Needsdecaf

For those of you who don’t like stories, I’ll give you the short version: I just bought a 2013 C2S Cab, Basalt Black over Agate Gray / Pebble Gray full leather. It’s got a 7MT and I love it to pieces. For those of you who like a story, keep reading.

So, like most of us (I suspect), I’ve been into cars since a very young age. I remember going to the BMW dealer close to my house (Wide World of Cars in Spring Valley NY) shopping for a new 5 series with my Dad. I still remember sitting in the cars in the showroom, the smell of the leather of new BMW was a heady aroma for a 10 year old. Oh, and WWOC is also a Ferrari dealer as well, so I regularly got to experience exotica up close and personal.

Dad ended up with an Audi 5000S Turbo and as such, I got to spend a lot of time at the local Porsche + Audi dealer. Yeah, those 5000’s were cool, but the Quattro’s were even cooler. And hey, what about those neat looking Porsches over on the other side of the showroom? The 911 was my favorite, with the shifter sticking up from between the seats like a magic wand. I was hooked. The more trips to the dealer we made (and there were a lot) and the more time I spent drooling over the 911s sealed the deal. Cars became my biggest infatuation….again, I suspect like most of us on here.

Fast forward many years and many cars later, and my wife and I kind of backed into our first Porsche. I had a 2011 BMW 535 that I started out loving…and grew to hate. The short version is that the car developed an issue where driving off from a start smoothly was totally impossible. It drove me nuts, and when we moved to Houston, my wife started driving the BMW just to shut me up….and it drove her nuts too. The long version is here, if you really, really want to spend some time reading: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=712371

So we decided to trade in the 535 and get my wife a nice SUV. We drove a lot of vehicles, but I really liked the idea of the diesel. That narrowed down the playing field a bit. We were leaning heavily toward the Touraeg TDI when I got the idea to see what the Cayenne was all about. One drive was all it took to convince me that despite the shared architecture and mechanicals, the Cayenne, even in Diesel form, still carries the Porsche DNA. Surprisingly even my wife felt the same way, and thought that the $20k premium (as we built it) was well worth the money over an equivalent Touareg. So we placed our order and at the end of July 2013 took delivery of a 2014 Cayenne Diesel in Umber over Umber / Tartufo full leather. That car has been so, so enjoyable. We’ve taken it on 2500 mile trips to Colorado 4 times now and it never ceases to amaze me how it just eats the miles in comfort and style, while still being highly entertaining to drive.







But now, we had a new Cayenne for the wife, and the older car for me. I tried to make that last but I just couldn’t hold out, I needed to get something newer. I wanted a cheap lease because of other investments I had planned at the time, and I ended up leasing a Lexus GS 350 FSport. Why? Well, it was somewhat fun, very refined, and cheap, for what it was. I was looking at something like a Mini or a GTi, but quickly found that those cars lease horribly. Lexus has amazing lease deals. But as probably was predictable, I quickly grew bored with the car and started planning it’s replacement.

Now, having a family with two small kids, my mind is geared toward sedans, MAYBE coupes, as my kids are in the car every day either to or from school. And while a third car is theoretically feasible, I do drive a decent amount for work and don’t want to drive something crappy, while paying for a car sitting in the garage. I know some of you are in the financial position to have a really nice daily and a garage toy (or two or more!) but unfortunately I’m not. So not even 6 months after leasing the Lexus, I started test driving for the next car. I was set on the M3, but the new 2015 re-design, while very compelling, left me a little cold. I drove a ton of other cars. Jag XF-S, Mercedes C450, C63, new E class, hell even a new 740i. In the end the C63 was the leading candidate for a while, but then for 2016 the M3’s got a lot of subtle tweaks and a competition package that finally realized the car’s potential. I was leaning in that direction. But kind of as a joke, I started mentioning the 911 to my wife.

