RKD in OKC

What is this engine reliability issue that a GTS has versus any other 5 liter or bigger 928 motor, WHAT!?! Oil usage does not effect reliability unless you never check or top up your oil.

cali4sun

Neither

'89 S4 GP White/Black
'76 912e Silver/Black

Hilton

Perhaps it could be that the early GTS's (92/93) were the only 928's ever to require replacement of original rods per a technical bulletin? Porsche evidently felt there were some parts of the 92/93 GTS engine that weren't reliable :P

RKD in OKC

Wouldn't all of those 93 models with bad rods have failed and/or be replaced by now?

Rob Edwards

Those that were tracked or autocrossed, yes.

Range Rover

I'd take the GTS...but I'm biased.

cold_beer839

Users,....can't take them anywhere.....

SQLGuy

Having owned both... well, I used to have '93 GTS 5-speed, and I now have an '88 S4 5-speed... I like the S4 a lot, but I still miss the GTS and would rather have it back.

That said, the GTS was, IMO, a perfect color combo of Cobal Blue Metallic with Grey interior, and had 21K miles when I bought it. The S4 is black on black... the black exterior is OK, but not my favorite, and I don't care for the black interior much, though it's still better than blue or red (again, IMO).

So, my past experience, isn't exactly applicable to these two cars. The blue interior of the GTS you're looking at kind of bugs me, but might be mitigated with grey floor mats. The exterior color is very nice. 120K is still not a lot on one of these cars and the GTS is still 5 years younger than the S4, so, overall, I think it wouldn't need much more... maybe it would need less. The biggest factor for me is that there are so few 5-speed GTS's in the world. You can do a lot of cool things to the S4, but none of those things will make it into a GTS.

So, I'd go for the GTS.

RKD in OKC

Okay, just one more GTS picture...



Just because I like it so much. I've had a 90 GT and now have a 94 GTS.

Ispeed

I will say this: after buying my nice '87 S4 5 speed that looked nice and drove nice with working AC (113k miles) and proceeding to put $20k in parts and 300? hours of labor over the next 4 years to have a car as nice as the low mile car at Earl's... If I had to do it all over again I would spend ALL the money up front and get a pristine 928 with less miles (though 100k miles is just broken in!).
Any 100k mile 928 needs a lot of maintenance if it hasn't been done yet.

Of course a GTS has more going for it, but I want to be driving, not wrenching for 4 years.............

mickster

Hey Carl,
Just curious, how much of that $20,000 was spent on parts that were for "optional" items (stereo, wheels, interior redo) vs. absolutely necessary? Just curious. :-)

Michael

pcar928fan

Carl,

The car sure looks good now...that is why we always say, buy the best one you can afford!

Vilhuer

If I would have had chance to be at factory back in '95 to buy last new 5sp GTS I would have asked Porsche to leave engine out of car so that I could fix few issues. Other than those engine issues and missing 6th gear well optioned GTS is just about perfect.

Shark_Week

yeah a 6th gear would be real nice

fbarnhill

As far as the work goes, there seems to be 2 camps. One that is in heaven with a wrench in their hands and ones that doesn’t. I love working on my car, so doing the maintenance to me is better than therapy. I would rather do it myself and I know just what was done and how. I don't have to worry about taking twice as long to do it because I spent half the time cleaning the parts and the area around and doing the 'while you are in there' stuff. For those types of people, it s better to get one that has been cared for as far as the oil changes, tb/wp etc.. but needs the little things. Carl, I have to say that car is just gorgeous. I can only hope I can have my new 88s4 looking nearly as good in a year or so. In the last 20 years, I have bought 2 928s with low mileage and 2 with relatively high mileage, (over 150k when purchased) In 91 I bought a 79 with 65k miles. It was nice, the interior was perfect and it ran beautifully. The timing belt broke the weak after I bought it. I was visiting with a customer and it was embarrassing. When doing the tb/wp job I realized that almost all the rubber was dry-rotted and just crumbled in your hands. Replacing those hoses were expensive. I am talking about heater hoses; vacuum lines etc, almost all the rubber under the hood. It was supposedly stored inside... The second one is the 79 I have now that had 37k miles I bought in 2004. The first thing I did was the tb/wp, intake etc determined not to have a repeat performance. I bought all the rubber etc from Dave and Jeannie. Well, imagine my surprise when I found all the rubber soft and supple and I didn't even have to replace the boot on the tensioner. I literally didn't have to replace any of it. I am still confused as to why the rubber on it was so supple. So, it really does depend on the car. I took a good look at that 19k miles 88 and it is just beautiful. I could never drive a red car and love the blue. The reason I bought my 79 with 37k miles was to drive it for the next 20 years. I have 7 so far and it runs better now then when i bought it. However, there are always things that need to be done...

Best of luck, I really don't think you can go wrong buying a nice 928 except if you expect to make money on it when you sell it