944 feature Price Value

jykk04 · jykk04's Garage

What do you think about 944's price value is going to be?

AFJuvat · 08-14-2002, 04:42 PM

You are gonna have to wait a few years - too many were built for them to become valuable. I'm betting you are going to have to wait at least another 10 years before you start seeing them appreciate.

I think it is probably going to be like the 914 - for the longest time you couldn't give them away becuase it wasn't a "real" Porsche, now as the numbers are dropping rapidly, the price and collectability of the cars are going up.

If you want collectability you really need to go to the odd,, limited edition models (turbo cup) or some of the variants that were low production to begin with - Turbo S, 944S2 Coupe (most were cabs), 968 (sort of), 968 Turbo S, 968 RS (6 made). I would also imagine in time that you will see the 924's creep up a little bit, unfortunately, finding a good 924 or 931 these days is an uncommon thing - and the cost to restore one is in some ways more expensive than restoring a 944..

IMO, I do not expect to ever see the 928's go up. You can get them for pennies on the dollar now because they are extremely high manitenance, and they are VERY expensive to work on. A shame though, because they are beautiful, luxurious, and FAST.

AFJuvat

lambic2000 · lambic2000's Garage

Hasn't the price of the 944 gone up the last few years according to Excellence Magazine's market reports? If so, how come I am the only one who voted for the "it has been going up, what are you talking about?" choice. Hmmmmm.....

Stephen

Logan5 · 08-14-2002, 04:49 PM

I voted for that one too.

lambic2000 · lambic2000's Garage

My 83 (which I would consider to be excellent) was:

$5,025 in 1999
$5,143 in 2000
$5,288 in 2001
and holding steady at $5,288.

Good choice Logan5

Stephen

Blackfoot · Blackfoot's Garage

technically speaking, the value has gone up, minisculey. but i don't consider $263 in 3 years anything to get excited about! that's about only 1.5% per year! factor in cost of living rise, and you're losing money. this is what i think of as an asset like a car appreciating due to demand:

$6,244 in 2008
$7,692 in 2009
$9,143 in 2010

kenny · 08-15-2002, 04:54 AM

all my other cars are going down although not by much -- I ususally buy them after the initial steep part of the depreciation curve has come and gone

I figure the price to be stable and look at the maintenance as our cost of ownership -- ain't nothin' free!

I think the 951's would tend to go up a bit faster than the 944's due to desirabillity.

scottmandue · 08-15-2002, 02:31 PM

I don't want to pee on anybody's parade here...
But I have been scanning the internet and the papers for over a year, weekly, usually more often than that and I do not see any indication that prices are going up IMHO.

I would LOVE it if my car was increasing in value, it just doesn't seen to be happening...

YET!

lambic2000 · lambic2000's Garage

So is Excellence Magazine's market reports a bunch of crap?

Stephen

kenny · 05:34 AM

I kind of disagree with the old fart on this one. I feel like a broken record (and don't look much better), but the value of the car is directly related to its condition. As time goes by there are fewer and fewer 'excellent' cars. They will increasingly demand more money -- especially for the turbos, turbo S's, cup cars etc. There are a lot of folks who think their cars are in great shape but are really only good, and the majority (I dare say) of 944's out there are in poor to average condition. Sure there are a lot of cheap cars out there, but every single cheap car I've seen was absolutely trashed; and, would take thousands to bring back to excellent shape (sound familiar anyone?)! I know a couple of guys on the board here have claimed some 'smokin'' deals but I kind of wonder what it was they were smokin'

Yeah, even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and again, but generally the higher prices are there for the right car. My car was expensive by a lot of peoples standards but I haven't had to do anything but regular maintenance on it and other cars I looked at in the $9-10K range would have needed work immediately -- you get what you pay for. The first thing I did was to change the cap, rotor, air cleaner, and all the belts and yet recently there was a post (here or there) where someone was failing smog because the cap and rotor were completely shot -- meaning it should have been swapped out long before -- that's just regualr maintenance and it wasin't being done.

Britwrench has indirectly breached the key to resale with his comments about basic maintenance. Do your maintenance, keep your records, and keep your car clean, waxed, and covered to protect the dash, interior, and paint. Plan on a minimum of $1-2K per year in maintenance. $1K if you work on it yourself and around $2K if you don't (that's average, costs per year may vary). If you are spending less than that, I would be suspect that there are things that need attention.

