My wife finally broke down and bought a Toyota Camry. What can I say? It is what she wanted and she never really liked the 740's we have. I now need to decide what to do as I can't justify keeping both my 1986 744 GLE and my 1991 745 Turbo.

The sedan ('86 744)is in great shape and has always been extremely reliable. I am the second owner, and I have all service records from the beginning. The first debilitating problem I had with it after owning it since 1999 was the failure of the starter a couple of weeks ago. New starter, car runs good as new...well, there is a bit of piston slap when it is cold and what I suspect is rod knock at idle. It has a couple of surface rust spots on the body and a few places on the underbody that show signs of rot, including floor pans. The car has 175000 miles on it. Interior in great shape (new headliner, no holds in leather) with the exception of a cracked dash. Only a very slight oil leak, and good results from using Mobil 1 for the last year. It will need some work on the rust if I am going to keep it for any more than a few more months. Otherwise the rust will begin to take over.

The wagon ('91 745) is also in excellent shape, though when I got it it wasn't. I bought it from a guy on Ebay, and while it looked beautiful (red, not a touch of rust, perfect black leather upholstery, no cosmetic flaws), it needed a new head gasket and assorted other service and repair that cost me $3000. It came with service records only up to about 50k miles, and I bought it at 159,000 miles. It now has a fairly significant oil leak that I think comes from the rear crankshaft seal, and it has the quirk that the oil light always is on at idle once the engine is good and warmed up (like after highway driving, or after a trip of 20 minutes or more). I have put in new coil springs and rear shocks to solve the rear sag problem, a throttle position switch, idle air control motor, O2 sensor, used ECU (trying to solve low idle and oil light problem, no change), and blower motor. It runs great, turbo gives lots of boost, and the engine runs relatively smoothly and quietly (at least compared to the other car). No noticable piston slap. It has more amenities than the 744 - electric mirrors, electric sun roof, antenna that can be put up or down depending on whether you need it or not, etc., and it is a wagon, which I prefer.

Here is my question - which one to keep, or should I sell both and buy another car with the proceeds? I could at very best sell the turbo wagon for $6000 and the sedan for $2500 (that is the very best I think I could do)but could well end up with $4000 and $1500 or less.

I am very attached to the '86 sedan as it has served me very well for the last four years. But practicality seems to argue for keeping the newer car and recovering some of my investment in it, even though it still needs some work.

Any thoughts? Thanks for listening.
--
Darius in Albany NY '86 744 GLE (174K); '91 745 Turbo (164K)