I'm currently looking to acquire a nice 928 and I'm wondering what is the better option:

- Scrape the cash together and buy one now
- Wait untill I have a bit more and then comfortably buy one in a few years

I'm thinking number 2 is smart, but with car prices rising so fast, I just might get priced out forever or at least the coming decade. Do you think the 928 value will rise in the coming years or stay stagnant?

 

Tough call as good cars are going to go up. You would not believe what I’ve been paying to buy back some of my old cars.

with that said, buy the best car you can, a cheap 928 is in the end, the most expensive 928.

 

I'd buy one now... They are not getting any younger and the gap between useable cars is good original condition and basket cases will only get wider... So a 928 in good to very good condition is going to be hard to find and expensive.

Also the world is changing -In another 5-10 years it may be more difficult to run and own a car like a 928 so my advice is jump in and enjoy straight away!

I believe values will increase, especially for nice original examples...

 

Scatter shooting sundry thoughts...

The 928s have already had their bump in value a few yrs ago and have not been caught up in the COVID pricing insanity of late model Porsches. Once computer chips are available and new cars start flowing, the used car bubble will explode with a lot of carnage. That's still a few mo away. The bubble bursting may slightly impact the 928 mkt as a sinking tide affects all boats (to paraphrase). It will have a huge impact on the values of late model Porsches.

You don't mention your mechanical ability. If you're mechanically (or electrically) inclined and are able to work on the known foibles of the 928s, then buying a cheap one now could make sense. Cheap will mean there are issues of some sort. You can work and spend on it as your future allows. But if you aren't able to do your own work, hiring the work done will be expensive as 928s are complicated cars and not everyone works on them. Buying a car now and letting it sit until you can afford the repairs will not be a fun proposition. You won't be garnering any enjoyment from your "investment" and chances are you will end up loathing your purchase. In that case, waiting to buy would make more sense where you can buy one that you can enjoy.

Keep in mind that cars don't like to sit, esp old cars. If you buy one and let it sit for a period of time before you can address the known issues, there may be more issues that pop up from letting it sit. Old cars can be finicky on their good days. You may be in for more expenses by just letting it sit.

 

Buying a 928 shouldn't involve "scraping" to come up with the purchase price. If you can't afford the one you want comfortably, don't buy one. When you do buy, unless you have pro-rebuild skills or deep pockets, buy a car that runs & drives well, and doesn't need total cosmetic restoration. Buy one that's not modified, or at least with minor, unseen mods. You'll probably still have to put more money into it, but a well-sorted driver is the safest investment in a 928. Stock, original looking cars bring the money. If you can't afford one like that, wait until you can afford it. Hopefully you'll be able to save quicker than prices increase.

And don't kid yourself; if you can't do pro-quality work, don't ruin a car with a hack restoration job. You'll just lose money in the long run. Some "restorations" that you see out there have absolutely ruined the value of the car.

I know everyone's 928 story is different, but on my first 2 cars, I bought nice drivers that were presentable originals & I didn't put much into them. I made a little on each one after a few years ownership, and I enjoyed the heck out of each of them. With my current one, I bought one a little rougher, but it was (to me) a more appealing model & optioned car. I'm getting some great deals on pro-quality restoration work, but at this point I think the cheapest thing on the car was the initial purchase price. I'll probably still be money ahead if I sold it, but it would have been VERY easy to get upside down. I don't regret buying it when I did, but sometimes I wish I had waited until a nicer original one (at a higher initial price) came along that wouldn't have needed as much.

I think 928 prices will continue to rise. Maybe they won't keep pace with the air-cooled 911 prices, but they'll continue to increase. When you go to a big auction like Mecum or B.Jackson, you kinda get the impression that $20k is the amount needed to buy ANY type of older car (nondescript Chevy pickup, plain VW bug, ugly Ford Econoline, '70s Cadillac, etc.), and honestly, a relatively decent collector car is more like $50K+. 928s are cool cars, and they compare very favorably with cars selling for MUCH more. I think the only thing really holding them back is the bias of the Porschephiles and the bad reputation they've developed over the decades when they were very cheap cars with often ignored expensive maintenance.

