996 Renter
Thread Starter
|
Banned
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,768
From: Maui
Rep Power: 0
996 Renter
http://www.heiser.net/documents/nurburgring/
If you own a new Porsche 911 type 996, you should probably stop reading now. If you own a Boxter (986), you should have your Internet connection taken away forever, but that's another issue altogether.
I remember when the 996 was first released. You couldn't buy a car magazine without reading five articles about how great the new 911 was, and how much better it was than the old aircooled 993. I believe there was even some kind of competition between magazine editors to see how many positive superlatives they could fit into a single page regarding this car. It was the quintessential sports car. It was the perfect evolution of the venerable 911.
Let me be absolutely clear: I am not a professional test driver, nor do I have a tremendous amount of driving experience. I'll not pretend that I have driven even one tenth as many cars as the people who pen Car and Driver or Road & Track. But I'll be equally clear about this: the 996 is a complete piece of ****. It is easily the most underwhelming car I have ever driven.
I would have rather driven a 3 series BMW. I would rather have driven a Corvette. I would have rather driven a Mustang with its cavitating power steering rack. I would have rather driven my girlfriend's Celica. I would have rather driven my Scirocco with its coil binding springs and balding tyres.
Maybe our rental was just trashed. But could 40,000 rental miles really explain everything wrong with this car? It might excuse a rough engine or a leaky transmission, but not the fundamentals. This car never felt like a Porsche for a single second.
I've driven several 911s over the years. Early 70's, Early 80's, late 80's, early 90's. Turbos and non-turbos. All of them were fantastic cars to drive that gave you a visceral feeling of the road. When you turned the wheel it was as if your hands extended down the steering column into the tyres themselves. The cars were not easy to drive, but if you respected their style they returned the favor.
The first thing you notice as you sit down in the 996 is that the interior looks, well, cheap. Plastic where there should be metal. The shift throw is long. The seats are more comfortable than supportive. Thank god the pedals have been overhauled, but they're still not as good as an M3. And the steering wheel still isn't adjustable even after the entire car was completely redesigned. You think that if they had to make the car look like a soap bar the least they could do is give you an adjustable steering column. Seriously.
But I honestly don't care about the interior. All I want is a car that goes fast and inspires confidence.
Turn the key (still on the left, thank goodness) and it almost sounds like a real 911. And I will hand it to Porsche on this point: the engine is really fantastic. It sounds good, it's much smoother than the aircooled motor and it pulls strong right up to the redline. A big improvement over the old 3.6L. We hit the limiter quite a few times during our hot laps.
But that's where the fun ends. The traction control would engage when the car was nowhere near losing grip. The ABS would kick in at the most random times and stay engaged until you completely let off the pedal. My lowly MR2's ABS is about a hundred times better than this. Maybe it's tuned for Michigan winters or something.
The steering has almost no feedback whatsoever. The suspension, while very good over the bumps, has the more of the feeling of a touring car than a sports car. The steering used to be the high point of the 911, and now it's completely unremarkable. Booo.
When you shifted out of gear at low speed the transmission made a clanging sound like a large plate on the end of a spring. I'll chalk this up to poor maintenance, but it's still disappointing.
The brakes, the huge monobloc 4-pot calipers on 12.5" rotors, were smoking after two laps. Smoking. Cooked. Done. The 255/40/17 tyres on the rear were blistered and beaded. And the dust shield warped so much from the heat that it was dragging on the inside face of the rotor. This is a Porsche? I remember this same problem occurring my friend's Mitsubishi Eclipse. And I think that was after I wrecked it... (sorry, Brian.)
Flying down the main straight was scary. You can see in the video how the car would bob up and down and weave side to side. Maybe the alignment was off? Whatever, it really didn't make you want to go fast. At 150MPH, you wanted to hit the brakes more than anything else. Of course, the brakes were probably already on fire. Catch-22.
But you know what sealed the deal? It was the worst part of all: the door. What used to be a beautiful, solid, mechanical vault of a door system is now as hollow, plastic, and lifeless as my old Subaru RS was. Seriously. Go find a 993 and close its door a few times. Find a 996 and repeat that process. You will not think that I am nitpicking. You will begin to understand.
There were rattles. There were squeaks. The paint was peeling off the side-view mirrors, clearly a production defect. The paint seemed faded, despite the car being less than two years old.
Our car had quite a few miles on it, so maybe it was just a little beaten up. But for $70,000 I expect a little bit more. This is supposed to be a car that can take all that you can dish out. Two laps on the 'ring hardly qualifies.
We understand that for an extra $13k you can buy a "carrera package" that boosts the engine output by about 30HP. That's an expensive air filter! My advice: save the 13 grand and buy a nice used honda. You'll probably like it more than the Porsche.
Listen, if you own a 996 and you're really rather fond of it, then by all means you may conclude one of the following:
Our car was a complete anomaly, probably built by trolls in a cave somewhere, and all other 996s are just as awesome as Road & Track says they are.
The mileage/abuse of rental life in Germany made the interior, exterior, suspension, steering, ABS, traction control, and brakes somehow perform like those of a 10-year-old Mercedes wagon.
