997 C2S Owners. Must have options?

[dufflecoat]

Afternoon.

So I have decided that an earlyish C2S would a nice daily drive for me for a year or so, and have a budget up to 30k(ish). I have the following note down as preferred:

Must Have =
Sports Chrono
PASM is standard on S?

Desirable =
Satellite Navigation (PCM 2)
Porsche Sports Exhaust (PSE)
Phone
Adaptive Seats (Do I lose heat with these?)

Have I missed anything that's a must? and is anything on the wrong list from owners actual experiences?

Interested to hear views of people who have lived with them.

Cheers

Edited by dufflecoat on Sunday 3rd February 13:47

[dreamer75]

I bought one a few months ago and it ha a lot of options. My thoughts...

• Sports chrono - I vaguely think you have to have it with a Gen 1 to get some other options (I have it) but just for the chrono it's pretty useless, and just something to squeak !
• Sports exhaust - ESSENTIAL
• Heated & electric seats - essential!
• Parking sensors - useful very useful
• Phone kit -= useless but I thin it helps with selling
• Sports shift - not sure, not driven a normal one....
• Sat nav - all right actually! Just no postcode lookup in my version and I probably need new CDs
• Wind deflector - very useful

What else is there ?

[Callughan]

Condition and provenance are priority.

PSE good to have but can be retrofitted.

Edited by Callughan on Sunday 3rd February 14:00

[911 (997)]

dreamer75 said:

I bought one a few months ago and it ha a lot of options. My thoughts...

• Sports chrono - I vaguely think you have to have it with a Gen 1 to get some other options (I have it) but just for the chrono it's pretty useless, and just something to squeak !
• Sports exhaust - ESSENTIAL
• Heated & electric seats - essential!
• Parking sensors - useful very useful
• Phone kit -= useless but I thin it helps with selling
• Sports shift - not sure, not driven a normal one....
• Sat nav - all right actually! Just no postcode lookup in my version and I probably need new CDs
• Wind deflector - very useful

What else is there ?

It's a matter of taste, heated and electric seats are not essential IMHO.

I have sports chrono and it doesn't squeak.

You might also find that you do have postcode look up, try entering the first 4 digits of the postcode in your PCM. I have a 997.1 and have it.

I doubt a phone kit helps with selling. I have one and don't use it. I use an iPhone and plug in the earphones wearing one earpiece. Does the trick nicely.

I have a coupe with a sunroof, which I really wanted. Behind the sports exhaust and sat nav it was the one option I looked hard for. To have the sun shine through on a sunny day but without the compromise in handling and looking a bit naff in a cabrio is great.

But everything is subject really.

[dreamer75]

Agree with almost everything you said

I love heated seats but they're not essential - just lovely and toasty warm for a bad back like mine, and with the roof down.

I also don't think the compromise in the cab stiffness is a big issue on the road - tracking it, then yeah, but it's just one enormous sunroof

I didn't choose the options, they just happened to be on the car, but having lived with it for 6 months they're all very handy, except the exhauast which I think is essential - nice car without it, big grin car with It But it depends why you're buying the car

[Ekona]

Chrono is a must have on PDK and turbo cars only, I wouldn't have it in a manual. It's also retrofittable for £500, so if you find a car without it and it's otherwise perfect, don't let it stop you. You don't get the wart either.

Sports exhaust of some kind a must, any other seat than the standard tombstones likewise (buckets, adaptive or manual sports), standard non-Bose stereo on a gen1, that's about the only must haves.


Everything else is down to taste: I'd consider cruise control and heated seats a must have, but you could happily live without.

[Helicopter123]

Cruise can be retrofitted quite cheaply by your OPC at around £460 from memory.

The standard S is pretty well specced. Heated seats are always worthwhile with leather and PCM is worth having too, especially on the gen 2 cars.

[dufflecoat]

Ekona said:

Chrono is a must have on PDK and turbo cars only, I wouldn't have it in a manual. It's also retrofittable for £500, so if you find a car without it and it's otherwise perfect, don't let it stop you. You don't get the wart either.

Sports exhaust of some kind a must, any other seat than the standard tombstones likewise (buckets, adaptive or manual sports), standard non-Bose stereo on a gen1, that's about the only must haves.


Everything else is down to taste: I'd consider cruise control and heated seats a must have, but you could happily live without.

Sports Chrono gives you a button that changes the map? Presumably more hp? Faster throttle. What don't you get on a manual that you do on a PDK?

[Ekona]

It only changes the throttle sensitivity on manual cars, on PDK it gives you a more aggressive shift map and on Turbo you get overboost for more power.