My wife is a very conservative person, grew up as an Army brat, and while I have slowly over the years converted her to a car person (she says if I even mention replacing her Cayenne she’ll chop my nuts off), her rational side couldn’t figure out how a 911 could be a suitable daily driver to two working parents with two kids. Honestly, neither could I. Nevertheless, it kind of became a running joke with us for a while; I’d always drop hints about “yep, gonna go look at a 911 this weekend” and she’d roll her eyes. It got to be something we joked about so often that she mentioned it to her boss at work; he promptly told her that she could only be a cool wife if she let me daily a 911. I told her to tell him to give her a raise to make it happen!

Over the last year, whenever I had a few free minutes, I drove a few 997’s and 991’s. Inevitably it was soon after seeing a bunch of gorgeous 911’s at the monthly PCA Cars and Coffee. Driving them got me hooked and I started to wonder….could I really make this work? And of course, the “man maths” in my head started to scheme how we could put up with a two door, 2+2 sports car on a daily basis. Finally I was starting to drive myself crazy and needed to see how realistic it was, so I scheduled a Saturday for all four of us to go to Porsche North Houston and drive three cars: a C2S Cab, a C2S coupe and a C2 with 7MT. Well, turns out, we all fit decently enough. My kids loved the Cabrio and to my surprise, so did my wife. We all drove in a 997 C2S Coupe at another time, and while we fit, we BARELY fit, and my kids are growing fast. I also drove a 997 C2S Cabrio with just my son, and that just didn’t work. My son had no room at all. By this point, the friendly joking between my wife and I turned serious. We discussed the compromises between owning a 911 on a daily basis, which stacked up against my potential enjoyment of the car and of her and the kids having a Cabrio. We both agreed it was worth going for it. Worst comes to worse, if it’s just too painful I can either trade it, or learn to live with a cheap beater as a daily driver. Hey, YOLO and all that.

So I started searching for the perfect used 991. Knowing my lease is up in March 2017, I knew I had time, but I reminded my wife that the 911 options list is twice as long as that as the Cayenne, and that if I found the “right car”, we might have to purchase it and live with three cars. My search parameters were for a C2S cab, 2013 up (no more first model years for me thanks) with the 7MT. The PDK is a wonderful transmission, but down here in Houston, there are very few fun roads and the manual transmission really transforms a daily drive. Please, no debates here, it’s a personal preference only. I would never hate on anyone buying the PDK. Other things I really wanted were full leather interior (just one of my gotta-have-it things), and of course Sport Chrono. PSE I figured I could either retrofit if necessary, or get a different aftermarket exhaust, so that made it highly desirable, but not mandatory. Completely mandatory (this is Houston in a Cabrio after all) were ventilated seats and at least Bose sound.

So with this search criteria in hand, I let the search commence. Cars.com, AutoTrader.com and Porsche’s own website for Porsche Approved cars were the top three hits on my browser. I found many very nice cars, but they either didn’t have the options I wanted, were more than I wanted to pay or thought they were worth, or got snatched up before I could even inquire. I discovered the HFS thread here, and started monitoring that daily as well. But as I said, I had time.

Then about a month ago, a car popped up on the Porsche Approved website. I recognized it from earlier searches, but for some reason I can’t recall, had dismissed it from my search. I didn’t recall it being the price that it was, and a quick search revealed they had dropped the price $8k since listing. Bonus. The specs:

2013 Carrera S Cabriolet
Basalt Black Metallic
Agate Grey / Pebble Grey leather interior

022 Instrument Dials in Black
176 Sports Exhaust System
423 20-inch Carrera S wheel
466 Wheel center caps with colored Porsche Crest
487 7 Speed Manual Transmission
498 Deletion of Model Designation
636 Park Assist (front and rear)
640 Sport Chrono Package
666 Telephone Module
671 Voice Control
672 Navigation Module
840 Sport Design Steering Wheel
970 Two-Tone leather interior
BV Agate Grey / Pebble Grey leather interior
P06 Power Sport Seats (14 Way)
P39 Premium Package Plus
P3A Burmester Audio Package
UN1 Online Services
XDH Wheels Painted Platinum (semi-gloss)
XES Preparation door entry guards, illuminated
XRP Wheel spacers, 5mm
XXB Door sills guards in stainless steel, illuminated
Z4 Basalt Black Metallic

Some dealer pics:












Man, this car met all my specs and then some. Original MSRP was a tad over $135k. The tasty extras like Burmester, illuminated sills, spacers, and voice control were great additions. I was kind of sad about the Black dials…I know, most people hate the gray dial but I don’t..I love it. But if that was the only objection, I could deal with it. That and the color. I wasn’t wild about black, due to both the maintenance and about every third car on the road in Houston being black. However, I did like it better than grey, white, silver and red. I really wanted a blue car, but there aren’t many Aqua, Sapphire or even Dark blue cars out there for sale. Add in my list of “requirements” and that Venn diagram had no intersecting circles.

