I think it's about time I introduced myself after lurking around this forum for a few months.

My name is David, Canadian living in Tokyo, bought a 1990 S4 in April. Car is in very good shape, currently has almost exactly 80,000 km on it, and after working out a few kinks with the dealer during a three month warranty period after purchase (I was lucky to have that!), it currently has no problems other than some squeaky brakes that drive my wife crazy (I'm going to take care of those in the new year).

The maintenance service here in Japan is excellent and the place I am dealing with knows how to deal with the 928 properly. The previous owner spent a whole whack of money replacing all of the known major problems with the 928 S4, only to then upgrade to a GTS. That's what sold me on this one, as it has been well taken care of. Only major updrade I had to do was to replace all of the speakers and stereo (had to have the speakers custom made) as there is nothing worse than an awesome car like this with tinny sound!

I'm here for another year and a half, after which time I hope to bring it back to Canada. We'll be living in Ottawa and need to start thinking about finding a mechanic who can work on it there.

In the meantime, here are my impressions of the car after a few months of driving it:

- The mile long doors and fat rear end, not to mention that you can't see the extremities of the car from the inside, make parking in the very tight spots in Japan a challenge to say the least.
- The car hates Japanese traffic jams and narrow Japanese traffic lanes.
- The car loves Japanese superhighways, blasting through mountain tunnels at very illegal speeds. This is very much a highway car, as I've noticed that the car only truly comes alive and starts to sing at speeds above 140km/hr.
- I can drive it all day over great distances and not feel tired, only dissapointed that the drive is over.
- It handles high winds exceptionally well, remaining firmly planted at speed when other cars are getting blown around (I noticed this the other day when driving by the ocean on the highway - the "wind socks" on the side of the highway were blowing madly but 928 not affected).
- It still looks better in my opinion than anything else on the road, and continues to surpise me when I see it from an angle I haven't seen before. My eyes never get tired of it.

Below are a couple of shots of the car, second one with my wife on a car trip we took at Christmas time.

Hope I can count on you all for advice and assitance! I intend to keep this one for a long while, and with only 80,000 km, I think things are just getting warmed up!

 

Welcome..nice car!

One the top 3 reasons i love it also.

 

Please make sure the flex plate was checked, the Automatic cars end up with Trust Bearing Failure (TBF) if the tension hasn't been released, resulting in a cracked engine block.
Do a search on TBF and flex plate, I would put it on top of the list along with fuel lines.

Nice looking car and welcome to rennlist.

 

Love your new ride and the landscape looks great to. T

 

Are you a friend of Pablo (Dan)?

 

That's a very beautiful example - congratulations! I totally agree about the stability under cross-wind. I have never driven any other car that seemed to get more stable with higher speed, no matter how badly the wind blows. By comparison, the RX-7 I used to own in Germany needed two or three lanes on the Autobahn at speeds of 140 km/h and up.

 

I noticed that too.

Welcome to the club.

 

Thanks for the warm welcomes.

As for the flex plate / thrust bearing failure issue, I was not aware of that even though I read plenty about the 928 before and after purchase, so thanks! I was thinking of taking the car in after the new year holiday to get the oil changed, deal with the sqealing brakes and otherwise general maintenance, so will mention this to the mechanic. Hopefully I can figure out a way to explain "thrust bearing failure" in Japanese!

I don't know Pablo / Dan but if he is in Tokyo or somewhere else on the main island of Japan I'd like to know as I'm all alone here right now in terms of other 928 owners.

Here's another pic I took earlier in the year. The car has seen its fair share of mountains and ocean here in Japan and I intend to keep driving it as it was meant to be driven!

One other thing I didn't mention is that I am a diplomat - the plates on the car are diplomatic plates, meaning ... yep ... diplomatic immunity from speeding tickets and gas taxes! Good situation to be driving a 928, I'd say.

Happy New Year and thanks again!

 

welcome to the addiction...bring it back to Canada.
We should have a 928 get together going by then.
I like to get all the fellow toronto and surrounding owners together for a monthly 'cars and coffee' meet.
enjoy!

 

I'm happy to go to Markham anytime, if for no other reason than Markham Ontario has the best Chinese restaurants on that side of the Pacific!

 

Very nice car, and WELCOME!

 

There are plenty of pictures to be found that will help in the translation of the "thrust bearing failure" search for "proken clamp" or "super clamp" beware that none of these are dealer items but upgrades develeped by fellow addicts of the 928.

"diplomatic immunity " > can you assign deputies?

Happy motoring 928 Style in Japan best for 2011

 

Diplomatic immunity.. that's awesome!

Your observations about the car are spot-on. Stay safe and enjoy the ride!

 

Welcome & nice car...congratulations!

 

I agree, and welcome.