At least everybody agrees on slow and ugly
@db4690–When I was a teenage driver, my parents had two cars–1) a 1954 Buick with a V-8 engine and manual transmission and 2) a 1952 Dodge with a flathead 6 engine and the “lift and clunk” Gyromatic semi-automatic transmission where you let up on the accelerator pedal to shift. The Dodge was a coupe, green and ugly, but this was the car I was permitted to drive. The crowd I ran around with all had cool cars. I complained about the Dodge one time to my dad and referred to the car as the “Green Turtle”. My Dad commented that I should feel privileged as none of my friends had a “Green Turtle” to drive. One of my friends heard my Dad’s comment and the name of the car stuck. In fact, the slow and ugly “Green Turtle” became a chick magnet and quite a few girls wanted to ride in the “Green Turtle”. On dollar night at the drive-in theater, I had 7 couples (14 people) in that Dodge coupe. Sometimes slow and ugly can be cool.
Yeah, in high school my brother and I (only 1 year apart) shared the family “spare car” and his friends all had old POS cars. All of the cars had “affectionate” names because they were all old, ugly and slow. Even though our car wasn’t really a POS, it was underpowered and ultimately wasn’t any better than the other beaters.
“I’s a 2003 Ford Focus with a stick shift and no extras, not even A/C.”
But how many days each year do you need AC up there in the tundra?
@jtsanders The car has a good heater (important) and kids like to drive with the windows open anyways. The interesting thing about the car is that it looks the same as the one of the next neighbor over, an 80 year old retiree. His is a 2004 bought new and loaded, but it has only gone 20,000 miles in 9 years so it still looks new.
The important part is finding the kid a slow, ugly girlfriend. Big is OK, as long as it is her natural state. Sudden increases in waist size are not a good thing.
It’s possible the OP is trolling us. The lack of a response from the OP supports this theory.
With that said, the question isn’t all that rare. I once knew a salesman whose father bought a fast sports car for the salesman’s older brother when he turned 16. The salesman’s older brother died in that car, so when the salesman turned 16, his father refused to get him anything as fast as what he had bought for the older brother. The salesman always resented getting the safer car, because he insisted he was more responsible than his older brother. When the salesman’s oldest child turned 16, he bought his son a Camaro.
There are plenty of people out there with more money than sense who want to buy the affections of their teenage sons and daughters.
There is one reason I prefer a small or midsize car for teen drivers. You can basically jerk the steering wheel at highway speeds without putting yourself into an uncontrollable swerve. Small cars are very forgiving of driver mistakes like this. However, if you accidentally jerk the steering wheel of a large car, or even worse, an SUV, you’re not likely to regain control. In fact, if you’re in an SUV, you’re likely to roll the vehicle while over-correcting and trying to regain control. I’ve seen it happen with young inexperienced drivers many times. They look away for a moment to adjust the radio or find a ringing cell phone, and when they look back up, they’re about to run off the road, or worse, they already have run off the road. When they over-correct a large vehicle, it simply reverses the direction of the uncontrolled swerve, and the process repeats itself until the vehicle flips or comes to a stop.
On a smaller vehicle, you can basically do parking lot maneuvers at high speeds and not lose control of your vehicle. You realize how close you just came to wrecking your car, and your body. Your heart stops racing and you thank your lucky stars that your guardian angel was on duty.
This phenomenon was also common back when parents let their teenage children drive their station wagons, but roll-overs were less frequent. Now parents are giving their teenage drivers SUVs, claiming their size makes them safer. It’s a false sense of security. I’d rather my teenage son or daughter avoid a collision than accidentally roll an SUV.
Didn’t the brothers once get a call from a mother who was trying to decide between a Beemer and a Mustang as a first car for her daughter?
Had a coworker about 15 or so years ago who had one of these. It was a true money pit.
The salesman always resented getting the safer car, because he insisted he was more responsible than his older brother. When the salesman's oldest child turned 16, he bought his son a Camaro.
