Viewing a 928 S4

[Automental]

I'm off to view a rather beautiful 1993 928 S4 with a friend on Saturday. The car is at Hexagon Modern Classics in East Finchley.
Anyone have any top buying tips and do Hexagon have a good reputation? They certainly have some seriously swanky cars.
II think my friend thinks I may be a font of knowledge on all things Porsche because I have one, but I really don't know a thing about buying 928s!
Thanks.

[mr pg]

Don't anything about their venture into Porsche yet, but have looked round there a few times for BMW's. Their prices are traditionally right the top end for BM's. Being situated opposite the Bishop's Avenue doesn't help.

[stratfordshark]

It's a beautiful colour, but it's not a 1993 since final year for S4s was 1991 model year!

What are they asking? I wish the description was more informative, as opposed to flowery generic stuff cut and pasted from 928 page somewhere

[james S]

911virgin also have on coming in - might be worth a look

[Automental]

They're asking £14k I believe. I agree there isn't much information there. They've obviously got the MY wrong then.
I'll have a look at 911V

[BertBert]

There's a very active friendly and informative lot of 928 enthusiasts with a great mailing list. 928.org.uk
Bert

[Automental]

BertBert said:

There's a very active friendly and informative lot of 928 enthusiasts with a great mailing list. 928.org.uk
Bert

Thanks Bert, website looks good.
Anyone had any dealings with Hexagon?

[xftdr]

Automental said:

Anyone had any dealings with Hexagon?

I asked the same question a while back but didn't get much of an answer:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[thegoose]

I had a horizon blue 1993 car that was manufactured in 1991, so I don't think it's too unusual, unsold stock was just a sign of the times back then. It still qualified as a new car and the Porsche warranty started once it was registered.

[Cheib]

Automental said:

I'm off to view a rather beautiful 1993 928 S4 with a friend on Saturday. The car is at Hexagon Modern Classics in East Finchley.
Anyone have any top buying tips and do Hexagon have a good reputation? They certainly have some seriously swanky cars.
II think my friend thinks I may be a font of knowledge on all things Porsche because I have one, but I really don't know a thing about buying 928s!
Thanks.

They're owned by a guy called Paul Michaels who is very old school and has a big personal collection of classics which is actually featured on one of this months classic cars mags. He's got some verrry nice cars!

I've bought a lot of news cars over the years from Hexagon and had nothing but great service. They are very expensive for second hand BMW's because they stock high spec cars and often one's that other dealers won't....E39 M5's Z8's etc.

I wouldn't expect to drive much of a bargain....they will hold on to cars for much longer than most dealers and are prepared to be patient. Know the market backwards...

[Automental]

Thanks Chelb that's good to know. I get the feeling they're cars are priced at the optimistic end of the range but I doubt they'd sell any old rubbish looking at the spectacular cars they have in stock. The 928 must be just about their cheapest car for sale.

[stratfordshark]

That's a bonkers price for an S4 (bonkers in sense of high) in current market.

Then again I think that the fact that you can buy a car of this quality for only 14K is bonkers, given what 911s of similar vintage fetch

[phelix]

I looked at a 911 they had earlier this year. It was advertised as immaculate and with 34K miles and priced over £30K. (!!) I went and looked anyway - turns out the car had three different brands of tyres fitted, a badly corroded exhaust that was in danger of falling apart (bolt heads and nuts rusted away to virtually nothing and flanges more than half gone and the support strut gone with almost no signs that it had ever been there) and the car had been sprayed with black undercoat almost everywhere underneath making it very difficult to assess how much the tin worm had got to it. Within 24 hours they agreed to replace the tyres and the exhaust or deduct a suitable amount from the purchase price. I declined. What sealed it was some digging via google which revealed the car had been sold by another dealer for about 25% less a few months earlier! Willing to pay one dealer's profit but not that of two dealers on a car which wasn't rare and was not at all special.

I kept looking and 2 months later found a car with 60K miles for 60% of the price with far fewer signs of corrosion.

They were very professional to deal with and had teh car ready for me when I arrived, they were happy for me to drive the car and they put it up on a lift for me to inspect. If they had a car I was interested in I wouldn't hesitate to go back but with eyes wide open again - a premium price doesn't necessarily mean a premium product.

[graemel]

911 Virgins S4 looks worth a look. Diamond Blue Metallic which is a stunning colour with cup 1's looks great.

[Automental]

Looks nice, but at £19k even pricier. Perhaps values on the up

[thegoose]

It had £10,000 spent on it last month though!

[Cheib]

Automental said:

Looks nice, but at £19k even pricier. Perhaps values on the up

Think I may have seen you at the weekend. I popped in to have a look at the new X5 and saw a couple of blokes with big smiles on their faces giving the 928 the once over outside.

[Huskyman]

Hi There.
I bought a 928 S4 manual from Henry at 911v years ago, and the guy is very honest and easy to deal with, and the cars are as described.
1. Avoid car parks with these cars as the doors, front wings and bonnet are alloy, and easy to ding. Came back to mine after a pleasant day shopping to find a lovely dent in the front passenger door
2. If you are looking at an auto it is VITAL to check the tension in the flex-plate that joins the torque tube to the flywheel, because if this is too high the crank thrust bearings will be under massive pressure and should this go unchecked then the bottom end bearings will fail with a huge bill.
3. Only put N rated tyres on the car, insurance requirements and the 928 is a heavy car and puts a lot of demand on the tyres.
4. The electrical systems on these cars were the most complex fitted to a car when they were built, so check everything works and use the car at least once a week, as cars left standing for long periods can develop faults. Any excuse to hear that V8 rumble away
5. Check the exhaust system carefully, as it is quite a substantial system, and very expensive.

The car for sale at 911v has had all the major work done, but ask about the cam-chain tensioners in each cylinder head. The exhaust cam on each bank is driven by the cam belt (6-foot loop!!) but the inlet cams are driven off the exhaust cams by means of a chain, and there is a tensioner for each one. Make sure the tensioners and tensioner pads are in good nick.
For servicing and advice have a look for a gent by the name of Paul Anderson, he is one of the foremost experts in the UK on the 928. http://www.nixsoft-consulting.co.uk/928spares/

Bloody good fun these cars, and I still miss mine after 11 years...
Husky

Edited by Huskyman on Monday 18th November 12:08

[Automental]

That must have been us Chelb, good to meet you....almost! It's a small world.
We thought the car was probably as good as you can get and Hexagon seemed very decent, honest and thorough. Really appreciate your reply Husky- I think most of the work has been done but maybe not all. The very helpful salesman put it up on the ramps for us and the exhaust looked pretty good and the electrics and AC all seemed to work. It's a lot of car for the money and seemed tight and smooth on the test drive-a lot smoother than my 996 but I guess they're different beasts. My pal is giving it some serious consideration.