First few days as a daily driver

The C4S experiment is off to a great start. Worked last weekend and every day this week and have driven it to work every day. My impressions so far. Picking a few nits 1. The stereo kind of sucks. It is okay. But when you remember this car cost 80K+ new and this is the "high end" stereo package, it is pretty lame. It is not bad, but even the stereo in my Mercedes C Class blows it away. I think Bose stereos are just overrated. That said, it really doesn't matter since you want to hear the engine anyway. 2. I am not a fan of the sport shifter. The previous owner just could not help himself and between the time I first looked at the car and actually bought it added various bits of bling that I am going to get rid of. He also added a sport shifter. I am going to give it more time, but so far I don't like it. Maybe it is because I learned to drive a manual on farm trucks, but I am generally a hard shifter. I find the sport shifter just makes it more difficult to hit t he right gear. This is especially true with reverse. Putting reverse right next to 1st without a a ring on the shifter to keep you from accidentally going into reverse thinking you are in first is not ideal to begin with. But with the sport shifter it is a bit annoying. I just don't see the value of the thing. I don't mind big gear spacing. Maybe it will grow on me. 3. The controls are typical screwy German and not very intuitive. It is like the car expects you to read the manual and doesn't think you are worthy of operating its controls if you haven't. That is a quirk of all German cars. BMWs are the worst and Merc isn't much better. It is part of their charm. But this car is worse than usual. I need to read the manual. 4. I hate the speedometer. I love an analog speedometer. But this one is too hard to read and even the digital reading is a bit small. I get it that it is a sports car and people love their tachometers. But they should have put the speedometer where the tachometer is. Maybe tachs are useful on the track. But in street driving, you shift by sound and feel not by watching the tach. I have owned multiple cars with tachs and don't mind them but don't find them that useful. I would rather have the larger speedometer. But that is it. They are all just minor annoyances that can either be fixed or gotten used to. On the positive end, the car is a wonderful driver. It sounds great. Because of its power, it is a very easy and forgiving manual transmission to drive. The car has so much power at road speeds you are not going to over rev it downshifting to 2nd or cause it to cut out downshifting to third. It either revs or torques right through any downshift you throw at it. And the ride is not bad at all for a sports car. You read the reviews of this car and hear the whinning about how the ride is "bone jarring" and I wonder what car they drove. I don't find it that way at all. It is not as soft as a good sedan. But it is not bad. About like any smaller car really. I had a long commute on the highway this weekend and a short commute of about seven miles in traffic during the week. The car was just marvelous for both. I haven't even had a chance to take this car out and really play with it since I have had to work so much since getting it. But I already love it.

1. Do some searching here, several have upgraded the Bose speakers with 2 ohm JBLs for a huge improvement. The bonus here is that you can keep your head unit and Bose amp. Don't just use any speaker, because the Bose is a 2 ohm system. 2. The 997 shifter is a very nice upgrade. Smoother than the stock 996 shifter with slightly shorter shifts so it's not notchy. I personally have a 997 shifter, EvoMS SwiftShift (metal shift bushings and coupler), and a Rennline aluminum shift ****. The shift **** is height adjustable so I have it all the way up, it gives me precise and smooth shifts with minimal effort. So basically I have a short shifter that is taller than the stock one. 3/4. You'll get used to it, then every other car will seem weird.

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I completely agree that you get used to the controls. It is just the way German cars are. I will think about the 997 shifter. Chances are I will get used to the shifter and not bother to change it. I just find it interesting that people spend money on sport shifters and they don't seem to be an improvement. As I said, these are all just nits. Overall the car is better than I had hoped.

I'll second the motion on the stereo and speedo. Digits are WAY too closely spaced and FM reception is laughable. Shifter is so so but I'm coming from an S2000 which may be the best shifter IMO ever.

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If I adjust my Rennline shift **** down to make it a true short shifter, I hate it. High effort, notchy shifts, challenging to engage reverse. Not worth it in my book, shifting shouldn't be hard work.

I always looked at the mpg digital readout, never looked at the analogue gauge because it is useless. My '99 C2's factory radio was a joke. I recently picked up a C5 for DD and the radio BLOWS away the 996's, which is a sad thing.

