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Old 03-29-2020, 03:04 PM   #761
kognito
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Originally Posted by Josh (PA) View Post
If you're ever up that way (especially if it's on the Spyder) and want to swap for a couple hours and check out a couple of the distilleries up there, send me a PM and we'll see if we can meet up.

Edit: Just realized you'd need to borrow Lou's Spyder (I got you guys confused, sorry), but the offer still stands.
One of our trips there was with the inlaws from Germany. I don't remember the name, but we stopped at a winery just a little north of Watkins Glen. While on their tour, a real bad thunderstorm arrived, and our short tour turned into a long tour.
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Old 04-20-2020, 01:36 PM   #762
Josh (PA)
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Just a quick update on the 911 ownership.

We've had the car for about a month and half and have put about 1200 miles on it. 300 was the drive home and the rest have been joy ride loops to nowhere. We do really enjoy it and are getting more and more comfortable with the idea of owning it long term.

Its a great GT car, very engaging and 'playful' while still being comfortable to drive from Point A to B. I quite enjoy how much fun it is at slow speeds. My previous experiences with Porsches all left me feeling cold, they were very 'good' in a clinical way, but didn't make me smile. Maybe I'm just getting used to the feel, or maybe I just needed more time behind the wheel, but I giggle sometimes when I'm going under a bridge or around a tight corner.

Some other observations I'm surprised by:
The headlights are awesome. Very bright with a great beam pattern.
There is A LOT of leather in this car. It came with the extended Natural Leather package. I detailed it the other day for the first time and was shocked when I kept finding more and more leather pieces that needed conditioned (the leather was very thirsty).
They did a good job blocking out 7th gear so you only access it when you really want to. 99% of the time the gearbox acts like a 6th speed.
Some things are very smart. The E parking brake automatically disengages when you shift into gear and engages when you park. If you stall just put the clutch in and it re-starts.
The way the rear seat backs fold down to create a carpeted parcel shelf is nice and the frunk is a decent size
The finish on the inside of the convertible top is great. They use semi-rigid panels that feel almost as good as a coupe.

My biggest complaint is the PCM system (navi/music, etc.) is not very intuitive and doesn't even come close to matching the usability of the I-Drive (v3 or v4) system in my 135 and x5. Simple things like there is no 'random' function for the music database. You can't play an Artist, only an Album. It is a PITA to save an address in the maps. Things like that. Pretty minor annoyance but they have a lot of work to do on their functionality to catch up with other mfgs. It does have Carplay, but being an Android guy I haven't tried it yet.

Other negatives: The bose stereo sound sucks. The tweeters are super harsh, there is very little mid range and mid base. The low base is fine, but the brutalness of the tweeter sound makes it unpleasant to turn music up. This is worse when the top is down I assume because the low frequencies can't reverberate off the roof. The Pirelli tires are both very loud and not very grippy, especially when cold. They also have a very pronounced 'acorn effect' when you first drive off in it where the front wheels skip/hop a bit and it feels like you are driving over acorns. I had noticed it in the 981 we rented, so it didn't petrify me when I first felt it in my car, but it did send me on a google rabbit hole trying to find the root cause (the ackerman effect of tires tracing slightly different arcs).

I've hard wired my radar detector so far and I've ordered the SMARTTOP module so I can put the top up and down remotely. Its a lot easier getting in and out when the top is down. I've been very careful not to drag myself over the seat bolsters on the 18 ways. Having the ability to put it up after we are out of the car will be nice (along with the slew of other usability features it offers).

Its at the dealership now getting the water pump and door pocket latch fixed under warranty. I noticed these shortly after I picked it up and wanted to get them taken care of along with the PA inspection.
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Old 04-20-2020, 05:29 PM   #763
robg
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh (PA) View Post
Just a quick update on the 911 ownership.

We've had the car for about a month and half and have put about 1200 miles on it. 300 was the drive home and the rest have been joy ride loops to nowhere. We do really enjoy it and are getting more and more comfortable with the idea of owning it long term.

Its a great GT car, very engaging and 'playful' while still being comfortable to drive from Point A to B. I quite enjoy how much fun it is at slow speeds. My previous experiences with Porsches all left me feeling cold, they were very 'good' in a clinical way, but didn't make me smile. Maybe I'm just getting used to the feel, or maybe I just needed more time behind the wheel, but I giggle sometimes when I'm going under a bridge or around a tight corner.

Some other observations I'm surprised by:
The headlights are awesome. Very bright with a great beam pattern.
There is A LOT of leather in this car. It came with the extended Natural Leather package. I detailed it the other day for the first time and was shocked when I kept finding more and more leather pieces that needed conditioned (the leather was very thirsty).
They did a good job blocking out 7th gear so you only access it when you really want to. 99% of the time the gearbox acts like a 6th speed.
Some things are very smart. The E parking brake automatically disengages when you shift into gear and engages when you park. If you stall just put the clutch in and it re-starts.
The way the rear seat backs fold down to create a carpeted parcel shelf is nice and the frunk is a decent size
The finish on the inside of the convertible top is great. They use semi-rigid panels that feel almost as good as a coupe.

