So a fellow user, Fester, sent me a message complimenting me on the mileage I have on the car, and he suggested I open a thread about it. I am currently sitting at a close to 68,400 as of now. I haven't done as much traveling since April. I am sure there is somebody else with more or at least something close to me, right?

So first, the boring part. The car has been event free, outside of the 2 replacement transmissions. The car has been completely solid. I would remiss if I didn't mention the navigation PCM rebooting every other minute a couple of years ago, but that was fixed with a quick update.

 

To tell you about the car, I have to tell you how I got it. The long story is I had been looking at getting a Carrera since about 2007. Mainly eyeing the classic G model for its lines and appeal. That to me is a true 911! There was a little used car shop I would always see on the way home that specialized in Porsche and Mercedes, Nort Northam's. I stopped by there a couple of times to look at what he had. Even drove a blue '86 convertible that he had for $19k. So tempted, but living in Florida, you require air-conditioning eleven out of twelve months of the year. That was when I started looking at more modern versions.

My wife wanted to hear none of it. I was not to get a 911! Besides, I liked my E-Class Mercedes at that point. I wanted a sedan. That was just before the Panamera was released. A Porsche sedan? That would be awesome, best of both worlds, right? Still a big fat NO! Well, as my wife puts it, she finally relented and approved of a Porsche in a morphine induced haze in the hospital. Originally, I was still aiming for the big Egg! I brought my wife to the dealership to look at the cars. She just looked at me questioningly, and said 'Why don't you get the little one? It's cute and we don't have kids.' My wife is awesome, and simply stated the obvious.

Every publication said a new model was coming, so I bided my time for over a year. Finally, I ordered the car when they first became available in Sept of 2011, after Porsche announced it at the Frankfurt Autoshow. It is a first wave 991 Carrera S. Picked up Tuesday, Feb 7th, 2012. That was a surreal day. I have to say Porsche of Orlando made the entire transaction seamless and quick. They had the whole thing choreagraphed with no downtime. Pretty much walked in and walked out. The entire three hours felt like a half hour. I then owned the first 991 delivered in Orlando. I left driving a brand new Porsche, my first and my original dream car since the early '80s.

The car is set up with PDK and Sport Chromo performance-wise. Originally I wanted to get the ducktail on the car, but that would push delivery back until spring time as the options weren't currently available yet. Interior is full leather, two-toned with agate and pebble grey. A Burmester setup and sunroof complete the package. Major upgrades I did not get was PSE, PDCC, Carbon Brakes, or Sport PASM.

Anyway, on to the fun stuff. The first month I put 2000 miles on the car. Taking any chance I could get to drive it. Never once, was I told to take it easy with the car. Within a month I was giving my step father a ride up to 120mph. My wife was upset with me when she heard how fast we went. Why? Because, 'you never took me that fast!' WHAT? She complained when I bumped the car to 90 on the way up there!! We went back out after that, with my mom in the passenger seat and my wife in the back. We topped out at 129mph. My mom almost peed in my car!

 

Congrats. That is some mileage. Its super that you are enjoying the car so much and that the car has been so solid. Awesome.

 

Our first road trip was a three week trip across the country in two ways. We decided to drive Route 66 from start to finish and scratch some baseball stadiums off our list. From Orlando, we drove to Chicago with a stop in Cincinnati. From Illinois, we took the next 11 days driving the complete Route, staying on the main road as much as possible. We did have a three day stop at the Grand Canyon since we were in the area.

Along the way we did some off-roading on heavily graveled roads. Firstly on our way to Bridgeport, Oklahoma from Geary. Um, we drove no faster than 10mph and didn't make it further than smile at most. That road was flat, but the rocks were big. It would have been about three miles to the north end of the closed bridge before we would have had to drive back. I thought it prudent to go back. It was ROUGH.

The other off-roading was at Mile Marker 0 at Glen Rio, Texas. A modern day ghost town of there ever was. If you continue to follow Route 66 from there, you get another gravel road that winds on for 19 miles until it meets up again with I-40 in New Mexico. Most of the road wasn't bad, but there were occasions where the stones got large. It took us about an hour to travel the 19 miles.




My avatar is a shot we took outside Miami, Oklahoma along the '9ft Highway'. Then the long boring drive home along I-10....Texas is huge!

We want to do it again! There was so much to see and do. We probably wouldn't go into California again though. From Needles on, much of the freeway was total crap!

 

I joined the PCA before the car arrived. Much of our local club meetings were about either auto crosses or DEs. I had a great amount of trepidation regarding DEs. I didn't feel I fit the mode of a track-rat or have the ego of one. After our epic road trip and seemed likely weekly drives where I would get lost on backroads of Central Florida, I was starting to get confidence in myself and the car.

