“Porsche 924. not restored. Front brakes just rebuilt, and New Battery. Heater Fan does not run, motor is good, just wire off under the dash. I never needed the heater, as I have never driven it in the winter.” End of description.
Would you take the plunge?
Like many vehicles posted on the list of Craig, this ’79 924 is described in rather vague terms. It’s also liquid-cooled, front-engined, and not exactly exclusive, what with 9,636 of them making their way to America’s shores that year.
But for $1200, could it be enough to pique your interest?
The ad’s title tells us it has a 2.0 under the hood – not exactly a powerhouse (somewhere between 95 and 110hp in federalized form, if Wikipedia can be trusted), and a far cry from the turbocharged version which was also available that year. At least it’s got a manual gearbox… but still, nobody’s going to be winning any stoplight drags in this one.
All in all, this looks like a hell project waiting to happen – an interesting, slightly unusual one, but a hell project nonetheless.
It was probably a fun car to drive in its day, and one which undoubtedly drew its share of attention with that bright orange paint job. But now, it would seem best suited for providing some unlucky individual a means for depleting their disposable income.
If you’re a glutton for punishment, swing on over to the Minneapolis craigslist and check it out. Or don’t – if my guess is right, I doubt you’ll ever be able to un-smell the aroma of that interior.
So, what say you… love it, or leave it?
Run away, dear God, run!
Reading this, I was almost overwhelmed by klaxons going off in my head and a shrieking voice shouting “Danger! Danger Will Robinson!”
So yeah, I’ll give it a miss…
I see no danger here as long as one takes the long way round this one.
My first vehicle was a $510 slab of American awesomeness that I won on Ebay and had a lot of fun with. So, in other words I would offer $500 if the brakes are good and it is able to be driven around, but not much more than that and only if I have a few grand to toss around. I bet someone wants the garage space so they might bite at a lowball offer. In all honesty buying a Chevy Beretta and driving that into the ground will probably be more fun and less stressful than driving the wheels off this orange clown shoe.
Certainly, parts will be a lot cheaper and easier to get for your Berretta. I always say if it runs good, drive straight, stops fine and doesn’t stink, it’s fine to drive. There are lots of good cars under $2000 or so.
It’s harder to drive a Beretta into the ground than you might think. I bought mine when I was 15, and have been trying to break it for the last 16 years. 200k miles, and the 3100 still ticks fine. Not the most refined ride, but there is something interesting about having a really nice version of a 20 year old car that all the rest of the them were crashed off the road a decade ago.
Looks like the perfect home for an LSx motor.
Actually, no. Such a lump will unbalance the car and completely ruin the handling. And, back when it was new, these cars were the best handling automobiles you could buy, at any price.
Uhh, no. The LSx is far from a lump, at least the aluminum ones.
Of course, we could always go for a boosted Buick V6. Cheap, easily modded, could get up to 300 with a few common tricks…
Of course, the rest of the car would need to be upgraded to handle the power…
An LS is not a “lump” sir.
Its about the same as reading “Jaguar (insert practically any model here), not restored…”
Could have saved your breath and stopped at “Porsche” or “Jaguar”.
No thank you!
No, no, no… Early water cooled Porsche stored for who knows how long?
Craigslist and I have a nasty history, and not because of bad experiences with transactions… I grew up with the first person accredited with being a murder victim as a result of the site :-/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_John_Anderson
Sad to hear. Being I frequent the Minneapolis craigslist, and have for many years, that incident has always stuck in the back of my mind.
I’ve made deals with a lot of decent people through craigslist car ads, and a few nut-jobs too… but fortunately none which posed any real threat to anyone but themselves.
Still, there’s certain situations I just avoid. No point in throwing caution to the wind for that too-good-to-be-true deal, only to end up walking into an ambush.
(Amazing I haven’t heard of anyone using that technique – post a credible-looking steal of a deal on a big ticket item, stack up meetings with cash buyers, then rob them one by one.)
I was a freshman when she was a senior at St. Olaf. Whenever I use Craigslist, I always think of that horrible time. Of course, some of my older friends knew her personally.
Good colour, but bad purchase.
Why is the heater fan not fixed if it’s just a wire off under the dash? How does he know it’s just a wire? If he went to the trouble of establishing it was a wire, you’d think he’d have plugged it back in! Unless of course the heater’s bypassed for some (likely expensive) reason involving leakage and/or blockage… 😉
My take from the bottom of the world: for $500 it’d be worth looking at, but the price it is, I’d run away screaming.
