Should I attempt to restore a 78 928?

This is easily a black hole for money to be sucked in to.

It all really depends on what you are willing to accept on this car. If you don't care about having REALLY NICE SEATS you can get shitty seat covers, if you don't car about a cracked or even worse leather peeling dash you can get an ugly carpet (sorry to those of you who have them...I personally HATE THEM) to glue on top of it. There are a zillion ways to cheap out on this thing. Take it to MAACO and get a total crap paint job for $1500 (really...that is what even their crap work will likely end up costing) and then clean all the ground points and replace all the relay's and fuses... You will be in to the car for a solid $2500k and it might even run.

If you want things like A/C to work and such like that... and heaven forbid you actually want the car to look good in and out...man you are talking HUGE MONEY there!

A good Rob Budd or Paul Champagne interior (and not the whole thing mind you just seats and a few other bits) is going to run you nearly $5k! Decent respectable paint is EASILY $5k... Do the math a decent '78 EURO Auto (which is probably one of the LEAST desirable 928's of all time) in excellent condition is not even worth $8k on a good day... These are NOT GOOD DAYS!

Good luck with whatever you decide. Of course if you do the work and are wiling to put up with it you can do all of this stuff over years and years, learning as you go... BTW< there was a recent thread about painting and I recall seeing that to do a 928 with a base coat and then proper color and clear and the supplies needed to make that happen is over $1500 in supplies (and I am not talking about a paint gun, booth, or compressor either! That is just paint and sand paper and tack cloths, etc)!

Question. Why is the 78 Euro Auto 928 so undesirable?

lgpp;5332 wrote: Question. Why is the 78 Euro Auto 928 so undesirable?

Performance in the 928 improved through the years, and '78 was the first year. Manuals in general are more valuable than automatics as there were less made.

Oh, just noticed it is at least a '78... '78 is a touch more special because it is the first year.

The auto only had a 3 speed trans and was not very fast.

The '78/'79 cars (EURO or otherwise) made to little power by today's standards.

'78/'79 cars (EURO or US) had LOTS of vacuum operated things (like door locks...just as the most annoying example...though all 928's have to many vacuum operated bits in them really) and that usually is a HUGE PITA with these older cars...

I am casually looking for a VERY NICE '78 so I don't have to mess with a bunch of stuff but only because it is the FIRST model year of the car, NOT because I actually think the '78 is a great car per se. It is the first MY and it is the one that was awarded '78 CAR OF THE YEAR!

An '80 5spd would be a better choice (though there are plenty of issues with those early 5spd tranny's where the 3 speeds are pretty bullet proof). A better choice still would be a EURO S from just about any year '80-'86 and my personal fav (other than GTS's...which are EVERYONE'S FAVS) is the S4!

Drove my '88 tonight in fact...that car just puts the biggest damn smile on my face! That said my GTS's are faster and my Guards Red EURO85 gets ALL the attention when it goes out of the garage!

You can't lose with any 928, but some are actually more desirable than others and a '78 is better than a '79 for sure but the 5spd would be MUCH more fun and engaging and quick to drive and enjoy...PITA as a DD though.

Hmmm....almost sounds like I should look for an S4 somewhere. What's a typical price range of a good condition 80s model S4 with lower miles?

How much is too many miles on one of these cars. I saw a 1979 928 Manual close to where I was for 10k. Think it had about 160k miles on it though. Seemed like a lot for the car.

lgpp;5344 wrote: Hmmm....almost sounds like I should look for an S4 somewhere. What's a typical price range of a good condition 80s model S4 with lower miles?

How much is too many miles on one of these cars. I saw a 1979 928 Manual close to where I was for 10k. Think it had about 160k miles on it though. Seemed like a lot for the car.

You would need to define lower miles, under 30k you will pay a premium as it approaches collector value. Keep in mind even a lower mileage car will have many older rubber and plastic parts. If you plan on driving it, look for the best example you can find with known maintenance, and have a pre purchase inspection performed by a 928 experienced mechanic.

I would suggest you *might* find a decent S4 for close to $10k because of the economic conditions of the market, but you are more likely to need to pay closer to $20k. Of course there are premium examples out there that might be marketed for much more, whether they are worth it depends on whether it is worth it to you.

In general mileage is not a concern. A well maintained 928 is just broken in at 100k and could easily see 200k+.

Just don't buy a fixer upper without fully understanding what you are getting into. The 928 community is great support for doing the fixing up, but it can be very costly and very time consuming, plus you may not be driving the car as much as you would like.