At one of our meetings, one of the instructors called out anybody who hadn't gone to the track yet. I bit on the bait and was dragged up to Savannah for a weekend at Roebling Road.

Roebling may not be the best track, but it was my first track. It's smooth, clean, and simple looking. I find it an excellent track to learn much of the basics of tracking your car! Only 9 turns, not many walls to draw your attention, and nice long straight to really let loose. One of the fastest straights in the US from what I have read.

I tell you what, after that weekend, I felt a surge in confidence in my abilities and the limits of the car. I realized there was so much more to the car's range than I would probably ever reach. That day opened my eyes to what else was out there regarding track events; things that you don't really see outside of Top Gear episodes.

I highly recommend doing at least one event with your car. If you find that a DE is too much or you don't want to risk your car, which I understand, go for an autocross. This will definitely help you with your car control, and scratch your itch for high speed action.

 

Subscribed! Great thread! Enjoying it!!

 

What an awesome road trip! 911's are meant to be driven...hard. Great story.

 

Chup, what a story. I more or less share similar experience for my 991 4S.

Since I have been a little kid, I used to have matchbox cars with 911 being my favorite. Also my room walls bore big posters of 964 turbo coupe. With getting married earlier and 2 kids at relatively early age (in my late 20s), I never fathomed an idea of getting a 911. I always lusted for one, but I knew it was too late for me to get one or I had to wait many years when after the kids are in college. From civic to TL-S and then over to e92 335, I always opted for fully loaded examples of any new cars I bought, from '98 new Civic EX back in college to TL-S with on star and Nav and then finally first custom ordered car, e92 335...ALL of them SILVER . I just didn't want to regret not getting it exactly the way I wanted.

With greater financial stability, began to look at Porsche, Panamera GTS was what I was looking at. Again I knew 911 wasn't an option. It was when we got in to Panamera, my wife noticed "such a huge car with only 4 seats"....hesitantly I had her take a look at "smaller car with 4 seats"... She inclined to take a deeper look and with me taking over 991 S to a test drive. WOW! While driving it, I convinced myself that I MUST get it, no matter what.

I was day dreaming of it. With wife onboard and "wide body with light strip" Carerra 4/4S on the horizon, I ordered one. Began to add options, exactly the way I wanted and ended up getting an example which reflected 100% of what I envisioned. GT-Silver, all exterior black parts painted, PDCC, SPASM, Burmester, Chrono, 18 way seats, PDK, PSE, Full leather front, steering column in leather, leather center tunnel, matching silver seatbelts, Carerra classic wheels (deep dish offset for 305 rears), Espresso natural leather, espresso key pouch, GT- silver painted key, illuminated door sills, voice control etc etc..over $40K worth of options, EXACTLY the way I wanted. This was a bit of a gamble, as I had NEVER seen GT-Silver with Full Espresso.

I placed an order in September 2012, kept on losing my sleep over it, added/tweaked options until it was no longer allowed, tracked every step of it from it being in the paint shop and to loaded on the boat and finally got it delivered on 3rd week of Jan 2013. I was one of th first ones to ever get it in the Bay Area. Man, it exceeded my expectations in terms of how it looks inside out, drives, the music system, PSE, just everything was nothing less than perfect! Unfortunately, it was one of he rare days in the Bay Area that it was raining the day it showed up, I had them detail it and took it out along with my kids in the back in pouring rain!!! Got whole front and key areas custom wrapped from premier films, eagerly waited to hit 2K miles and took it on a road trip to LA, with the whole family (yes, kids in the back, wife on front passenger seat and 2 small bags in Frunk) to prove to my wife it's indeed a family car !! It worked!!!!

A fellow 6speeder offered to do a photo shoot on my fine example..here's the thread for it for many of you haven't come across: https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ferrerid=71849

Now my older one has grown out of it so can't sit in the back, yet it's doing family car duties as needed. I'm amazed how practical it is...no other sports car is equal and close to it as a complete package!!!

2 years and 9 months of owning it, there're minimal to no issues (touch wood!) yet I'm now thinking should I get extended warranty given Chup had PDK transmission replace twice???? Thoughts???

 

Wait a minute! Am I the only one alarmed by two transmissions in only 68k miles? This is acceptable to everyone?

DaveGee

 

Not really acceptable hence am worried too. Yet, Chup had early 2012 991, I'm assuming this sort of issue got addressed. If I recall, he had first one at relatively low mileage, that many of us are already well past...

 

Lol I'm glad I wasn't the only one that noticed this. Not acceptable but it is covered under warranty and obviously got resolved. Seeing as the OP has still been able to enjoy many miles with the car since those incidents I am inclined not to think too much into it.

