jwillman

Well I had Matt at TPWS do a PPI on the 1989 928S4 from the former Corvette country.

Mechanically she is sound except there are no service records and with 104K your looking at all fluids, timing belt tensioner at a minimum. She runs well and the auto tranny is good. AC is inop so that is another major repair.

Where the car really suffers is appearance. The paint p[aint is three diferent colors and the top coat is peeling from sunroof, and around rear quater windows. Hatch is completely faded but only piece with original guards red.
Body is good.

Interior is sad. Black leather seats are hard. Door panels are warped. Rear quater panels are warped. Dash has a warped plastic dash cover so assume the dash is also peeling.

So do i make a low ball offer considering it is a 89 S4 and bring her back from the edge or pursue the 1983 and 1985 cars with better paint but less get up and go?

Any recommendations for a paint shop in the Austin area?

Thanks
Jim

SeanR

When you say "timing belt tensioner" that makes me wonder who did the PPI. Lots of stuff in there besides the tensioner to be done.

Landseer

The 83 looked pretty good.

jwillman

As a newbie I am hitting the major items and maybe mixing models after all the reading over the last few weeks. I had been concentrating on OB's before this.

Matt at TPWS said he would lookm at all when pulled apart. Matt has a good rep here in Austin.

S4ordie

Unless you are looking for a many month project car and have lots of money, I'd walk from this car, more likely run.

pcar928fan

Sean,

Matt takes care of ALL my cars and owns and '87 auto and '85 5spd of his own. There is NO ONE in Austin that knows more about 928's than Matt.

Jim, offer them $7500 and see what happens maybe! An '89 is WAY more car than any of the others that you are looking at. You could probably do a decent though cheap respray (especially if you do some of the prep work by taking stuff off or taping stuff off for them) for $3k maybe (not sure I have not done anything like this in a LONG TIME, but you would have to look around to find that) and you could over time do an R&R on the interior with Paul Champagne stuff...that would be better than stock anyway...

Just my thoughts. I like the '89 cars personally. Now if the '85 has decent paint and interior and otherwise the same mechanically AND if it is a 5spd car, that would probably be the way to go... If the '85 is an auto, well I would probably take the '89 and slowly bring it back to life...

Keep us all posted.

S4ordie

James - that would make a very expensive car when done. $7500 purchase + $3500 deferred maint + $3500 paint + $5000 to $9000 for the champagne treatment = $19,500 to $23, 500 +18 month timeframe. There are some incredibly sweet restored or super condition original S4 and GT models for that kind of money. And that is assuming there is nothing significantly wrong with the AC or other systems. I'd keep my pennies in the bank and buy something much better for around $14k.

Of course this recommendation comes from someone who is totally over doing a car. Just depends upon what your desire and end goals are.

SeanR

Ahh, thanks James, must have been a communication error between him and the PPI payer. Just trying to cover all bases for him.

jwillman

Well the history on this car according to long time Austin rennlisters is it started out at $20K over a year ago. The dealer has since fell on hard times and let the car fall into disrepair. At this point they are just looking to get out from underneath it in my opinion.

Appears I am the most interest in a long time. My intent if I decide to make an offer is to offer well below their current asking price of $9500, and I mean well below. But having just seen a 87 928 currently listed in CA that looks to be 1000% better condition for less asking money they would have to take in the $3000 range for me to consider the car given all the work it needs.

Jim

pcar928fan

Jim,

Doubt they will come down that far. Heck, if you could get if for that you could probably MAKE $3k off the car parting it out... $1k on the brakes alone and all the body panels are good (though not the same color) and then the engine while needing a little updating would come out of the car and fetch $2500... Add another $750+ for the trans... Heck you are making money already! A working digital dash has got to be worth $500 if a penny!

Dan, I was not talking about a FULL ON PC interior. Seats, door inserts, center arm rest, shifter... What is that $3500 or so I guess...not sure don't have any PC seats at this point. So, $7500 + $3500 paint, +3500 interior work (maybe a bit more having a local guy work on the dash if even do it at all...same for the rear interior Q panels) and you are at what $14kish for a now VERY NICE '89 S4? You can do the work in stages too and hardly lose any time with the car. YMMV!

Same story is still true though Dan, there are some VERY NICE S4's in the $14k to $16k range...VERY NICE! BUT, remember THIS car would then be A VERY NICE S4 in the $14k to $16k range! Full on PC interior...yea, big money and GORGEOUS but do that to a car you intend to keep FOR A VERY LONG TIME TO COME!

Stephen Porter

I think that car (red??) was at $10-11K when I was in the market. They'll never take $3k for it and even if they did, I think Dan (S4ordie) makes very good points about the car. New paint makes almost any car crazy expensive if you do it right. So, even at $3K you might do better with the one in OC, or something like it. Keep us posted on the OC car, as it will be interesting to see how/if that one checks out. I like the color is nice and it looks to be in decent shape.

Or how about this one...it was at $14K a day or so ago, but it's creeping up now. Still, if it goes for less than $20K, it sounds like an almost perfect car.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

(And WTF am I looking at this for anyway!!)

danglerb

After looking at 928's for a couple years and following prices, my best guess is that selling prices reflect at best about 1/3 of the actual cost of needed repairs. Cars that need $15k of fixing, get there price reduced about $5k.

All Porsche's have fairly high "bottom" price, and its around $3k for an S4 regardless of what it needs.

Buy the nicest car you can find, or pay dearly for a bargain.

dr bob

Jim, Unless you are financially and schedule-wise ready for this kind of project, walk away. An owner who doesn't take care of the bic stuff is unlikely to take care of the small stuff. As others point out, you are looking at the the tippy-top of the iceberg.

Ron Perry's '90 S4, maintained by Greg Brown (stellar reputation with 928's) in black/black, is in the for sale section for just north of $11k IIRC. See https://rennlist.com/forums/for-sale...90-928-s4.html in the For Sale section. This was Ron's DD for several years. If you don't know Ron you have probably seen his work if you've been a Road & Track reader in the past. Keith W (GTS) and I did the WP/TB/Rollers & Seals on this car ay a clinic here a few years ago, so no worries there. The car is not new, but is in good condition and is very well sorted and has an excellent traceable maintenance history. And cold AC, not that it would ever be needed in Austin.

Downside is that you'd be forced to drive it home from SoCal. Suggestion: Make your arrangements now to attend Sharktoberfest in mid October, grab a ride over in one of the other Texas cars, and drive it home.

pcar928fan

I agree Ron Perry's car would be a better choice...

jwillman

Unfortunately black is absolutely my least favorite car color. Thanks for bearing with my search. I do appreciate the input.

Jim