1991 Porsche 928 S4 5.0L DOHC V8 from Sweden
Summary:
Grand Tourismo taken to the extreme.
Faults:
The steering rack leaks a bit. Common on these cars. Will fix this during the winter.
A faulty front alignment messed up my tires. This has know been taken care of. The alignment is a crucial detail with this car. The car is equipped with a "bump steer" function. This makes it impossible to lift the car during alignment and still get correct values. Whatever you do, find a shop that will do the alignment without lifting.
General Comments:
The car is frighteningly quick in acceleration above 140km/h. It keeps on accelerating very hard up to 270km/h.
It feels like the car handles better and better the faster you go. When cruising around town the wonderful V8-sound make you feel like you are driving a big powerful "V8 muscle" kind of car.
Under spirited driving through twisty roads the car clearly shows that this is not your everyday V8-cruiser. The handling outperforms most of the modern day cars and the car sticks to the road like you have put glue on your tires.
The car do perform very well on the race track and outperforms even some of the new Porsches, especially on the straights. If you want to be serious about track racing, just take out the interior and save about 300kg.
Worst things about owning this car:
I get challenged to road race some teenager about once a week.
A constant fear of that something very very expensive would brake around the next corner.
Sometimes people are making the mistake thinking they are looking at a 944 or 924. They usually come to there senses when they hear the V8 rumble.
Best things about owning this car:
That the car outperforms me. I have never ever even dared to try the top speed of the car. Maybe sometime in the future I will have the chance to try it out on the Autobahn.
The lines on this car is classic. The car is thirteen years old and still have the looks. People often get a surprise when I tell them the age of the car.
You will get some attention when owning this car. People often walk up to the car admiring it and asking questions when I am filling it up at the gas station or similar.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 29th August, 2004
30th Aug 2004, 01:57
Thank you for this review.
I too was about to buy a 928S4 due to its desirable combination of low (initial) price, performance and prestige.
However, I was swayed away when reading sad reports about possible high maintenance costs and bought a late model high performance Japanese car (WRX) instead.
Has anybody analysed how much more, on average, a 928S4 would cost compared to a late model Japanese car when taking depreciation, repairs and other running costs into account (assuming similar levels of every day usage)?
It would be an interesting article/story for a motoring journalist to pick up on wouldn't it?