Should I buy a 944?

[996driver]

I was considering buying one a few years ago, but I was persuaded not to by one of the Specialist Porsche guys. He said they were a 'money pit'.

I'd only buy one if there was massive background/history on work carried out to bring it up to speed. Otherwise it's too risky.

And I'm talking volumes of receipts etc.

That would have been my one when I sold it. Paid £2750 and spent around £9k on top doing all the work but that was mostly done by me so gives an idea what garage rates would have been!

 

[Wh1t3Kn1ght]

Yes let's see some pics

I do hope you were thorough with the rust inspection as others have said they can look totally rust free as the red menace loves to hide in plain sight. Doesn't really appear on the surface until it has gotten really bad underneath.

Did you manage to get it up on a lift or axle stands for a look underneath the chassis?

 

[nigel99]

Picked her up yesterday, my wife thinks I'm an idiot for buying it but has named it "red mist" so her position may be softening

I went out for a drive last night and absolutely love it. It is quick enough, compliant and pretty comfortable. It has the electric leather seats with heating. The air con isn't working so will need to get that looked at, but it drives really well and the gears are smooth. It has 104k miles and is on the original clutch.

I gave it as thorough going over, the best i could without ramps. I was able to remove the carpet in the rear and obviously had a good look in engine bay, wheel arches, sills etc. I couldn't find any rust on the body other than a small section on a wheel arch. Strangely, the brake booster looks like it is made of rust but there's nothing else rusty in the engine bay. The battery tray in the rear is also in good nick. In 2016 it had a full inspection with waxoyl treatment applied. That was the last time it was serviced with the cambelt & tensioner also replaced. It has only done 1800 miles since then. I'm going to have a full service done and replace all of the fluids and have the aircon looked at. After i know that the engine is good then i can target the cosmetics. It has an aftermarket cd player installed but I'll replace that with a more up to date version as well.

There are some cosmetic body issues, minor bumps, stone chips and scratches but I'm not worried about those. It's going to be driven and enjoyed. I've ordered the Haynes manual :floor:

I'd like ro recondition the battery, can I trickle charge via the cigarette lighter on a S2?

 

[Marky911]

Blimey you don't hang about. I thought my wife was impatient.. :grin:

Good result. Great colour. That will come up lovely. Keep the thread updated. :thumb:

PS. I love the S2 front end. 8)

 

[nigel99]

I'd been mulling it over for some time and then once I'd decided on a S2 this one came up on ebay and was only a couple of miles away from me. It had a good history, 10s of green MOTs and i liked that the same owner had it for so long. It was the only one i looked at, hopefully wont regret it! But so far so good....

 

[Wh1t3Kn1ght]

Looks very nice :thumb:

All 944s came with electric seats but I think heated ones are quite a rare option I believe :mrgreen:

You can't trickle charge via the cigar lighter / 12v socket, at least on my 90 Turbo you can't as it is switched off when the ignition is off unlike the 996.

None of these cars have working aircon :floor: I'm afraid and it can be a very expensive can of worms once you start replacing condensors (£250+), heat exchanger (££££) and compressor (£300+), the evaporator is fairly cheap compared at around £30.

Hopefully your A/C will have been working fairly recently as otherwise it will also require converting to the legal gas that replaced the old stuff - R12? (I've lost track as I think it changed twice since these cars were manufactured).

Most of us live without it but I've been looking at getting mine working again but there is always something else to spend the money on which is more critical :frustrated:

 

[isysman]

Good luck