Porsche 928: Do we love it or not?

I had one for a year or two, I enjoyed it, especially after I repaired the A/C, it was an all black car and it got hot in the sun. It was an auto but I had driven a manual and found the auto worked well enough for me.

one word of advice, stay away from any that need wiring done around the fuse box, I had to fix some A/C wiring and when I pulled the fusebox away from the floor to check out the wiring behind it I found that all the wires in and out of the box were all gray, all of them, with no markings...

I think they're pretty neat, but I'm 99.99% certain that I'd never end up choosing to own one. Any cheap enough to tempt me would be dodgy as hell, and for one that was nice enough to probably be okay, there's a litany of other cars which I'd like better.

It's almost like it finds the unhappy medium between Corvette and XJS. I could be wrong, but it seems like it's too sporty to be a tourer (and have a slushbox), but it's too heavy to be a sports car.

Maybe it would break all my expectations, but that's my impression.

The cost issues are pretty much the norm with a Porsche. IIRC GRM just spent $15k on their Porsche for relatively minor issues.

Dunno, I guess I'll have to be the voice of dissent. Most people in the thread so far have said what a pretty car it is.....I think it looks terrible. Like, Pontiac Aztec terrible. I don't understand the appeal, if you're going for 80s quirky styling, I think the 944 is better balanced and aggresive. If you're talking late 80s-early 90s super cars I think the Ferrari 308/328 are better looking, the F355 is amazing looking, and other less expensive cars like an FD RX7, NSX, regular 911, etc. are all MUCH better looking. I've always wondered why the 928 seems to be a stand-out for so many people (and that's honest curiousity, not snarkiness, because I just don't get it).

I completely get the people that say, "It's a nice V8 GT car for cruising", because it probably drives great and you don't have to look at it, but man I must be missing something that everyone else sees on the exterior.

The 928 is Porsche's TR-7. Unlike the Triumph though, thought, planning, and engineering seem to have played a part in the design of the 928. Unfortunately, the type of hammer needed to fix a 928 is an expensive, German one whereas the Triumph can be repaired with a stone. Also unlike the Triumph, the 928 shape was and remains attractive. I nearly bought a 928 once. I would imagine the regret caused, had I bought it, would be akin to a dude with barbed wired tattooed around his bicep. Not nearly as cool as it sounds and difficult to live with once it becomes a time-worn embarrassment years later.

There's one that lives at FM - check the background of the pic. I love following it at night, it's ridiculously wide.

FM actually began as a VW/Porsche/Audi repair shop, and it's quite entertaining to get Bill going on the German cars. It's probably worth noting that the 928 is definitely not his.

I'll just leave this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We7IS_afCww

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftyeZc4Hlok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P29nHru4fvI

http://www.928intl.com/

Aside from the FOS work on the engine (similar to the 944 engine, just with two heads to manage). The rest of the parts aren't too bad for the DIY person on a luxury performance car. It was supposed to replace the 911 as the top of the line car for Porsche so the engineering is sound, if not complicated and sometimes tricky to manage.

I would do it and ditch the luxury junk and get it down to the bare essentials needed to run the car. Use MegaSquirt to simplify the EFI and ignition system and maybe eek a few more ponies out of it.

I love the looks, especially the pre-facelift ones.

For something totally out there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njeqmoskGOI

Apis_Mellifera wrote: The 928 is Porsche's TR-7. Unlike the Triumph though, thought, planning, and engineering seem to have played a part in the design of the 928. Unfortunately, the type of hammer needed to fix a 928 is an expensive, German one whereas the Triumph can be repaired with a stone. Also unlike the Triumph, the 928 shape was and remains attractive. I nearly bought a 928 once. I would imagine the regret caused, had I bought it, would be akin to a dude with barbed wired tattooed around his bicep. Not nearly as cool as it sounds and difficult to live with once it becomes a time-worn embarrassment years later.

I'd rather have the TR7 by many a mile.

If I were headed down the luxury GT road I'd grab something V12 from Mercedes or BMW before the Porsche. Count me in the camp that thinks it's kinda ugly. All of the front engined P cars were ugly.

