noob c4s owner - hi - Page 2 - 911/Carrera GT - PistonHeads UK

So I posted on PH nigh on a year ago for advice on a new car. I was considering a new Audi S3. I got told in no uncertain terms that if I spent that kind of money on a 4cylinder turbo I would be killed. I took that to heart, along with considerable messing around by the Audi dealer, and this was the result. So I was originally looking for a cab or targa... then this came along. Take delivery Saturday. http://thumbsnap.com/sc/MhJfZVHS.jpg It has a sunroof. So its like a targa coupe cabriolet, right? Right....? It spec wise is basically ideal, apart from the decrepid 1.41 PCM software. Bit different to the planned blue, grey or silver Targa or Cab though. But it has a sunroof! Car is a bit stonechipped and the interior is scuffed, so agreed a full detail & stone chip repair & OPC 111 pt check pass conditional for purchase. Excited and terrified all at the same time ;-p Plan to pay to get the PCM upgrade & the gearbox if necessary, other than a cable for my phone, anything anyone else would recommend? Any recommended Gap insurers or thoughts? Parkers suggests its worth considerably less than I paid for it, which I hope is just due to the fat optional extras spec more than anything else. PDK C4s. Optional extras: Porsche Vehicle Tracking System, Heated seats, ParkAssist (parking aid rear), Universal Audio Interface, Extended navigation module, Telephone Module, 7-speed double clutch transmission (PDK), Porsche Crest embossed on head restraints, Cruise Control, Sports Chrono Package Plus, Sports Exhaust System, Electric tilt/slide sunroof, Automatic dimming interior mirror with integrated rain sensor, Rear Wiper, Adaptive Sports Seats, Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, 19-inch Carrera Sport Wheels, Sport Design Steering wheel with paddle shift, Seat belts in silver-grey, BOSE Surround Sound system, Side strips with model designation, Front air intakes opaque Aluminum look, wing mirror opaque aluminium look, illuminated door-sill guards, customisation package PDK gear lever, outer door-sill guards in stainless steel, contrast stitching, Voice Control. http://thumbsnap.com/sc/X6BGcRhQ.jpg http://thumbsnap.com/sc/aNK7rzMg.jpg http://thumbsnap.com/sc/ItiWedtp.jpg Edited by SockToy on Monday 1st September 16:01

Nice looker. Who are GVE London? http://www.gvelondon.com/pre-owned/porsche/carrera... Edited by mollytherocker on Monday 1st September 21:42

Hi and welcome to the C4S club! That is a really well specced car; wish i had the tyre monitoring on mine. You have a Gen 2 car so surely have the better PCM, or am i missing a trick here?

Nice spec and v. low mileage, but asking price is seriously high for a 2009 car! Might as well have bought from an OPC with full Porsche warranty etc. Scuffed interior and stone chips too? It should be perfect at that price.

Yeah, the PCM should be the new one but its on an old software rev. Just confirmed with OPC that it'll get updated with the Nav update. And yes. It's spendy - but the dealer is going to fully detail prior to hand over, and is paying for the OPC 111pt check; I'll then extend warranty 1 year from when the current one expires (it's currently under warranty, but doesnt have much left to run). Simple fact is, I hadnt seen a car as nice as this mile & spec wise - lots of lovely cars with 30-50k on them, and a really beautiful targa with only 9k - but the targa was 53k and had no sports exhaust, or sports wheel, standard seats, etc; all the money had gone on making it a GT with full leather interior everything ;-p The only one available on the OPC sit eright now is 58k - and while it has the powerkit, it's also a horrible red inside. We'll see if I regret it once I'm driving it... I hope not! Edited by SockToy on Tuesday 2nd September 17:29

Didn't notice the price. I paid £52k for mine on similar mileage from an OPC but it didn't quite have the options you have. The dealer route is expensive but, for example, pads and discs were replaced together with the tyres as part of their check/warranty. That's thousands alone. My concern for you is that, in order to give you a warranty, Porsche will insist on you spending money on the car that is not immediately necessary, but is a requirement for the warranty. I'd get an answer on that quickly. Regarding the car itself, it is fantastic. Had a 997.1 C2S a couple of years back and the 997.2 C4S is a much nice drive! I also had a Golf R (basically an S3) beforehand and can confirm the 911 drives nicer and makes me feel a lot better whenever i'm in it

My purchase is conditional on warranty extension and 111pt check pass.

