black944 turbo

I daily drove mine for the first year I had it. It did just fine, as others have said you should have a backup just in case as things will need attention. It's probably not going to be any worse than your 924S though.

2bridges

Street driving 944 a few weeks/months, and a "daily driver" are vastly different.

A daily driver is the car you absolutely RELY on to provide your most critical transportation needs no matter what. (work,errands,emergencies) This is the car has to make it to the job interview, the airport for business trips, son to the doctor, etc.

By MOST peoples standards a 20+ year old 944 turbo is about as far as you can get from a good candidate for a modern reliable daily driver.


Parts availability alone put them into the secondary car/toy category.

Tedro951

John, I'm looking for a satellite image of your house as we speak! Actually, I rebuilt all my PS system and it appears to be leak free, but it only has 20 miles on the rebuild. Still torn down for paint, now. Should be completely red within a few weeks of returning from the big airshow (EAA Airventure).

As far as DD, I put 10K miles on mine before I smelled the cam housing. A few months later I could see the smoking. 367 individual parts and a year and a half later, I'm getting close.

ehall

By daily driver I mean just that. It's my primary car...no back up. I drive it everyday. I drove the 86 everyday. Now drifta 944 drives it about that much.

2bridges

HAAAAAHAHAHA!

Well hats off to you. You are not in the "most" category. Must be the marine intimidation factor keeps it in check.

My stock 80K mile car was a nicer car than all but a select few 944s I have ever seen. Even so it was still an absolute basket case for first several years I owned it. After 10K and hundreds of hours finally got it good and reliable, but even then I would not bet my job on it.

ehall

lol. no intimidation. I whisper sweet nothings at it and take very good care of her. I also pay very close attention and run only some basic mods.

ryanm6100

I've daily driven my 86 for 3+ years with very little issues.

Full disclosure: It's at the shop as I type this getting the exhaust manifold replaced, but this is only 1 out of 2 total times that I've ever had to leave it at the shop overnight.

Cole

Hell, my 2000 Audi S4 was harder to get part for when it was only 2 years old. It's still sometimes harder to find parts. It was down more than my 951 too.


I've had to wait for up to a week for parts for brand new cars. The 951 is actually pretty easy to get parts for. Most of them can be had within a day or two if not sooner depending on your local shop.

86 951 Driver

This will most likely be my #1 car. I will be letting my GF drive the Jeep daily and I would drive the 951. I do have a motorcycle that I was going to ride more often as too keep the mileage low on the 951. I live only 6 miles from work so it won't be getting more than 20 miles a day unless I get lost and drive for hours. My 924S had didn't have too many problems. It needed the engine rebuilt as it was tired. Any car with 250,000-300,000 miles will be like that. When I needed to run and start throw it on the battery tendeizer for about 2-3 hours and we were ready to roll.

2bridges

get real man

try to find any of these in 2 days:
wiring harness?
new/rebuilt torque tube?
factory new KLR or DME?
assembled short block?
new/rebuilt transmission?
trans cooler loop?
spring plates?
new control arms w ball joints ?
M030 spindles?

I can list literally hundreds of items you can't get in 2 days, and a ton you will only get used no matter what you spend. Then you have to gamble the used parts are better than what you have.

Feel free to explain how that is easier than going to the dealer and waiting a week for S4 parts?

Van

Oolfa. That must be slow. (but good gas mileage on the highway!)

V2Rocket

really doesnt feel that different. i mean, a little, but the nice tradeoff is that you can go faster in each gear. i used to have to hit 3rd to get on the highway; i can do it in 2nd now with some gear left.

TheLlamaGod

i drive my car everyday. only had to take it to a shop once for rear axle replacement.
but its never let me down. always gets me were i need to go.
its been my only car for over 2 years and it has 123k on it now.

Cole

Get real?

How often do ANY of those items fail and need replaced IMMEDIATELY?

wiring harness? Who has had a spontaneous complete harness failure? Maybe after a fire, but you have more to work on than the harness then.

new/rebuilt torque tube? When have you seen a spontaneous instant complete failure of a torque tube in a street car. Most people that need a TT rebuilt will know for MONTHS if not YEARS that it needs to be done. Not goign to leave you stranded.

Bought 3 of them locally within a week here for less than $100 total to get enough bearing carriers to do a rebuild. Waited 2 days for new bearings. Rebuilt and swapped into the car


factory new KLR or DME? Used ones are a dime a dozen locally here. How often do they REALLY fail? Most of these cars have 150-300K on them. Guess what? They were running during all those miles

assembled short block? I know of 4 right now in town. How often are these being replaced? See above.


new/rebuilt transmission? How many instant complete trans failures are there REALLY? Most people that will need a rebult trans KNOW IT FOR A LONG TIME. They know their syncros are going out, etc. Spare trans are easy to find and have rebuilt while the failing one is still in use.


trans cooler loop? Easy to run without one, since most of the cars come without them.


spring plates? Have these left you stranded? How often are these replaced?.....ever?


new control arms w ball joints ? Instant control arm failure? Rebuild kits can be had in a day. Easy to rebuild.



M030 spindles? Seriously? Come on. You said "get real". The REALITY is that most of the parts people NEED for these cars to keep them in daily driver shape are easily found within the required time frame. That is the truth.


....and FWIW on my Audi it sat for 4 months out of commission waiting for Borg Warner to produce more STOCK turbos and send them to Audi for a WARRANTY repair.

86 951 Driver

I'm not expecting a civic and I know these cars will require maintenance. But as long as you keep up with that will it be a good car to drive to work at least 4 times a week about 20 miles a day total.