At $17,500, Will This 1990 Porsche 944 S2 Cabriolet Have Its Day?

The seller of today’s Nice Price or No Dice 944 S2 says its tires are over ten years old and need replacing. We’ll have to factor that into our valuation, and puzzle over why anyone would let a car this fun sit on tires that long.

For people in Southern California wanting to get away for a weekend of grown-up activities, Las Vegas beckons not that far over the Nevada border. Getting to Sin City, though, can be a chore. Your options are a Southwest flight, which means more time spent at each end in the airports than in the air, and an expensive cab ride to the gambling mecca of your choice. The alternative is driving the I-15 corridor, which presents its own problems and delays. A high-speed rail line between Vegas and California’s Inland Empire has been proposed, but, as with many such projects, the money to build it hasn’t exactly been forthcoming. 

Logistically, that makes the car the best option, and if you and a clutch of friends are planning a road trip of this nature, you could do far worse than to hop into a big, old, comfortable sedan with a capacious trunk like the 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis we considered on Thursday. At $9,000, most of you saw the Grand Marquis as not much of a gamble, giving the highway-star Merc a solid 57% ‘Nice Price’ win.

Newer by nine years and with a fresher restyling, yesterday’s Grand Marquis still looks somewhat anachronistic compared to today’s 1990 Porsche 944 S2 Cabriolet. Porsche really hit it out of the park with the 944’s wide-shouldered stance, and the Cabriolet’s Speedster-like top loses none of that hirsute appeal. According to sales stats, only 2,402 S2 Cabriolets made it to the American market, making it relatively rare as well.

The big news, however, is under the hood. With the S2, Porsche bumped the M44 inline four’s displacement to three liters, making it the largest four-pot in production at the time. Fitted with dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, the all-alloy mill produced a solid 208 horsepower and 207 pound-feet of torque. It all routes through a torque tube to the rear-mounted five-speed transaxle. No, you do not want to do a clutch job on a 944. According to the ad, the car is overall in “excellent” condition, with the seller not noting any mechanical issues at all and touting a new battery and “high-torque” starter.

The 944 cabriolet had a somewhat tortured conception, and an even more tumultuous production. Since it was never initially conceived as a convertible, the 924 and later 944’s bodylines didn’t lend themselves to a later conversion. That being acknowledged, it’s remarkable what a good job Porsche did with both the conversion and the execution. That was thanks to drop-top conversion experts extraordinaire, American Sunroof Company (ASC), which set up a factory in Germany specifically to convert the 944 to open-top editions. 

That meant that 944s were pulled from the line at Porsche’s Neckarsulm factory, shipped to the ASC shop in Heilbronn, where additional strengthening structures were welded in and the hatchback rear end was traded for a trunk. The cars were then sent back to Neckarsulm for painting and initial assembly, then back to Heilbronn to add the convertible top and related trim.

Despite the hot-potato production, this Cabriolet looks to have held up impressively well over the decades. The Baltic Blue paint still shines, though it has some unfortunate stickers on the back end. On the plus side, that back end wears the smaller Euro-style bumper, which is more attractive than the U.S. unit.

Another plus is the upgraded 17-inch Cup 1 alloy wheels. They fit the car nicely, but, per the seller, wear rubber that’s a decade old. We might all be nostalgic for that earlier time, but none of us likely would trust tires that old, so new meats should be on the menu.

Other issues include a cracked dashboard—an extremely common occurrence on these cars—masked by an ill-fitting merkin of a carpet cap. A silver-faced aftermarket stereo head unit also looks a bit out of place (a black-faced Becker would be a proper replacement), but it’s probably more useful than the factory unit. One other issue is minor abrasion on the driver’s seat piping. Other than those issues, the cabin appears to be in great shape, with solid upholstery, no problems with the top, and a good overall presentation. 

It’s a similar story under the hood, with the big four appearing leak-free and relatively clean. The seller offers no maintenance records, but notes the car has a mere 74,555 miles on the clock, comes with a clean title, and a recently-passed state-mandated emissions test.

If you haven’t noticed, pretty much all Porsche sports cars over 20 years old are rising in value. That charge up the unaffordability ladder is being led by the air-cooled cars of the 1980s and earlier. Fairly rare and packing the biggest engine imaginable for a 944 under its hood, this S2 is also a contender. As a cabriolet, it won’t be a gymkhana king, but for canyon carving, it should do just fine. Just get those tires replaced before taking it out for any exercise.

The question, though, is whether anyone should pay the seller’s $17,500 asking price for that ability. And that’s without considering the cost of those four new tires.

What’s your take on this good-looking 944 S2 Cab and the seller’s $17,500 price tag? Is that a fair price for the car as presented? Or is that too much given the lack of history and the deferred tire maintenance?

You decide!

Denver, Colorado, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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