My CPO C4S arrived Thursday with a healthy 10.5k miles registered. I aspire to be like the OP and fully expect to sell the car in 2 years with 35-40k miles on the clock. It is not my dream car and will not be sitting in the garage. If it is truly able to handle all the duties that I require of my daily driver then I can see myself happily purchasing another 911 to replace it.

To the OP thanks for sharing your story. I hope you continue to enjoy all that your 911 has to offer!

 

Since Fester mentioned it just a moment ago, it just happened to be the next step in my ownership. The first tranny replacement....It was only a couple weeks after the HPDE that I was bringing in my car for it's second 10k checkup. The first was in Porsche of Downtown LA, got a new tire installed then too! Never washed the entire time on the drive.


Anyway, the techs noticed a wetness of sorts during their inspection around the engine/transmission connection on the bolts mostly. I never noticed anything out of the ordinary. No slipping of gears. I am familiar with the actions of an automatic with no fluid. At least I am with regards to a '79 Toyota Corolla, slipping, jumping, high revving then a heave.

Here are all the pictures they took. Looking closely, you can see a small bead of liquid at the connection. The tech cleaned it off, ran it a few times, took it for a drive, checked again....still leaking...















This was around Halloween of 2012. The car was close to 9 months old with 20k miles. PCNA would no let the techs to open and work on the tranny. From what I remember, they deemed it too complex for in house work. PCNA called for a new transmission then and there. It was a new car, there shouldn't be this issue, blah blah, you're getting a new transmission.

I was heartbroken. It was like hearing from your vet that your new puppy has a heart condition that may be fatal. Did I cause this? Was it because of the DE? I took a deep breath, or two or three, and they told me a new PDK was on the way. I got to drive a brown Panamera for two weeks as they ordered, installed, and tested the new PDK. All under warranty, should be good as new. Up to that point, the car had been flawless. Outside of two replacement tires, taken car of by the tire/wheel warranty, we had encountered zero mishaps. The techs did their best to assure me that this should pass, and to get back out there and drive it.

 

Concerned about two transmissions here so hope its rare. I have already put 8K on my car in just 6 months and will rapidly put miles on later this year when I start doing a very long commute with it...70 miles each way. So I will no doubt exceed your miles in less time. It is part of the reason I did buy the car is that a Porsche with miles on it is still worth more than the next sports car with similar miles on it. Impressed by your cross country drive...I am really tempted to do the same thing before I start a new job although a different route. (no need to drive to Chicago for me...lived there long enough at 19 years to get tired of the cold and move back to Florida). Love the picture of your car on the bridge. Pretty cool.

 

I like to give my cars an upgrade of some sort at least once a year. Some boosts are simple, some extreme. The first upgrade was getting the windows tinted. This was a no brainer for Florida. Anything to keep the interior temperature cooler is a plus in the heat that can develop down here. That was the first year upgrade as I see it. The second upgrade was major.

The DE back in October was quite a blast! I wanted my car to have all the toys available to it that Porsche had to offer then. The only thing I could really add would be the addition of the X-51 Powerkit that was fist announced in the summer. Not yet in the states yet, I had to wait. It ended up being my Xmas present.

The Powerkit is best taken as an option during the ordering of your car. An extra boost of 30hp, a third radiator upfront, a larger aluminum intake manifold, and you get the PSE if not already optioned. It was a $17k option in the online configurator. I was able to use Suncoast's cost as leverage and get the dealer to sell it to me at their price, $11k, but they get to install it.



Engine just removed





Not just an ECU mapping...





Everything removed ready for installation





You can see the new intake manifold installed, the old one on the floor looking like an insect




This was not a quick change. It took about a week. I was given a little white Cayman to shoot around in. I used that to start a little fire in my friend's belly to join the club. When the car was ready, I arrived to pick it up. I heard it start up in the garage on the other side of the door, and I was soo excited. It sounded so much throatier and meaner. There was no 'break in' period as my car already had 23k miles on it. It was ready to go now!

To be honest, I could not tell a difference in performance. I could in the noise. For some reason there was not button install. If you I wanted the noise, I just had to hit the Sport/Sport + button and it opened up. Just like a car with PSE, if you go into Sport mode, the exhaust opens up. It makes the PSE button irrelevant.

The day I picked it up, I went for a drive. I was about 30 some miles away from the dealer when a 'Coolant Error' light came on, or something like that. Fortunately, all that happened was a vacuum tube was put in backwards. Since the tubes didn't have a labeled front or back, putting it in one way fits, but is tight with a stretch. Flip it around it fits but with more slack. It was installed the former way. Flip it around and it's perfect.

It was time to see what this Powerkit was all about.

 

I don't think it's acceptable. I will address it later in this thread. If you want to jump ahead, here is the original thread.Transmission