944 Advice - Page 2

LateNightCable · 08-18-03, 05:44 PM

You sure? 928s' and 911s' seem practical enough to be daily drivers. I think the 924/944 catered to people who had never owned a Porsche before. They knew there was money to be made in the entry level market, especially since Porsche's image was particularly strong in the 80's. At least it seemed that way.

Back then everybody seemed to either want a Countach, a Testarossa, or a 911. Those were the dream cars.

thepolarfoxqx · 08-18-03, 08:07 PM

the 944 was the every man's porsche of it's day, and it deserves respect for being a good little performance car that felt porsche without the price. You could see the same logo as the guy with the 911 on your steering wheel, that was good enough. As a car though, i don't think 944 did the porsche name justice.

izzyloveslizzy · 09-13-03, 02:34 AM

Well, maybe not as much as the average Porsche-lover would have wanted. It was a great car. I'm looking to buy one, in fact. the only complaint I have is that it looks a bit too much like an old Mazda RX-7. That's about it. It's the only complaint I have. The price can't be beat, if you want a Porsche.

LateNightCable · 09-13-03, 07:34 PM

There is a general resemblance, but I don't think anyone who knows of either one by name would make the mistake.

PorschePlayboy928 · 09-13-03, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LateNightCable

There is a general resemblance, but I don't think anyone who knows of either one by name would make the mistake.

Thats a nice looking example, I think if I were to buy one it would be post 85.5 to get the new dash and other improvements. I would even think S2 so I got the Turbo style front and rear.

kleinefisch · 09-13-03, 08:54 PM

My father has had a 944 for a very long time now. It has held up beautifully. For a car that cost 30,000, it was a very nice car. The performance figures are pretty nice, especially 15 years ago. The handling is still better on that car than on most sports cars today (S4's and most MB's and the mid 1990's M3's). Its really very pretty in silver too.

LateNightCable · 09-13-03, 09:22 PM

For $30,000 I wouldn't expect a cheapo car, especially in the eighties.
I would have to disagree though on 944 handling being better that of an E36 M3 ( mid-90's ). That was, and still is one of the very best handling cars around.

jterp · 09-15-03, 02:56 PM

I think I'll have to agree with LNC on that .. I drove a '97 M3 yesterday -- the first time i've ever driven one.. the seller (who was riding with me) said I scared him

.. I wasnt scared though, that thing stuck to the road like glue...
As for the 944, they weren't balanced very well, were they?

kleinefisch · 09-15-03, 10:23 PM

They were a fabulously balanced car, something close to 5050 if I remember correctly. Since it is a front engined car, Porsche mover the transmission to the rear to improve balance. The '88 944 had a skidpad rating of .89 g's. Thats .1g worse than an '03 SL55 and .2g's under the '97 M3's rating (so I was wrong about the mid-90's BMW's). However its the same rating as the '89 Ferrari Mondial and the '89 Countach, and .2g's better than an '87 Testarossa. For 30,000, and today for 5) the 944 is a capable sports car. It is true that the top speed on the non-turbo model is 133mph and 0-60 is in the mid 6's, but for 5 grand, its an agile, fun little sports car. It also has a wonderful noise, especially for a four-cylinder.

jterp · 09-16-03, 02:53 PM

5 grand to buy, but to upkeep one costs on par with any mid-80's porsche-- which means expensive timing belt changes and tension adjustments, engineering that causes you to drop the whole rear suspension to get to the tranny, if you opt for the turbo model then you have to maintain the notriously finnicky turbos-- not to mention that no ordinary porsche mechanic today is trained to work on them, so you have to find guys who were fixiing them in the 80's and are still around today. (read huge per hour rates) It could be a neat car, but most of them have not been babied-- the ones that have been well maintained and cared for are for sale in autotrader for $15,000.... the ones for 5k usually need to have a lot of money dumped into them to make them right... I'm not trying to dump on the car-- i was thinking about buying one a year ago until i strated looking and found all this out..