pjburges

Hi 928 guys,

One of my mother's life long friends has become terminally ill with cancer. She probably has about a month left. It was brought to my attention she had a 928 that she needed to sell. She had the car imported from Germany in 1979 (she even has the euro headlights in a box that the dealership switched to the DOT ones) and is the original owner. That said she quit driving it about 18 years ago. It's been sitting in a garage collecting dust ever since. It has phone dials - is a light blue-ish color and has the 5 speed manual. The odometer "she thinks" is around 80K now.

I have not yet looked at the car, and I don't know too much about 928s. She brought it to my attention because I've owned a couple 944's, and done complete rebuilds / restorations on both of them. She's interested in selling the car to someone that will give it a good home and not part it out. Somebody offered her 1000 for it and she was a little upset by the offer.

I'm not too sure what's reasonable as far as value. If these things are anything like the 944, it will immediatly need a water pump / timing belt job - although the 1979 euro may be non-interference? To be honest I'm tied up in944 and other projects and can't offer her too much money. It would have to be a back-burner project for me to get running time-permitting.

If anyone here on the list has a real interest in the car and might be willing to beat the 1K offer based on what I described - shoot me an email and I will try to get some more info / pictures of the vehicle.

Otherwise - any sage advice on whether or not I should take on a 928 project? Is this a special 928 worth owning? How will it compare maintanence wise to my 944?

EspritS4s

Well, it's kind of hard to provide any insight without more information, including pics, of the car. If it's a typical 80K miles car which was then parked for 18 years, then the 1K offer might not be that far off. The euro engine is slightly more desirable, but in '79 there wasn't much difference in HP between NA and ROW models.

On the other hand, if the car is in excellent cosmetic condition, you could probably find someone to pay $2-4K depending on the condition of the car and what options it has.

Yes, the engine is non-interference, but all that rubber sitting there for 18 years in a car that was just parked...

bronto

Yep, a "sound" one that isn't cosmetically thrashed and is presentable is probably worth $3.5k to $6K, a really nice one might get up to $10k, probably more like $7-$8k, a show winner whatever a buyer will pay. For a car that's sat for 18 years, it will probably cost $3k to $6k to have a professional mechanical refresh, assuming no serious problems. So from the buyers point of view, they are likely to sink $8k or more into it and probably not be worth any more than that when it's roadworthy. It really comes down to cosmetics.

karl ruiter

Its likely to need a timing belt, tires, and pretty much a whole fuel system: fuel pump, WUR, and fuel dist. Probably ignition wires and all vacume hoses. A battery, obviously. Front ball joint update. That's and easy 2K in parts, plus the labor. If she has gone out and run in once every few months or put fuel stablizer in it or something it might be much less. Or perhaps she will be lucky and the fuel system will be OK. Perhaps you could help her out by finding out what she has. Basically putting some fresh fuel in and trying to start it. If you head this way watch out for the rubber fuel lines that go from the chassis hard lines to the engine hard lines. The more that can be discovered and documented about its condition the more it might be worth. I recently looked at a '78 that needed paint and interior and probably a fuel system for $100. If it will run properly and the paint and interior are nice it could be worth $5k, perhaps. If it needs paint or interior work but runs properly it might be worth $1.5k to $3k. Not running, if it needs paint or interior work then the $1k offer is high.

vze2jshn

Dear pjburges:
Regarding your 944 projects--would you have a working Blaupunkt Monterey SQR 23 radio for sale at a reasonable price? Greg Heinrichs

Landseer

If its fairly clean and dry, complete and not rodent chewed and smelly, then you can never go wrong in my opinion anywhere less than $2500 as a top end, more appropriately less. Unless maintained or exceptionally well-stored, it won't bring much more in even in a well-publicized sale.

$1000, give it a good home, pledge that if you ever sell you will send every penny, net your costs, to charity on her behalf.

S4ordie

If she just "parked" the car, meaning she just turned off the key and it's been sitting there 18 years with the fluids still in it, I'd wager the engine is ruined or there is considerable corrosion throughout all the water passages. Reference Greg Brown's quest to find a good 85 block after discovering the holes in the cylinders in his son's car that had set around for a few years.

James Bailey

It is just a parts car at this point in time $10,000 away from being a $5,000 car.....none running 928s have little value.

EspritS4s

So, the owner should give the car away for free, or maybe pay someone to take it away?

James Bailey

Many do get donated to charities for that very reason.....

EspritS4s

True, good point.

Landseer

And a few people have made good money using that line to acquire and strip the value.

James Bailey

Value is an odd concept. Very hard to define. But I doubt I could get an SBA loan for a business plan based on buying old 928s for $1,000 spending $10,000 or so "restoring" and selling them for $5,000. Especially when you can easily buy decent running cars for less than $ 5,000. Rule of thumb for the salvage business is you need to get three times what you pay for a car to pay for the costs of running a business.

Landseer

I believe you, absolutely.

From the perspective of an individual hobbyist DIY guy, though, there is plenty of elbow room in the value equation.

This car may not be "worth" anything to the market, but to me, based on the limited description of this circumstance. it would need to be pretty bad to not be "worth" say, $1200 sight unseen. I might be able to add $3000 in parts and make it a DD car, or, worst case, engine is bad and rest can be sold, swapped or given to other hobbyists. Even if I net $1000 and loose $200, and give half of the stuff away free to friends, as a hobbyist it would be a great couple weeks of hunt and parts play. Well worth a $200 loss, even.

That sounds funny to me even when I read it.

bronto

Photos, and basic inspection please. All else at this point is speculation.