Today was my first time behind the wheel of a Porsche, and I have to say, I am absolutely in love. It's the first time in a very long time that any car has put a smile on my face. I spent a lot of time going over the various models and options, and decided on a Carrera 4S. I live in New England, and while I have a winter car (Audi A4), I wanted a true sports car with AWD incase of the random rain or snow.

I attempted to configure the car online, but honestly, there are too many options for my own good. So far, the ones I have that I know for sure I want are:

Rear Window Wiper - 425
Park Assist System - 635
Self Dimming Mirrors - 267
Dynamic Cornering Lights - 603
7-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) - 250
Sport Chrono Package Plus - 640
PASM Sports Suspension - 030
19" Carrera S II wheel - 419
Heated Steering Wheel - 345
Stone Grey Sport Seats - DD
Adaptive Sports Seats with Driver Memory - P01
Heated Seats - 342
Seat Belts in Speed Yellow - XSY
6-Disc CD/DVD Changer - 693
Universal Audio Interface - 870
Bluetooth Interface for Mobile Phone - 619
Navigation Module for PCM - 672

The ones that I am not sure about, and would appreciate some input on are:

Electronic Logbook - 641
BOSE High End Sound Package - 680
Porsche Ceramic Composite Brake (PCCB) - 450
Sports Exhaust System - 176
PCM Voice Control - 671

While I'm not buying this as a track car, it will almost certainly see some weekend warrior race action. Is it worth buying now or waiting until the 2010's come out? The dealership I went to said it would take something like 6 months (!!!) to get a custom order in. Is that usually the actual time? Is there anything I should be aware of when going to pick one of these up? I intend to put a down payment of around $60-80k on this, and finance the rest. Should I do more / less? Is that balloon payment option a good idea?

Basically anything and everything you can tell me about this car and the process of buying one would be greatly appreciated. Consider me an extreme Porsche noob, and allow me to apologize for the basic nature of my questions.

 

OK, so this is my opinion - not to be taken as fact. there will be lots of opinions...

Rear Window Wiper - 425 - probably don't need this. i live in seattle without it.
Park Assist System - 635 - i have it on 2 cars, not on my porsche. don't miss it
Self Dimming Mirrors - 267 - a MUST have IMO
Dynamic Cornering Lights - 603 - yes
7-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) - 250 YES - lots of opinions coming on this one from others
Sport Chrono Package Plus - 640 Must have with PDK
PASM Sports Suspension - 030 - must have
19" Carrera S II wheel - 419 - your choice
Heated Steering Wheel - 345 - bonus in the cold
Stone Grey Sport Seats - DD - your choice
Adaptive Sports Seats with Driver Memory - P01 - not for me . heavy
Heated Seats - 342 - bonus in the cold
Seat Belts in Speed Yellow - XSY - i would not do. the look great at first but they get dirty and you can't every really get them clean again
6-Disc CD/DVD Changer - 693 - necessary? not sure but your call. the ipod is the way most choose music now
Universal Audio Interface - 870 - must have
Bluetooth Interface for Mobile Phone - 619 - love it, must have IMO
Navigation Module for PCM - 672 - I need this

The ones that I am not sure about, and would appreciate some input on are:

Electronic Logbook - 641 - no opinion from me
BOSE High End Sound Package - 680 - some audiophiles will chime in here
Porsche Ceramic Composite Brake (PCCB) - 450 - lots of coin, std brakes on Carrera S perform as well as this without the maint - but the pccb's don't have brake dust which some argue is worth it. IMO, pccb's are very cool though. worth the money? depends on your $$ situation
Sports Exhaust System - 176 - i love mine
PCM Voice Control - 671 - i have it on one car and never use it...

hope this helps

 

Brendo, thanks a lot for the feedback. A few questions:

What's lighter then the Adaptive Sport Seats? I test drove a car with the carbon fiber seats, but didn't like them very much as you really couldn't adjust anything on them (height, etc). I was told by someone that the Adaptive Sport Seats allow you to do some of that customization. How much weight do they exactly add?

How much of a performance difference does the Sport Exhaust make? Is it more for sound purposes or does it actually give you a little edge?

Also, did you have anything that wasn't on the list? There was a lot of carbon fiber stuff that I thought would be pretty cool and possibly save a few lbs, but most of it was rather pricey. Thanks again.

 

You have some options which are not necessary --unless you absolutely prefer them that much . I can't help but comment because if you are ready to plunk down 80K you can practically buy it cash deal . An outright buy is the best financial way so any cost over that 80is up for grabs and every cent counts. It's your money and it certainly is nice to get exactly what you want but theres a huge price to it . You have to wait at their mercy with your deposit which in itself is stressful PLUS your discount is less compared to finding a car and pinning down a deal .

Let me shave or comment --
1) rear wiper - I pulled mine off my Turbo to place a Techart roof spoiler . It is a useless wiper .
2) Park distance -I have it on my M3 -girlfriend loves it . I view it as an item that does not belong on a sports car .
3) CD changer . You can ipod all your music istead of letting CD's heat up in the trunk and never changing them .
4) PCCB --that's 8 grand , Factor in the finance charge and five years to pay it off and it's 9200 paid (approx) and you will never see it in resale .
5) PSE --It's nice . I'll debate the aftermarket being better and less but if you intend to remain stock then get it .
6) Voice control etc --personal opinion . If this is your taste get it . I have it all in my M3 and nearly crashed it driving the car home on day one . When I get in a car I want to drive not talk to it . That's one thing I love about my Porsche ... simplicity.

