MARKET WATCH
Many of us recall the days of plentiful, cheap-as-chips 944s and 928s you could buy and sell with abandon, says David Sutherland. But with these models now considered future – or actual – classics, what do you have to pay for them now?
On this magazine we’ve long nurtured a special interest in the so-called “transaxle” Porsches, the front-engined, rear gearbox sports cars built from 1976 when the 924 appeared until 1995 when the last of the line 968 and 928GTS were discontinued prior to commencement of Boxster and 996 production. Our affection is rooted in various aspects, but chiefly price: they’ve been dirt cheap and over the years many have passed through the hands of 911&PW staff.
However, several years ago the inevitable eventually happened and prices began to rise. The bargain basement sales sites were no longer awash with 944s and 928s so cheap it hardly mattered what was right or wrong with them. But the
car market is a different place to what it was prepandemic, so where are we now in the transaxle story? Did values stride on through lockdown, or have they been Covidised back down to previous levels?
Owners of 944s hoping to sell their cars might have become quite excited had they noticed a 1987 944 Turbo fetching the equivalent of £65,000 including buyer’s premium at the RM Sotheby’s auction back in March at Amelia Island in Florida. Owners of V8-engined transaxles might have also smelt an oncoming wafting upwards of prices on spotting a 1986 928S going under the hammer for £74,000 at the same auctioneer’s on-line event at Palm Beach later in the same month.
But of course these cars are in exceptional
condition, which is why they attracted such unusually high bids for the model. To get a feel for values of cars in “normal” condition, we assessed the results of three auctions in the UK that could be described as local, as opposed to international.
Reality is what you tend to find in spades at Anglia Car Auctions, its sales in King’s Lynn in Norfolk a popular destination for bargain hunters until the event switched on-line during lockdown. Here we learned that the inexpensive four-pot transaxle is still out there, a 1983 924 going for £2226. It didn’t have its V5 logbook but it did boast an engine rebuild in 2003; at that price what could possibly go wrong?
A 1990 944 S2 (the final 944 evolution before it morphed into the 968) fetched £4590, but after that the cheapies ran out, the next price up being £12,690 paid for a twoowner 1993 968 Cabriolet with a warranted 109,000 miles. An example of the quite rare 924 Turbo had carried a pre-sale estimate of £8000–£10,000, but the bidding petered out at £8000 which was below reserve, hence it was unclaimed as of the end of the auction.
That Warwickshirebased Classic Car Auctions, effectively the budget brand of Silverstone Auctions, presented seven transaxles at its on-line sale in June suggests that interest in these cars is drawing more out for sale. The cheapest was a 1985 944 Lux sold for £8030 which seems strong for an early-ish 944, but it had covered only 23,500 miles with an MOT history bearing this out. The next price up was a 1994 968 Sport (not to be confused with the much more collectable Clubsport) with 140,000 miles making £10,340.
What of the 928, which was supposed to replace the 911 but didn’t? There were five versions, the original 928, followed by the S2, S4, GT and GTS, this last one having become the most sought after especially in manual gearbox form. But what is noticeable is that irrespective of model, 928 values are all over the place: in early August Silverstone Auctions passed a 928GT to a new home for £42,750, a 30,400-mile manual car that had recently undergone a £5000 service and chassis workover. However, a few weeks earlier Classic Car Auctions had raised just £30,250 for an automatic 928 GTS with a still modest 70,000 miles. But you needn’t have spent anything like this at CCA: a 1986 928 S2 with a bare metal repaint, retrim and engine rebuild, and a solid history, could only make £11,500. Two 928s, a 1982 with just two owners, and a manual from 1978, made £11,000 and £14,300, respectively.
If you’d prefer to buy from a dealer then expect to pay £15,000 minimum, which will secure a 928 or 928S, but probably not a GT/GTS – cars like that are more likely to be £30,000–£40,000. London dealer Veloce Classic and Sports in Shepherds Bush in west London, was asking £53,900 for a 928GTS with 16,000 miles and previous owned by the man who seems to be permanently selling off his collection, the musician Jay Kay.
Compared to air-cooled 911s, transaxles are still notable value for money provided they’re not the pristine example hawked by exclusive classic car dealers. But the days when you could buy 944s, run them for a while all inside £1500 before selling on have gone – and are no doubt missed by those who remember them.