The 944 is a good looking car, the interior of the models after 85 are excellent and still look modern if you can find one in black. The handeling is ok until you push it too hard then the soft(ish) suspension really lets it down. MPG is between 25 and 10 depending how you drive the car. The car should be run on 96ron unleaded petrol, to you and me that means super unleaded, although due to a well develeloped (for its age) Bosch electronic fuel injection system, the car can be run on unleaded with no problems as long as it is not being driven hard.
The 2.5 8v is not very quick, about 8 secs to 60, but does keep pulling well after that, although most modern 2.0 litre cars will easily keep up, including quite embarrasingly some Mondeos and Vectas! The claimed top speed of the vehicle is 137mph and at motorway speeds the car is very stable.
The price of parts can vary, oil filter, spark-plugs and fuel filters cost the same as most vehicles and can be bought from discount part shops, or from main Porsche dealers for only a small premium. Some none service parts, can however be a lot more expensive. Control arms cost up to £300 per side and need replacing if the ball joints fail. It is also worth pointing out that the cam belt should be replaced every 4 years and the tension checked every year, a job that can not be done at home and will cost about £60 to have an independent Porsche dealer carry out.
If you are buying the car for the badge, go for a 924 2.0 litre as its much cheaper to run, but if you want a 944, simply make sure you get a nice interior, avoid white and look for recent sevice history, oh and also check that the engine builds up oil pressure straight away or you could be looking at a cracked oil pickup pipe, which can become very expensive, as I found out! One final point, if you can find a nice example, go for a 1987 model or newer as they recieved several useful updates to the oil circulation system and the offset of the wheels changed which allows the upgrade to the more modern design 90 alloy wheels.
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Aug 30th, 2004
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