Oh and as for any recommendations, i've been preaching about the H&R springs. Improves the looks and maintains standard ride quality

Cheers, will have a look ;-p H&R springs dont present a problem with the Porsche warranty?

SockToy said: My purchase is conditional on warranty extension and 111pt check pass. Yeah, warranty is important on these cars. I've had my money's worth already in the first 7 months ownership. It's been back to the OPC on a trailer twice with electrical problems that would have cost an arm and a leg to fix without warranty. Car is fantastic though! No regrets at all and appears dealer prices are more expensive now than back in December when I bought it. One thing you do get when you buy from OPC along with the 2 year warranty is Porsche Assist, which gives you full breakdown cover and courtesy car. I've found this very handy with the 2 breakdowns and they are extremely fussy about who trailers the car back to the OPC. Last time a bespoke low loader turned up and the driver covered all the seats and even the steering wheel while wearing white gloves! I was quite impressed at the level of care taken not to damage or mark anything.

Hm. So now a few threads frightened me, because the 111 point check is being done at OPC west london... which seems to have... some poor writeups here. Huge mistake? IS being done thursday so if I need to change I'd better get a move on.

hondansx said: Oh and as for any recommendations, i've been preaching about the H&R springs. Improves the looks and maintains standard ride quality A non-starter with extended Porsche warranty.

I have Porsche Extended Warranty and have made two warranty claims since the car has been modified. The answer is to get to know your OPC! Of course, if my suspension collapsed, i wouldn't expect Porsche to cover it...

SockToy said: Hm. So now a few threads frightened me, because the 111 point check is being done at OPC west london... which seems to have... some poor writeups here. Huge mistake? IS being done thursday so if I need to change I'd better get a move on. As long as you get your warranty, does it matter?

hondansx said: I have Porsche Extended Warranty and have made two warranty claims since the car has been modified. The answer is to get to know your OPC! Of course, if my suspension collapsed, i wouldn't expect Porsche to cover it... Still very dodgy ground should you have to claim for anything remotely related to your suspension. Not a risk I'd take personally, but glad to hear your OPC is at least flexible.

hondansx said: SockToy said: Hm. So now a few threads frightened me, because the 111 point check is being done at OPC west london... which seems to have... some poor writeups here. Huge mistake? IS being done thursday so if I need to change I'd better get a move on. As long as you get your warranty, does it matter? Thats the point though isnt it. What if they say he needs to spend 4k on it?

So I find out today if it passes. Fingers crossed ;-p Any advice for the first few days of ownership in and around London? How bad are speed bumps going to be? Take em at 10mph? ;-p Anything else?

Should be fine on standard suspension. Just bear in mind the width restrictors considering the big arse on it