Looks to me like someone was using it as basic transportation at some point – in which case I’m sure the hacks go much deeper than just a disconnected blower motor. I’m sure the list of shadetree “modifications” on that car would be lengthy.
And yes, that always jumps to the front of my mind… whenever someone advertises a vehicle as “just needs (insert name of trivial part here)”, you gotta wonder why they didn’t do it themselves.
Once in a while, it’s simple laziness. I once sold a car with a set of new struts in the trunk, just because I knew my time was worth more than the value which would be added to the (cheap beater) car by my installing them.
But usually, it’s something more. Like the countless cars on craigslist that “just need a thermostat” when in reality the head gasket(s) are blown. Thermostat. Yeah, right.
Oh yeah, count me in.
I was looking at Kijiji Porsches in the fall. A couple of guys at work have Boxsters, and one mentioned at lunch that being a car guy maybe I should get one. I said “that’s not really my style, what I need is some old thing that doesn’t work properly”
So that set me off on a week of lunchtime surfing for 924s and 944s. But what is really the perfect Porsche for me is a 914 with a rusty hell hole. THATS a DougD Porsche!!!
It would surely make a good 24 Hours of LeMons racer, or just a general AutoX track whore.
This car is indeed a RWD Passat, they were originally cheap Porsches because VW supplied many parts.
As for restoration, VW parts are less expensive than Porsche parts but still expensive, but there is absolutely no interest in restoring a 924, even Porsche fans dislike them,
Said Porsche snobs, er, fans should drive one or two before making such sweeping judgements. The again, this was the first Porsche that wouldn’t try to kill you if you were less than an expert driver. I guess that’s a negative.
These things leave a bad taste… many years ago on a test drive a couple of clowns pulled a gun out and tied me up and stole the 924 …
However, they are a fairly basic type of car, not too much to go wrong, engine from a VW van in Europe, front end from a Golf, should be sturdy. Originally intended to be an Audi sports car if I recall correctly.
I do also recall I can pull out a dashboard in one of these and have it stripped and on the ground in 45 minutes ready to be reskinned.
KJ
‘jokes on the thieves…. they got a water-cooled Porsche, not a real one.
So I found a ’79 924 on Kijiji not too far from where I live. You should see what the guy is asking for it…can we say overinflated sense of what he’s got??? There is absolutely no way he is getting anywhere near a fraction of what he is asking.
http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-cars-trucks-1979-Porsche-924-Coupe-W0QQAdIdZ568382200
Isn’t this the ‘u-boat’ from Risky Business?
That was a 928 from Perry Submarines
I wouldn’t take that even if you were willing to pay for it. It’s an entry-level “Porsche” (depending upon which Porscheophiles you’re talking to) with no upside and crushing restoration costs.
That dashboard, so brown, such plastic…was it you or the seller who slipped in a pic of a Moskvitch dash by mistake?
But seriously, if I had the space I might consider offering $50 over scrap value…no, actually, I probably wouldn’t. This is a fright pig, walk away.
Those bikes int he back grounds are worth more than the car.
This is a Porsche looking for a sucker.
I probably would but I’m a sucker for an interesting and cheap classic
Sounds like a good deal… But what are Richard Hammond and James May going to get?
Comment of the Day award winner! 😀
+1
If in America…a contemporary Mustang (the ads compared them) for Hammond and a Volvo, just cause its May.
The best comment…IN…THE WUUUURLD….
I think a beater 924’s highest and best use is to show up at PCCA events. That said this one sounds like a bit of a hell project, although one can take solace in the relative ease of fixing the 924’s VW LT van engine compared to the nightmarish 944.
hehehe +1. Primer patches, Fuchs-look hubcaps and listen to the PCCA purists squawk.
I had to look up PCCA.
Not a bad idea, but there is a better one: crapcan racing, 24 hrs of LeMons, chumpcar racing. Look for http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/
The price is right, pull all the unnecessary stuff out and drop an engine in it. There may even be a few parts that can be sold.
Walk away,don’t look back.Like Jaguars and exotic Italians there’s no such thing as a cheap one.If it only needs a wire connecting why isn’t it already done?
Is this regret for passing on the Jag I hear talking? If so, you might as well buy it and get this “oh look, I just scored a cheap European car that I can fix up and make a mint on” out of your system.
Or you could send your kids to college.
Just for clarification, I have NO interest in this one 🙂
Lost passenger mirror, looks like red paint in the engine room. That reflective rear panel was a (short lived) styling fad,, in like circa 1982,-83. Moved the plate to the bumper.