[911 (997)]

Ekona said:

It only changes the throttle sensitivity on manual cars, on PDK it gives you a more aggressive shift map and on Turbo you get overboost for more power.

Stiffens suspension too.

[Ekona]

It activates PASM and PSE if you have them, but you can do that anyway using the separate buttons. If you don't have them, it only does the throttle mapping.

[petop]

Agree on the PSE option or aftermarket but I find the parking sensors are also a good must have. It maybe all swoopy in its shape but this means a lot of it is lost out of sight when it comes to reversing.

[dreamer75]

You get the throttle sensitivity and stiffer suspension when u press the sport button (with the sport exhaust) - do ups also get em by pressing something to do with the chrono? From what I could tell it was just a useless gizmo ?

[dazco]

Sat Nav. I am well documented on here for being mega perturbed about not being able to sell a 997 because it had no Sat Nav.

360HP, best GT car in the world, PSE retro fitted, best part of 14 months warranty left on it, and everyone who rang up for it wanted to know if it had a device that could be substituted by spending a measly hundred quid.

wkers, it's a fooking Porsche.

[Ekona]

Ironically if I was looking for a 997.1 I'd want one without the PCM at all, as it's guff. Would much rather spend the cash on a double din unit to sit there instead.

[FarQue]

Interesting. PSE not important to me at all. Didn't want a sunroof. Not bothered about heated seats. But, I did want, and have got phone, sat nav, park assist, standard seats, cruise control and black interior. We all like the same but different !

[Porkupine]

dazco said:

Sat Nav. I am well documented on here for being mega perturbed about not being able to sell a 997 because it had no Sat Nav.

360HP, best GT car in the world, PSE retro fitted, best part of 14 months warranty left on it, and everyone who rang up for it wanted to know if it had a device that could be substituted by spending a measly hundred quid.

wkers, it's a fooking Porsche.

Nav is a must have. Tidies up the dash area more than anything else - modernises the interior.

Who really wants a tomtom with wires dangling around and silly marks on the windscreen. The built-in unit may not have as food functionality, but certainly gets you where you need to go!!!

[FarQue]

Agreed re the sat nav - it may not be as good as a modern tomtom/garmin, but when I was looking to buy, I wanted sat nav. Everything I'd read suggested that it was an absolute load of rubbish, but I still wanted it because, to my mind, a modern Carrera should have it. I've used it a bit over the last year and it has been ok, little out of date on one or two roads but got me around a fair chunk of Germany last year without problem.

If I was looking to replace my 911 with a NEWER car, I'd be looking for factory sat nav again.

[STiG911]

Ello.

I've had my '05 C2s for almost 2 years and loved every second of it. Being a bit of a geek I listed out my 'preferred', 'nice-to-haves', 'not-fussed' and 'not-on-your-lifes' when hunting back in 2011.

I knew already, that finding the right 911 isn't looking for the right spec, but buying on condition, and history first. I ended up buying a higher mileage car than I would've liked, but from one of the more reputable non-OPC specialists, and pretty much on the money spec-wise.

Preferred; Red or Blue, BOSE, PSE, Sunroof, Sports Steering Wheel, Sports Seats,(not fussed if electric) and Carrera Classic Wheels (realised the Sport Design wheels would look fab, but be a sod to clean)
Nice-to-haves; Sat Nav, / Phone, Sports Chrono, Rear Wiper, Sports Suspension, Parking Sensors.
Not-fussed; Multi Function Wheel, Electric Seats, CD.
Not-on-your-life; Tip, Sand or Terracotta interior (did view a Cocoa, I could've lived with that) Yellow, Green or White exterior.

My C2s has BOSE, PSE, Carrera Classics with Coloured Centres, Sat Nav, Phone, Heated Seats, Parking Sensors, Multi-Function Wheel, Rear Wiper, and is Silver over black with standard seats.

While obviously not 'my' ideal spec, there are compromises you have to make when buying a second hand car even a 911, especially Red, which I convinced myself I really, really, really wanted but just couldn't find 'The One'. It's possible that 'your' car is out there, but you might never find it.
I've never had a problem with the standard seats, even when pressing on. As long as you're in the correct position there's still plenty of support, and I've been on drives from Essex to Cumbria in total comfort. (Heated Seats help here too!)
The phone I've just got a PAYG sim card in, and it only really gets used when the Missus tries to track me down. The Nav is out of date, yes, but I still Google Map my routes anyway, then use the still-handy built-in map for the last couple of miles as a visual reference. on longer journeys we use the Tom-Tom from the daily snotter (best £100 ever spent)
I did really want a sunroof, but tbh between BOSE on long journeys, and windows down / PSE on Hoons, I'm having a ball