Technology evolves so rapidly that by the time a few months pass a trendy item can appear dated. The concern I have about placing trendy techno gadgets in 100K cars will face the test of time . Once upon a time people kept cars a long time and Porsche owners fell into that category . With cars like BMW or some of the Japanese sedans the short term lease programs tend to cater to a large segment of consumers who may not keep a car 5 -10 years . I wonder what a 2002 BMW i drive will look like compared to a 2012 car. But BMW has a different customer base and even they face a challenge .

How does one expect to find a buyer for a car which cost a lot to enter and the technology has evolved so MUCH more rapidly than its engine or design ??? 10 years from now when he goes to sell his car ?

So now Porsche enters the area with PDK and PCM with all the new bells and whistles on a car with multi decade traditional design style -- A car which in its past has progressed quite uniformly - A car which doesn't offer trendy lease plans - a car which in its past has focused so much on driver interraction and now offers a PDK method of minimizing driver shift error (which can evolve too) .

I am all in favor of advancement . I like the new car a lot . But I don't wonder as much about the design in 10 years or the engine as much as the gadgets .

How about you ?

 

I think if the manufacturers have it there way we would recycle a 10 year old car and just buy new ones. Cars are the Devils Necessity and all of us on this forum have sold our soles to the Devil (a few times for me). I saw an BMW 850 the other day and thought wow that is old, when in fact it is not old at all (10-15 years old).

I am sure the 997 will fall into this problem, but as I get older I am finding cars are all starting to look alike.

 

I completely agree with you. PCM is my least favorite feature of my 997. I just don't use the navigation in any meaningful way and find the physical presence of the screen an aesthetic weak point. I would not have ordered it had I ordered the car. Maybe there will be sequential aftermarket upgrades for PCM...I would spend the $$$ on one. Now, the XM module is a different story...I love it.