And in buying any old car, especially those with known expensive repair costs, there always the three critically important factors of car buying: condition, condition, condition.
I’ve owned a Porsche 924 for four years. I loved that car, had a wonderful time with it, and, in return, the car gave me great service. Bought it (for $3500) from a guy with a reputation for fixing and flipping air-cooled 911’s, the car was solid, cared for, and the list of little niggling problems he gave me with the receipt turned out to be absolutely accurate. As the car had no previous service records, I immediately spent $2000 on redoing the cam belt, water pump, a few weeping engine seals, etc. Hey, it’s a Porsche. You want cheap repairs, go dig up a Cavalier.
In the following four years, I ended up doing one part replacement a year, only had the car strand me once (the solenoid controlling the fuel pump died), and in return I had wonderful time with what is probably the best handling car made in the past forty years. I loved that car, and the lack of a cloth drop top is the only reason I don’t have it still. And when I was hunting for the replacement convertible, a 968 only missed out on the cut due to the damned automatic transmission that killed the feeling of the car.
Didn’t hurt that I also have an independent European garage nearby who had staff who actually knew the car, and had worked on many others in the past. And priced their labor reasonably.
I’m long used to the “do not touch” attitude on any front engined Porsche. It doesn’t have the collector’s value, and its just as expensive to replace as any collectible Porsche. But, contrary to internet ‘wisdom’, they are well-built reliable cars, and if they’ve been taken care of, they’re an absolute bargain for what you get.
Now, having said that, looking at the $1200 special listed above, I can only say, “have you ever heard of Brave Sir Robin?”
Interesting comments Syke. I’ve heard the 968 final iteration of these things is almost 50/50 on weight and at the time was considered the best Porsche for club racing.
Well its already orange, now all it needs is some Gulf Blue and lots and lots of decals!
+1
Or you could just paint a blue stripe down the centre and have yourself a Flug special.
I second, third, fourth, and fifth everybody above who said to run away fast . . . when I first moved to Seattle in 1995, I rented a room in a house which had this exact same car buried in the garage (almost identical picture as above, except less bicycles, more contractor-related detrius). I never saw it run. It had had an under-dash thermal event at some point, and I was stunned when I looked at how tiny the wires are in this car (and how thin the insulation is, both in comparison to any American or Japanese car).
I remember the owner telling me the cost for just the oil filter housing seals and it was around $80 at the time.
Did I say that I never saw it run? The owner did have it operable, for a week or two at a time, before something else sidelined it, after I had moved out. It eventually got given away when the house was sold.
Syke said: I had wonderful time with what is probably the best handling car made in the past forty years
Therefore I reiterate: someone could have another great time chumpcar racing it.
Old Porsches are very polarized in value.
Things like the 924 are worthless but ones like their immediate predecessor, the 914 have significant value.
Except for beat-up examples of the valuable ones, there’s not much in between.
The Gold-Chain crowd ruined many enthusiast’s car brands.
yeah.
throw Harley in that pile…
That’s why I ride a Road Glide, the gold chain crowd thinks they’re hideously ugly.
I wouldn’t give $1200 in Monopoly dollars for that steaming turd.
I can already see the skinned knuckles,diminishing bank account and hear the swearing.
Currently have a $2000 88 924S in the family fleet. Instead of the Audi motor these have the 944’s 2.5 liter engine, in a lighter car. It cost some money to get back on the road after we bought it but now is just a fun toy. 944 Turbo rear sway bar made a big difference in handling. Eventual plan is a 924 Carrera GT clone… Maybe with an LS1 conversion.
One nice thing about Porsches like these is that there isn’t much incentive to keep them original to preserve their value so no guilt in major modifications.
Well, if it came down to the Jag and this, my heart would take the Jag but my head would take this. Drop in a Nissan or Toyota twin cam 2-litre and it’d be fine. ish.
I’d usually be a bit against engine swaps, specially when talking about Porsches, but I think you guys are right. The value isn’t too high and doing an engine swap would improve performance and make for quite a reliable rocket, at least mechanically.
One of those “hot” DOCH Japanese engines from the 80s-early 90s would be cool.
Or maybe even a GTi engine, to keep it German. Though not sure how it’d translate to RWD.
Actually, I wonder how would it fare with the flat-4 from the ToyoBaru twins.
Wonder how difficult an engine swap in this car would be…
Quite difficult to transplant an engine, the transmission is at the back…
KJ