928s Featured in 911 Porsche World

While I have yet to figure out the photocopier in the office sends scanned documents as emails, I thought I'd offer this up in the meantime.

It may be a wee bit dated; however, can you ever really get enough of the written word when it comes to the 928?!


Is the Porsche 928 under estimated?

Autos & Motorcycles
July 27, 2010
By: Justin Harp

I remember as a boy looking at The Dupont Registry and seeing Porsche 356 Speedsters at prices as low as ten thousand dollars. I remember thinking how awesome they were but at the time they were just another small unpopular Volkswagen derived automobile. Time has been kind to the Porsche Speedsters. They are selling for over a hundred thousand dollars now. The really nice ones are going for over two hundred thousand.
When I look at a Porsche 928, I see the Porsche sports car in its ultimate incarnation. At this time the Porsche 928 is in middle age like the Speedsters were in the 1980's.
In the '80s the Porsche 928 was the rocket of choice for movie and pop stars. Tom Cruise runs rampant in his daddy's Porsche 928 in the box office hit Risky Business. Director John Hughes had a habit of putting Porsches in movies as well. One of the best parts of Weird Science is the burn out scene in the black 928S at the mall. When Tony Montana is wooing Elvira in Scarface he takes her with him to buy his silver Porsche 928.
In 1984 the Porsche 928 was the fastest production sports car in the world. This might be a shock to your average 911 jockey, but the 928 was also the most expensive car Porsche sold that year. The only Porsche that was more expensive than the 928 during its production years was the 911 Turbo. The 911 Turbo was considered a special order, rather than a production car.
The book, Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader denounced the terrible construction of the rear engined Chevrolet Corvair. Porsche was informed that the book could cause new laws in the U.S. that would ban the sale of the rear engined 911. Porsche's answer to this information was the design of the front engined 4.5 liter 928. In theory the 928 was designed to replace the 911. To replace a very successful rear engined sports car with a front engined super car was their only choice. Porsche accomplished this with the 928. The 928 did not sell well, however, and therefore is a relatively rare automobile.
The Porsche 928 is different from any other front engined Porsche. The exotic alloy V8 is light but complex. Porsche did not use the 928 power plant in any other automobile. Unlike the other front engined Porsches that were constructed at VW and Audi plants, the 928 was built right beside the 911 on the assembly lines at Porsche in Zuffenhausen Germany.
So what has happened to the 928? The market for a Porsche 928 is almost non-existent. There are early 928s that sell for under $3,000 on a regular basis. In the world of classic cars, this makes no sense. These cars are much better cars than they are given credit to be. There is an undeserved reputation for them being unreliable. I think the phrase that would better describe them is 'expensive to maintain.' With expensive parts and labor most 928s suffer from cheap owners rather than unreliability. I would go as far as to say that they are more reliable than early 911s.
I bought my 1984 928S in a junk yard for $1300. It had not been running in over 8 years. To any other Porsche mechanic this would be called a suicide mission. It had no key, but it was complete and the body was in good shape. After buying an entire steering column for $75, I later found the original key under the car. With a fuel pump, fresh gasoline, and two relays the car cranked to life. For a while I thought of the 928 as a cheap car that I could abuse. After all it was a little over a thousand dollars. In every other story you hear like this the car breaks down but it did no such thing. I treated the car horribly and did donuts in it until an egg could have been fried on the automatic transmission. After two years of this abuse, the car cranks and runs every time. I have never owned an automobile that has earned the money that is spent on it like my 928 has. Now after thousands of dollars have been spent on it, the car is still wearing the original paint from when it rolled out of the factory in 1984.
Porsche is planning a new 928 on the platform of the Panamera in the near future. For all of you 928 owners this might be a good thing. Hopefully the press and the demand for the new car will increase the market value of early 928s. They certainly deserve the attention.

source: www.examiner.com/article/is-the-porsche-928-under-estimated

I actually prefer them as the forgotten and misunderstood car that they are today. This has made it possible for me to acquire multiple 928s. I know what a steal it is to get into a 928 these days. Frankly, I don't care if anyone else does. I love the 928 but those that are unfamiliar to them will continue to run from them. They are still expensive to maintain and difficult for most to work on. I imagine it is no less a challenge to even employ someone locally to work on these cars than it was 20+ years ago. Of course this depends on ones location but I am talking about the majority of prospective buyers.

KilnRed;12257 wrote: I actually prefer them as the forgotten and misunderstood car that they are today. This has made it possible for me to acquire multiple 928s. I know what a steal it is to get into a 928 these days. Frankly, I don't care if anyone else does. I love the 928 but those that are unfamiliar to them will continue to run from them. They are still expensive to maintain and difficult for most to work on. I imagine it is no less a challenge to even employ someone locally to work on these cars than it was 20+ years ago. Of course this depends on ones location but I am talking about the majority of prospective buyers.

I agree with you 100%. If they were more desirable they would be more costly to buy, although they might be less expensive to own, as there would be greater expertise in the automotive service sector to support them.

KilnRed;12257 wrote: I actually prefer them as the forgotten and misunderstood car that they are today. This has made it possible for me to acquire multiple 928s. I know what a steal it is to get into a 928 these days. Frankly, I don't care if anyone else does. I love the 928 but those that are unfamiliar to them will continue to run from them. They are still expensive to maintain and difficult for most to work on. I imagine it is no less a challenge to even employ someone locally to work on these cars than it was 20+ years ago. Of course this depends on ones location but I am talking about the majority of prospective buyers.

While visiting my favourite book store today I struck up a conversation with a 911 enthusiast as he poked through the non-Porsche mags looking for a nugget or two. He has 911s, 924s' and 944s but doesn't walk away from 928s, he runs away! When I asked him 'why?' he told me that they are just too damn expensive to maintain and repair. Sadly, he didn't have one to sell me.

Stan.Shaw@Excell.Net;12258 wrote: I agree with you 100%. If they were more desirable they would be more costly to buy, although they might be less expensive to own, as there would be greater expertise in the automotive service sector to support them.

Stan, I actually feel that the 928 of today is at an advantage for the fact that the maintenance is more dependent on individual owners. Look at how well maintained these cars are by so many who are an OC member as an example. The original owners probably didn't have such a close relationship with their car. Then, they lacked the internet as the precious resource it is for 928 technical info. These are super cars. Over time, the typical 928 owner has benefited from a wealth of knowledge detailing maintenance duties and improvements. 928 mechanics were few and far between even when they most frequently toured the streets. The support for the car today may not have ever been better. You're local auto mechanic wouldn't know what we do as owners.

kilnred;12260 wrote: stan, i actually feel that the 928 of today is at an advantage for the fact that the maintenance is more dependent on individual owners. Look at how well maintained these cars are by so many who are an oc member as an example. The original owners probably didn't have such a close relationship with their car. Then, they lacked the internet as the precious resource it is for 928 technical info. These are super cars. Over time, the typical 928 owner has benefited from a wealth of knowledge detailing maintenance duties and improvements. 928 mechanics were few and far between even when they most frequently toured the streets. The support for the car today may not have ever been better. You're local auto mechanic wouldn't know what we do as owners.

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