The car was located in Greensboro NC at Foreign Cars Itaila. Working with one of the sales advisors, I had him pull the entire service history for the car, and get copies of every repair invoice shown on that history. This was very important to me purchasing the car remotely. I was looking for “the stumble” and they even took videos driving the car to assure me the car was running fine. In addition they sent close up pictures of various things I wanted to see. Seats, dings, etc. After about a week of back and forth on the information game, we negotiated a deal and I put down a deposit. Since it’s about 1200 miles from my home in Houston to Greensboro, I was initially planning on flying to Greensboro to inspect it and drive it, then flying back and shipping it. But the internet does bad things to you and looking at the Smokies trip planned in the GT3 forum got me thinking. I PM’d Sean, who is one of the main planners of the trip and asked him for the route and some of the good driving roads in the area. Going on those roads would add less than 100 miles to my trip, and also allow me to hit the Tail of The Dragon and Blue Ridge Parkway. Can you say “done and done”? The only downside was that if there was anything I didn’t like about the car, then I was stuck in Greensboro and would have to book another one-way ticket home. Fingers crossed.



On Friday 9/23, I flew to Greensboro through Atlanta. Because of the short timeframe and one way ticket, as well as lack of any status on Delta, I got some lovely coach middle of the row seats.



That’s fantastic for a guy who’s 6’2” and athletically built (plus a few extra). But I made it there. Little EVO app reading to keep me occupied:



Pretty beat as I was up at 5:00 to get to the airport. I was picked up at the airport in a Maserati Ghibli by my sales advisor.



Nice enough car (and a very cool guy) but I’m very happy I passed on buying one. There is way too much FCA showing in the car. But I digress. A short 5 minute ride later, we pulled up and there she was! Only one problem; by the time we got inside, dropped off my bag and turned around to go out…the car had disappeared! Turns out that it was missing a key, and the techs had brought it back to the garage in order to program a new one. It quickly got brought back out front for me to see. I went over the car thoroughly. There were a few disappointments. The biggest was that the paint wasn’t in the best of condition. It was not badly swirled, but there were certainly plenty of swirls. Thankfully nothing too deep that a good paint correction won’t get out. That, and it had a “half nose” PPF, meaning it stopped halfway up the hood and fenders leaving a NASTY line. Also, the film itself was in terrible shape, with numerous nicks, tons of swirls and scratches, and overall hazy. Honestly, I almost walked away from the car until I realized it was just the paint, and that almost all of the nicks were in the film, not in the paint. A few made it through, but better than it could have been. I had actually contemplated them removing the film, but thought it would be good to have on the ride home. Turns out I was right…I caught a rock that ripped a nasty gash in the film. I think it would have been down to the paint had I not had the PPF. Drove the car and it was mint. No stumble, no hesitation, no weirdness with steering or clutch. No abnormal creaks or groans. It just ran, and ran hard!

After that it was paperwork time. I had filled out most beforehand, so that didn’t take long. While I waited for them to program the key, I had time to walk around and check out some of the other cars they had in the showroom:



















Finally, paperwork completed, the car was mine!




After that, it was time for some much needed lunch. Because of lines at security, I only had time to grab a quick turkey sandwich in my travels….and that was for breakfast! Luckily, there was an amazing burger joint literally around the corner from the dealership. Look at this menu! I had a super tasty Hawaiian chicken sandwich and stared at my new love in the parking lot..



Then it was time to head back to the airport to collect my best friend from college. He flew in to take part in what was sure to be an epic drive. Unfortunately, the route Sean sent me had too many good roads to drive on, or I wouldn’t have made it back to Houston until Monday, so I had to trim the list. Nonetheless, Saturday morning would be epic….