The car you have is priced near or at 140K . That's 50 grand above a used Turbo with under 5K miles in pristine condition and it's 50 grand that you are ready to finance . Think this through --please . Try and sort out the emotional reasoning and if you are stil ready to buy that car --

I will be the first to wish you the best.

 

yrralis1, thanks for the reply. The car I priced out was about $112,000USD new, which for a similarly equipped 911 Turbo would be around $140k. I did a search on the Porsche website for a used C4S within 100 miles of me and found nothing. Do you think it's worth trying to find a used 2009 or at the very least a prebuilt one with those options? How much do you think I would be able to save?

ETA: I just did a search at all the dealers around me and I couldn't find a prebuilt 2009 C4S w/ PDK, new or used. Any suggestions?

 

id buy a turbo before i bought a super duper optioned out c4s...

also if ur gonna drop 80, might as well drop entire amount.

if you found something sitting on a lot (porsche has a great site.. can search by state.. click all the dealers and browse inventory) u can more than likely get good discount on what they have in stock.. markup is like 10% ish... u can get tons of cars on the lots under invoice now if u try and they need some sales..

 

I ordered a 2009 C4S in late Feb and had it by late May, more like 3 mo. although maybe 2010 M.Y. changeover is a factor for ordering at this time of year. I live in Boston area also and bought my car at Porsche of Nashua.

 

There a reason why you didn't go with a more local dealer, like Westwood, Boston, or Burlington? They give you any kind of discount on a custom order or did you pretty much pay full retail?

 

After I write this post I am going to price it out . Perhaps I estimated higher when I saw things like Ceramics , PDK, PSE .. I see a lot of high ticket items .

Last week my local dealership had a goregous Turbo MSRP priced at 136K . Interestingly a forum member traded in his new 09 C4S (that he just bought) for a Turbo --same color . https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...rbo-again.html

To answer your question . Yes you can save ... and you can save big if you find any car that you like . You can pick up an 08 C4S coupe for less than 70K used and an 09 if it's a cash deal there may be a rebate plus discount.

Someone mentioned the carbon seats. If you are not confortable in them pass it up. They cool looking though and very light but sports adaptive are good . I have them in my Turbo .

If there are none in your area and you want to find out what's in mine I can PM you sales contact in my region . Who knows .. maybe a South Florida Porsche vacation might be good thing but I do feel there are so many dealerships in the northeast that it's worth looking at a few of them.

 

I just specd out your car and forgot heated options and wheels so I am not even done ... 123K .. and still climbing

 

The $112k price was without the PCCB, with it you would be right, more like $120-125. That said, what kind of discount could one get even if they were able to find it prebuilt? If it's something like 10% difference between a cash on a custom order vs cash on a prebuilt, I think that it comes out to an amount I am willing to pay to get a car that is exactly what I want - colors, options, and all. If we're talking more like 20%+, then I'd have a harder time passing that up.

 

It will depend on the dealership , inventory, incentives ,options and color of the car, and even the day of the month.

I think you can try for 20K off a 125K car on a cash sale if in the right place with the right car on a given day --maybe better . I'll PM you two South Florida sales contacts from two different dealerships . You can call them both and see .

 

if you find one on a lot, you can probably expect 10-15% of MSRP.

i'm a huge fan of the 997.2 esp the PDK. so i don't think it's great to get an earlier model. i'm probably going to sell my '07 to upgrade.

IFyou become concerned about weight, or at least since i brought it up, consider a C2S instead of the C4S. the real factor with driving in the snow without a ton of hills is tires, not AWD. you have an AWD vehicle and from my perpective, especially after a very rough winter this year, even with traction, it's the other guys i'm worried about so i take the less expensive car if it's available.

a lot of people buy the 4S because it's a widebody chassis and looks great - which is totally fair IMO. i went thru this entire decision process 2 yrs ago and in the end got to a C2S. i don't mean to sell you on that, just giving you my thought process. when talking to a bunch of porsche driving instructors and then a few dealer GMs, we narrowed it to a GT3 or a carerra S. because i commute in the car, i got the S.

regarding driving in the rain: locally , we track a lot of cars in the wet without AWD and it's fine.

with the sport exhaust, there is no performance upgrade but i love it. I like OEM parts and didn't look into fabspeed, etc. since they don't turn on/off and i'm in a pretty quiet neighborhood - insanely quiet to be honest. if you want to upgrade the perf, you have to change the breathing of the car (air in / headers,etc) and then you have 1) potential warranty issues and 2) you're changing the design the porche engineers decided was optimized. true, the guys at FVD or farnbacher think there's room to change this but i don't see the value.

other options opinions from me - alcantara headliner (is that an option or std?) is very nice, avoid the CF bits if you want to trim the cost - you won't save that much weight. use the $$ you save to get some dedicated track wheels with tires you're happy to chew up. wheel enhancement will help you there.

 

There are deals out there currently. These are PDK cars. Im sure you could haggle these down. I live in Chicago and have a C2S, also have a snow tires for winter. They work great. I dont drive it much in winter, but with the tires it does very well.

09 C4S targa pdk $93K Brown
www.AutoTrader.com/ATCarID/AT-F93E80C

09 C2S pdk $94K red
www.AutoTrader.com/ATCarID/AT-F8915E2

09 C2S pdk $88K black
www.AutoTrader.com/ATCarID/AT-FAAEECC

09 C2S pdk $88K blue
www.AutoTrader.com/ATCarID/AT-FAB4A85

 

When I saw the earlier posts of under $100k, I laughed. You would need to love the car forever to option it out like that. Better off getting a slightly used turbo...