My 87 928 has over 222,000 miles (never rebuilt) and have ran time trials at Willowsprings, Laguna Seca and Buttonwillow and have driven it to Ely NV and ran the Goldrush Open Road Race and the Silverstate.

The Gold Rush is 110 miles and I averaged 120 MPH and at the Silverstate which is 90 miles I averaged 130 MPH with a top speed of 154 both time drove it home...Oh and it is also my daily driver. I put 100 to 150 miles per day on it..
When I purchased the car I bought it with 181,000 miles on it but really didn't care. I purchased it because of the suspension for running open road races. I figured that the motor would go and I would drop a Chev engine in. Well the motor doesn't burn a drop of oil, it is a capable car on the road courses, and I love the sound of the engine with gutted cats and little itty bitty mufflers even though I have been black flagged at Laguna Seca.

Gary Foster

 

I've always used the maintenance records to validate the mileage..

If no records I drop off my short list.

Is this a good approach?

thanks for all the feed back :-)

 

I used the maintenance records to validate the mileage on mine - most dealers post both date and mileage on service, and the records I got provided a consistent record of both.

Doesn't eliminate the rollback concern, but helps.

At 97K, I have been astonished at the good condition of the engine internals. I heard pre-purchase from the list that mileage was not the primary concern, and I agree completely.

Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance.

 

IMHO mileage on a Porsche is irrelevant. It’s how regular and by whom the car’s been maintained that matters. And if you know the car’s been on the track frequently – even better, because cars that have been sorted will generally give less hassle on the road.

Garage queens on the other hand could be very problematic once you start using them like sportscars.

 

CarFax can give you mialage. It will list where and when it was titled and what the mialage was at the time.

 

I used a combination of Carfax and Porsche dealership/owner service records to validate the mileage on my 88S4 before I bought it 2 years ago with 69k on the odometer. It was a one owner car and somewhat of a garage queen so it was not a difficult trail to follow.

I think just about all exotic cars have had the odometer rolled back, especially the mid 80's and early 90's Ferrari's. Sophisticated owners have switches to shut them off because of all the weenies that want no mileage cars. Take any car at the Auto Toy Store in Ft. Lauderdale and put it in the air and you'll see a different story than the odometer would suggest.


K

 

Also remember that if the car is over ten years old, it will say exempt on the title under the miles section. If it has an old title , it will be off by a couple years. And last, carfax sucks. It DOES NOT report the cars complete history. Carfax is only good on newer cars. I have had and sold crashed cars with a clean history from Carfax. You must check the records one by one. You might need to take them home to really check them. If the seller does not give you ample time to check ALL the records, he must be hidding something.
I think that the 928 is the most important car to have records on. You can very easily spend more on -fixes- than what you paid for the car. Not a car for amateurs. You really have to know what you are getting into.

 

Just my .02 cents I consider my 78 to very low miles just rolling over 116K. IN FACT 928 BRO. WHEN MY SPEEDO QUIT I MADE SURE OF THE MILAGE SO IT READ EXCATLY THE SAME WHEN I GOT IT BACK. Guess I must be that .01 % I also have one complete filing cabinet of reciepts through three past owners. This goes to 1982. Don't care one way or another because I may never part with my car.

 

928 Bros., our '89 shows appx. 68k miles and everything about the car supports that. My only concern is that it was delivered new in Toronto and I believe the pod was removed during export to the states to exchange the metric (km) speedo display for a mph display. Is it likely that the mileage was changed (electronically?) during the swap?? TIA...ron g.

 

Well, that's bull. The pod should NEVER be removed. I have never heard of anyone removing to change from km to mph. That's a great story but, you should not swallow it. For example, all euro cars in the US are metric. They even read in german not english. No one has changed them.

If someone has removed your pod for any reason it's been clocked back, no way around that fact. That said, forget the miles. The condition of the car is the most important thing. If the car truly has only 68k, it should be PERFECT. It should even smell new. 928s are not like normal cars. A 928 with 68k is like a lexus with 20k not one one with the same 68k. As I said, it should be showroom perfect in every way.

 

Mine now has 66K. It looks like a car with 66K. Other than the regular stone marks all cars recieve; the exterior (Moss Green Metalic) is almost perfect (not even a door ding). The interior is in very good condition (Beige). The seats are a cloth/velour/leather combo. However, there is a seam on the drivers side (verticle and facing the bottom of the armrest)that could use 3 inches of restitching.

The interior almost smells like a VW Beatle (if anyone remembers what that was like).
As for the mileage; it matches.

Not bad for a car creeping up on 18 years old!

 

My odometer stopped working in 2004 showing 164000 miles and I'm posting this in 2015. Around 2003 @159k I replaced the timing belt, (the original belt was replaced @100k). + 1 clutch + 1 alternator + motor mounts + tie rods + hoses+ master/ slave cylinder + crank sensor + fuel pump+ maintenance parts. I do record my gas purchase so by multiplying total gas x 15 my total miles is around 180k since I drive less than 2000 miles per year as a weekend car. I use 20w- 50 mobile 5000 non synthetic oil in Southern California. Lighter oil causes lower oil pressure. My timing belt is 12 years old but it does not scare me since it has less than 25k miles and garaged. If time is a factor, then buying a new belt sitting in storage for 5 years should be avoided. Gates mentioned it's OK to install a new 8 year old timing belt and has no longevity effect.

 

Sorry to be snarky, but: M-I-L-E-A-G-E.



My 86.5 and 87 both have > 200K miles and are still going strong. Just check out Roger Tyson's avatar to see how many miles you can put on a 928.

It has nothing to do with mileage, and everything to do with proper maintenance. A car with only 45,000 miles that has been sitting in acidic coolant in a barn for three years and the original water pump and belt isn't going to be any good.

 

My 82 has 90K now and through DMV records, you can see the registration mileage.

It would be very difficult to explain why the car 50K miles on the odometer, when the records say otherwise.

I second the opinion of sitting is bad. The 82 sat for 13 years covered in a heated garage with 83K miles. All the rubber was rotten and the head gaskets were in very sorry shape.

In my case, there is no component on the car that rotates, is oiled or requires periodic replacement that has more than 7000 miles on it.

So is my car a very low mileage example?

 

Modern cars reach 200k miles without much fanfare (four in my family, one is a Jaguar.....)

The 928 was far ahead of its time and for them to reach 200k and keep chugging with just "as-needed" maintenance isn't out of the question.