After a few hours transit to Asheville, we checked into our hotel. Lo and behold, there was a 991 Turbo there to keep my car company.



I was glad to see that the marks on my cabrio top are typical, although it is a bit unfortunate. I was pleasantly surprised to see just how fun and young Asheville was. Although we didn’t really hit the town too much, we had dinner at a great place called The Junction. It was fantastic, and the setting in the Arts district allowed the opportunity for one of my favorite pictures of the trip.



Saturday morning dawned cool which made for a fabulous cold start in the parking garage. After a short run West out of Asheville on 240 / 40 and then 74, we hopped off onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, and this is where the fun started. I have to say, I’m originally from New York State and grew up driving all around the Hudson Valley and Adirondacks, but living in Houston for 4 years has made me realize how much I miss scenery like we found in the Smokies. The Blue Ridge Parkway was just gorgeous, and I slowly built up the speed. The roads were clear, the top was down, and the PSE was starting to crackle madly. I didn’t out and out attack the road though, the scenery was just too jaw dropping to make it past too fast!






Once off the Blue Ridge Parkway, we took some great back roads West past Fontana Lake and across Fontana Dam. There was a Chevy pickup in front of us for a while that spoiled the fun. He was trying to keep in front of us and would floor it on the straights, but could carry no speed through the corners and slow down wildly. I wasn’t tailgating or pushing him; the 911 stayed in 3rd the whole time and just yawned as we tried to figure a way around. Finally he pulled off a little before Fontana Dam and we opened it up for a few miles before we got to the Tail of the Dragon!



We stopped at the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort on the TN / NC border. I bought an obligatory t-shirt and we refueled and took a stretch to rest up for the Dragon. There was a group of Focus RS’s (including a Focus ST and a Fiesta ST). I went out before them and checking my pics later on 128photos and Killboy, realized they went out only about 5 minutes behind us.





The Dragon was insane. I loved every second of it, and drove mostly in second gear. People (including me) complain that the 911 is over-geared, but at the Dragon, that tall gearing really comes into it’s own. I ran almost the whole run in second. We were held up by a Taurus and a Tahoe but caught a break that there was no one behind us for a good 2-3 minutes, so we were able to pull over three times and get enough of a gap to have some fun. And fun we had! I wish I had a video of the run, but I’ll never forget it. 11 miles were never over so fast. The closest I have run has been through Harriman State Park outside of NYC, but that was like about 20 of those runs from Tiorati Circle put together. It just didn’t stop. The turns, camber, elevation changes, etc, just….keep….on….coming!





After the Dragon, the rest of the trip was destined to be a letdown as it was almost all highway. Thankfully, even the highways on our route were much more scenic than what I’m used to in Houston. It was nice to see trees, curves and hills. We overnighted in Meridian Mississippi and ate at the oldest restaurant in Mississippi, Weidmanns. It too, was delicious and such a nice surprise considering we were planning on eating at Chilis near our hotel. Thanks to the hotel staff for making the recommendation!



In the morning we drove 3 hours to New Orleans and had brunch at Muriel’s Café, right in the heart of the French Quarter. Bonus…there is a parking garage and they validate. Again, the food gods were smiling on us as we had no idea about the garage and the streets were packed! New Orleans is definitely not a car friendly town!



After brunch, it was a long run on I-10 back to Houston. At one point, the altitude readout on the car read -10! And then it stuck at 10’ almost the whole way home. I-10 through LA is flat, straight and boring! But around dinnertime, after going through a nasty downpour (welcome back to Houston!) and having to go the long way around due to no toll tag, we rolled into my garage just before dinner time. Final stats on the trip are shown. The 911 was an excellent long haul driver for two. Not too loud or stiff, great fuel economy, composed at highway speeds and just so much fun. In the end, we managed to hit 7 states and see some great scenery along the way.