Stereo: It's not great, but it's sufficient. I have a Sound Ordnance sub that I will mount in place of one of the rear seat backs that will add some much-needed bass. Hopefully, I can dial out some bass so the other drivers aren't distorting trying to reproduce low frequencies. Shifter: A _good_ short-throw shifter can make the car better. A _bad_ short-throw shifter just makes it harder to guess where your gears are. Controls: I don't understand. It's not like the 996 does a whole lot. Maybe you have nav or something else more complicated. The most complex control in my car is the rotary **** to adjust the windshield wiper delay. Speedo: Give this a while. Once you get a good feel for what speed you're going @ 3K RPM, 4K RPM, in 3rd, 4th, 5th, the speedo is relegated to something to check when a LEO is spotted nearby.

The 911 has the tachometer front and center because of the race heritage Porsche brought to the car when they designed it way back when - just like the ignition key being to the left of the steering wheel. Just two things I found unique and fascinating when I first laid eyes on the car back in the '70s. In the '60s Porsche actually advertised the 911 as a car you could race on the weekend and drive to work during the week. Can you imagine Porsche doing that today? Over the decades, as Porsche listened to customer complaints "Do you really have to have the tachometer front and center?", the car has become less of a sports car and more of a luxury cruiser.

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Heh...I love my car, but "996" and "luxury cruiser" go together like electricity and bath water.

In my car pulling straight from 1st to 2nd or from 3rd to 4th isn't fast. Pulling from 1st into neutral, sliding right just a bit, back to the left and down into 2nd is faster. It follows the linkage path. Going from 3rd to 4th, same thing, but the hitch in neutral is to the left. This may or may not apply to other cars.

The tach is good for keeping a close eye on rev's while the car is still warming up (I keep rev's below 4k until normal operating temp (180) is reached). It's also good for those rare occasions into redline territory.

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DD going on 3,5 years 1. Good enough, install FisterD's and you will forget it's even there. 2. If has the B&M they are notchy I ended up with a 2010 997 GT3 shifter and it is great compromise between B&M, SSK and the crap rowing oar they call a shifter in a 996. 3. ? work for me so not sure what you mean and my last car was a Merc. 4. Listen to the engine. The spedo is there so you an answer the question "do you know how fast you were going?" Bone jarring? Anyone who says that is bought the wrong car. I have x74 and it is hardly bone jarring.

Working from the center dial, My 2c 99 job has a normal speedo on the left dial and the analogue speeds are displayed on the lower part of the center Tachometer. I have a Tom Tom GPS stuck on the glass of the lower part of the center dial anyway so I can't see my analogue read out. I have my road speed memorized from my gear position and what I can see of the top end of the rev counter (2000 to 6000revs) ie:- 3000revs in top = 80mph plus I can use my left speedo read out if I need too. My radar I have attached on top center of the dash board. I dont listen much to sounds only the sounds of the engine so can't comment to that part of the posting. The feel of the car grew on me the more I drove it. I have done 24000 miles in mine in the last 3 years.

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If neutral isn't directly in line btwn 3rd and 4th gear, it sounds like the shifter isn't centered properly. I would get this checked out.

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+1...FYI, I have a B&M and its smooth, when warmed up.

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3. I don't find the controls odd at all. I've driven cars from a variety of manufacturers over my lifetime and they are almost all different from each other, and it has not occurred to me that the 996 is any different than others. Yes, you will want to read the manual, and also read the sticky thread at the top of the forum about "things you did not know about your 996". 4. The 996.1 ('99 thru '01) had the digital speed readout at the bottom of the center gauge. It is very visible and it is easy to see speed and enginve speed (tach) at the same glance. For some reason, Porsche moved the readout to the left gauge in the 996.2 which I think was a mistake, or at the very least not an improvement at all.

One other note on the shifting, the stock 996 shift **** is a flimsy piece of plastic and vinyl. A heavier weighted shift **** does wonders for the helping to eliminate the notchiness and reduce effort. The factory carbon fiber **** is pricey but well weighted, and I believe the turbo **** is very similar. I'm very happy with my Rennline ****.

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Thanks for the input.