Curious to hear peoples thoughts about the difference between the manual and power standard seats. Is it worth the extra money and weight to go with the power seats?

 

for me absolutly, my last pcar had electric seats the new one has manual and i everytime i get in (or try too) it bugs me, my wife is very short so has the seat as far forward and as high as it can be and the steering wheel as low as possible. the space between the wheel and the seat is to tight for me to get into, so i end up leaning into the car grabbing blindly for the manual control. moral of the story get electric seats or taller wife.

 

Mine came with manual seats and they're a PITA (no pun intended). As soon as I find a comfortable seating position someone else (valet, mechanic etc) drives the car and I have to experiment with the seat once again. It's the memory function that I miss.

 

I'm the only driver so standard is good. There's a weight saving too.

 

I went for the power for the lumbar support.

 

I love the manual sport seats. They're snug with great lateral support. But, in regard to the standard seats, I admit that the memory electric standard seats in my car have come in very handy lately... after the valet got out day after day or the Porsche technician got out... simply push button 1 and everything moves right back to perfect.

TTP, comparing standard seats I would opine that electric memory are definitely worth the weight and extra dough... push a button and perfect again.

 

I've had my 997S for 3 weeks now, and I love the ability to tweak the seat position a bit here and there (which is very difficult with manual seats) and yet retain the memory of the seats. This applies to the mirrors as well. The lumbar support is very nice as well. Personally, unless the car is a GT3, I think cars in this price point deserve power seats.

 

You've got a good point there.

 

It's interesting listening to everyones feedback. I currently have an M3 that has power seats. If I had ordered the car I would not have gotten them to save the headroom that is lost to the electric motor under the seat. But in the BMWs you can adjust the tilt of the lower cushion on both the manual and power seats. My greatest concern on the Porsche manual is that you cannot tilt the lower cushion. Has this lack of tiltability bothered any of you with manual seats. I am not as concerned about memory because I tend to not let anyone else drive the car (unless absolutely neccessary).

 

JohnnyNarcosis:

Sorry to get offtrack here, but I love your avatar. That's a sweet pic.

 

The lumbar support in the electric seats is worth the cost-at least for me(bad back).

I should probably get in my car and make sure, but I think the lower cushion can be tilted with the electric option.

 

I'm with you 100%. I set my 330i seat to practically full tilt. Anytime I sit in another car, the flatness bothers me.

I keep thinking of the benefits of manual seats (-weight, -$$$), but the tilt issue, as well as being 6" taller than my wife will probably force me to have power seats w/ memory until I can afford a dedicated track/autox car.

 

every bit as much!

Unless the manual seat gives more HP then i'll switch [lol]

My $0.02 would be to try them both and get a feel for it... When I ordered mine it took about 30 minutes sitting in the car to figure out that my behind was worth the Adaptive Sport Seats

 

Thanks! I'll pass that on to the friend that took the pic.

 

Toyotas have better manually adjusted seats than Porsches. The main reason why I was never happy with my Boxster was because of the limited adjustments in the manual seats - I was never able to find a comfortable setting. That's why when I ordered this car, the very first item on my options list was power seats. And boy are they nice, with infinite adjustment guaranteeing a "perfect" setting. I'm 6' tall and I have plenty of head room with the power seats, about 6 inches to spare. (I'm actually surprised by the amount of head room in the 997.)

Weight is not an issue. I'm not going to track my car and I couldn't care less about lap times. Now if the reason for being concerned about weight is fuel consumption, I doubt very seriously that having the power seats will contribute to increased fuel consumption.

Bottom line, if ever there is a "must have" option, this is it.