Sorry.
I messed up.
see my post below.

 

2nd year with my 05 C2S. Love it love it love it.
Sports chrono, adaptive sport seats, self dim mirrors, PCM nav. 6 speed, 19" P-Zero's
Sport suspension definitely too hard for daily use. Your spine will crumble, but normal mode is great.
ANd if your a bigger guy, adaptive sport seats can "pinch" the shoulders which can be uncomfortable.
Was a CPO car that just expired.
Put on Fabspeed cold air intake (growls a little more) and Fabspeed exhaust tips.
So much fun.

 

My advice ...

First, there are 3 basic bodystyles (coupe cabrio and targa )
You first choice is to decide which fits your needs better.

Secondly you must decide on running gear ....
rearwheel or allwheel drive?

Will you want manual transmission or auto?

THEN you should look at your budget and what options you would like bearing in mind any modifications you plan on adding later ...

Many of the standard S features could be added as options and some may be removed if you modify ...

The biggest one being the suspension.
The active suspension on the S variant is fantastic for a daily driver
the normal setting is more comfortable than the Carrera and the sport setting is an upgrade over the normal Carrera .... but a Carrera could be optioned with it and if you plan on fitting dedicated track suspension you will be removing it anyway! !!

My advice is to make a list of preferences if you where making your ideal car.
then see what is out there within budget.

You may get lucky and find your ideal car.
Many end up with a compromise.
I got lucky and compromised some things as I found a car with better options than I was originally looking for

 

I got the non-s (2008), its got a few MODs already so is probably around the same power as a 'S'. Bottom line is its looks the way i want it too (AeroCup, White, 20's, Tubi) and frankly is a fast as hell. I have done a few DE's and its amazing fun but i still get spanked by everyone.

I went for the non-s, as it was the car i would have designed myself.....i dont care about it not being a 'Non-S', its way too fast for my skills on the open road anyway.

Get the car that of your dreams, and forget what badge it has on it. I promise you won't regret it. At the end of the day its a 911!!!!

 

Oh yeah, i dont have PASM and run on 20's with H&R Springs......yes its a bit harsh, but again its my toy and i drive it on weekends so couldnt care less :-)

 

You should take a look at a few cars and figure out what options you really want on the car. I spent the last 2-3 years looking for a car. I was originally going to get a 2006 Carrera S. My only requirement at the time were heated seats & Bose. But as researched more on the cars. I started to want more features and the car. One of the things that bugged me about the 997.1 was the lack of ipod connectivity / bluetooth. Which was a requirement for me. You can retrofit it... but I wanted it to be more seamless with the car. (i've retrofitted Ipod / Bluethooth to my BMW. I was never 100% happy with it since it doesn't work 100% like OEM) So that pushed me into the 997.2 range.

about the PASM... I think it's too rough for daily driving. It's really nice when i'm driving up in the mountain roads and I want to push the car harder. But... I could live without it.

 

It took you 3 years to decide what car to buy.
and your main concern was whether you could connect your ipod.


You sound like my wife

 

hahah... there were other reasons. I was just simplifying it. New DFI engines, black updated electronics with touch screen, Better Nav, face lift with the LED tails.

For a while I was debating between 997.2 Carrera Non-S vs 991.1 C2S. Power is about the same with the new DFI engines.

and of course... money. it wasn't until recently that the 2009s became affordable for me.

 

I bought my 07 4S without coming to this forum first. Sometimes I wish I did, but sometimes not. . The options out there to decide on are so many.

I did an impulse buy on mine....it was just about fully loaded, except full leather would have been nice. After I bought Inrealized there was a . 2 model and it was more to what I wanted...Bluetooth more HP ect...

Overall I'm very pleased with my purchase. Having so many choices to make on a car can be overwhelming. You really have to decide what you want bottom line...stick to it and you will find your car. I found mine luckily without too much decision making.

 

My main wants where .....

3.8 motor . Which by default would give me active suspension.
Silver
black full leather with sport seats.

I saved some more and added pdk onto the list.

Then I found a 997.2 pdk c4s launch car ....

I didn't get silver I got meteor grey.
I got full black leather but got the carbon bucket seats.
I also got the m030 suspension upgrade and a locked rear diff

All in all its a better car than I was originally looking for! !!

 

I have a Targa 4S. Lots of photos in my profile and a lot of nice extras. I'm considering another car or supercharging it. PM and let me know if your interested. It is very well sorted and all the OEM stuff would come with it.

 

Agree with the rest of what you say, Chance, but on this point, I think you're speaking of "Sport PASM". The suspension options run 'base', PASM, Sport PASM and they do progressively lower the body, but PASM is markedly better on rough roads than the base suspension.

Base has to be a compromise in order to be sporty enough for a Porsche at all times. On rough roads, it's pretty harsh. PASM adapts to road conditions and your driving, stiffening up when you start turning in more rapidly and all the other factors it detects as "sporting intentions". But it also shifts to increasing compliance on rough sections. That increases grip and it also improves comfort.

We found the regular suspension intolerable after a test drive on poorly maintained surface streets and a stretch of heavily traveled freeway. Then we tried PASM and bought our first Porsche, a 997 C2S just traded in for a 991.

Gary

 

Appreciate you point Gary ... my last play car suffered from this problem... so ...question ... roughly ...what percentage of 997.2 came with PASM ?? Ball park is OK ... does this make the search that much harder to find the 'right' car?

Greg

ahh ,,,, just googled this .... "When the 997-based Carrera arrived for 2005 with Porsche’s first generation of the electronically variable PASM dampers, Minus 20 became even more appealing. Why? PASM — standard on the Carrera S and optional on the Carrera " so part of the question is ... 100% of 2s's ... (smile)


second ahh ... looked up Porsche.com for used 911's .. for the standard Carrera ... of the 107 listed in 2009-10 range ... 4 have PASM ...got that percentage, too ...I will have to play more with their 'detailed' search options ...

 

I've never tried a search. I had mine of course so there was no motivation. I would say easily a third of the cars because it came standard on the S models and could be ordered for the base Carreras.

Definitely worth holding out for one with PASM. Try it back to back with stock suspension and you'll see what I mean.

Gary

 

Is there anything to prevent a dealer from offering or labeling a car CPO? I looked at a 2006 C2S, aero, manual, 26k miles...but after looking at the carfax it shows the car has had 7 previous owners? Priced at $48k it seems in the right realm, but it's certainly not a 1 owner car! The carfax did not show an major or scary service...but I know know the information on those can be less than reliable.