Hi,
In trying to set expectations on the carerra - c2 or a Targa , can these cars stay rattle free for years or since they are sportcars with tight suspensions will they all rattle?

Targa in addition to having a c2 cab structure has the big glass sunroof which may be prone to rattling

What has been the owner experience? ( i heard from few members that it only rattles in cold weather which goes away as the car gets heated up after few miles - and not issues above 50 degree weather )

What has been owner experience ( rattles are irritants and take away from the sold feeling of a car )

 

They all rattle. The rattles are the "ghost of Ferdinand Porsche".

I am now in my 2nd 911, and they rattle. A Lot. Some rattles are consistent, some come with different temperatures, and some seem to move around from place to place. Some, if you can find them (use a friend wearing a stethoscope), can be remedied with excessive use of foam tape where the rattle is caused by plastic on plastic rubbing together.
CATTMAN

 

My 07 S Coupe was horrific - awful rattles from the dash in two specific places which went beyond any reasonable level of acceptability. The dealer accepted it was an issue and that it needed to be fixed. While I would agree it tended to be worse in colder weather, they were present at all times and in all temperatures. Frankly it struck me as being attributable to little more than poor build quality. My car went to the dealer around 5 times in just over a year, the last time the Porsche field engineer tried to fix it - all to no avail. In the end, the dealer and worked out a deal to turn the 07 into an 08, and no problems so far (my cab so far seems far less prone to rattles than my coupe).

 

I also get the feeling that porsche continulally improves the rattle situation as the car gets into it's later development and refinement cycle. With the 996, the early first gen. had some nasty squeeky plastic pieces. Right before then came out with the 997, they seem to have banished most of the rattles on the 996. Just recently, I drove a 2004 C4S that was tight as a drum with 37K miles on it. I also checked out a few higher milage caymans and they were devoid of rattles. I am hoping that my 2009, when it comes in, is pretty tight. I agree that it removes quite a bit of luster from the quality of the vehicle if it sounds like it was assembled in a shoddy manner. Rattles happen in any car, but the dealer should be able to find them and quiet them up. I don't buy into the "ghosts of ferry porsche" nonsense. Porsche does not make excuses for charging exhorbitant sums for its cars, so we should not make excuses for missing clips and misaligned trim. Just my 2 cents....

 

On a related note, do you guys find that your gague cluster creaks on bumps? If I push on the cluster with my hand, it will give a nice plastic creaky sound. And a good bumpy road can get it going as well.

 

You guys w/ rattles, creaks, etc. just need to either abuse your hearing or grow older. Trust me your hearing will diminish if you abuse it or simply age.

In time you'll not hear a damn thing (w/o aid) so those sounds will be 'invisible' as well as others.

 

The rattles give the car character!

 

so do dings and stone chips...and I don't want them either!

 

your right about that! That's why I got my car covered in clear bra. And I do really hate the rattles myself but sometimes I got to let some of them pass because it seems everytime I take it to the dealer to have one fixed a week later a new rattle emerges.

 

which year is your 997S?, if I may ask. It would be cool to have a poll to see if porsche is tweaking things as they go along.....

 

It's a 2005. Hopefully they are improving rattles moving forward.

 

I think that you guys need to drive your cars harder. I drive mine like I stole it, take it to the track, run a stiff suspension, and I don't have a single rattle. This is my second 997 and I am constantly telling people that these cars are bullet proof, not even a rattle.

 

so far, that has been my experience as well. It seems that all the porsches are overbuilt in the key areas. The funny thing is that my M3 rattled quite a bit, but they sounded like "high Quality rattles" and not the crap my MKII Golf GTI used to make. --You know that sound like a combination of public bus noises and metal trash cans hitting together??
My M3 made little chuffing noise and had a few buzzes, but the car still felt like a quality machine. I guess we will see when folks start reporting on the 2009s!

 

I had a couple of rattles, but both were fixed and now it is just the bumps on the road I notice!

 

I haven't had any problems with either my 05 C2S Cab (with 24,000 miles when sold) or my current 07 T4S with almost 13,000 miles on it. Once in a while the targa sunroof squeaks a little. If it persists, I simply wipe down (with silicone) the front edges where weatherstrip rubber meets between roof and front header, and it usually clears up. The odd squeak, groan, or rattle doesn't bother me, as I accept it as the car's character. OK, so I'm in denial, but it works for me.