Brenden Burlison

I'm seeing a lot of ads for cheap $(1,000-4,000) 80's model(s) 944. I'm looking to buy something cheap, and work my way up in the Porsche industry. Would a 944 be worth my time? Would i have a hard time selling it? With 5 grand being my max budget, do I have much of a choice? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

odurandina

Honesly, no. The days of Porsche math working in your favor ended with the cheap air-cooled 911's which are no longer cheap. From about 2009-2015 you could throw darts at a wall and emerge a winner.

"I have a pile of worksheets dating back 15 years. The 944 line is one of the most expensive Porsche's to maintain....."
--A respected Porsche technician.

You can spend a lot of effort and money to make the math work. It doesn't. The cars are a premium to sort, restore and maintain in every conceivable combination. The money out might just as well be a check from Lart's shop for parting out to serve a small cult of enthusiasts (in their various stages of ownership) -- in effect making him an almost-new parts reseller. It's not easy selling a whole car.

There are a number of naysayers.... but a fair number of them are owners of non-running cars. If they drove them, the effort to keep them on the road would be considerably greater.......

Brenden Burlison

Thank you, so based off that, is there a good Porsche to start with, build up, and sell?

Rensb

I would agree the 944 (or any Porsche for that matter) is "cost prohibitive" to maintain. If you have to pay someone to do all of the work, you will loose your shirt. The same goes for if you expect the car to be out on the road, drivable all of the time. There is (or at least seems) always something to be done or worked on. If you are looking to "Flip" a car, I can't see how the math would work-out on that either. Most of these cars seem to require some amount of work from neglect or cheap "half-fixes" by previous owners. But enough of the negative. If you find something that was well maintained, AND you are willing (and have the space, time, and patience) to venture into doing some / most of the work yourself, then you can bring a car back to life. Will they appreciate? Who knows. But I can tell you I look forward to the summer days when I can take mine out of the garage. The "Have to" work is frustrating (extremely frustrating). If your dream is to have / resurrect an older car, it can be done (I have a lot of pride in my car, as I'm sure a lot of the owners that read this site do), but if your plan is to buy / sell / and trade-up into newer models, I don't see a path there.

Financedog

jeffro951

I have to respectfully disagree and here is why: parts are much cheaper than they ever have been and are now quite reasonable. The cars are appreciating as we speak so even though it is harder to find "cheap" 944's they are selling for more. I have personally been flipping 944's for the past 8 years and have been able to make enough money to put a down payment on a house! I currently have 8 944's and have had a total of 27 of them.
The trick is you must do all your own work and cannot count your labor only the money that you put out to buy and the parts you install. Always keep your emotions out of the equation when buy a car and only buy the car for what you can see. in other words if the car is not running and you cannot test drive then you must assume the worst that the motor and transmission are no good. I would buy an not running 944 with Fuchs on it for 500 and sell the wheels that afternoon for 750. then fix the problems wit the car and put whatever other wheels I had around like phone dials or cookie cutters and drive the car for six months or less and then sell the car for $2000! I did this at least 4 or five times in a row. It is much harder to find these deals but it is still possible. I just bought an 85.5 with Fuchs for $1200 and I will keep the wheels and resell the car for $1500 after I fix a few things. even if I just get back the 1200 I still have the wheels and I can sell those for 800 to 1000.
No that I have typed more in a forum post than I ever have I say heck ya buy a used 944! Feel free to ask me for any advice when doing so and I will be happy to guide you in the right direction.

Coloradoguy

My advice is to buy a time machine. Go back to 1995 and buy a cheap used 911.

Seriously, I bought my 86 for $6800 with 147000 miles and those much cheaper than that -- say, around the $4000 to $5000 range -- didn't appear to be in that great a shape.

Of course, I wasn't looking for a project to flip at a profit, and I have to imagine that the market for these cars is quite fanatic but unfortunately small.

jeffro951

LOL,
I wish I had a crystal ball back then... I had a few 911's and had to liquidate due to loosing my shop space. A year after that I heard a 66 sunroof 911 I had sold for 60K unrestored! I sold it for 2500 bucks

TJ993

Hi I just came across your thread.
My response: I would appreciate looking at your spreadsheet, the numbers.
My timing was good to jump on a 993 about 6 years ago.
This time was after bmw (To Me Means:Big Money Waster) ownership.
BMW is a Lead Weight like a rock skimming across a pond and sudden;y Bloop!!
Down Under for good.
In the early days I was extremely frustrated with the 993.
I love driving her.
I knew when I bought it that I could do a bit of wrenching.
I had never actually worked on a car before though :>)
Built a Motorcycle just prior. Frame Off Resto.
I am or was a suit guy.
Looking back, time and money well spent.
Thank You Rennlist. !!
Folks here are the best!!
I would love to compare notes. I kept a running tally on the 993
TJ

TJ993

What goes around, Comes Around
Ffrom what I read here, I would say:You are back!

Coloradoguy

Insert head smashing into brick wall emoji here.