Maybe this poor Porsche is cursed! It was parked when one owner died, then bought for another owner who died before he could get to work on it. Left for dead itself despite showing only 28,000 miles, this ’83 944 hasn’t been registered since 2001. As long as you’re not too superstitious, a mere $1,000 could make it yours; find it here on craigslist in Taft, in California’s vast Central Valley.
If those miles sound too low to be true, I’d point out the crack-free dash, a rare sight in these transaxle Porsches. There does appear to be some adhesive separation at the base of the windshield, though, resulting in a wavy look; still, the overall appearance of this interior is consistent with a car that both hasn’t seen many miles, and hasn’t seen a lot of maintenance over the years.
Low miles or no, the 944’s big, 2.5-liter four—a Porsche-designed unit to replace the VW/Audi-derived 2-liter in the earlier 924—is going to need some serious love. Attempts to turn it over, including with a breaker bar, have thus far been unsuccessful. It’s worth noting, too, that at 28,000 miles, this baby is within spitting distance of the 30,000-mile timing belt service interval, a fairly major job. Between that and whatever’s got it seized up, the engine might have to come out of this car before attending to all of its needs.
The lower front valance could use some straightening and the seller points out that the paint “needs to be buffed out desperately,” but the overall structural and cosmetic condition of this 944 seems basically sound. The 944 has superb weight distribution and was judged in its day to be one of the better-handling members of the Porsche family—and one of the best-handling sports cars, period—so I think it’s definitely worth seeing what it would take to get this low-mile example back on the road. Perhaps its final stroke of bad luck is its location; as the seller notes, “here in Taft there isn’t a lot of cash floating around.” $1,000 isn’t a lot of cash, indeed; could you see spending that small initial amount to see if you could turn this Porsche’s luck around?
FOES before even trying to start it. Mileage AND time. Dash looks like it’s been covered. It’s probably a 5 digit odometer. On the plus side, I’ve seen worse asking for more money.Guards red must have been the most popular color for 944’s, but it’s expensive.
Forgive my ignorance, I’m guessing Fuel Oil Electrical Suspension?
Front of engine service..timing and balance belts, associated rollers and sprockets , water pump. When the timing belt breaks…and it will, eventually, the piston will likely damage valves since it’s an interference type engine
Are ya feeling lucky?
It’s more than a little hard to believe this car only covered 28,000 miles during the 18 years it was on the road. I guess whatever the speedometer shows is now considered proof mileage, it wasn’t long ago that actual documentation was expected.
It’s cheap, if all else fails, someone could part it out and be in the black.
Steve R
Lots of reasons to be gunshy of this deal, some being the fact that this is a first-year model for the 944 line; the dash is plain plastic and not nearly as good as the later 944 dashes; the performance was modest at best, and very modest for a P-car; plus all the problems listed by the seller.
Life is too short to deal with a bad P-car.
The belt has a lifespan in years not just mileage?
I have had two oval dash models years ago and miss them both. Great cars ..
Can I ask what the condition of the dash has to do with miles when it is the sun that cracks them?
I was born under a bad sign too……….. NO PARKING.
from the look under the hood this one looks to have the manual steering rack and associated engine brackets that can be used to convert a power steering car. these are getting hard to find.
Too bad it is not in Houston……
I had a stud snap when changing the waterpump on one of mine. Week before my wedding/honeymoon… Great timing it was!
Wonder if some scrap metal from the murderous ’58 Plymouth made it into this Porsche…