FWIW, my daughters (17 & 19 yo) both drive 924s. One is the old '77 95 hp model and one is an '87 924S (same engine drivetrain as a 944).
You probably would not want to mess with the old pre "S" 924s as they are goin to mainly be rust buckets (fenders, doors and hood were not galvanized) and are not worth anything to speak of, however the 924S and 944 are solid decent cars once they have been gone thru maintenance wise. Most of the sub $5000 cars will all have been owned by 2nd & 3rd owners who treated them poorly and did little maintenance.
944 Turbo's and 944S's are nice when well sorted, but will cost more money initially to fix up and potentially later if they need repairs.
Common fixes needed which I have done on both my 924S and my 944 turbo (both of which I bought cheap with high miles in need of work).
-Timing/balance belt replacement along with most of the rollers and water pump while you are in there.
-Power steeering rack re-build ($80.00 kit from Rennbay)
-AC compressor rebuild then re-charge with 134 (A company in AZ has bearings and seals for these old Nippondenso compressors)
-New clutch
Both daughters learned to drive in the '77 and the youngest still drives it daily and it has NEVER broke down in the 3 years since I fixed it up for them to use.
The oldest daughter has driven the 924S for the past 2 yrs and after going thru the car and fixing the standard issues, it has NEVER broke down either.
The '77 has probably 200,000 plus miles on it's original engine AND clutch. And the '87 924S has about 160,000 miles on it.
If you have the time to baseline the cars yourself, they make solid dependable cars. If you forego the initial fixing, then you are probably going to have problems.
A few pics, one of which shows my wife and I with our 911SC and the girls each with their 924's at their first PCA event. They got a kick out of being able to attend with their own cars.
'87 924S on left, '77 924 on rt
'77 924 on right, '87 944 turbo middle
