NTI 911E

I thought that Porsche learned their lesson with the grey metallic-looking plastic interior trim? The '99 996 had that ugly crap all over the place (vents, center console, radio/climate control surround) and it seemed that they decided it was a bad idea when they started color-matching that trim with the '00 model. I was enthusiastically in favor of that change. The trim looks cheap and really clashes with several of the colors (most notably, beige or brown). So I drive up to my Porsche dealer today to see the 997 for the first time, and I'm in love. I can't find a single thing I dislike about the car... until I notice that the same grey plastic is one again spread all over the interior (radio/ac/switches, seatback levers and hooks, etc). Why did Porsche do this? On a car with a beige interior, it looks TERRIBLE! The 997 with full leather I was looking at looked to have a beautiful interior except for this one issue. Surely I cannot be the only one who doesn't understand this choice of materials. What happened to simple matte black plastic? It isn't ideal (color-matched plastic with soft touch paint a la late model 996s would make the most aesthetic sense) but it looks better than this cheesy metallic stuff. I am willing to place money on the fact that later model 997s will have different trim.

Anyway, I love the car, I want one... but interior quality is one of my biggest pet peeves with Porsche and I feel as though they were finally getting somewhere with the quality and design of the 996's interior just to take a step backwards by using an inferior material on an overall better design.

blkc4sny

I'm a new GT3 owner and I fully agree, the interior was a huge let down, I'll take my interior anytime over this grey plastic stuff. At least I can see real aluminum trim and not have to deal with the grey plastic. Let's hope the New Porsche Marketing/Management teams continue to listen and make changes. All I keep reading is about how people are raving about this new 911, I thought I was the only one too, but if you dig around, it appears the p fans who have been around are not so crazy about the interior, certainly the steering wheel is a big no-no. The only positive for me was the new seats, which was an improvement over the 996's standard seats. $ to $, I have to think that my GT3 is still ahead of Porsche's latest 911 for now.

Eric - Plug Guy

Thank you. This is one of the main reasons we are in business today - we make that plastic look much better using a proprietary 14-stage factory finish, durable, cleared and ready to rock.

Don't worry about the 997 - there's plenty of paintable parts on that interior.