Now the fact that there are a lot of young people on the board here indicates to me that these cars have fallen to a lot of young hands. Now most of the kids hanging out here are doing a pretty good job becoming P-car savvy, but I'm guessing that most are not. Additionally, they do not have the financial resources to properly maintain the cars. Subsequently, we see a plethora of trashed 944's. Take care of yours and it probably will be worth something someday! But like Blackfoot says -- you ain't gonna get rich on it!!

scottmandue · 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by lambic2000
So is Excellence Magazine's market reports a bunch of crap?

Stephen

Uh no...

I subscribe to Excellence magazine and it is a great resource, their guide is just that, a guide. I think they would admit that (as Kenny said) they can't possibly take into account all the variables (condition of interior/exterior/mechanical) involved in buying a used car. Personally I use their guide as a rule for the maximum price I would pay for any given car. Even that is negotiable, if you flip back in the magazine to the buyers reports you will see "we value car X at this price however because of blah, blah, blah with this particular car we value at a different price.

Britwrench · 08-17-2002, 06:39 AM

Kenny rules!!!!

Seriously, this is exactly the real situation. I have worked on sports cars (Ferrari and Porsche) since the late 70s and we don't see any 924s anymore, 914s have virtually disappeared and early 944 are not appearing in our shop so much.

Why? because of the cost of repairs and their low resale value; when a 84 944 breaks a trans, it's usually junk time.
The timing belt breaks?..it's junk time. I just missed an good, clean early 85 the other day for $2500..i would expect that this will be around the low level for a good clean early car in the future. I do not believe that values will increase, there are simply too many cars around to be rare, 944 TurboS may be an exception. If you need an analogy; look at prices for BMW 5 series.

In the present economic climate; nothing has a "book" value, it's merely worth what someone will pay for it. '97 Boxsters are at the auction for $22K..their value is only going downwards...
As the 924 took over from the 914 as "cheap" Porsches, the 944 will be the 924 replacement and the Boxster will supercede the 944.

scottmandue · 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Britwrench
Kenny rules!!!!

As the 924 took over from the 914 as "cheap" Porsches, the 944 will be the 924 replacement and the Boxster will supercede the 944.

Ah ha!

Correct me if I'm wrong... but have 914's begun going up in value?

Seriously I have not been pricing 914's but I have heard that their value went into the basement although prices have started going up.

No doubt this is due in part to attrition.

I'm not tying to start an argument here, it's just that I have gone through allot of soul searching because I want to upgrade to a S2 or Turbo and as I have been tracking prices (what I can sell my car for Vs what I can buy one of those cars for) they do not appear to be going up.

kenny · 08-19-2002, 04:49 AM

Again -- try and find a 'excellent' 914! tons of cheap rust buckets -- can't swing a dead cat w/o hitting one (nice sentence fragment!). My buddy James and I went to look at a 2/for $1500 buck deal and they weren't worth hauling off -- Fuchs and all! I would be super surprised if the value of good 914 were dropping and suspect the scott-tee has a point there; but, whether or not the 944's become actually collectable remains to be seen.

One reason the 914 does OK is that they make a pretty good track car in their own right. I think that is the one thing that may keep the 944's (especially the turbos) lower threshold supported is the fact that with little cost you can get them out on the track and have some racing fun! They may not go up too much but they aren't going to drop to much either -- most of them are pretty near the bottom of their depreciation curve. Again, the key to enjoying an older car like these or any other is taking care of and preserving them.

One of the reasons there is not a big increase right now compared to the last three years is that the ecomomy is very soft right now -- if you have cash it may not be such a bad time to buy. I suspect when things pick up a little bit that they will start creeping up again [for the nicer ones]!

JWest · 08-20-2002, 12:52 PM

I heard my name!

I just wanted to comment that 914s are in the range of NA 944s now. Nice 914s go for $5000ish just like nice 944s. Ten years ago I sold two solid (not pristine) 914s for $5500 and I think the market for them is better now. 924s are not the cheap replacement for 914s today however, as 924s are worth VERY little.

One difference is that people will not touch a trashed 944 because of the replacement parts cost and the selling off of parts does not seem that lucrative. However cheap 914s will sell for restoration if there is little rust or parting out if consumed by tinworm.

All in all, though - car "speculation" is just that to an extreme.