I know of a local 928 almost identical to mine. 5 years ago, the owner looked at mine (which was parked outside for a few months) and asked if I was interested in selling, as he was looking for a parts car to restore his. He was still driving his at the time, but soon parked it after (I assume) mechanical issues. Today, I passed the local German car shop which has worked on both of our cars, and his is still parked out in their back row after a couple years, getting incrementally worse every day. What was once semi-decent is now pretty darn bad. Honestly, it's now almost beyond saving, and I'm not even sure I'd want it as a parts car. The moral of this rambling is that a cheap running car can deteriorate in condition & value VERY quickly. So buy a good one & keep it up!

 

Thanks everyone for the insights. It seems that it's a bit split at the moment, but my take-away would be:

- buy the nicest you can afford
- don't let it sit

 

Both of those are accurate observations, but neither is new.

Disclaimer: If I really knew what was going to happen to values in the future, I wouldn't have to work for a living.

A few thoughts:

The 928 has always been valued less than the 911. That's not going to change anytime soon. While the 'hate' is fading fairly well, the love isn't growing all that much. Some, but not a lot. The factory is just starting to realize how great of a car they were. Don't forget that they basically ignored Jim Doerr when he found #1. They were nicer to Drooman a couple years back, but it's still a new phenomenon for the factory to recognize it.

They made over 60k of them. While not super common, it's not all that rare. OTOH, the values were crap back around the turn of the century. Many were bought cheap and neglected. We've had discussions on how many are left, but nobody really knows.

Original, low miles, well documented & preserved cars will always have value. Even a Pinto with no miles on it is valuable. There's a very nice, low miles (20k) 75 Mustang II that shows up at car shows around here. I've chatted with the owner a bit. Guy bought it new and after the first summer, decided it was going to be a 'keeper'. Never seen salt, only gets a few miles each year, fully documented, all the original paperwork, all that. He claims to have turned down some fairly high offers for it. There are always 'special' years/variants for every car. First year, last year, special editions, that sort of thing. The CS & SE are off the chart. The OBs, GTs, GTSs have risen in value quite nicely. The Weissach & Jubilee (Signature) editions haven't so much.

There are lots of folks that predict that a huge jump in value is 'just around the corner'. That's been true since I joined on here (2013). We have yet to go around that 'corner'. Values have gone up overall, but not a huge jump. I don't see that changing any time soon. One of the factors the 'predictors' are claiming is that the 'kid who had the poster in his bedroom' are reaching the age where they'll pay big money for a nice one (what happened with muscle cars back in the 90s). We're well into that time frame, and it's not being a huge factor. Maybe in the high-end stuff. I don't move in those circles, so I wouldn't know that part of the market.

This isn't a 'financial investment' car. Very few are. If you are looking for a car that you can buy cheap, fix up and sell for a big profit, look somewhere else. The value differential between a 'project car' and a 'nice driver' isn't that big. The cost for the parts (presuming you do the work yourself) will chew up most of the 'profit'. If you pay for the work, you'll be underwater far and fast. For a good example, look at The "Minerva" project. Full bare shell restoration by an incredibly OCD/**** Retentive expert (that's a compliment, not an insult to Rob). Having this done at a shop would easily be six figures. Even doing all the work himself, the cost of the job likely exceeds what the car would sell for.

However, they aren't making any more of them. The newest is 26 years old. The oldest is 43. There are fewer and fewer each year. Values will rise. The main question is how fast and how much. The 911 went through the roof a while back. The 928 didn't follow. A good comparison is the Jaguars. Look at E-Types against The XJ & XJS.

 

Thank you again. Very interesting to see there have been predictions of a huge jump since 2013. This would not be an investment, this is for pleasure. And the idea would be to have a car that I could one day pass down to any future kids. Mechanically, no inclinations there although I'm considering to do a three year training (1 day/week) in old-timer restoration.

 

Have you thought about what kind of 928 you want? Model year, exterior and interior color combination, and options? If there is some combination you have your heart set on and if it pops up for sale you'll want to scrape the money together now to snag it as specific combinations sometimes take years to come to market. However if you just want "a 928", then you would be fine waiting. 3-speed automatic '80 through '82 US market cars with ~100K+ miles are relatively common and will be the last of the lot to appreciate dramatically, if it ever happens. Good luck with the search! That for me was almost a fun and rewarding as the day it showed up at my house on the flat bed.

