lonislan

Hi guys.
I'm a new member in the 928 community and I would like some precious advise about buying my first 928.
I've been with you for FIrst postmonths reading threads and learning so many important information and your opinion really counts.
Ive been searching for about a year for a 928 and basically for a manual one.
Here in Greece the porsches in general are tough to find imagine what that means if a 928 is in mind.In that year I saw 3 S4s(auto) and 2 Ss.The S4s were pretty good but the manual Ss were old and tired.The 928 here in was A VERY expensive car when new and few owned them.The prices are extremely high even now acording to Germany,England or even the States.
You cant find a S4 below 30k to 50k for the only one GTS Ive seen so far and Ss are around 25k.Anyway Ive found a'90 928GT in baltic blue and I fell in love..The car is from an auction that the state does for taxes that the owner didn't pay when he brought it from England.That means it has been for a year undriven and that is my biggest concern.There is no sign of crash but needs some paintjob to be done as there are many marks around.It fired up immidiately with a new battery although when cold the idle plays up and down.
The gearchange is great but the clutch needs a lot of power to push down.
I lifted the car to examine it and is really spotless,clean no oil leaks no rust,perfect.Inside everything works and the only bad thing is two cracks the dashboard has.I also made a compression check and all 8 cylinders showed 150.
I must mention that the price is extremely low for a 928 in Greece at 25k and with a full service,TB/WP it will reach 30k.
My worries though are the long period of time it was undriven(it really begs me to buy it and drive it home )
phew that's all.Thank you for reading all these and I look forward for any kind of opinions

Ispeed

If it was stored indoors, then maybe it's not so bad. You don't know how it was running before it was parked. I am not one of the experts, but to drain the gas and change the fluids is a good first step. GTs are rare anywhere, and if it is not too neglected sounds good. 928s sold here need things no matter if the seller says it's perfect. All 928s are a work in progress, so join the club.

Piet

Hi Ionislan,

Welcome and congratulations on your taste in cars. Most of the advice you need should be floating around in passed threads so do a few searches and you'll come up with some relevant info. This forum is packed with experts (seriously), especially the Americans around here seem to do everything on their cars themselves. Hope they jump in.
Anyways, the approach is based on personality really, I don't mind taking some riscs on cars and so far I have not been disappointed. First thing to do is to find out what maintenance has been done. If there's no history of for example a recent timing belt replacement, then first thing after you buy it, is having that done. Hell, I bought two that had some indication it was done not too long ago but I did it anyway.
Everything working inside is generally a good indication of proper maintenance. Little things creep up on a 14 year old car and if they are fixed that's a good sign. Other thing you'd be looking at is new tires if the car hasn't the moved over the last year. The tires have probably developed flat spots and you're certainly notice these. Had that on my current S4 and it was horrible. As far as seals drying out and so on I don't have any knowledge or experience.

Hope you get the info you need,

Piet
87S4

Airflite40

When you are quoting prices, what unit are you using? Just curious.

jon928se

Hi Ionislan

I assume the prices you are quoting are in Euros ?

If I am correct it would be much better financially to buy a 928 in France, Germany or Holland. Or even buy a Left Hand Drive 928 from the UK as LHD 928s are cheaper in the UK than in Europe.

18k Euros would buy a very good condition with low mile and full service history GT in the UK. As an example see
http://www.micropaq.org/928/my928gt.htm

Note - not mine and I have no interest in this car although I have seen it.

As Greece is in the EU I assume that there should be no restrictions on importing a 928 from another EU country ? (Apart from Right Had Drive cars from the UK of course.)

REgards

Jon
Black Slate Grey 91 GT

Nicole

Maybe we should export our cars to Greece? Just kidding!

Bu tsince Greece is part of the EU, would it not make more sense to get a car from Germany or else and import it? This way you'd have a lot more choices!

Storing the car for a year could have resulted in oil leaks - check throroughly for those. But if the car runs well, you probably don't have to worry much. the tires might have some flat spots, but that might go away when the car is driven.

Best of luck!

Piet

It is all EU but, as you can read in various threads, most EU countries have a strong political desire to determine how they tax cars. If I for example import a car from another EU country into Holland I will always have to pay at least 10% of what the original BPM tax (kind of tax on luxury) was on the car. In the case of an S4 from 87 the baseprice of the car was € 71500,- incl VAT. The BPM that was added to this car was a whopping € 25000,- bringing the price to € 96500,-. Importing an S4 would costs you € 2500,-.
This makes cartrade between certain EU countries not very interesting. Don't know about Greece but the same might apply. A great country for shopping for Porsches is Italy btw.

Piet
87S4

lonislan

Well the car was taken from the previous owner because he hadn't paid the taxes when he brought the car here so as you understand there is no issue of importing one from UK or Germany.Greece and Portugal are the only countries in the EU that have those stupid rudiculous laws for importing a car from abroad.Thats also the reason why there are so few cars at such high prices.
The prices are in euros by the way.
The most maintenance/repair work in the cars I owned is done by me(not major works though)and I know that the change of fluids,filters timing belt,WP is a MUST when you buy any kind of car, particularly in that one as there are no previous records on what is done till now.maybe,after all that period of time it is undriven, with new sparks and fuel the idle stops playing and the clutch softens with new fluids and some use.I know I'll take the risk and buy it
and share with you the bad(not many I hope)and the good stories that will come up.
Another strange thing by the way is that the sticker in the luggage compartment has the correct codes of the engine and the transmission but thats all.no option codes.nothing.blank.It doesn't have a sunroof too(???).Anyway,
thank you all for the response.I'll keep you informed...

lonislan

You are absolutely right Piet.The States and the UK are motoring paradises.in other countries things are pretty complicated and difficult...

Piet

Then again, at least in the Netherlands we don't have potholes What's the price of gasoline in Greece ? Here it's € 1,12 per liter. Another reason you see very few sportscars in Holland, same goes for Germany btw, very few Porsches there if you consider they build them there. Big diesels is the trend, wonder if Porsche is not allready working on a hightech diesel engine..

Piet
87S4

lonislan

The 95 RON unleaded is for 0,90 and the 98 RON premium for 1,10 euros.
I don't really want to talk about potholes..its everyones nightmare.

sweanders

Even though you have high taxes, always keep the Danish crowd in your mind.. They pay 180+25% (210%) on an imported cars value in tax.

Piet

I beg your pardon ? You mean if I buy an S4 in Germany for 10000 euro and want to import into Denmark i'd be looking at 21000 euro in taxes ? Strong Green Party is presume ?

My kingdom for a Porsche

Piet
87S4

lonislan

I wasn't aware of that sweanders.I thought we were alone in the "cursed" side.
The taxes for importing a pre 2000 vehicle here can vary from 200 to 300% depending the year.Thats why we are full of SLKs,AUDI TTs,S2000s,Subarus etc.
Great cars BUT..

lonislan

Yeap!!!