Quote:
Originally Posted by Perfectlap
Pick your poison. Rebuild an air cooled engine every x number of miles at great cost... Or go water cooled and replace it whole every x number of miles?
you can't really daily drive an air cooled car and not take a beating every time the odometer ticks up 10k miles. and you can't garage queen a water cooled and not take a beating on depreciation period.
Do you come out ahead buying a water cooled Porsche cheap and doing the IMS, water pump every five years, etc. vs paying UP for an aircooled car if you're registering high miles on both? Porsches become money pits once you start driving them a lot and not just on a sunday afternoon to get ice cream cones.
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Or option number 3 - get a 928 (or a 944 for that matter). The engines are virtually bullet proof. They are good for 300k plus miles, with routine maintenance and regular driving. And contrary to popular belief, the 928 engine is fairly easy to work on. Easy to get to - open the hood, and there she be. Keep up with regular maintenance and they really are trouble free cars with exceptional capabilities. And the more you drive it, the better it runs and the reliability increases - these cars like to be driven, and not just to the ice cream cone stand!
The big issue with 928s on post - '85 automatics is thrust bearing failure, but that is easily checked at home, and an external clamp takes care of it entirely. And it is a very small percentage issue, not like IMS or RMS, or lifters, or separating cylinder sleeves or the other myriad issues that the M96 presents with.
Don't get me wrong, I love Porsches. And many of them are the best designed cars in the world, but this one group seems troubling, and the evidence seems to bear it out. A later year Boxster will eventually fill my driveway (or better yet - gasp - a Cayman - I think that is the most beautiful car of Porsche since the 928). Just got to wait for that depreciation thing to work its magic.