hi there people iam new to the club looking to get so advice on a few things ive found a cheap 944 on pistonheads is a 83 a plate says t/t 115k bodywork showing ists age half leateher seats 968 wheels £500 newcastle any advice wood be great ive asked about history /problems with the car as i live in suffolk
cheap 944 on piston heads
- Thread starter jay944
- Start date
JamesO
New member
Unless you want a restoration project and can do all the work yourself, I would think a £500 pound 944 will be a very very expensive car.
But you may get lucky.
Unless there is proof assume 115000 is 215000 or even 315000.
If it isnt a total shed recent history is all that matters, such as belt changes water pump and clutch.
pauljmcnulty
Active member
Sounds like the wheels might be worth more than the car...[&:]
He says that both paint and body are showing age. Paint isn't a problem if you don't mind a slightly scruffy car with faded red colour. Bodywork is more important as by the time rust shows it's likely to be bad inside.It could be fine, but check for rusty sills, bottoms of wings, around windscreen, battery tray etc. New sills alone will be at least £1k if done properly. Belts need doing every 3 years, 4 at most, regardless of miles, head gasket or clutch will cost more than the car if needed. Check fuel and brake lines, handbrake cables, calipers as again these could each cost as much as the car to fix.
It looks great in the ad, and will probably look great in the flesh. You just need to keep a very level head and ask all the questions before you go. The golden rule is to allow at least £1k in reserve above whatever you know will need spending on the car. They are fantastic cars, and parts are not stupidly expensive, but they were expensive new - and can be a real money-pit if bought badly.
I'd suggest spending some time with one of the long-term owners here who'd be happy to show you what to look for, and remember there are lots of cars around. Just to bring the body and paint up to scratch could easily make this a £2k car and there are some great 944s available for £2k. [8|]
He says that both paint and body are showing age. Paint isn't a problem if you don't mind a slightly scruffy car with faded red colour. Bodywork is more important as by the time rust shows it's likely to be bad inside.It could be fine, but check for rusty sills, bottoms of wings, around windscreen, battery tray etc. New sills alone will be at least £1k if done properly. Belts need doing every 3 years, 4 at most, regardless of miles, head gasket or clutch will cost more than the car if needed. Check fuel and brake lines, handbrake cables, calipers as again these could each cost as much as the car to fix.
It looks great in the ad, and will probably look great in the flesh. You just need to keep a very level head and ask all the questions before you go. The golden rule is to allow at least £1k in reserve above whatever you know will need spending on the car. They are fantastic cars, and parts are not stupidly expensive, but they were expensive new - and can be a real money-pit if bought badly.
I'd suggest spending some time with one of the long-term owners here who'd be happy to show you what to look for, and remember there are lots of cars around. Just to bring the body and paint up to scratch could easily make this a £2k car and there are some great 944s available for £2k. [8|]
all very true, my lux was a tenner short of £700 to buy... a month ago
+
tyres £260
new discs £ err .. forgotten
new pads £ as above
new wheel bearings £ as above
replacement stub axle £ 35 + vat
sundries £50
its passed the mot now, just needs the geometry setting up and the belts/rollers changed as there's no service history and the odometer hasnt worked in 3 years..
all in, it'll easily owe me £1500 by the time im done and its properly usable, and thats with me doing all the work myself and paying trade on (some) parts. On top of this, it will never ever ever be a "nice" 944, to achieve that would cost twice its value to remove and re-do the amateur paintjob and re-trim the interior.
still, i like scruffy cars.. i'd only scuff up a tidy one and that would upset me.
+
tyres £260
new discs £ err .. forgotten
new pads £ as above
new wheel bearings £ as above
replacement stub axle £ 35 + vat
sundries £50
its passed the mot now, just needs the geometry setting up and the belts/rollers changed as there's no service history and the odometer hasnt worked in 3 years..
all in, it'll easily owe me £1500 by the time im done and its properly usable, and thats with me doing all the work myself and paying trade on (some) parts. On top of this, it will never ever ever be a "nice" 944, to achieve that would cost twice its value to remove and re-do the amateur paintjob and re-trim the interior.
still, i like scruffy cars.. i'd only scuff up a tidy one and that would upset me.
random hero
New member
Its doesnt look a bad car,i doubt the seats will be half leather and the wheels are not off a 968 they are cup3 replica's but to be honest at that price you cant go wrong as its worth more than the asking price in parts if it turns out to be a shed.If i hadnt recently bought another 944 i would have bought it myself !!
It looks OK in the pics, but the blurb tells you very little of substance and one of the things it makes most of (the wheels) is plain incorrect. That style of wheel was never fitted to a 968, 968 wheels would not fit a 1983 944 (they'd be buried in the arches) and those tyres would not improve the 50:50 balance and handling of a Lux as they are too big an unnecessarily heavy for the car.
On the bright side they would probably sell for more than half the £500 and you could pick up some proper Cookie Cutters for very little, but I agree with Paul in that the cost of parts and labour if you can't do the work yourself means this, along with any Porsche project, is probably not financially viable when you could pick up one that didn't need (much) work for £1,500. They all need something tweaked in my experience, but with a good one it's minor stuff.
Of course maybe it's hideously described and it's actually no worse than the more expensive cars as it doesn't really need anything much done to it bar put proper wheels back on it, but if that's the case why so cheap?
