From: Wally Plumley [wplumley@avana.net]
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2000 8:23 AM
To: 928
Subject: [928] Re: Tech Question :

At 04:24 PM 7/10/00 -0500, you wrote:
>I am planning to buy a 928 S4, automatic or manual. I want to buy one that
>doesn't break very often and gives a reasonable service, if well maintained.
>(like, regular oil change, replace parts as necessary and so on.) What's the
>reasonable mileage I should look for, so that the car is reasonably
>reliable? If I buy a well maintained car that has 75K or less miles on it,
>will that be a good buy or should I look for very low mileage? And, how
>difficult to get original parts and accessories for this car? I pretty much
>visited all the great 928 web sites on what to look for when buying a 928,
>but didn't get any comforting feeling on what constitutes a good buy. In
>short, I don't want to buy a 928 and spend rest of my life taking it for
>repairs.


The 928 is a well-made, reliable car. The mechanical parts just don't seem 
to wear out. It is nut unusual to hear of cars with 150 - 200,000 miles 
with little more than routine maintenance. If you can do virtually all of 
your own maintenance, it isn't too expensive to maintain. If you have 
everything done at the dealer, it can be an astonishingly expensive car to own.

Most parts are still available for the 928, but Porsche discontinues a few 
more every month. We, along with the other 928 vendors, can get any part 
that Porsche supplies for the 928, as well as many aftermarket or 
proprietary parts and accessories.

Most mechanical parts are priced comparably to those for a Lexus or a 
Mercedes. A few are very expensive. Soft trim prices tend to be very high.

The 928 does NOT make a good "fixer-upper".

Some points to consider:

All 928s are used cars.

There are no guarantees in life, especially on used cars. A particular used 
car may look ratty, but be very reliable, while a beautiful, clean car of 
the same make and vintage may be a money pit. Appearance has only a loose 
relationship with reliability. A clean car is more often a well maintained 
car, but not always. Some owners wax their cars much, much more often than 
they change the oil.

Some things on a car fail because of mileage. Some things fail because of 
number of starts. Some things fail because of age. The timing belt on an 
immaculate 1987 S4 with 40,000 miles is ready to fail because of age, not 
mileage.

Cars deteriorate more quickly just sitting than they do if driven on a 
regular basis. A 1989 928 that was driven 30,000 miles up until 1992, and 
has sat undriven in a garage since then will need some serious maintenance 
to be a reliable car.

There are cycles of required maintenance on cars. Timing belts need to be 
replaced every 60,000 miles or every five to eight years. Steering racks 
often start leaking at 100 - 120,000 miles. Clutches may go out at 80 - 
120,000 miles.

One of the most common problem areas on a 928 is the complex electrical 
system. This is almost unrelated to age or mileage.

One of the most important factors of all is the owner's ability to take 
care of problems. An owner with a good knowledge of the electrical system 
and a good capability to diagnose problems might solve an intermittent 
electrical problem in a couple of days, where an owner who is not capable 
of this might have to have the car towed ten times before the problem gets 
fixed. Same problem, but the two owners will have VERY different ideas 
about the reliability of the 928.

So, how do you select a "good" 928?

Some of our listers want to buy from the most anal "Porsche Owner" that 
they can. They want to see a record of when the tire pressures were 
checked, and a car with poor service records is summarily rejected.

Some want the cheapest 928 on the market.

Some go by appearance, assuming that a well-maintained appearance means 
well-maintained mechanically.

Bottom line (my opinion): Buy the best looking, best maintained, latest 928 
that you can afford - but put at least 10%, and perhaps as much as 20% of 
the price of the car into a maintenance fund.

I have posted a copy of this to RennList - I can assure you that you will 
hear a wide range of other opinions.

Wally Plumley
928 Specialists