To be honest, my disappointment isn't with how technologically advanced it is or isn't, but rather that I don't find it terribly intuitive to use. Given a choice, I prefer buttons and switches. They're always in the same place and at the ready. I'm fine with touch screens too, but not at the expense of requiring a fair amount of concentration and multiple touches to get things done, not to mention having to back out to move on to do something else. At bottom, I find PCM requires me to memorize too much, and to be cumbersome and distracting to use.

 

I agree - I remember when I parked my 991.2 GT3 in Frankfurt - as the flight home was taking off the thought suddenly occurred to me that I might not have engaged that stupid parking brake ... fortunately I had - but its not
exactly the most ideal location ... and I can never remember if you pull to engage or to disengage!

I feel the same way about the 992's contols - that alone will probably mean I wont go for a 992 GT3 ...

try using a touch screen wearing driving gloves!!! (which I do in order to protect the alacantara wheel)

 

This is kind of where I am at as well.

If the switchgear material and feel got upgraded to 992 level, and everything else got mostly left as is it would be great. Perhaps some new sculpting of the door cards or some other tweaks might freshen it, but I don't think the 982 looks dated, especially to anyone who might get in the car who is not going to be as familiar with the car as we would be as owners / enthusiasts. My two biggest change requests however would be:

- a screen in the left pod in the gauge cluster, the same as what's on the right. Leave the tach analog for sure, but for me I only look at the digital speedo that's part of the tach pod, never the analog speedo. I'd rather have that left pod a screen and therefore another area to be able to customize what information you want showing; to me it's wasted space with an analog speedo. If someone still wanted a digitized version of the analog speedo then that could live there too.

- a rearview camera resolution that isn't an embarrassment to any passenger that you may take out for a drive (somewhat related... I don't have any experience with the updated PCM, but I'm sure that's likely a nice to have upgrade over what's in the car currently and would go quite a ways alone in making things feel more current)

 

Only thing I would have liked to have is the "birds-eye" view when in reverse. I've just become used to it (in other vehicles) and it is a real curb rash saver! I get that this means a few more cameras on the car, but cameras are small enough nowadays that they aren't going to add too much weight. Rest of the interior is fine to me, I don't like the fully digital dashes, maybe b/c I'm 50 (old).

 

I'm honestly confused by this, we are talking about the Cayman/Boxster etc interior right? What function doesn't have a button or a **** that isn't easily within reach?

Also not attacking you as everyone views these things a bit differently, I'm genuinely curious.

 

The 718 interior looks, feels, and works PERFECT!

 

I'd say its pretty perfect as well. Apple carplay is a big factor in the experience for me, having waze/spotify, etc is a requirement for me these days. Without this I would feel like the car is behind. Not too fussed about the size of the screen or resolution - its fine for what it needs to do. The rest of the PCM works just fine. Buttons and layout works for this car.

 

This is a good and fair point. Having surround view would be nice. Visibility in the spyder isn't the best. Rear cam helps but surround view would be handy.

 

I really love the 718 interior too. And I think my style is stuck on the year 201X! I live the interior on my dated E92 335i, B8.5 S5 more than any new BMW & Audi so as the 718/991 interior over 992. And Honda did the right thing that bring the physical button back on 2019+ Civic.

 

Just right. Even my 991.2 GTS was distracting. Can't imagine 992 would be better...

 

No attack taken!
I'm talking about the Cayman/Boxster PCM and it's touch screen specifically. Thinking off the top of my head, it doesn't have a dedicated button or **** for anything other than volume. Instead the user must wade through menus via the touch screen to make selections and or map a function to **** on the right side of the screen, eg, channel/tune, tone controls, .... Hope that clarifies what I was trying to say.

 

Watch you folks talkin’ aboot? Can’t tell if I should agree or sharpen my word scythe. Damn psychic pronoun network ain’t workin’ for me today.

 

On 991/981/718 push under-dash control to engage. Pull to release.
On Macan pull center console control to engage, push to release.
On 992 *push* center console control to engage, pull to release. (At least was the case initially, maybe PAG has reversed for MY’21.)

And that is how we got 992 Cupholder-Gate and why we know Porsche fired every single HMI engineer a couple of years ago.

 

On a related note, I drove my Mini to Lowes last week and when I started it in my garage, I noticed that the starter sounded weak. When I got back in it at Lowes, it wouldn’t start! I immediately thought, “It’s a manual; I’ll just get it rolling and pop the clutch!” Freaking thing wouldn’t let me disengage the electric parking brake. I had to get a jump (replaced the battery the next day). I wonder if the Spyder will allow you to disengage the electric brake with a nearly dead battery.

 

Nope and you can't pop the front trunk to jump the battery either. That's why there is a jumper point on the drivers side fuse box so you can supply power to the front trunk latch.

And there is virtually no car made over the last 20 years that can be bump started since the computer and EFI system along with the high pressure fuel pumps aren't operational without more than ~11.9V of power.

Buy one of these and keep it handy, it's lightyears better than jumper cables and donor batteries. https://antigravitybatteries.com/pro.../micro-starts/