I was smoking crack the entire time and have no idea what I am talking about1. Go directly to rehab. Do not collect $200.
I don't want to rain on the parade, but I think that anyone who takes an objective look at this car for what it truly is cannot say that it deserves to wear the Porsche badge. Sure, it's comfy and quiet and has a nice stereo and gets reasonable gas mileage and holds groceries, but if that's what you want, go buy a Mercedes. The 996 is a tragedy. I guess this is what you get from a company that quits LeMans racing to concentrate on building an SUV.
And don't get me started about that one, either.
If you own a new Porsche 911 type 996, you should probably stop reading now. If you own a Boxter (986), you should have your Internet connection taken away forever, but that's another issue altogether.
I remember when the 996 was first released. You couldn't buy a car magazine without reading five articles about how great the new 911 was, and how much better it was than the old aircooled 993. I believe there was even some kind of competition between magazine editors to see how many positive superlatives they could fit into a single page regarding this car. It was the quintessential sports car. It was the perfect evolution of the venerable 911.
Let me be absolutely clear: I am not a professional test driver, nor do I have a tremendous amount of driving experience. I'll not pretend that I have driven even one tenth as many cars as the people who pen Car and Driver or Road & Track. But I'll be equally clear about this: the 996 is a complete piece of ****. It is easily the most underwhelming car I have ever driven.
I would have rather driven a 3 series BMW. I would rather have driven a Corvette. I would have rather driven a Mustang with its cavitating power steering rack. I would have rather driven my girlfriend's Celica. I would have rather driven my Scirocco with its coil binding springs and balding tyres.
Maybe our rental was just trashed. But could 40,000 rental miles really explain everything wrong with this car? It might excuse a rough engine or a leaky transmission, but not the fundamentals. This car never felt like a Porsche for a single second.
I've driven several 911s over the years. Early 70's, Early 80's, late 80's, early 90's. Turbos and non-turbos. All of them were fantastic cars to drive that gave you a visceral feeling of the road. When you turned the wheel it was as if your hands extended down the steering column into the tyres themselves. The cars were not easy to drive, but if you respected their style they returned the favor.
The first thing you notice as you sit down in the 996 is that the interior looks, well, cheap. Plastic where there should be metal. The shift throw is long. The seats are more comfortable than supportive. Thank god the pedals have been overhauled, but they're still not as good as an M3. And the steering wheel still isn't adjustable even after the entire car was completely redesigned. You think that if they had to make the car look like a soap bar the least they could do is give you an adjustable steering column. Seriously.
But I honestly don't care about the interior. All I want is a car that goes fast and inspires confidence.
Turn the key (still on the left, thank goodness) and it almost sounds like a real 911. And I will hand it to Porsche on this point: the engine is really fantastic. It sounds good, it's much smoother than the aircooled motor and it pulls strong right up to the redline. A big improvement over the old 3.6L. We hit the limiter quite a few times during our hot laps.
But that's where the fun ends. The traction control would engage when the car was nowhere near losing grip. The ABS would kick in at the most random times and stay engaged until you completely let off the pedal. My lowly MR2's ABS is about a hundred times better than this. Maybe it's tuned for Michigan winters or something.
The steering has almost no feedback whatsoever. The suspension, while very good over the bumps, has the more of the feeling of a touring car than a sports car. The steering used to be the high point of the 911, and now it's completely unremarkable. Booo.
When you shifted out of gear at low speed the transmission made a clanging sound like a large plate on the end of a spring. I'll chalk this up to poor maintenance, but it's still disappointing.
The brakes, the huge monobloc 4-pot calipers on 12.5" rotors, were smoking after two laps. Smoking. Cooked. Done. The 255/40/17 tyres on the rear were blistered and beaded. And the dust shield warped so much from the heat that it was dragging on the inside face of the rotor. This is a Porsche? I remember this same problem occurring my friend's Mitsubishi Eclipse. And I think that was after I wrecked it... (sorry, Brian.)
Flying down the main straight was scary. You can see in the video how the car would bob up and down and weave side to side. Maybe the alignment was off? Whatever, it really didn't make you want to go fast. At 150MPH, you wanted to hit the brakes more than anything else. Of course, the brakes were probably already on fire. Catch-22.
But you know what sealed the deal? It was the worst part of all: the door. What used to be a beautiful, solid, mechanical vault of a door system is now as hollow, plastic, and lifeless as my old Subaru RS was. Seriously. Go find a 993 and close its door a few times. Find a 996 and repeat that process. You will not think that I am nitpicking. You will begin to understand.
There were rattles. There were squeaks. The paint was peeling off the side-view mirrors, clearly a production defect. The paint seemed faded, despite the car being less than two years old.
Our car had quite a few miles on it, so maybe it was just a little beaten up. But for $70,000 I expect a little bit more. This is supposed to be a car that can take all that you can dish out. Two laps on the 'ring hardly qualifies.
We understand that for an extra $13k you can buy a "carrera package" that boosts the engine output by about 30HP. That's an expensive air filter! My advice: save the 13 grand and buy a nice used honda. You'll probably like it more than the Porsche.
