Almost all of us want to find the best price possible for a collector or hobby vehicles – it’s common sense. However, there are occasions for paying top dollar or at least market rate when a car appears to have benefitted from proactive maintenance and ongoing care. While it’s a personal decision whether you assign value to a car with great documentation and history, you will rarely regret doing so. This 1986 Porsche 944 listed here on craigslist sounds like the sort of car that’s been extremely well looked after, and the seller claims there’s ample documentation to back it up.

The asking price is $18,800, and thanks to Barn Finds reader Mitchell G. for the find. The 944 in naturally-aspirated form is one of those models that suffers from a plight I commonly describe as excessive availability – in other words, you can usually find one for sale if you’re hot to trot for a front-engined Porsche. Therefore, you can always resume your search at a later date if things don’t pan out this time around. However, when a car this nice pops up, you may want to take a closer look. In addition to the turbo twist-style wheels and clean paint, this 944 also has the rear valence from a 944 Turbo.

Mileage is reasonably low at under 60,000, but what really inspires me about the odometer reading is that the current owner actually drove this car. In the 20 years he’s owned it (and that long-term ownership is to be commended as well), he’s added a little over 10,000 miles. While not a lot, we see plenty of hobby vehicles that rack up 1,000 – 3,000 miles in that time frame. The leather seats remain in tidy condition, and the same for the rest of the interior features, but the seller does not it has dash cracks which are pretty typical for a German car of this vintage.

With any 944, addressing the timing belt is a must-do because if you don’t, the engine will become a boat anchor in short order due to the interference design. The 147-horsepower 4 cylinder engine was treated to a proactive timing belt change in 2023 after being changed in the early 2000s by the previous owner. With cars like this that see limited use, you have to follow the manufacturer’s recommendation for oil changes on the basis of time passed versus miles accumulated. With the seller claiming to have the paperwork to back these improvements up, this 944 seems like the type of car you buy when you tire of buying someone else’s unfinished project.