Would I regret it???

[Lemon]

Just been to look at another Porsche today which I liked the look of.

So I have tentatively put an ad in the for sale for my 944 Turbo S.

Am I mad selling after having spent thousands and years making it mint []

I just keep getting the 911 itch but would like to keep the 44 too.

Tell me to stick with it please.[]

 

[Don Henshall]

Hi, go for it the 911 is the one to have IMO..... Though the 944 Turbo is a cracking motor.

 

[petrolhead944]

i would just like to say your 944 looks great.i would be sorry to say good bye to it....what 911 are you looking at c2 c4 c4s air or water?? cheers carl

 

[pauly]

ORIGINAL: Lemon

Just been to look at another Porsche today which I liked the look of.

So I have tentatively put an ad in the for sale for my 944 Turbo S.

Am I mad selling after having spent thousands and years making it mint []

I just keep getting the 911 itch but would like to keep the 44 too.

Tell me to stick with it please.[]

Are you serious, unless you are going to spend around 3 times what you want for your turbo it won't be any better to drive surely, I looked for ages for a car like yours and during that time only two that sound comparable turned up and they were both more money.

I may buy some bits off yours though [][].

 

[Black_JPN]

911's are great cars but once you've scratched the itch you'll want the 944 turbo back. Unless you can afford to keep the 944 and buy the 911 then stick to the 944 for now.

 

[turbo jonny]

I went from 944 to 930 and then 964 3.6 turbo - i would go back to 944 only for poverty,
stop-gap,track day car, or if i could keep several cars ! You only live once and you will always be wondering..
until you scratch that 911 itch !

I just sold my lovely 3.6 to be able to move on up.Not sure what to get next yet ; could even be that
ferrari itch..

 

[sawood12]

Well I can sympathise with you Lee as I love 911's and have an itch I will get round to scratching one day. I don't agree with comments above that suggest the 911 is a superior car than the 944 (largely based purely on the relative cost of the cars it has to be said just like the apparent view that the 968 is a superior car to the 944). The 944 is easily a far superior car to the 911's of the same era and also arguably the of generation of 911 after that (though obviously not as 'soulful'). This is why i've decided only to go for a 996GT3 or 996 Turbo or newer equivalents, which is where I think you get need to get to get a significant step up in performance over a decent 944Turbo - which are all currently out of my buget unfortunately. I'd hate to sell my 944 for a much more expensive earlier 911 and be dissapointed with the performance and handling.

The relative cost of these cars bears no resemblance to their relative performance so my only advice would be to take your 911's out for test drives and get as many miles under your belt to make sure you're not going to be dissapointed. These cars are for driving afterall and early 911's, though great cars are highly flawed. In my opinion you're looking at a 993/996 until Porsche finally cracked the rear engine handling issues. But if it is the charm of the flaws of the early cars that you're after then fair enough - fill your boots and good luck.

 

[Diver944]

If you do want to spend more on a younger 911 then now is certainly the time to do it with prices in apparent free fall. For every £500 that our 944's go down in value, then your target car may well be going down by a £1000 (or even more if it's 996 era) . If I were to make the same change then I would only be considering the raw track versions - 964RS, 993RS, early GT3 etc (but of course they are a heck of a lot more than our cars)

 

[Lemon]

Thanks for your comments.

I think due to the modern drive of our 944's I could not go any older than a 993.
I looked at one last week at £16995 and it was an absolute pile of ####. Had 168,000 miles and needed half the car painting!!! I had never sat in one before and also did not realise how offset the pedals are and how awkward they feel hinging like a beetle!!! Not sure if I could adjust to that.

It did make me realise how good the 944 is all these years down the line.

I then started looking at Autotrader and the 996. Not really a fan of the fried egg headlights, but there is no getting away from the apparant bargains available at the moment.

