgrades besides a chip, if you can call that cheap.

Don't look at 0-60 times and compare to other cars, they don't do Porsche any justice. They weren't designed as drag cars. The S2 can't hit 60 in 2nd gear, 58. So the 0-60 time is generally 6.6ish. But I have a road test from when the car was new, they over revved it in 2nd gear and hit 5.8 for the coupe and 5.9 for the cab. If the standard for measuring was 0-58 or 0-80 it'd be in a different category.

 

My 951 was the best car I ever owned. But, I bought it as a project and did most of the work myself. I was actually looking for a NA when I came across it and couldn't pass it up. But, there was no instant gratification.

I am actually close to buying a 1984 NA. I'm having a PPI done this week.

They advice about buying the best car that you can afford is so true. It is well worth it. The car that I am looking at is low mile, has a documented service history, looks beautiful and drives perfectly. I'm willing to pay for that. With that, there are still some unknowns that I will need to plan for. I expect that I will probably put another $2K into in short order.

As others have said, there is no such thing as a cheap Porsche.

Ha. I just noticed that I registered for this board in March of 2008 and this is the first time I posted anything. I guess I am a slow starter.

 

I have one of each. One 1986 Turbo, one 1991 S2 and one 1985 8v N/A
Personally I dont think the 8v N/A cars are too slow, the old ones are fairly light, especially if you dont have powersteering or AC so its fairly quick and nimble, not fast but peppy.
The S2 is faster ofcourse, but its also more laggy than the 8v N/A, meaning it has most of its power on very high revs. It ofcourse has more power through the whole registry compared to the Turbo which is completely dead under 3000 rpm.
Ive never been a huge Turbo fan, theyre a bit of a pain to work on, very little access to stuff, very complicated and alot of things in its overly complicated vacuum system that can go wrong.

So it all comes down to this, what do you want with the car? The turbo is by far the fastests over all. The S2 feels the sportiest and the 8v N/A the cheapest and most fuel economical.
Because of this I personally think the S2 is the most fun car to drive on the street since the Turbos insane turbolagg makes it annoying to drive in the sense that, if you want to go fast, you need to downshift two gears and floor it, a second later youve lost your license. Theres nothing inbetween, its either a rocketship or a truck.

But as a previous person said, these cars are, contrary to what people say, not cheap to maintain. They simply arent, parts are expensive and because theyre old theyre usually worn and things will need replacing eventually, and when they do you find other things that needs doing "while inthere"

 

This is probably the best quote I've heard all month!

 

+1
Love the quote. I don't know where you are, but the laws are as such where I live, it has taken a lot of the fun out of having a fast car on the street. Though I do miss the extreme punch of my turbo Datsun, It really does only take a second or two to lose your license, and where I live..go to jail and have your car impounded up to and including permenant siezure of your car. I enjoy my N/A now. I can have some spirited fun without the worry of our overzealous "stunt racing" laws, and on twisty roads, the car REALLY is outstanding to drive.
It is a classic Porsche afterall, never was and never will be a dragracer or was it ever meant to be.