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I went and checked it out today, the owner has had it for 9 years and was very forthcoming with any issues he knew of. It drove pretty well, although the shifter had a ton of play and it seemed to be running a bit rough, I feel like it needs a good tuneup. Oil pressure was good (started up at 5 bar and slowly decreased to 2 at idle, went up to 4-5 on hard acceleration). Timing belt was done 8 years ago so it's LONG overdue, oil was changed at the beginning of the season then halfway through every year, rotors were machined and seemed smooth and there were no vibrations under hard braking. Some things to note:
Pros:
Fuchs wheels
Running, driving, stopping
All electronics are working
Heated electric sport seats
Garnet red
Clutch grabbed well and all gears felt nice
Cons:
Multiple oil leaks (not a lot of room to look, but from what I saw - valve cover gasket, possibly front crank seal between the timing cover and the block, possibly oil pan)
Power steering leak, looked like the pump leaking or a line
Brakes need work, they felt quite light
Large rip on driver seat bottom
Exhaust leak
A number of paint chips and small dings, but only one small rust spot on the roof, I think someone dropped the sunroof taking it out
I talked price and offered $2800 (CDN), he's hoping for $3k but I think I could get it for my offer, I figure the wheels are worth close to that alone.
What are your thoughts? Thanks in advance everyone.
If you are looking for a project and can do all the work yourself then buy it. You’ll need a reserve of about $5k for parts alone to fix stuff during the first year, usual stuff that breaks or needs replacing on a 30yo car and wyit stuff that needs doing while you do other maintenance. Btw genuine 15in 944 Fuchs wheels, if they are straight, go for $800-1k, torn sports seats about the same if you wait for the right buyer, so you have a couple of k value there in desirable parts. To put it in perspective, if you put $5k into it you’ll have a nice car worth maybe $5k.
Can you do the work yourself? If not than take the projected $5000 needed for repairs and parts and add your $2800 purchase price to it and buy a nice 944 for $7800 that needs nothing. JMHO and YMMV
I'm mechanically inclined enough to tackle all the issues I listed between my own skills, write ups, and YouTube, at least the mechanical ones. The cosmetic stuff is another story.
From a pure cash flow perspective, even if it turn out to be worse than you think and unremarkable, the Electric heated sports seats (if in good condition) and the Fuchs might get you most of your money back.
If you don't want to deal with fixing the seats, I'd be willing to take them off your hands. As a favour to you.
Apologies for the thread hijack. Funny story about heated power sports seats.
I'm part of a group that built a turbo rotary swap into a 944 for the GRM $2018 challenge. In stripping the interior of that car, we discovered a pair of heated power sports seats. Suffice to say I vastly under-priced them,and the guy that got them eventually sold them to Lart, and Lart completely 're-did them and sold them for darn near more than I paid for my 951.
always regret not hanging on to them, but we needed the cash to stay under budget.
...Funny story about heated power sports seats....
Only Stuttgart can make "sports" versions of their regular seats that are designed to be heavier and make you hotter, just what you need on a sunny summer track day. My AMG "sports" seats had heat, cold, were 12-way adjustable, had 6 massage settings and each were as heavy as a Buick
Hahaha if I ever decide to part with the seats, you'll be the first to know.
I'm not going to make a new thread yet, the car will be going into storage for the winter in a few days so there won't be any updates for a while, so here it is in the meantime:
Not the greatest pictures but you get the idea.
I drove it for an hour to get it home and have discovered more and more about it as a result:
It runs rough, and feels pretty sluggish. I know it doesn't have a lot of power but it still felt like it was being held back somewhere. Once I do a compression test and it checks out, I'm hoping a good tune up will help. The hole in the exhaust probably isn't.
There's also some vibration from the drivetrain under acceleration in low gear; for instance I was in 5th going about 70km/h (1500 rpm) and when I pressed the gas pedal I noticed a bunch of vibration from the center of the car, maybe torque tube? No weird sounds or anything though.
The brakes aren't as bad as I remember from the test drive, they grabbed well enough for an older car, and there was no shudder or vibration under hard braking. I'm thinking some new pads and ss lines and I'll be good to go.
The tires are old and cracked and will need to be replaced, but it rode very smooth and took corners nicely, no weird creaks or rattles.
Overall it seems decent for the price ($2,900 CAD)
Forgot to mention, these seats get HOT with the heater on! I had it turned on for maybe 30 seconds before I was scrambling to get it turned off again, I thought I was going to burn myself.
Thanks! I'd love to dig into it but I have no place to work on it during the winter, so unfortunately I'll have to wait for warmer weather next year....
10-06-2018, 07:24 PM
Should I get it?
