981 options you wish you had (not) specced and why?

[Mario149]

I'm curious as to what speccing decisions people would change in hindsight on new 981s they've ordered having owned them for a while? A common one appears to be not speccing dual zone air con and so not having proper climate control. What other examples do people have?

[Mario149]

rxpandy said:

These are my options for my Cayman GTS:

Exterior

Automatically dimming interior and exterior mirrors with integrated rain sensor
Electric folding outside mirrors
ParkAssist front and rear

Transmission / Chassis

Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK)
Sports suspension (20 mm lower)
Porsche Ceramic Composite Brake (PCCB)
Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV)

Wheels

20-inch Carrera S wheel
Wheels painted in satin platinum

Interior

Sports Bucket Seats
Adaptive cruise control incl Porsche Active Safe (PAS)
Smoking package
2-zone automatic air conditioning
Light design package
GTS interior package - Silver instrument dials
Black leather i.c.w Rhodium Silver alcantara package GTS
Interior Leather SportDesign steering wheel

Audio / Communications

Telephone module
Porsche Communication Management (PCM) incl navigation module with universal audio interface
BOSE® Surround Sound System
Digital radio

Options I wished I had speced:

Heated Seats - Its I cheap option which I should have re added as I had it on the car oringally but done a complete spec change after my Silverstsone day and left it off by mistake.

Door Stills - I think this finishies off the car. However, I couldn't deceide between carbon or stainless at the time. I am currently speaking to the dealer to see if I can add these on after the car has arrived.

What colour is yours? (Just for the sake of completeness!)

[Mario149]

Has anyone specced (or regretted not) the "Instrument surround in leather" and "Dashboard trim package in leather"? They're about £200 and £750 respectively. The former seems like a good idea potentially if the initial surround is in plastic (is it?) but a waste of money if not, and the latter appears to only add leather in places you can't see while actually driving.

I have visions of an awful plastic dash I had in a 987 Boxster courtesy from a few years ago, made it look really cheap and nasty....

[Mario149]

supersport said:

People who sit at lights with their foot on the brake lights are complete nobs :roll eyes: There is nothing worse than having the high level brake light boring into your brain for minutes whilst sat at lights, they are very blinding. Just the same as fog lights are.

I think you guys might have delicate eyes I've never felt this was a problem when sat behind someone at lights and I live in London where we spend quite a bit of time doing it! Brake lights are no where near comparable in brightness to rear fog lights otherwise they would be illegal as brake lights!

[Mario149]

TDT said:

bcr5784 said:

I believe the latest GT3 doesn't do it - and I wish the Cayman didn't either.

This is correct - PDK-S on the 991 GT3 doesn't have any creep, and I too wish that the normal PDK didn't creep also.

Would it just be a software change to fix do we think? Or is it a mechanical difference?

[Mario149]

maxpower5 said:

You would also fail your driving test if you didn't apply the handbrake when stopped.

True, but there are quite a number of things you would fail your driving test on which aren't strictly applicable to the real world. And I say this after going out with my gf's instructor for a test (I passed in 1999) on a proper route and everything the other day for a bit of a laugh - we took the Ferrari I passed btw, 3 minors

[Mario149]

FrankCayman said:

Perhaps if Porsche increased the list price of their cars by £80 then chucked in mats for free, that would help? :-)

I actually think it would! No one realistically is going to not buy a car over some £80 floor mats, but having to spec them onto base price because a Porsche of all vehicles doesn't come with them just simply pisses people off. So either way Porsche get their £80, it's just with the suggested method they have happier clients. It's almost like they enjoy giving their dealership staff a hard time.

[Mario149]

bcr5784 said:

Mario149 said:

I actually think it would! No one realistically is going to not buy a car over some £80 floor mats, but having to spec them onto base price because a Porsche of all vehicles doesn't come with them just simply pisses people off. So either way Porsche get their £80, it's just with the suggested method they have happier clients. It's almost like they enjoy giving their dealership staff a hard time.

Absolutely, but pretty much the same argument could be applied to telephone prep, parking sensors, climate control and some would argue quite a lot more. Like others have said it's not going to upset many people by charging through the nose to personalise the car with fancy trim options, chrome petrol fillers or gear knobs - but it does upset them to be charged £400+ to connect a phone or (when you add everything you have to spec up) £3000 if you want sat nav as well. And you still don't get DAB!

It is a question of where to draw the line obviously. And the line's location will change as years go by. I mean, heaters used to be an optional extra on cars! However, in terms of Porsche in 2015, I would expect a *bare* minimum of floor mats, extended leather and climate control, it's hardly asking for much.

[Mario149]

Koln-RS said:

Some, like cruise control...can be re-fitted by the dealer, at a price, but most can't.

OP here

I had cruise on my 981 GTS, so when I was px-ing for a 997 GTS without cruise from a Porsche main dealer, I just made it a condition of the deal that they retrofit cruise for free in the new car. It's the sort of thing that is very expensive for the punter (think it comes in at £700 or so?) but relatively cheap for the dealer to do (prob only costs them a couple of hundred £).

[Mario149]

bcr5784 said:

Adam B said:

one word - SPECS

Cruise (unless adaptive) is imo a waste of time. Limit has it's uses. Most of my cars in recent years have had cruise and I've never used it.

TBF I agree somewhat, regular cruise is far more use on the continent than in the UK I find, mostly too much traffic here.