My biggest complaint is the PCM system (navi/music, etc.) is not very intuitive and doesn't even come close to matching the usability of the I-Drive (v3 or v4) system in my 135 and x5. Simple things like there is no 'random' function for the music database. You can't play an Artist, only an Album. It is a PITA to save an address in the maps. Things like that. Pretty minor annoyance but they have a lot of work to do on their functionality to catch up with other mfgs. It does have Carplay, but being an Android guy I haven't tried it yet.

Other negatives: The bose stereo sound sucks. The tweeters are super harsh, there is very little mid range and mid base. The low base is fine, but the brutalness of the tweeter sound makes it unpleasant to turn music up. This is worse when the top is down I assume because the low frequencies can't reverberate off the roof. The Pirelli tires are both very loud and not very grippy, especially when cold. They also have a very pronounced 'acorn effect' when you first drive off in it where the front wheels skip/hop a bit and it feels like you are driving over acorns. I had noticed it in the 981 we rented, so it didn't petrify me when I first felt it in my car, but it did send me on a google rabbit hole trying to find the root cause (the ackerman effect of tires tracing slightly different arcs).

I've hard wired my radar detector so far and I've ordered the SMARTTOP module so I can put the top up and down remotely. Its a lot easier getting in and out when the top is down. I've been very careful not to drag myself over the seat bolsters on the 18 ways. Having the ability to put it up after we are out of the car will be nice (along with the slew of other usability features it offers).

Its at the dealership now getting the water pump and door pocket latch fixed under warranty. I noticed these shortly after I picked it up and wanted to get them taken care of along with the PA inspection.
Nice review! Glad you're enjoying it. I wonder if the convertible aspect is they key to making it feel less clinical than previous Porsches you'd driven?

Regarding the PCM/audio system, another odd thing I've notied about Porsches (atleast the ones i've tried) is that they dont have dedicated forward/back track buttons. There's a programmable "star" button that you can set to be next tack but that's it. I mean, if you're going to have steering wheel buttons- volume + next/previous should be minimum right? Anyway, just thought that was odd. Is there some obscure Porsche-specific reason for it?
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Old 04-20-2020, 07:42 PM   #764
Josh (PA)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by robg View Post
Nice review! Glad you're enjoying it. I wonder if the convertible aspect is they key to making it feel less clinical than previous Porsches you'd driven?
I think the biggest improvement is the added torque of the turbo engine. It gives you that little kick in the can at lower RPMs without having to wind the car out. The Pirellis lack of grip also help, you can step it out at bit a low speeds without being dumb.

Quote:
Regarding the PCM/audio system, another odd thing I've notied about Porsches (atleast the ones i've tried) is that they dont have dedicated forward/back track buttons. There's a programmable "star" button that you can set to be next tack but that's it. I mean, if you're going to have steering wheel buttons- volume + next/previous should be minimum right? Anyway, just thought that was odd. Is there some obscure Porsche-specific reason for it?
True. Its wild that the multi-function steering wheel is a (hard to find) option in the first place and add to that in order to skip tracks from the wheel you either need to program the diamond, as you mentioned, or use the other scroll wheel to find the media screen, then select it, scroll down to the next track, select that and so on. On top of that, the little screen in the instrument cluster will only show songs in the order they were loaded on the media storage.
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Old 04-20-2020, 08:58 PM   #765
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Originally Posted by Josh (PA) View Post
Its wild that the multi-function steering wheel is a (hard to find) option in the first place and add to that in order to skip tracks from the wheel you either need to program the diamond, as you mentioned, or use the other scroll wheel to find the media screen, then select it, scroll down to the next track, select that and so on. On top of that, the little screen in the instrument cluster will only show songs in the order they were loaded on the media storage.
That's just bizarre. I picture some like 80-something crusty but benign senior executive who has a whole "get off my lawn" thing ("offen mein Hof"?) with stuff like that, and the lame cupholders, being responsible for those decisions while the engineers facepalm repeatedly.

"Oh, that's just Hans-Dieter, the old scamp."
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Old 04-21-2020, 10:39 AM   #766
robg
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Originally Posted by Plaz View Post
That's just bizarre. I picture some like 80-something crusty but benign senior executive who has a whole "get off my lawn" thing ("offen mein Hof"?) with stuff like that, and the lame cupholders, being responsible for those decisions while the engineers facepalm repeatedly.



"Oh, that's just Hans-Dieter, the old scamp."


Ha-I can totally picture that. You’re probably right! Porsche was pretty late to the multi function steering wheel party and then (as josh mentioned) made it optional plus incompatible with certain options iirc.


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Old 04-21-2020, 11:38 AM   #767
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Ha-I can totally picture that. You’re probably right! Porsche was pretty late to the multi function steering wheel party and then (as josh mentioned) made it optional plus incompatible with certain options iirc.


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Yeah, if you want a P-car with a turbo 6 and a multi-function steering wheel, you need one of these:




https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...ac-grand-prix/
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Old 04-21-2020, 11:50 AM   #768
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Yeah, if you want a P-car with a turbo 6 and a multi-function steering wheel, you need one of these:




https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...ac-grand-prix/
LOL. Forgot about those Pontiac steering wheels!
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Old 04-21-2020, 12:03 PM   #769
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WTF?!

I've never seen that before.
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Old 04-21-2020, 12:47 PM   #770
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And we wonder why Pontiac is not around any longer....
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