Panzer966

Hey guys, I currently owned 2 Porsche and I was commuting with my wife in the macan. Our situation has changed and I will need my own commuter, my 911 is out of the question, but I have been looking at other sports car to double up as commuter and auto cross car. Now I stumble onto a nice 1990 944 S2 with 136000 KM (84k miles), its a 2 owner car mostly garage kept, assuming maintenance was done, could it be daily driven, about 40km a day? Also are those model fairly reliable? Do the sunroof tend to leak? What is the longevity of those power plant?

Thanks guys

911Königin

Absolutely, it can be a DD ~ am assuming you like manual

Spring44

Yes it can be a DD. Mine has been driven to work daily, on errands and on long road trips since it was new and it is great. In fact, they do better if they are driven on a frequent basis and they accumulate fewer problems that way.

My '84 has 140-some thousand miles and uses no oil between changes and makes no smoke. These are strong little engines and will probably last a quarter million miles if maintained properly. They don't like long periods (years) of inactivity! The worst thing that i ever did to mine was to store it for 7 years. It took a lot of effort to put it right, but now it runs great again. I wouldn't hesitate to take it on a long road trip right now. Good handling and brakes and comfortable seats too!

Never had any trouble with my sunroof. it still works fine and has no leaks. I did replace the sunroof seal once back in the 1990's, however. If you keep the drain lines clear a little leakage won't matter. They weren't designed to be absolutely watertight or they wouldn't have put drains on them.

Dan Martinic

I've been driving my '88 951 ten years pretty much daily and have put over 160,000 Canadian kms. The problem is when you do need to do some service, you will lose it for a period of time. This is due to diagnostics--old car issues are not the usual book-type issues--and waiting for parts. If you do the work yourself, you'll need time to learn and gather tools on top.

I have access to my wife's car when needed

Panzer966

Yes it make sense. We do have 2 other cars, it would be fine.

Panzer966

@Spring44 Thanks, yeah my biggest worry was the high mileage on the engine. I'am worry it's gonna give up at 200k or something being a 4 banger.

Dan Martinic

In that case, if it's in good shape, you're good to go. Great commuter car: makes the daily grind palatable.

Being a four cylinder has no bearing on longevity. A visit to Europe or Central America and you'll see mega-mile 1.5 litre fours still banging away pulling pickups. Design flaws, poor materials--these are the mechanical failure issues. Luckily, our cars don't have too many of these; it's more a matter of rubber, paper, plastic, solder joints, and other age-wear materials that cause problems, being thirty years old.

Sitting around for extended periods only exaggerates these issues.

Daily commuting will leave you with just the usual wear maintenance for an internal combustion engine.

Which is to say, a lot.

culture

the short answer is yes. the more accurate answer depends on how well the car was/is maintained before/after you buy it