911 as a DD with young kids
 

I am interested in purchasing a 911 (converging on a 997.2), but need a car that I can use as a DD (about 8k miles per year). This means being able to take my two kids at least two days a week. One is 3+ and uses a fairly compact front-facing seat (a Britax Pinnacle ClickTight or Frontier ClickTight); the other is 13 months and my wife would like to use the Britax Advocate ClickTight in rear-facing mode).

I brought the Advocate to a dealer and was able to get it into the back as rear-facing (I removed the seat cushion), though the passenger seat was essentially unusable and I wasn't able to confirm that the fit was completely secure (the rep was with me the whole time and I didn't want to take too much of his time). I've read posts stating that the Britax Marathon ClickTight fits (in front-facing mode?), and given that the dimensions listed on the Britax page are the same, that hopefully bodes well for me.

I believe that my 3 y/o's current seat (or a similar front-facing seat) will fit behind the driver. I won't need to drive the 1 y/o on a regular basis until the fall, in which case it would mean driving with a rear-facing seat for ~3 months before switching to a front-facing seat (assuming she meets the weight/height requirements). Of course, it would mean limited family trips until one or both of them transitions to a booster.

I've read many posts on this topic. These were very helpful in allaying my fear that I was completely hopeless, but haven't seen references to these particular seats.

I'd love to hear your thoughts as well as any experience that you have with these seats.

I dont have experience with car seats but mine is a DD (12k miles/yr) and i have two young boys (7 and 8). They both love it. I use it to take them to soccer and we regularly use it for day trips to the beach and Napa.

The best part is the car has limited depreciation. As long as you can do basic maintenance and dont take it to the dealer for everything your 3-5 year cost of ownership will be less than a minivan (which is how i sold it to my wife).

Thanks. Yes, the limited depreciation is one of the many things I like about the car and something that has been helpful in convincing my wife ("If we use it and find that it doesn't work for us, we can sell it with little loss").

I have a '09 C2S cab and have been ferrying my 2 grandsons since they were 9 and 6.
Prior to that did it in a 05 C4S when they were toddlers. Both fit in the back and one still does at
15 and 12 respectively. Must add that they love the roar.

Two 6 and 8 here and there favorite trips are when the Porsche comes out. Was initially looking at 981's but the right option 997 popped up and the addition of back seats and the ability to take everyone with to drive the car was a no brainier!

My 3 y/o is very excited about the idea of riding in a 'zoom car'. Her grandparents have a Cayman and she *loves* to ride in that (slowly, on private roads, of course).

What I am going to say is probably going to be incredibly unpopular here, but for shuttling around 2 kids, a 911 is probably one of the poorest choices one could make for a "4" seat car. That being said, for the adventurous little Onnes, it could be a mess of fun.

If your priority is an always puts a smile on your face badass ride that the kids CAN fit into with a bit of work, by all means...

If comfort, ease of use, access for loading and unloading kids and "stuff" they like to have on hand, go Panamera, Macan, Cayanne, etc if looking for a Porsche.

The 911 is VERY daily drivable per my limited experience, but it wouldn't have even been on my radar if I had small kids. But that is me...

As others have written, it's doable but way easier once both kids are beyond the rear-facing seat stage. All the rear-facing seats I've seen are awkward and (as you point out) make the front seat essentially useless. The 911's rear seats shine best with kids who are big enough to be out of full-harness car seats and still less than 5 ft tall. That window is easily 6 or 7 years long, and for shorter trips (or the front seat) continues indefinitely. You're starting on the early side, but take heart!

That's fair, but better than a 2-seater :-)

For what it's worth, I rarely take much kids stuff when we take my current car (330xi). When we go on trips that require a lot of stuff, we take my wife's SUV.

Yeah, slightly older would be the sweet spot. I guess that I could always wait, but I'm hoping that I could suck it up for the 3 months that I would regularly need a rear-facing seat after which it should hopefully get better with two front-facing seats (one of them likely being a booster).

I had the car out on a nice day about 3 weeks ago and had to pick up my daughter (8) from my parents house. She opened the door to go outside, saw the car, and exclaimed with excitement that I brought the fun car! Get the fun car and enjoy these memories for years to come! You'll be setting the stage for them to want to work hard to be able to share those same memories with their kids.

I have 3 kids and had to alternate between which two get to ride in the Porsche. It is quite entertaining!

I would approach it from determining which car seats will work with the car rather than if the car will work with the car seats.

Anybody have a recommendation for a booster seat that is narrow enough to fit well in the back of a 997? I have tried 2 with no luck...

That would make sense. My wife really likes the Advocate seat. It would just be a matter of finding something that fits and has a similar safety rating.

@drivrswntd - funny, that's what my kids call it too :-) And after we got the 997 the land rover became the "dump mobile". Sunday morning conversations go something like this: "are we taking fun car or dump mobile...?"