Hi Guys,

Looking at a well kept 1985 244Ti that is for sale locally. It's silver and, surprisingly enough, the original paint job is in excellent condition owing to the fact that the car has been garaged most of its life. It also has a factory installed M46, which has been hard for me to find in turbos that are not beat to death or extremely high mileage. The mileage, by the way, is 137,8xxx. Within the last three years, the wiring harness, steering rack, and rear TABs have been replaced. The blower motor was done in 2000.

What worries me is that most of this car is original under the hood. Suppose that is either good (it's not a basketcase and has been well maintained) or bad (it will turn into a basketcase when I start driving it 20k a year), depending on how you look at it. Clutch is original, turbo is original, exhaust system is original with the exception of the cat. convertor and rear muffler, it even has the original Firestone plastic radiator (that would be the first thing on my list).

So, am I asking for trouble with this one, or should I just grab it and deal with the trouble areas later? It's getting harder and harder to find 240 turbo's in any condition, and this one is pretty clean. Nice black leather interior...driver's seat was recovered a couple years ago and the rest of the upholestery is original but in minty condition.

It runs well, compression tests out at 150, clutch feels OK, overdrive is dead (NOT the relay), suspension is solid. It rides almost as well as I remember my 245 riding back when it had around 50-60k miles on the clock. But all of those 20-year old, hard to source expensive parts.....