These are sort of a forgotten classic, but very, very nice cars if well bought, but can be ugly if not. Whenever friends and I get beer talking about cars we'd like to own or wish we had owned, these hardly ever come up.
The salt is mostly gone from some areas here, so my friend woke up his ~70K mile 928 S4 and I got to drive it for about an hour. I really enjoyed it. This is an extremely well preserved and maintained one. A few thoughts:
1) Porsche made very nice cars then and used extremely durable components, e.g. the interior is almost perfect save for a miniscule dash crack and patina on the seats. No tears. All the switches are original and functional, all the primitive led displays also work. No squeaks or rattles; almost unbelievable on a 30+ year old car. These were big $$ cars in the day though.
2) Steering, assisted, is heavy, communicative and well damped. Love the feeling especially compared to some of the overboosted almost rheostat feeling steering on many recent vehicles, even 'sports' ones.
3) This is not a sports car, it is clearly a grand tourer. It is fun on the twisties but with some effort, it gives the feeling that it is most comfortable eating up lots of highway miles very quickly. One car that I actually prefer with an auto.
4) I miss the German austere minimalist instrument panels and dashboards of the 70's -mid/late 90's. Plain & simple, quick glance and you get what you need from the gauges and the various controls (climate, etc.) are in easy reach with big and distinct enough knobs, slides and levers so you can actually use them without being too distracted.
5) Cars have gotten huge. I always thought of the 928 as a big car, but we parked next to a Toyota something sedan that dwarfed it.
6) Flounder headlights were tacky, now they are cool.
7) Getting in and out is a bit awkward. The seats are so low as are the sills so that you have to sort of fall into the car. The Lotus also has silly low seats, but the sills are so high (relatively) you put your hand on one and pivot your feet in, but the 928 is like dropping in to a hole backside first; takes practice to make it look effortless
8) Nothing, NOTHING sounds like a V8 through a good exhaust.
I'm now soft prowling the interweb for one...
Photo from the web of the same year as his.
The salt is mostly gone from some areas here, so my friend woke up his ~70K mile 928 S4 and I got to drive it for about an hour. I really enjoyed it. This is an extremely well preserved and maintained one. A few thoughts:
1) Porsche made very nice cars then and used extremely durable components, e.g. the interior is almost perfect save for a miniscule dash crack and patina on the seats. No tears. All the switches are original and functional, all the primitive led displays also work. No squeaks or rattles; almost unbelievable on a 30+ year old car. These were big $$ cars in the day though.
2) Steering, assisted, is heavy, communicative and well damped. Love the feeling especially compared to some of the overboosted almost rheostat feeling steering on many recent vehicles, even 'sports' ones.
3) This is not a sports car, it is clearly a grand tourer. It is fun on the twisties but with some effort, it gives the feeling that it is most comfortable eating up lots of highway miles very quickly. One car that I actually prefer with an auto.
4) I miss the German austere minimalist instrument panels and dashboards of the 70's -mid/late 90's. Plain & simple, quick glance and you get what you need from the gauges and the various controls (climate, etc.) are in easy reach with big and distinct enough knobs, slides and levers so you can actually use them without being too distracted.
5) Cars have gotten huge. I always thought of the 928 as a big car, but we parked next to a Toyota something sedan that dwarfed it.
6) Flounder headlights were tacky, now they are cool.
7) Getting in and out is a bit awkward. The seats are so low as are the sills so that you have to sort of fall into the car. The Lotus also has silly low seats, but the sills are so high (relatively) you put your hand on one and pivot your feet in, but the 928 is like dropping in to a hole backside first; takes practice to make it look effortless
8) Nothing, NOTHING sounds like a V8 through a good exhaust.
I'm now soft prowling the interweb for one...
Photo from the web of the same year as his.
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