Then I came across the below pictured car. 996 OEM GT3 Body Kit, Gt3 18" Wheels, hard backed sports seats and OEM Sports exhaust. Needs wheel outer rims refurbing and front PU bumper is stone chipped, so would need painting to make perfect, but rest of car was mint for age. Sounded amazing with that exhaust and driving position was much more 944 alike friendly. (proper pedals)

Just wish I had a double garage as I want to keep the 944 as it took me a long time to find my car and I have lavished so much time and effort on it and its been with me for 5 years now [][][]. Even wondered if I could convert my garage into a one bed flat and my 3 bed house into a 3 car garage. My other half was not very keen on that idea!!!! Cannot understand why []

Decisions

 

[pauly]

996's are relative bargains but if the engine has problems which isn't unheard of, it can cost ££££££££ to fix, personally I'd look for a nice 993, but it could be a long search unless you are spending £20k +. Long searches don't bother me though. [].

 

[pauly]

ORIGINAL: jonny boy

I went from 944 to 930 and then 964 3.6 turbo - i would go back to 944 only for poverty,
stop-gap,track day car, or if i could keep several cars ! You only live once and you will always be wondering..
until you scratch that 911 itch !

I just sold my lovely 3.6 to be able to move on up.Not sure what to get next yet ; could even be that
ferrari itch..

It's all relative to cost isn't it, I wouldn't buy a 964 though I think it is the ugliest 911 ever.[:'(]

 

[Alpine]

I keep thinking about this too Lee. I like the 993 but they are so expensive when compared with the age of the car. The 996s are good value, and a good useable everyday car. If I were buying one I'd go for a basic C2, without any body kit or rear spolier. Purer is better, I think.

Maybe try and hire a 996 for a few days and make sure it is the one for you. It would be a great shame to only realise you've made a mistake after the 944 has gone.

 

[Diver944]

ORIGINAL: pauly

996's are relative bargains but if the engine has problems which isn't unheard of, it can cost ££££££££ to fix,

It's actually nowhere near as bad as some would have you believe, it's just that we live in an age of super duper communication so you hear about EVERY one. A terminal failure is not the end of the world anyway with both Hartech and Autofarm providing proven rebuild methods from around £6000 for a standard engine and up to 4 Litres in a Boxster for £10k [8D]

I would love to find an early 3.2 Boxster with knackered engine and rebuild with a 4.0L

 

[pauly]

ORIGINAL: Diver944

ORIGINAL: pauly

996's are relative bargains but if the engine has problems which isn't unheard of, it can cost ££££££££ to fix,

It's actually nowhere near as bad as some would have you believe, it's just that we live in an age of super duper communication so you hear about EVERY one. A terminal failure is not the end of the world anyway with both Hartech and Autofarm providing proven rebuild methods from around £6000 for a standard engine and up to 4 Litres in a Boxster for £10k [8D]

I would love to find an early 3.2 Boxster with knackered engine and rebuild with a 4.0L

Yes I know, a bit like M3 vanos systems but I would always keep some dosh in reserve just in case..

 

[Suffolk944]

Its something which exercises my mind quite often ,as there are quite a few cars I would like to own (and some I could even afford !) other than my 944. Trouble is I would be loathe to part with it before getting something else (which would be the sensible option) as I know I would miss it badly. Guess the other option would be to get something else alongside the 944 - its not so much the affording to buy something else (within reason), its the cost of maintaining another car which gives me the most pause for thought. Other thing would be to plough more money into mods but that of course is generally money you will never see any return on and in real world (as opposed to track) conditions not sure the outlay would justify the benefit.

There are some 911 shaped itches I would like to scratch (993 , various RS's and GT's) but they are all out of my finacial reach. I like the look of the 3.2 Carreras and to a lesser extent 964's but dynamically am sure I would be disappointed. The other Porsche shaped itch is a 928...hmm one of those and a 944 turbo to maintain at the same time [&:]

Other itches include (in no particular order) Integrales, Jag XJR's, various Alfas , XJS convertibles, BMW 635, Jag XJ12 Series 3, plus all sorts of old cars from my childhood none of which are particularly exotic/fast but are simply a nostalgia fest. It seems daft buying yet another car, but with prices as low as they are it almost seems equally daft not to. [&o]

 

[sawood12]

996's are a bargain and despite their undeserved reputation they are a very reliable and very quick car. The facelift ones especially but they are quite a bit more. The one in your photo looks very nice, the GT3 bodykit is sought after an looks the biz.