There are those who live vicariously through their kids. Wonder what would have happened if his son died in that Camaro
On my way home from work today I seen a kid, I would say 16-22 years old, driving a mid eighties porsche 944. Now I know the 944 is a different animal than a 928, but It reminded me of this thread. At a quick glance the 944 looked to be in great shape. It was red and the whole bit.
There is a college around here that caters to wealthy students, I assume he goes there, but who knows… I have never seen that 944 in town, you don’t see many porches around here anyway.
Around here the only old 944s are all that same red. Looks good, but I hear the mechanicals are $$$ to keep running.
I’m going to throw some fire onto the flames right now.
I just logged onto rmeuropean.com
It seems that the 928 AND the 944 used timing belts . . .
No, parts cost way too much.
If he wants a sports car by a 90-97 Mazda Miata.
- Cheap Reliable Car
- Cheap Parts, simple enough he can work on it.
- Great gas mileage
- Not enough power to go real fast
- 2 seater, eliminates additional passengers reducing distractions. (google Teen Drivers Number of Passengers Insurance Industry)
I agree with the above.
I think we’ve hijacked enough threads and turned them into timing belt debates. I’m not going to reiterate the debate here, and I encourage others to make the same choice.
Aawww,
you’re no fun. 
all of you guys here are just key board mechanics who has not actually own a 928 s4 or actually work on them.
My FIRST car, was a 1987 928 S4, with 130k miles on it, and I just bought a 1988 S4 not too long ago. to all the ppl who said it is not reliable, well, know this, there are a dozen of them clocked over 400k miles, and 2 that i know of clocked over 600k miles, seems more reliable than most of the car on the road. Machanically, it is very realiable, but the s4 and later model would likely to develop some weird eletrical issue due to the all those “modern” features.
Couple of points:
- Would i recomend it as his first car? NO. But if he interested in cars, it is not a bad stating point, as I said, as long as you take care of it, it is VERY reliable.
- Expensive to maintain? YES and NO, if you do not even know how to change your oil, then it is gonna be very expensive consider that you will be taking the car to the shop every time you need something. BUT, if you are good with wrenches, it is not all that bad. Hell, there is a step by step timing belt water pump replacement tutorial by one of the rennlist member, follow that, you will be okay.
- Sounds like OP know his way around cars, well, Porsche is just a car like any other cars out there, the fundermentals are the same. Plus, there is a 928 workshop manual online for free (original WSM by porsche), everything you need to know.
- hard to find parts? YES and NO, if you are familiar with the 928 community, it is not hard to find. some parts are avaliable on rock auto. check out the 928 BIG 4. Some items are expensive, some are not, radiator will likely cost you 7-800 bucks.
All in all, like the other said, i admire your son’s taste for cars, i got my first 928 when i was 18, not i am 26 and i just bought another one.
it is a 30+ year old car, so things happens, especially with the later model, such as seats stop moving, window stop working, odo stop working and stuffs like that, but as i said, machanically, it is very solid.
holy mother of god did not even realize this is a 5 yr old post, lol
Hehe. Neither did I. At least you warned us. Would have been helpful if I’d read it 
On a list of good cars for a new driver, this car would be somewhere towards the bottom, like bottom 10%.
When new it was rated to get about the same fuel economy as today’s full sized SUV’s ; Suburban/Tahoe, or Expedition. It requires premium fuel as well.
Immensely expensive to repair .Parts are rare and expensive and since it’s somewhat exotic, you may need to find a specialist for some things.
They are fairly desirable for enthusiasts today, one in in good shape with a full service history (very important with a car like this), will set you back around $20k-$25k. With time capsule/low mileage examples going for $35k or more. If it’s priced less than $15k, chances are it’s going to need expensive or extensive repairs and won’t be worth your time.
It’s a 30+ year old European sports car, if you’re not prepared to spend at least $2k a year in repairs in addition to regular maintenance, then it’s unlikely you’ll enjoy the ownership experience.
EDIT : whoops, didn’t realize the post was half a decade old.