Listen, if you own a 996 and you're really rather fond of it, then by all means you may conclude one of the following:
Our car was a complete anomaly, probably built by trolls in a cave somewhere, and all other 996s are just as awesome as Road & Track says they are.
The mileage/abuse of rental life in Germany made the interior, exterior, suspension, steering, ABS, traction control, and brakes somehow perform like those of a 10-year-old Mercedes wagon.
I was smoking crack the entire time and have no idea what I am talking about1. Go directly to rehab. Do not collect $200.
I don't want to rain on the parade, but I think that anyone who takes an objective look at this car for what it truly is cannot say that it deserves to wear the Porsche badge. Sure, it's comfy and quiet and has a nice stereo and gets reasonable gas mileage and holds groceries, but if that's what you want, go buy a Mercedes. The 996 is a tragedy. I guess this is what you get from a company that quits LeMans racing to concentrate on building an SUV.
And don't get me started about that one, either.
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 2,927
Rep Power: 164
I don't get you Allan. You seem like a nice guy (sometimes), but why post this?
It's a P O R S C H E forim for crying out loud. What's the point of posting articles where some guy says 996 is the worst car ever when there clearly are lots of people here who own and love their 996's?
What's your motive, convincing everybody that Porsche make boring and poorly built cars so the forum slowly converts to a new lambo forum?
It's a P O R S C H E forim for crying out loud. What's the point of posting articles where some guy says 996 is the worst car ever when there clearly are lots of people here who own and love their 996's?
What's your motive, convincing everybody that Porsche make boring and poorly built cars so the forum slowly converts to a new lambo forum?
Last edited by dzy; Mar 4, 2005 at 06:05 AM.
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 1,963
From: Lone Tree, CO
Rep Power: 0
Allan ... you have some issues buddy and I feel sorry for you. Good luck with your cars and website and all that.
I have tried to be cool with you but this crap is getting old. You just seem to need the bad attention and insist on pissing people off ... just for kicks. It makes no sense but it's your world dude ...
I have tried to be cool with you but this crap is getting old. You just seem to need the bad attention and insist on pissing people off ... just for kicks. It makes no sense but it's your world dude ...
Trending Topics
Registered User
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,859
From: CA
Rep Power: 98
At least you admit to smoking crack and not knowing what your talking about
Ok, I have to agree with everyone who responed to your thread, but hey, you have every right to your opinon.
If you care for mine, I was a service manager at a factory Lamborghini/Lotus dealership, we also did allot of Ferrari work and lots of other exotics. You don't want to know my opinion of the cars you own. I would much rather push that 996 than own a Espirit.. Again, my opinion.
One more thing, I want to hear your comparison of your cars when they have "quite a few miles on it" or even better, lets us drive your cars at the same mileage and do our comparision, lets first see if their even running, or track worthy....
Lets just say, life is now good working at a factory Porsche dealership. I bought a Boxster and have modified it for the track and love it.
If you care for mine, I was a service manager at a factory Lamborghini/Lotus dealership, we also did allot of Ferrari work and lots of other exotics. You don't want to know my opinion of the cars you own. I would much rather push that 996 than own a Espirit.. Again, my opinion.
One more thing, I want to hear your comparison of your cars when they have "quite a few miles on it" or even better, lets us drive your cars at the same mileage and do our comparision, lets first see if their even running, or track worthy....
Lets just say, life is now good working at a factory Porsche dealership. I bought a Boxster and have modified it for the track and love it.
Last edited by Brian Haske; Mar 4, 2005 at 08:36 AM.
Registered User
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 696
From: NJ
Rep Power: 51
Guys, dont pay attention to this clown. Just go to Lambo-power.com and post immature rants about those Italian hunks of BULL-****. God knows there have to be thousands of stories like this about people's dissapointment with their Lambo's.
By the way, what kind of jerk-off journalist would waste the time to write an article about a rental car. Or for that matter, an automobile publication consider publisihing an article about someones opinion of a 40,000 mile rental car that has been treated like a toilet.
By the way, what kind of jerk-off journalist would waste the time to write an article about a rental car. Or for that matter, an automobile publication consider publisihing an article about someones opinion of a 40,000 mile rental car that has been treated like a toilet.
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,166
From: here
Rep Power: 150
Originally posted by Y65MPH
Guys, dont pay attention to this clown. Just go to Lambo-power.com and post immature rants about those Italian hunks of BULL-****. God knows there have to be thousands of stories like this about people's dissapointment with their Lambo's.
By the way, what kind of jerk-off journalist would waste the time to write an article about a rental car. Or for that matter, an automobile publication consider publisihing an article about someones opinion of a 40,000 mile rental car that has been treated like a toilet.
Guys, dont pay attention to this clown. Just go to Lambo-power.com and post immature rants about those Italian hunks of BULL-****. God knows there have to be thousands of stories like this about people's dissapointment with their Lambo's.
By the way, what kind of jerk-off journalist would waste the time to write an article about a rental car. Or for that matter, an automobile publication consider publisihing an article about someones opinion of a 40,000 mile rental car that has been treated like a toilet.
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...threadid=22719