 

As I've probably stated in other threads, this skyrocket in values has already happened. The problem is people are not looking at the percent increase just the final dollar amount. The value of many 928's has doubled or more in the past 10 years. In any other collector market (property, stamps, stocks etc...) that level of increase is considered a skyrocketing amount. The problem is, people are seeing cars like the 964 3.6 Turbo go from $50k to $250k and are expecting a similar shot up from our cars, that isn't going to happen. Many of the 911's we see for bonkers money are such examples where there is no equivalent in the 928 world. If anything the 964 turbo and 928 GTS's are on the same playing field and we've seen what low mileage, perfect example 5-speed GTS's are selling for.
There's also always going to be a larger market audience for 911's (especially air cooled) than 928's.

Another problem is perception. Folks waiting for their lottery ticket valuation thinking they own a condition 1 when in fact they own a condition 3 or 4. Condition 1 and 2 cars are very rare, mileage alone can separate a condition 2 from a 3. Yes I know our cars last forever and letting them sit is bad, but nothing will ever change the fact that a 20,000 mile example is worth significantly more than an identical car with 80,000 miles.

If it were me, and I came across the perfect car that checks off all the boxes, do anything in your power (within reason & legally) to obtain said car. It could be worth significantly more tomorrow or a lot less, but at least you'll have the car. I don't think about falling values, don't care. Seems like a pointless exercise when the purpose of these "investments" is to enjoy them and doing so may hurt the value. Seems like a lose / lose situation so why worry about it?

People spend thousands on vacations, going out to eat, concerts...all forms of entertainment that once over you have nothing but memories, a few photos and maybe a t-shirt to show for it. Why do we not apply the same value of experience with cars? If we depreciated these assets at some level equal to how much we enjoy them, the goal would be to have them fully devalued to nothing within a few years

 

I fully agree with you @hacker-pschorr

Here in the UK 15 years ago you could get a relatively clean uptogether 928 for sub £5k.Sub £10k still got you an absolute peach (I bought a 52k mile GT in Tahoe Blue from in truly lovely condition for around £6000!!). As you said, the "skyrocketing" has happened. There will be a small incremental year on year increase in value, in line with inflation etc but what I do think will happen is good cars will eventually dry up, and they are already quite thin on the ground....

 

We uncovered a 944 S2 a couple years ago.
Had 1900 original miles. Garaged. Had only swallowed 4 tanks of gas in its life. And that was in the first year or two. Son sold it to a rennlister that did all the needed maint on such a time capsule. had hanged hands a couple times, last for around 70K. I feel it was a number 1, if not the best. Probably some 928s like that exist. Rumored at least.

 

^This. Or, more importantly, what do you want to do with your 928?

Personally, I use mine as a GT car. I generally take it on longer trips, rather than using it to run errands, cruise the streets, or bomb along back roads. That's why an '82 with a 3-speed auto is all the 928 I need.

Also: What's your budget and you tolerance for DIY? Good 928s can be had for relatively low $$. A nice running car went past on the for sale thread for $5k a few weeks ago. I only paid $7,500 for a good driver with some cosmetic issues a few months ago.

DIY on these cars is critical, unless you want to hand large amounts of cash to your mechanic. These are old cars and things go wrong with them. The vast majority of those things can be solved in your garage with hand tools and advice from this board. You don't even have to be a great mechanic; I barely know which end of a wrench to hold, and I didn't even know that much when I bought my first 928.

Good luck with your search, don't be afraid to ask questions or post your wants in a car, and keep an eye on the 'for sale' thread.

 

Number 2 is a better choice. Buy the best you can when you can afford one of these remarkable cars. There is little joy in owning a car that you have to insure but can not afford to fix and drive.

I happen to like working on cars and have the desire to do things right but when one goes off for a repair I can not do... It takes some research and coin to get it done correctly.

To your question - Will the values go up? In my experience, strongly for the best and moderately for the rest. Quite a few of the best examples are already in the hands of dedicated collectors and museums, finding the rare great cars is fun and exciting. Ask me how I know... ;-)

Above all, learn about the cars by reading this forum. So many have contributed so much and the amount of information available is remarkable.

Keep us posted on your quest, we're here to help!

 

Still some good ones out there for reasonable coin. Seller says it runs, he just never drives it.