I've always loved the 928 and would like to own one despite the issues. That said, it won't be in the cards for me for awhile, so I guess that's taking the easy way out.

On the styling - to me, it's a shape that looks much lighter than it actually is, which is a good thing aesthetically speaking. It's just about as pure a form as you'll find in "modern" automobiles. Wonderfully unadorned with the usual crap. Well, at least on the early models.

mazdeuce wrote: If I were headed down the luxury GT road I'd grab something V12 from Mercedes or BMW before the Porsche. Count me in the camp that thinks it's kinda ugly. All of the front engined P cars were ugly.

Says the man with a jellybean for his avatar. ;)

Not for me.

I have had a couple GRM priced. Took one to the Challenge in 2004 I think...... Fun cars like stated, 928 specific parts are crazy, but with the interwebs and various Porsche specific sites, able to keep running cheap, but not GM or Ford parts cheap.

BBC

@ the OP. Having lived with a 87s4 for a while that was a standard they are great cars to eat up highway miles. I was driving to NY and DC from Boston regularly and I actually looked forward to my trips. They are respectably quick off the line as is 0-60. Just remember you are dealing with late 80's early 90's technology. If I remember correct they were the fastest street car you could by for a while and off the dealer floor an s4 will top 200plus MPH. They really were a supper car. For its time it was a remarkable car. Now all that said in order to do that they are a complicated car. Not bad by today's standards but still present a formidable challenge to wrench on.

Think of it this way the 944 / 951 is the really attractive athletic girl at the local pub that is high class but still likes to go out and have a good time. The 928S4 s a supper model with supper model tastes that very few will get to talk to and only the select few will get a fist date. However once you get to know the supper model she is really just like the 944. Ok not quite like any other car but lets just say they become a whole lot less intimidating and like any other Porsche when they are working rite they are brilliant machines.

I loved my s4 and want another one some day.

Classic Motorsports predicts these will become desireable. Yeah right.

We recently had a 928 for for sale locally for $3500 decribed as "runs fine and will trade for bass boat". LOL!!

You can pick them up for a psalm but end up paying a fortune to restore them with no hope of return on your investment.

I would have one, but I have Stags and a Range Rover

I've always liked body style, but not the P name and price that goes with it.

Count me as a Meh...

TR8owner wrote: You can pick them up for a psalm but end up paying a fortune to restore them with no hope of return on your investment.

For just about any 924/944/951/968 this is also true. You do not purchase a cheep one of these to make money. It is the satisfaction of restoring it and driving it knowing that your work did it. Also at 3-4K you are talking an older "standard" 928. A s4 or GTS are around 10 for complete crap cans. 20 gets you in to a DD and the prices just go up from there. I saw a low millage completely serviced all soft parts replaced, new clutch, hoses, WP, timing belt and accessory belts replaced GTSs selling for 60K. New I think they were in the mid 70's new. My S4 was 67K and the cheapest "replacement" I have found that I would consider is in the mid teens. I would be in to it for 30K in 2 years.

Hell a set of new decent tires alown can set you back the cost of a miata.

how easy/hard is it to swap in a LS1?

I'd still like to try one at some point, even though I'm not too fond of 80s/early 90s high tech electronics. Similar to pretty much every Porsche ever made, there seem to be a fair amount of sheds with years of deferred maintainance around and only a handful of "good" cars.

I'm another one of those that doesn't get it. I want to, but a 951 is better looking to me, and a better sports car, it would seem. I really want to own a 944 or 951 someday, but can't even be bothered to look for 928's. Shrug.

A 951 is a light toss-able sports car. The 928 is a heavy GT car. Very different feel to them. Each of them do what they were designed for very well. If you don't like the heavy feeling a 928 is not for you. I agree with you the 951/944s2's are better looking. I really don't like the look of the older 928's. The revamp in 87 i think improved things. One of the things I would have liked to see is hidden headlights and the frount valance like the 951's. on the 928. I think the 968's also suffer from this same styling problem. I think the 968 was a last ditch attempt to take the 944 drive line and use 928 styling to try and consolidate the two market segments.