My 2 weeks of Porsche ownership

Soldato
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So I have had my 911 Targa 4 for around 2 weeks now. I have done around 1500 miles in my own car and about 1500 miles in the courtesy cars given to me while Porsche fix a few small problems in my car.

The first courtesy car was a PDK Boxter, the boxter is a lovely car and so much fun to drive. More so then the 911 but it just does not have the road presence, sound and grunt of the 911.
I parked this in a shopping centre car park and came back to find someone had spat on the car :mad::mad:

Then the next car was a Gen 2 2012 C2S PDK, We took this on a 1200 mile trip up to the Scottish highlands for the long weekend. This was such a fantastic car, it does not sound as nice as my old Gen 1 911, the steering has lost some of its feel and is generally a lot less raw then the Gen 1. However the PDK box is fantastic. Its really effortless to drive fast, but still very good and comfortable as a day to day car.
The PCM3 nav is way better then the old one and it gave me around 27mpg which is amazing considering how hard and fast I was driving the car.

Someone decided to key this car when parked in the front garden.:mad::mad:

I have also found that white van drivers seem to hate Porsche driver and make life on the road very difficult. I have had them drive inches from my rear end on the motorway when I clearly can not go any faster not let me out a junctions and just generally be a pain. I also found that kids in 1.2 Hatchbacks seem to want to race me quit a lot. :o

The one good thing I noticed is that slower moving traffic seem to move out of the way for me in the fast lane on motorways which is nice.

Cost of ownership so far
£500 quid for 2 new rear tyres
£450 quid for a minor service
£1k for new discs and pads all round.
£400ish for tax
£175 to get it washed

Some warranty work was done to fix a few small issues, total cost would have been about 2k if I did not have a warranty.

Costs coming up this year
£2.5k for another 2 years warranty
£150 to change the drive belt.

So overall its a nice car, the handling is amazing its not cheap to run but probably worth it as its been my dream to owns 911 for many many years. I will probably keep this car for the summer and then trade up to a Gen 2 or a Gen 1 Turbo.
 
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Soldato
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Did you buy the car knowing that the discs and pads needed replacing?
Was the 991 a courtesy car too? Must have been good to been given the keys to that for the weekend!
 
Soldato
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Yes they had a 991 but I wanted the 997.2 because I may really buy one at some point and I know I will not be able to afford a 991 so I thought it was a bit pointless to take the 991.

I knew the discs, pads and tyres needed to be replaced but I got the car as such a good price I did not mind.
 
Soldato
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Wish I had your pockets!

Is your Targa a manual? As terrific as PDK is supposed to be, I've still got such an inherit favouritism for manual cars. I have never driven a Porsche so I'm not fully qualified to comment, but to me a manual gearbox is still an intrinsic part of the experience, however efficient an automated solution is designed to be.

What are the comfort levels of a C2S on a long trip comparable to? Can they be compared to a saloon?

If I was in the market for a Porsche I'd seriously look at a Cayman as the value they represent is hugely in front of a 911, although where new models are concerned the 991 is probably streets ahead in refinement and build terms.
 
Soldato
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Yep my Targa is a manual, I was the same as you I refused to get a porsche with the Tip box and actually turned down a better spec car because it was a Tip. However after driving the PDK and taking the manual through london yesterday I am completely sold and if I get a Gen2 it will be a PDK. The manual is really hard work trough town traffic and the clutch is very heavy.

The C2S was very comfortable for long trip back home (took 9 hours), I was not too keen on the sports seats as I found the standard seats a little more comfortable.

I did take a cayman on a a short test drive, I think I would rather get a 135i + remap over a cayman. I found you had to push it really hard to get the power out of it. The 135i just has buckets of effortless power however the handling on the cayman was miles better then the BMW. I think the running costs on the BMW are also a little lower.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/534/930h.gif


[TW]Fox;21687468 said:
This is winning at courtesy cars, this is.

Lol I did feel a little bad, the car had 3000 miles on the clock when they gave it to me and about 4300 when I gave it back.
I did call the dealer and ask if it was ok to take it on a long trip and they said it was not an issue so away we went :)
I had the car for a total of 6 days.
 
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Soldato
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Cost wise its not bad as I had expected to do the work when I bought the car, I will keep hold of the car for now but Sadly I am leaving the uk for a couple of months today so it will not be used until I come back.
 
Man of Honour
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50% of the ownership time "broken" then ;)

That depends what you count as 'broken' really doesn't it? If his 'few little bits' were his AC and his engine then fair enough but if they've fixed a dodgy parking sensor and a sticking handbrake or something then its hardly 'constantly broken' is it.
 
Soldato
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[TW]Fox;21688168 said:
That depends what you count as 'broken' really doesn't it? If his 'few little bits' were his AC and his engine then fair enough but if they've fixed a dodgy parking sensor and a sticking handbrake or something then its hardly 'constantly broken' is it.

I don't know what's broken, or make the original comment, I'm just trolling you a little. <3 :p
 
Caporegime
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Cost wise its not bad as I had expected to do the work when I bought the car, I will keep hold of the car for now but Sadly I am leaving the uk for a couple of months today so it will not be used until I come back.

I will be more than happy to look after it and make sure it gets warmed up and driven regularly. I'll even do it for free, cos I'm nice like that.
 
Soldato
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Didn't you have a 100 mile per day limit (before paying something like 20p per mile) on the courtesy car? 1200 mile journey... :o

Also "£175 to get it washed" :confused:
 
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