any 928 owners out there

If you are paying someone to work on it, they are outrageously expensive. I got a 1984 928, and it had records that added up to over 50,000 spent over twelve years. Thankfully it meant that it had been really well maintained, so lucky me, but you need to be able to do the work yourself, or not worry about such things.

I do the work myself, and it is not as hard as people make it out to be. I have replaced the timing belt, after it slipped.Most information stated that the engine would have damage if the timing slips 5 degrees. I had 30 degrees slip on one cam, and no damage.

I am in the middle of the torque tube replacement, I discovered that my 300.00 O2 sensor was bad, the torque tube is 500.00 plus a 300.00 core, but I am going to pull the bearing out and replace them myself (cost of bearings 35. each times 3)

Tune ups are not cheap, the cap is 85.00 wires 300.00 the alternator was 185.00 when I had to swap it out.

So what I am saying is it can go either way, I have done a bunch of other maintenance type stuff (Brakes rotors, tune up etc..) and the parts are not cheap, but you have to keep in mind, these were wicked expensive cars when new, so parts are wicked expensive:)

As far as what to get, everyone says get the newest you can afford. I say get the best condition you can afford. I got the last year of the two cam motor, so I gave up some horsepower compared to the next year, but I got a really good example, even though it has alot of miles, it was well maintained.

I recommend them. You just have to roll your sleeves up and work on it when it breaks, don't expect to be treated well by a shop.

Bernard

I had a 1989 S4. I had someone else working on it (not a Porsche main dealer) and the price was not bad. But then, I rarely needed anything more than a basic service.

Bernard mentions the cam belt. This is a 60,000 mile service item and pretty expensive (or time consuming if you do it yourself), some say replace it earlier. I got the previous owner to have it done as part of the sale.

I believe that this is true for the quad cam motor. You got away with it because the valves won't hit the pistons on the two cam motor.

That's good advice. Again, received wisdom is to go for the S4 or GTS if you can. Apart from the GTS (which gets extra power), autos are more desireable than manuals.

These are great cars. I had mine for six years (from 5 years old to 11 years old) and regret selling it when I did. After a slight mistake in between, I now have a Boxster S, which is also great. They are very different cars, but it is not obvious that the Boxster is "better".

One thing to consider on the 928 - it is much faster than the 0-60 implies. On the S4, 0-60 is quoted at about 6 seconds. But second gear (on the auto) gives a maximum of around 80 mph. With lower gearing, it would give a far better 0-60 time, but the gearing it has is far better for the real world. Floor the throttle to overtake at 50 and you are in second all the way to 80, which gets you past another car "very" fast. Handling is also good. The car is not as heavy as it looks because of all the aluminium.

So that's two views for you. Bernard did most of the work himself, I got a specialist to do most of it. Neither seems to have regretted buying a 928.

I'm with Bernard - if you're paying someone to work on a 928, you just as well buy a Ferrari: maintenance will be the same, and the car will be worth more at the end of the day. But if you are willing to work on it yourself, you'll get Ferrari-beating performance for 1/10th the cost. I'd say that the earliest 928s are to be avoided - buggy and not much bang for your buck. The 83 and 84 are the best of the 16-valve motors and breaking your timing belt won't result in ruining your top end, but with 240 bhp on tap these are supercars only in the context of the early 80s. The best bang for the buck, but trickier to buy, is the Euro 928S. It's a higher compression 16-valve engine so it is as simple to work on as the pre-85 US cars but with 300 bhp it's almost as fast as the more complicated 32-valve cars (post-85). It may not pass emissions in some places, and can be difficult to insure. Then come the 32-valve cars: outright supercars, capable of keeping up with lots of high-performance cars made today, nearly 10 years after they ceased production.* The 32-valve cars are more complex and harder to work on, but they're the 2nd best performance value among old Porsches after the 944 Turbo. Emanuel * (Two raced in the Laguna Seca GT World Challenge this past Sunday, with 996 twin turbos, Corvette Z06s, Dodge Vipers, and other modern, factory supported supercars. One came in 18th -out of 34- beating a couple of Viper Competition Coupes and a Volvo S60R. They were the oldest cars to qualify.)

Jereme.....Try

Steve

I agreed with quite a bit of the rest of what you said, but in the US, the manuals (especially on S4 & newer) command quite a premium.

ex 1987 928 S4 5spd current 1983 euro 928 S 5spd current 1993 911 C4 ex (if I ever get around to selling it) 1997 BMW Z3 2.8 5spd

Getting a lot of advice on this. Some of it bad.

The 928 came officially to the US with six different engines. Then there are the grey market cars of which there are a surpising number. Search the web for more descriptions. Here are some ideas:

'78-79 has low power and but with the CIS injection system are cheaper and easier to work on.

'80-84 US models are the bottom with full, finicky L-jetronic FI and not much power

'85-'86 are the first 32 valves but look like the older cars

'87 and later are "S4" cars with a different 32 valve engine and later styling.

Then there is the "86.5" and the GT and GTS models.

I recommend finding 30K and getting a GTS. :)

Or take 5K and get a nice older car.

The key is how much you have to spend and whether you want to work on it. Emphasis there is on "want to." The Porsche mechanics charge the same for each book hour so you're not particularly screwed by a 928. It can be harder to find a mechanic that knows them. This make them very popular with guys who can and want to do it themselves and, consequently, there are a lot of resources on-line to help.

OK. I was quoting "received wisdom" in the UK. USA could well be different.