SockToy said: Any advice for the first few days of ownership in and around London? How bad are speed bumps going to be? Take em at 10mph? ;-p Anything else? You really need to get out onto the open road to enjoy it. In town it will be an easy drive but dull. 10 mph over speed bumps should be okay but I wouldn't try them any faster. I don't come across many where I live, but when I do I crawl over them very slowly, probably more like 5mph. Sport PDK setting is best all round auto mode, but standard mode is better in stop/start traffic. Sport mode tends to kick down to first when you don't really want it to, but it's good once you're on the move. But Manual mode is best when pushing on or charging through roundabouts where the auto modes can get a bit confused if you have to suddenly back off on approach and then try to get back on it again quickly. Sport setting gives a noticeably better throttle response, but also comes with an annoying kick on full throttle upshifts (Harris noted this in his reviews too, so not just me). So if you want to drive smoothly leave it in standard mode when driving as a manual. Sport plus is of no real use on the road unless you want to pointlessly rev the nuts off it. It basically puts the car in the lowest gear possible all of the time. As for suspension setting I use standard PASM mode ALL of the time, regardless of what mode I'm in. When you switch to Sport mode it automatically selects sport PASM at the same time, so you have to switch it back off. I'd much rather they were completely separate settings. Sport PASM is simply too hard for UK roads of any type and I haven't seen any advantage of it outside a track. Luckily standard PASM mode is excellent! Have a play, you'll see there are lots of options!

Mine now. Put another 110 miles on the clock on Sunday. Fun, though getting out of London is a nightmare not made easier by the fact that PCM appears to have no idea whatsoever about traffic. Other than the instrument integration and music pause during driving instructions, the inbuilt nav appears to be terrible by comparison to the tomtom app on my phone; poor lane guidance, last minute turn directions, terrible routing through traffic, awful rerouting if you make a new turn. Is there a standard approach people take that doesn't involve sticking a phone mount on the dash? Some way of improving the native PCM functionality, or using the PCM screen & in car speakers to run nav from another device using the iPod integration or something? Other than that... omg the car is fun , and so so easy to drive. Popping it in sport, turning on the sport exhaust, then dropping PASM to normal on the motorway has lead to some rumbly moments of glee. Does anyone have any favoured routes for an enjoyable drive out of London? Cheers Matt

How strange, I'd say my pcm is easily a match for my TomTom. One thing I especially like about it is that it doesnt pause the music when it gives instructions.

Get up really early and see how quick you can go round the South Circ!

Skinny: Huh. What version PCM / nav do you have? I think mine is 3.0 (touchscreen 997.2) and 2.24 (latest firmware update). I miss, from tomtom: - crowd sourced traffic - proper lane instructions rather than just 'left' or 'right' - speed camera beeps - super-quick re-routing Did you do anything special to get yours competitive? Do you have a very old Tomtom?

SockToy said: Skinny: Huh. What version PCM / nav do you have? I think mine is 3.0 (touchscreen 997.2) and 2.24 (latest firmware update). I miss, from tomtom: - crowd sourced traffic - proper lane instructions rather than just 'left' or 'right' - speed camera beeps - super-quick re-routing Did you do anything special to get yours competitive? Do you have a very old Tomtom? Yo sup, I cant tell you what version I have cos OPC f ked it when they were messing around with it. I just get a blank dash where the version should be, I can however tell you I have 2009 PCM 3.0. I have a 2011 TomTom but its kept up to date and yes speed camera warnings are nice. Normally I think incar SAT NAV is a waste of money however I am extremely pleased with the unit in my Porsche. Its quick, accurate, reroutes automatically, intuitive and generally extremely pleasant to use. Other than not accepting a full postcode, I really have no complaints. P.S. Last time I checked it was £600 for a software update at Porsche

Porsche West London did mine for 150 - though it was in for a full 111pt check and warranty extension so maybe they felt that meant no labour charge. Guess thats enough to make me think about trying the satnav again ;-p

The software upgrade (full postcode satnav etc) for £150 has been on offer at all OPCs for the last year or so. I haven't bothered upgrading mine as the satnav is good enough for me and I can live without full postcode.

