It just so happens this car is local to me. I think I will let him start to come to the conclusion that he's not getting 6K on his own, and then if I am still considering that car, I'll go check it out in person. From the pictures, it has decent paint (respray) and he claims it drives well (should be easy enough to verify). But I'm not going to rush into anything. I hope lol..

 

After a month of reading this forum, I decided I wanted an 86.5 and bought a beater for <4000. I did the absolutely obligatory maintenance immediately (TB, WP, fuel lines) and it has been my DD ever since, @ ~11K miles/yr. Between yearly oil changes it uses <1 cup of oil, it has never broken down, I take it on long trips without qualms (and that kind of statement is called hubris- I know, I know...), and so far I have put >60K miles on it. I told myself if I drove it over 50K and still liked it, I would restore it (to a 99% functional level, less on the cosmetics). I started that last year with a suspension refurb, next A/C, next may be engine out (I don't think you can address wire harnesses and general problems without doing that).

I bought it because of all the usual reasons, plus I really like mechanical work and have a decent, but small, collection of tools and shop equipment. I am posting this because although I do not disagree with any of the comments above, they pretty much don't apply to me. I think my story (and there are a bunch of us here I believe) is the other side of the coin, if you will. I love driving this thing (in my grandfatherly way), I am delighted with its engineering (mostly), so in sum, it gives me a hell of a lot of pleasure. To each his own, YMMV, and in any case, good luck!

 

If you REALLY want a 928, then buy one. If you're buying one because you can't afford a 911, then I think you're making a mistake on two fronts:

1. You really want a 911, not a 928.
2. You think you'll be able to afford a 928 somehow because you can't afford a 911.

Regarding the particular car in question, don't even consider it at anywhere near that price. Much better deals to be had right here on RL, they come up all the time.

Would also recommending looking at as many 928's as you can. No need to jump on the first one you see. Its not like they are super rare or anything, especially in your price range.

 

I don't know that I REALLY wanted a 911. I just want a cool vintage performance car with a good pedigree that I can play with. It's not really the lifetime cost I'm worried about, it's the "buy-in cost." I started looking at options when I saw what they were going for, and the more I looked at the 928, the more intriguing I found them. God, that ROAR! :-)

Good advice on looking at a bunch of them. I never see them driving around, but there certainly do seem to be a number of them for sale at any given time.

Martin...very inspiring story...that gives me hope that this might not end in disaster after all :-D

 

Bureau, where are you? You may be near a Rennlister who owns one that runs.

 

I'm in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area

 

There are some basic costs of the cars that need to be considered unless you plan on never driving it. On cars as old as these, you have a lot of age-related deterioration of rubber bits. Fuel lines, coolant hoses power steering and oil hoses, plus brake hoses, suspension bshings, steering rack boots, tires, and then stuff like door seals and ac actuator diaphragms. The initial buy-in cost for just the safety/reliabilty part of that list is around $5k for parts. The early cars with CIS injection require someone with knowledge of that system to work on, and they offer no forgiveness to the effects of storage. So if you are comforable with a known minimum of $5k for parts for making it a safe driver, before going after other major issues, cosmetics like the interior, etc., the 928 is a perfect car for you.

The 911's higher market is a self-feeding process. It's easier to justify a big maintenance cost knowing the resale market is there. There are more people who claim to be able to work on them, and with more cars on the road the parts are a lot more common. The 928 was a more expensive car in any given years, with parts and maintenance proportional to that difference; the apparently lower buy-in cost of many 928's has no relationship with the costs of ownership, except that the lowest-cost 928 to buy can easily be the most expensive one to own. Paying $5k more up front for a better well-sorted and maintained example would be an incredibly good investment relative to a non-running 'project' with no spending end in sight. Amazingly, this exact same advice applies to 911's. A local 928 ownere here found a real bargain on an way undermaintained 911, but quickly ran up more in catch-up costs than he would have had in a better example from the start. I'd love to have a 911 in the garage, but to get one with the same GT driving ability means a 991, and the buy-in for a good used one of those is 3-4x my 928's replacement cost.

