im considering buying an 85' 944...does anyone know:

what goes wrong on them?

are the repairs easy or easy to work on?

how expensive are the parts/how hard is it to find replacement parts?

im 18 yr old chick...i dont know anything about cars....itll be my first car


thanks a mill

 

First of all, welcome to the forum!

As with any car, any & every thing could go wrong on them!

It depends on what's gone wrong to determine whether it's an easy repair or not & your mechanical skill.

It also depends on what part you require to determine whether it is expensive or hard to find.

Having said that, if it's been looked after, the 944 is a well built car & a perfect introduction into Porsche ownership.

If you do decide to buy one, buy the best one you can afford and due to you "not knowing anything about cars" get a qualified mechanic to check over any pertentual purchase!

Good Luck!

 

18 years old, don't know a lot about cars. Run as fast as you can from a 944. If you can't do the work yourself to keep it on the road (there will be a lot of maintenance and breakdowns...the cars are 20 years old, stuff wears out), then you can't afford the car. They are cheap to buy, and extremely expensive to maintain. I figure about $1k a year in parts alone, and labor can easily be $3-4k a year to pay a mechanic to fix things. It is not a good first car. I work on them for a living, as well as own one.

 

I know compaired to some other lesser makes, Porsche parts & labour is more, but if you have a good condition/well looked after 944 it shouldn't break the bank keeping it on the road. I've had my 1990 944 S2 for 4 years now & I've had no major bills and it's 16 years old.

I do no more than 5000 miles a year, pay about £85 for a 6000 mile service & about £200 for a 12000 mile service. I had the brakes overhauled this year for about £170 and the belts changed when I bought it for about £200. I have to admit that I've spent alot more money changing things, (e.g. wheels) but I didn't have to!

The major expense for a 18 year old would be paying for the insurance. Yeah, you could buy a Ford, but would it be as much fun?

 

You are far more likely to buy a 944 that needs extensive work than you are to buy one that needs just oil and gas. I am very involved in the 944 community in the midwest US (as well as work on the cars for a living), and I have seen my share of owners not be able to handle the maintenance costs of a 944. I know a few guys who do nothing but put in gas and oil, but they are few and far between. Anyone can afford to buy the cars, few can afford to maintain them, hence the maintenance on average gets neglected, then comes rearing its head up and all of a sudden you have a 3k bill. If I couldn't do the work myself and buy parts at cost, I would have easily over $10k in maintenance in my 944 in the last 3 years. I had a customer who bought a 84 944 about 6 months ago for $4,500. The next month we gave him a bill for about the same for parts and service.

Typical maintenance costs:
Clutch: 16 hours of labor and $800 in parts
Timing belt/Waterpump/Front seals: 12 hours labor and about $600 in parts
Oil Leaks: I won't even go there.
Head Gasket: 15 hours labor, about $200 in parts (I did 3 944's that popped the headgasket in one month awhile back)

The sad thing, it is the small stuff that will nickle and dime you to death.

I'll stick to my guns. Not a wise choice for a first vehicle. Waiting until you get done with school and have a good paying job.

 

well i will say this porschedoc is true about it, i am only 20 and i got a 86 944 as my first car, its gonna be about one year now with the car, and i must say i have put about 3K in the car allready to keep it running. i still have things to fix on it but even with the small things it is a fun drive. i am a poor man so trying to keep this maintain is always a fun time. i must say even with all the problems it has right now it still extremly rilable. i did manage to stay in perfect condition when i did a cross country drive from la to st louis. and it was sitting for 6months before i got it. and i did the trip in about two days, mostly nonstop driving. so they are good. but yeah maintenace will kill you

 

Doing a clutch on an S2 right now, and I am only charging him 10 hours of labor, and giving him a huge discount on the parts. Right now the bill is at $2200 with all the components needing to be replaced.