Edited to comment on RH's cross-post:
The seats will be half vinyl, and it definitely would be worth more than that if you break it for parts, if you have the space and time to do that.
On the bright side they would probably sell for more than half the £500 and you could pick up some proper Cookie Cutters for very little, but I agree with Paul in that the cost of parts and labour if you can't do the work yourself means this, along with any Porsche project, is probably not financially viable when you could pick up one that didn't need (much) work for £1,500. They all need something tweaked in my experience, but with a good one it's minor stuff.
Of course maybe it's hideously described and it's actually no worse than the more expensive cars as it doesn't really need anything much done to it bar put proper wheels back on it, but if that's the case why so cheap?
Edited to comment on RH's cross-post:
The seats will be half vinyl, and it definitely would be worth more than that if you break it for parts, if you have the space and time to do that.
pauljmcnulty
Active member
Just to add, let's not be too negative here. (Aimed at myself...[&:])
For £500 if it's got a decent MOT, or you can persuade the owner to let you get it tested and no big problems are thrown up (and you get a good look at the underside thrown in) then it's probably a years fun followed by , at worse, getting your money back in parts if it's not viable.
I always look as a prospective buyer who's looking to get a good few years from a car and not get hit for unexpected big bills. As such I'd always want to spend a bit more to get one that other people have ploughed their own money into. If it's a slightly tatty car that costs you less than a month's depreciation on a Focus then why not? All I'd hope is that you avoid the sort of car that does appear here sometimes - the really nice looking ones with all the problems I listed above. The owners get very upset when they add up all the costs when they thought their E-bay special was a bargain. As Ross shows, there are good cars out there of that age.
Ross - with no history and three years without the odometer I'd not turn the key until the belts are done. Seriously. [8|]
For £500 if it's got a decent MOT, or you can persuade the owner to let you get it tested and no big problems are thrown up (and you get a good look at the underside thrown in) then it's probably a years fun followed by , at worse, getting your money back in parts if it's not viable.
I always look as a prospective buyer who's looking to get a good few years from a car and not get hit for unexpected big bills. As such I'd always want to spend a bit more to get one that other people have ploughed their own money into. If it's a slightly tatty car that costs you less than a month's depreciation on a Focus then why not? All I'd hope is that you avoid the sort of car that does appear here sometimes - the really nice looking ones with all the problems I listed above. The owners get very upset when they add up all the costs when they thought their E-bay special was a bargain. As Ross shows, there are good cars out there of that age.
Ross - with no history and three years without the odometer I'd not turn the key until the belts are done. Seriously. [8|]
I guess I agree to an extent with that, and I definitely agree with the scruffy cars theory as they are just so much more fun when you don't have to worry about stone chips or a car-park dings or keeping them beautifully clean and shiny.
On the other hand there is little I personally would be more embarrassed to drive than an early example of something that is considered my most car types to be a lowly Porsche that is clearly "on its last MoT". That would just look too much like desperation to me.
From the pics it doesn't look like this car looks too shabby (though cars photograph well in general), however I was, and remain, negative for two main reasons:
Firstly the ad is poor and contains inaccuracies. The owner clearly knows little about the marque even though he is trying to suggest he does. Not a good start if we all agree an enthususiast car is the one to get.
It's not possible for a 944 to be cheap enough these days to make it a better financial bet than a good one (unless it comes with a dowry to the new owner perhaps), and if this is a good one why is it being advertised at 1/3 of what most are advertised for?
On the other hand there is little I personally would be more embarrassed to drive than an early example of something that is considered my most car types to be a lowly Porsche that is clearly "on its last MoT". That would just look too much like desperation to me.
From the pics it doesn't look like this car looks too shabby (though cars photograph well in general), however I was, and remain, negative for two main reasons:
Firstly the ad is poor and contains inaccuracies. The owner clearly knows little about the marque even though he is trying to suggest he does. Not a good start if we all agree an enthususiast car is the one to get.
It's not possible for a 944 to be cheap enough these days to make it a better financial bet than a good one (unless it comes with a dowry to the new owner perhaps), and if this is a good one why is it being advertised at 1/3 of what most are advertised for?
my car ? .. good ? surely not ! .. joking aside, it isnt.. its a shed, just.. a shiny shed. But.. thats what i wanted.. i've got my alfa for doing the shiny/concours/original thing..(eventually) and the bikes for weekend blasts/trackdays/racing, the 944 is my "take the dog to the beach" "collect bike spares" daily driver... the paintjob is awful, both wings have been replaced badly the panel gaps are appalling and the damage done to the windscreen surround when it was crashed and the frontend replaced hasnt even been repaired .. its the original dented trim !
yeh, only history i have is a receipt for failing to fit a driveshaft (seriously!) and 2 mots, both with the same mileage the car still currently displays
Havent gone far.. brought it home, mot'd it, went to the beach .. its only been running a few days. engine's 90% def coming out in jan anyway, so its inconvenient rather than world-ending if it pops. Full house service would cost as much as I could ask for the engine once its out.. so.. its a tricky call... it'll probably wear me down and get done as the nagging fear that its going to let go NOW, no NOW .. ... no NOW is somewhat tiresome and detracts from being able to enjoy the car.
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