Silver Fox: 1983 Porsche 944
I finally got around to ditching the family this weekend and hitting the movie theater to see the new Star Wars The Force Awakens movie — it was really good (not gettin’ paid to say this folks!). Got me thinking that the last Star Wars movie was in the theater 32 years ago [ed. CFlo: obviously Vince is overlooking the 1999-2005 prequel series, Episodes 1 thru 3; not sure if this was intentional but I’ll go with it] — that is a long time to wait for some force action. And it also got me thinking that if you plop the VHS..LaserDisc of the Return of the Jedi into your player, and fire up the old THX surround sound, that movie hasn’t aged badly at all. You know what else is still a treat from 1983? Certainly not Madonna’s eponymous debut, that has aged like Carrie Fischer’s voice, but this next car has aged well — It’s a 1983 Porsche 944 found here on eBay
bidding for $4,500 reserve-not-met with a $13,000 buy-it-now located in Chesterfield, MO.
This might seem like a bit much to pay for a non-turbo Porsche 944, but this car does look clean and has only 74k miles on the odo.
Powering this 32 year old classic is a 2.5 liter inline-4 that produces 143 horsepower in US spec and is mated to a 5-speed manual transaxle mounted out back. Thankfully the 944 only has 2600 lbs to haul around, so it isn’t too pokey even with the basic engine.
See another classic from 1983? tips@dailyturismo.com
Hey, Lucky Star and Borderline were pretty much the only and last good Madonna tracks.
And this may be the prettiest – certainly not the fastest, but the prettiest – Porsche ever.
Both great songs. And I'm more of a Dylan/Young/Simon and Garfunkel guy, too.
I loved my 944, in spite of all the stink eye I got from the air cooled Porch owners…
Crazy expensive to fix. Windshield wiper motor cost me more than a Japanese small block!
But I loved that car…
I don't recognize the bright green canister in the engine compartment. Foghorn?
I don't like the coockie cutter wheeels and never trust the 5-digit odometers which often stopped. These cars are expensive to maintain buta fun driver on twisty roads.
Yeah, but if you don't live in California, God will provide an LS3 swap.
I just spent a few minutes reading a shade tree mechanic's 6 year account of rehabbing a 944 that had been sitting in a garage for 5 years.
It was not for the faint of heart.
Glad my 944 was relatively unproblematic when I owned it. Drove it from 48K to when the odo broke at 105K (and a bit more than that).
Happy memories…
13k puts you in a boxster of similar mileage…
Correct. Actually, you can get a Boxster for way under $13K, even with comparable miles (under 100K), depending on how early in production you want to go. But are those any cheaper/easier to maintain? I'm asking because I don't have firsthand experience with either.
With air-cooleds going stratospheric, are there any "affordable" (sub-$10K) Porsches left that won't kill you on maintenance/repair costs? The 964 seemed to briefly drop into that price territory, but no longer. I'm not sure if the 996 is there anymore either. But from what I've heard, maintenance costs of water-cooleds requires a sizeable budget.
I think I missed the Porsche boat I could have once afforded to get on. Unless I choose a 924, 944, 928, Boxster, or Cayenne. Not a lot of winners there. But when I think about putting, say, $8K towards one of those, I instantly think about what else I could be buying instead. There are always better options in my mind.
928 prices (S4 and newer) are on the rise so $8000 wouldn't get you anything decent. Parts and labour costs are sky high…these were top of the line and maintenance costs reflect that!
After the Quattrowallet post the other day I'm back to researching the DIY maintainability of the 550/575 Ferraris.
I'm guessing I could get a 928GTS for a fraction of the price of a 575M, but for some reason the maintainability scares me more.
Uh…you snooze, you lose.
I better be taking this front-engine-Fazzaz thing a bit more seriously if it's going to happen, as six months ago there were any number of 550s and the random 575 under six figures, but everything seems to have migrated up to a $125K minimum.
Fecal matter.
Let me go rattle the 401k and get back to you.
I owned a 928 for a couple of years and I advise against them. They are stuck in a used car black hole. The cost of ownership far outstrips the price of admission and most examples running around do not get the care they require.