 

[Neil Haughey]

Same here, I have come to the conclusion that the only possible replacement for my 944 S2 would be a track spec 996. With garages like Hartech doing great warranty/maintainence programs on these cars its hard to argue with the idea of a 996 fitted with PSE, KW V3 and GT3 anti-roll bars, would I am sure be an awesome drive.

Part one of my master plan has already been hatched. The Saab 9-5 is going to a mate that's scrapping it for parts (better deal for me then fixing the POS) and has been replaced with a Silver 968 tiptronic because I am getting lazy and don't like washing/waxing/polishing every 5 minutes.

I am seriously thinking at the moment of swapping some of the newer bits on the S2 with those that are older or original on the 968 and maybe selling the S2 next spring/summer. Decisions, decisions....

The thing is not driving my 944 so much made me realise that these are brilliantly useable cars the few times I drove it instead of the Saab. I think we sometimes overlook this point and IMHO any 944 or 968 (except CS) makes a fantastic every day car.

 

[mik_ok]

ORIGINAL: Lemon

I could not go any older than a 993.
I had never sat in one before and also did not realise how offset the pedals are and how awkward they feel hinging like a beetle!!! Not sure if I could adjust to that.

I've driven a 993 a few times - you do get used to the pedals after 15-20mins (after attempting a number of braked, clutchless gearchanges [&:] [] )

996 has never been my favourite 911, but you can't argue with current prices and the interior feels 100yrs newer than the 993.. Have a gander at THIS. Exterior is fine, iffy interior colour scheme but doesn't offend me enormously. Early 3.4 and a little "leggy", but what a price for a 10yr old 911!

And if you were stripping it out anyway.......

 

[TTM]

Not sure how long you would plan to keep the 996 but in terms of durability I doubt it will prove as effective as your 944 (turbo).
While good examples of 944, like yours apparently, seem to have widely gone down in numbers why would you even bother with a 996 ? There are so many of them it's just way too early to get one.
The 996 is in my opinion the least appealing rear-engined Porsche of all times. It looks dull and has got an engine that is barely rebuildable at "reasonable" costs.
I may be biased as I hardly rate rear-engined Porsches higher than any given VW Beetle, but still, I am sure you will regret selling your 944 for getting one of those soul-less modern.
Anything by Porsche more recent than a 993 is, in my opinion, utter rubbish. and yes, I include the widely-acclaimed Carrera GT.

 

[sawood12]

Harsh critisism indeed Thom, and I would have agreed with you not so long ago. However the thing that has changed my mind about these later cars is that I now know quite a few people who have them (Boxsters, 996's) and they have proved to be durable to them - and they are not all molly-coddled. Not so much as a leaky RMS between them, 100% reliability and no costs over an above usual servicing and consumables - which doesn't seem any more expensive than your average family car, especially from any German stable. I think, over time, they will prove their doubters wrong and earn their place amongst the respected Porche line up.

The fact that these cars were the first to be truly mass-produced by Porsche and as a result a few compromises had to me made to allow for mass production doesn't 'down grade' these cars compared to the earlier models. I think Porsche has been very clever and shrewed in deciding where it has made the compromises so as not to compromise the 'Porscheness' of the cars. People are quick to praise the likes of the M3 which is about as mass produced as cars get (remember 3-series BMW's outsell Modeo's these days).

As to the engine not being very rebuildable - I thought the main reason that Porsche dropped the GT1 derrived enging for it's mainstream mass production cars was becasue the GT1 engine did not lend itself very well to a productionised assembly process, the newer engine being much more simple and easy to assemble.

As to the much lauded heritage of a 911 to a Beetle - well apparently genetically Human Beings are about 75% indentical to a Cucumber. I don't thing any of us would consider ourselves to be in any way shape or form Cucumbers would we? The similarity of the Beetle to a modern 911 begins and ends with the location of the engine. Just as the similarity of a Trebant to an M3, and I don't hear people accusing an M3 of being a sooped up Trebant!