Realistically, there's no such thing as a cheap Porsche regardless of the model. Pay now, pay later, or both. If you want a reliable driver you would not be embarrassed to show up in at the country club anyway.

 

Welcome to the tank!

Sounds like you have your head screwed on straight - don't mind the posters above, all intentions are good and we just hate to see a 928 killed by an unsuspecting owner who gets in too deep and then either destroys the vehicle or parts it out in an attempt to get out cheaply

Go here and get the manuals

 

What are you looking for?
What are you looking to end up with?

A fun to drive, unusual car?
A reliable one?
A show winner?

Figure out the answers to those questions first.

Any "affordable" 928 will have issues.
You have to decide what issues you need to have "good at purchase" and which ones you can fix and which ones you can live with.

Paint will be most visible and most expensive to fix.
Interior is second.
Mechanicals are third, but are most important for actually driving the car. And have the potential to become expensive fast (Timing belt on an interference engine is a good example).

In my case, I wanted a car with the important mechanicals in good shape. Interior was second, exterior last.
So I have a car with solid mechanicals, but it had a lot of minor issues (speedo & odo, window & seat switches, sunroof operation, and on and on) a decent interior that needed a bunch of minor stuff (empty speaker & head unit holes, missing *****, seats needed dye touchups) and an exterior with dozens of chips & scratches, a bunch of small dings all over (something fell across the hood) and a dent/scrape the size of your fist in the back corner.

I drive it on a regular basis. It is reliable as it can be. As a matter of fact, I put ~4500 miles on it a couple weeks ago taking it from Wisconsin to California and back. Amazing trip.

It just looks like crap up close. It will never win any car shows.
And I'm fine with that. I love how it drives. I didn't get it to impress people with how it looks.

And I paid far, far less than a similar (mechanical) car that looked a lot better went for shortly after I bought mine.

As I said at the top, you have to decide which factors are important to you and get that sort of car.

Once you've got it, the folks on here will be an invaluable resource for fixing it and keeping it running well.
The "usual suspects" (Big 4 Vendors - in the sticky) will have all the parts you need for it too. And can provide an amazing amount of advice too.

 

^ I said there were more stories like mine here...

 

Economics and budgets be damned - that green pascha 78 is a sweet and rare 928.

 

I bought a non running 1979 a couple years ago, put a new starter in and it started right up, that was the beginning of last summer, some linkage problems arose and were resolved (mostly lol still need to put the new rear coupler) But in 2 years I only got to drive it twice so far and limped it home both times. She still needs some work but I've came to the realization that it will probably always need something at least for awhile. I don't regret the purchase at all and like you I dont have much mechanical experience but it's been somewhat fun and definitely rewarding trying to figure out and fix the problems. This forum has been a huge help and the members don't have a problem helping newbies and answering even dumb questions lol.

 

I like that car for something in the 3K range. It looks like the door lock surround is green, when it should be black or chrome. So that points towards a not so great repaint, which means you will want to have a very close look at the quality as a bad paint job is a bad place to start out with a project car. Pasha and green are both nice in the interior, but may be hard to repair. Some of the Pasha colors are not available and I suspect you are going to be dying vinyl to try to reproduce that color. Above, or even at 3K, I think you can do better it you continue to look. Especially where you are. Lots of 928s in the Florida area, I think.

 

If you buy a car that seems to need a lot of work - it will most likely be a lot more work than you expect plus a lot of money too - and after a lot of time invested you will have a car that isn't worth much more than you paid. It will still likely have many remaining minor issues that you probably won't really be happy with but can't seriously justify investing more in... then you will likely start over with another better car...

Every now and again you will see a really well maintained car, with decent paint, some with rennlist collective knowledge and maybe even records at a good price.

I would submit that its worth waiting a while for a car like that - so you won't end up dissapointed. In the mean time try to drive some well sorted 928s of various years and get a feel for what your minimum requirements would really be - no point working towards a long term goal that won't satisfy you when you get there...

It terms of how soon you will really be on the road and enjoying it - this strategy might not make as much of a difference as you think.

Alan

 

How about

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Porsche-928-...US_Cars_Trucks

...Also in your area and a whole lot more car for the money.