I’m so happy to have my first 911 although driving it as a daily driver will be a bit daunting. Yes, I already have the clear side markers on order, and I’m planning on getting the Mods4Cars SmartTop controller. Probably will get the GT4 short shifter as well. And who knows what else. Also, going to have a full paint correction done, remove the crappy existing clear bra and side stone guards, and have a full front (hood, fenders, bumper, mirrors) PPF installed; likely SunTek. Then it’ll be time to enjoy the Cabrio during Houston’s fall and winter!

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. Glad to be a part of this section of RL as well!

ieatfishburritos

What a great story, thank you for sharing and I hope you enjoy every minute of your new car!

planet

Fantastic story, and a terrific and well-illustrated read.

You may not remember me from Bimmerfest, as I didn't post too often, but I was there with you when we both bought F10s -- I came to the party a little after you, I think. (I stopped posting when I stopped really loving the F10, but I popped in every now and again.) I well remember the pull-to-the-right issue, and the choppy start really never left my car. Drives me nuts to this day; I just try to work around it as much as I can.

Look forward to seeing you around here. My own 911 (a .2 C4S) is due early next year.

Good call on the clear markers. Bought them myself, sitting and ready to go. I'm still on the fence about a clear bra, will be interested to hear your thoughts when the time comes.

Cheers!

991TR

I have a similar story, buying a Cayenne first, falling in love how good it felt for an SUV. After driving it for a while I considered, at first a Cayman--seems like a good throw-away car I could keep for a few years and not mine selling later. Wife suggested, if I was to buy a Porsche sports car, that I should get a 911 instead. So I did. Now I'm seven Porsche vehicles in. Never really was much a fan of the 911 until I finally drove one.

Congratulations, hope you and your family enjoy the car!

SMZ

Congrats! What a great way to get your car home. Don't worry about the paint, the swirls are an easy fix. Keeping the black clean is another story, though the way it looks after a fresh wash is just simply amazing.

CSK 911 C4S

Foreign Cars Itaila in Greensboro, NC is a class act.

They welcome everyone who walks into their showroom like you're going to buy a Ferrari.

dimok

Great write up!
I too remember you from F10 forum at bimmerfest- the reason I cancelled my F10 order . Ended up buying Cayenne S instead- no regrets here.
Was dreaming about 911 all my life and finally last month got C2S. Great car.
Enjoy your new car in good health!

Aic9199

Great story telling, and what a great road trip!!! Enjoy your 911 in good health.

Shrevehorn

Cool story, great drive, enjoy the car. Lived in Houston for 10 years.

mikeearly

very interesting and enjoyable post .... enjoy the world of the 2013 Carrera S Cab ... and oh yeah - congratulations on the having the very first illustrated novella published on this site

Roosell

What a great story! Thank you for sharing.

R_Rated

Yes - It is managed and run so well. They treat you the same regardless of what car and how much you're spending. No "Arrogance" from the Greensboro location. The Greensboro team will bend over backwards and really stand behind their cars and their staff.

Now the Charlotte Location... Bob Pletcher is the GM and he is the epitome of arrogance and it shows. Bob and the Charlotte location will ruin any car buying experience and will lie straight to your face.

CSK 911 C4S

WOW that's unfortunate. It was a tiny location when I visited years ago.... and in what I would call a bad location. Felt like a used car lot.

Needsdecaf

Thanks, I'm trying!

Awesome! The Porsche bug gets you quickly, for sure.

I'm counting on this. But to be honest, it's mostly the crappy clear bra which will be easily remedied.


Didn't spend much time there, but everything was relatively painless.

Thanks!

Thanks! I would never have imagined a cabrio in Houston, but if you look at it in reverse of the normal seasons (i.e. use it in Winter) you actually have a pretty good season to use it.

Haha, I think others have me beat. Money2536 does for sure...

Thanks, I like doing these kind of writeups!

Needsdecaf

Sorry to hear you're still having issues. I knew that it was terminal when I went to the lengths I did. I really think it's an epidemic across all BMW's and I won't buy another with a regular automatic (DCT or MT only) until it's solved.

Wow, can't believe you ended up cancelling your order. CS is definitely no consolation prize. We have enjoyed our CD tremendously.

Nice to see some fellow forum members on here. It's funny, I've used the same screen name for over 10 years now, and it's funny to see people move from forum to forum as their purchases change.