944 is also ground-up Porsche. Engine is same heavy Reynolds aluminum, actually one bank of 928 cylinders. Good strong body. I prefer them for city driving. Perfect manners, better gearing. Very easy to get into one due to volume produced.

944 Turbo is nasty fast. We have one in my basement right now for intake rubber replacement. You don't need that speed for the street.

All of them require self-labor and considerable study of DIY.

928 is very cool, but take at least an extra half-order of magnitude deeper commitment.

All said, drive the Volvo wagon and be happy. I had a 69 Wagon (same basic box as yours) in early high school that did everything I needed. And stay here and read, a 928 might pop out of the woodwork and find you.

 

Huh, sounds like I could do with a 944 then! Give me a guesstimate on how much a good running one will cost me... Also the turbo is awesome, I would buy one but its too much money plus while I am a very good driver for a first year, I still think I'd slide off the road in a RWD car with that much boost... Just out of curiosity though, how much does a good turbo go for also?

The city driving part sounds good. I like the twisty backroads. The only bad part is that it is easier to get a ticket for 50 in a 25 in my (theoretical) 944 then to get a ticket for 80 in a 55 in my (theoretical) 928. This is assuming with a 928 I'd do my speeding on the highway where with a 944 I'd do it on the B-roads...

I will definitely be doing DIY on any car I get. Thats why I like German cars in the first place. My dad taught me this, he is an engineer and none of our cars ever visit the dealer, he does all the work. He will literally buy a car new, keep it over 10 years, and it'll never see a dealer unless it needs bodywork. I plan to learn from him as he can fix anything on any car, and he has the tools too. I have already done a caliper, rotors, pads, hatch trim, and tire rotation. I plan to do the odometer gear and the PCV when I have time as both need doing. In the meantime I can read the ODO from the car computer and I drive it carefully to avoid high revs stressing the PCV system.

Does the 928 really take more commitment than a 944? I always got the impression 944s were unreliable, don't know where exactly I got that from though. I also got the impression that 928s are crazy overengineered and bulletproof... Let me know your thoughts.

Also I just figured I'd add that I not only get the will to DIY repair from my dad, he is also where I get my love for Porsche and German cars. He had a 911 when he was 19 and I'd like to beat his record

 

Actually not the case...."944 is also ground-up Porsche. ..." It is a reskined 924 with a Porsche engine even the 968 still had many parts from the VW parts bin, not that there is anything wrong with that And as it evolved they did get away from super beetle suspension to a large exstent. Just look to the left and note 924/44/68 all share the same watercooled Forum because.........it is the same basic car !!! Designed by Porsche under contract to be a VW sports car using as many standard VW/Audi parts as possible which leads to all kinds of weird compromises....When VW pulled the plug Porsche asked them to build it for them and labeled it a Porsche since the hundreds of millions had already been spent on the design and it gave Porsche a cheap entry level "sports car" .

 

I put a LOT of miles on a 740 wagon, used it as a business delivery vehicle with teenage employee drivers, sold it to some friends who reupholstered it and drove for at least another 10 years. Easy 300k miles.

Michael Yount on the Mustang forum has a 240 with a 5.0L V8 that is sporty to drive.

I loved the styling of the 924, but those years of bad head gaskets killed the resale value so many ended up as beaters with tempting ad prices and yuck in person. When the 944 came out, I liked the look even more, but didn't fit well in the car at all. 944T changed just enough, smaller diameter extended I think steering wheel, and lots of go. Ended up trading my 81 928 AT for an 86 944T 5spd, loved it for 5 years, but didn't fight too hard to keep it at the end of my lease. Warranty was over, it was just starting to slip the clutch a little, and a big factor I didn't have convenient service.

Trouble is a nice 944 isn't cheap, and a cheap 944 isn't nice or cheap.

The 928 is just a very special car. I've seen some very nice 944's in the last few years, and some very tempting for sale, but its a clear step away from what makes a 928 special. A 944 might be a great car, but its not in the super car class like the 928.

 

Recent Popular Mechanics or Popular Science has a small piece on 80's cars that far outlived their expected service life. 944 was named as one of them. Cars that got a burst of new-gen (at the time) construction and quality design. Cars still operable or resurectable today, and for little money. (Thank god they didn't mention the 928.)

I've tried to cut a rocker panel out of a 944 junker. Took 4 hours with a recip saw. Super design, very strong box unibody construction, thick metal, galvanized. Yes, the suspension isn't near as well designed as 928, but its pretty good and simple. All parts are available. Mine isn't in great shape cosmetically, but I'd drive it anywhere. Just a thought. Don't want to beat it to death, they all have pros/cons.

 

CRUZER555 not sure i share you high opinion of all things german carwise.i think the build quality went out of german cars from the late 1990,s on. mercs vw audis bmws all give lots of problems.my mother has an 02 passat estate tdi constantly in the repair garage, different fault every week.currently has a turbo problem works for a few miles when cold then ecu goes on to limp mode??? (detecting over boost apparently)

 

^^^ What he said!

Been working part time at a German independent alongside the owner who is a formally trained Audi and Mercedes shop mechanic. The 80's stuff is very well built. The later stuff has been engineered so that its very expensive for the 2nd and 3rd owners to keep them on the street. And the parts have become modular, not easily repairable, proprietary -- some requiring dealership activation to replace.

And the list if fools that neglect timing belt intervals is thicker than a Manhattan phone book.

 

maybe the idea now is the german car and others has a 5 year life to keep the new ones selling fast? when i started driving in the mid eighties even 10 year old german cars were so much more expensive to buy than everything else.think i was driving 10 years before i could afford a german car.now in europe anyway you can buy a used top of the range mercedes for instance for next to nothing.

 

Bring a late model, long luxury mercedes into the garage and lift it. Say you are doing a car inspection or oil change.

One, if not all, of the corner air shocks will fail when car is lifted. Cheap crap. Cost is 1K per corner to repair, and you need to do all 4 corners. Rebuilds are possible, but what a mess. More than once the owner has driven off without the repair, only to have one of the front fenders drop down onto the tire while pulling out. List goes on from there.

SeanR could probably paint a more accurate picture, though, since he works on all of that stuff along with 928

 

True, but I believe to own a German car thats more than 5 years old you must repair it yourself. Then when stuff breaks its a cheap easy trip to the junkyard.

 

Thats a shame. My mom has one... (2002 S430) Luckily though I'm sure they are much more economical when you do the work yourself.

 

Yeah I am starting to like the 944 more... I think I need to test drive one.

 

^^^ 968, Coupe, 6 speed.

Interesting dialogue.

 

I do like those a lot more, but they seem a lot harder to find/more expensive...

 

Well sure... you don't want your quest to be too easy, would you? What's the fun in that!

Fixers/drivers may be had in the sub-10K range, and they're out there.