Thanks skinny... TOTALLY worth doing the nav again. Discovered playing around in the PCM options that basically everything I would want was turned off - multi route calc, dynamic recalc, traffic avoidance, etc. Why on earth their default option is 'Give you the worst route possible' I don't know, but we'll see if it's any better next time there's traffic Tonight was just empty roads to half midnight and giggling to myself I am in love with this car.

uktrailmonster said: The software upgrade (full postcode satnav etc) for £150 has been on offer at all OPCs for the last year or so. I haven't bothered upgrading mine as the satnav is good enough for me and I can live without full postcode. Would this also be valid for my 2007 GT3? Not having full postcode and old maps is a right PITA

SockToy said: Thanks skinny... TOTALLY worth doing the nav again. Discovered playing around in the PCM options that basically everything I would want was turned off - multi route calc, dynamic recalc, traffic avoidance, etc. Why on earth their default option is 'Give you the worst route possible' I don't know, but we'll see if it's any better next time there's traffic Tonight was just empty roads to half midnight and giggling to myself I am in love with this car. Good to hear, I thought your complaints were a bit unfair. Glad you are enjoying the car, I looked at the pictures when you first posted and it looked stunning - I bet it goes like the clappers. You cant beat driving with the windows down and just using some extra revs, on a nice night. These flat sixes are to die for. SockToy said: Porsche West London did mine for 150 - though it was in for a full 111pt check and warranty extension so maybe they felt that meant no labour charge. Guess thats enough to make me think about trying the satnav again ;-p Is it worth having? What version did you go from and to? Other than the post code I havent found the need to update, but for £150...

Went from v1.14 to 2.24 (huh. Coincidence) I can't really say what the differences are, given I had it upgraded before I picked it up - the reason I paid is for the 7 digit postcode (which mine is), but I can tell you that: - Bluetooth works seamlessly with phone; had a 2 hour conversation while driving, no drops, etc - Voice control lets me control nav, audio, phone, etc. 'Navigate to address. St Albans. High street. No. Start.' - iPhone 5 working fine through Porsche UAI cable, music dumped on USB stick working fine I've seen various things around about problems in all those on earlier PCMs. So now my question ;-p is there any way to set 'PASM' to normal mode when you hit sport? or to tie the exhaust to come onto sport mode automatically? Ideally the sport switch would toggle gearbox/throttle/exhaust between sport/normal, while leaving PASM as I had it set - I dont really like taking my eyes off the road to fiddle with those things. Secondly, am I right that in sport mode the exhaust only goes loud above 40mph? So if I tootle through residential areas at 20-30, even in sport mode, its as quiet as it'll get?

SockToy said: Went from v1.14 to 2.24 (huh. Coincidence) I can't really say what the differences are, given I had it upgraded before I picked it up - the reason I paid is for the 7 digit postcode (which mine is), but I can tell you that: - Bluetooth works seamlessly with phone; had a 2 hour conversation while driving, no drops, etc - Voice control lets me control nav, audio, phone, etc. 'Navigate to address. St Albans. High street. No. Start.' - iPhone 5 working fine through Porsche UAI cable, music dumped on USB stick working fine I've seen various things around about problems in all those on earlier PCMs. So now my question ;-p is there any way to set 'PASM' to normal mode when you hit sport? or to tie the exhaust to come onto sport mode automatically? Ideally the sport switch would toggle gearbox/throttle/exhaust between sport/normal, while leaving PASM as I had it set - I dont really like taking my eyes off the road to fiddle with those things. Secondly, am I right that in sport mode the exhaust only goes loud above 40mph? So if I tootle through residential areas at 20-30, even in sport mode, its as quiet as it'll get? For the exhaust you need a small remote bypass box from Carnewal for 150 Euros, that lets you turn the PSE on & off whenever you like, and it retains the setting when you stop & restart the car, so you can make a nusance of yourself below 40 MPH to your heart's content http://www.carnewal.com/products/P97/p97084/PSE-Ma...

Haha, no, I actually meant I'd like to leave the exhaust in Sport, assuming that it only actually goes into Sport when I'm going over 40 - which will mean away from bedrooms and built up areas. I live in the middle of a big residential area, so if I can just leave sport engaged without waking all my neighbours, and know it isnt getting loud until I hit 40+, thats awesome