Landseer

The PO of our 86 treated it well, but tapered-down the dealer maintenance after about '98. His wife drove it around town for most of its life and it was completely intact when we bought it. Just needed all the standard 22 yr / 70K mi treatment, TB/WP/MM/OPG/intake rubber. Gotta respect folks for not thrashing and trashing a vehicle.

My son, when he went to get the title, said the guy had a 62 vette sitting under 1/2 inch of dust in his garage, next to a little helicopter. Money wasn't an issue,his wife was driving something else and the old red 928 was way out of style and tired. He was thrilled to put it into the hands of somebody wanting to save it. Said we gave him more than he would have realized from the kidney foundation for it, too. We actually stumbled onto the car, semi-abandoned at the dealership while the guy was contemplating (for a year) what to do with it.

Of everything, the most unexpected thing was (still is) the oddball detachment that the dealership guys had regarding the car. Similarly, there's a pair of 944s and a 951 sitting on the same piece of tarmac, the 951 for several years now, absolutely salvageable, but the dealership won't bother phoning a cash offer to the owners. I guess they only make money on the new car buyer and subsequent service, so they probably screen everybody on that criterion.

On another note, the dealer service guy bragged that they had a guy that was knowledgeable on 928's, so knowledgeable that he did a complete CE panel remove/repair for another customer, though it cost the guy about $1000. Hmmm.

shadowknight

The 928 I have now has changed hands four times. The last PO purchased the car from Ebay. In the four years he owned it he updated the factory carpet to silverknit, had the front seats redone and spent 8k on a paint job the only bone headed thing he did was replace the spare tire with an aftermarket stereo system. He did however take it to a well known porsche mechanic here in Tampa. When I purchased the car the owner gave me a folder two inches thick of reciepts. Even with all the maintence he did it had issues. Battery died within a week of not being run, HVAC sensors and vacume modules were bad. Leaky steering rack and oil filler neck. Door and hatch seals were in need of replacement, two different keys one for the doors another for the ignition. Drivers seat would not operate the list goes on... I have owned it for just over three years now and there is not a weekend that goes by that im not fixing something; last weekend motor mounts this weekend ball joints. I would have it no other way as crazy as that sounds I get a deep satisfaction of slowly bringing this car back to it's former self. If it was not for the great wealth of knowledge on this forum and vendors it would be a different story all together.

jpNcos

It seems lately that everytime I try to do something I'm running into something the PO screwed with. Latest today is cluster is completely messed up.
I planned to use Dwayne's write up to attempt repair but there is so much damage and missing pieces that I'm on the hunt for a new cluster.

James-man

Dear PO,

Thanks for not putting too many miles on the car. If the miles were low because you couldn't drive the car while in prison, well, I don't wanna know.

dbrown928

I think we need to be more proactive about negative PO issues. I just picked up a 78 Euro that has suffered a couple of years of harsh neglect. PO was a nice guy, just didn't know the cars and did not have resources for qualified service. The owner prior with was an enthusiast that maintained the car very well.

I propose a pre-sale qualification for potential 928 buyers. Similar to what the ASPCA does when you adopt a pound puppy. We could then ensure the next owner of any car we part with will have access to knowledgeable 928 maintainers and suppliers. I also believe a Rennlist membership should be a requirement.

dr bob

My car came to me from the original owner. with 22k on the meter and an inch of dealer receipts for everything done to it in those few miles. In my first year of ownership I had the joy of redoing just about every dealer repair done on it. The good news is that the car was and is unmolested. No cellphone or stereo wirng kludges, no extra holes drilled, and he kept it clean and tidy. Every would-be PO rant is really targeted at the local dealership guys who did mediocre work, and those are fruitless anyway. By now any blame for the way the car is rests solely on my own shoulders.