Wish I had the GT2 seats.

Wish I had the adaptive suspension.

Other than that - just love the car the way it is.

 

Both mirrors are shown in the owners manual (p 27/28) - they look nearly identical. I thought I wanted auto-dim because my BMW had them and they worked well - although, yes, when dimmed visibility was reduced a good bit. The Porsche implementation appears to be better in that you can switch off the auto feature and it is disabled when in reverse - you can still flip "a switch", right?. I still think I'd prefer to have that option, but in practice, it doesn't seem like a huge deal. Yes, I'd pay $400 for it - but I'm glad I didn't let it stop from getting my car - wouldn't have been worth that.

 

As was pointed out already, the side mirrors dim as well. That's something you can't do when you flip the lever in a standard mirror.

The one thing that hasn't been mentioned yet about these "self-dimming" mirrors, besides the fact that they are not "self-dimming" at all (you need to press a button to activate them) is that in the inactivated state they are slightly dimmed to begin with (appears like a light tint on the surface) and this makes them preferable to the standard mirrors, which reflect back 100% of the light. I seldom need to switch them on except when I have a high riding vehicle behind me at a stop light, or I'm stuck in crawling traffic at night. Once I break loose from traffic I usually switch them off, as the natural tint to them is sufficient for me most of the time.

 

With the self dimming mirrors you also get auto rain sensing wipers. They are even more a must have to the dimming mirrors to me, but then I live in the UK and it rains pretty often over here!

 

in the usa it's standard on the car.

 

Wish: Ipod Integration, Full Leather
Regrets: Dynamic Cornering Lights (I don't even notice it) and Ventilated Seats (Didn't help me much).

 

Having read through the comments to this point, I'd add that many options are usage/user specific in terms of benefit/usability.

Would get it again:

Dynamic Cornering Lights: love them. I drive in mountains, foot hills, winding roads, hairpin turns with trees or rocks on the sides of the roads. Having the ability to see around the corners more is invaluable TO ME. For those driving mainly in open or flat terrain or staying in illuminated towns and cities.. the usability is questionable.

Navigation: love it - finding an address in the Puget Sound is nigh impossible without making 5 passes. With the nav system I can get there on the 1st or 2nd pass 98% of the time now.

Self Dimming Mirrors - love them. They are automatic.. in the sense that I leave them turned on 24/7. Have yet had a need to turn them off (press the button).

Rain Sensing Wipers - absolutely love it - not having to fiddle with the stalk as the rain comes and goes and changes intensity (a common thing here in the Puget Sound) is wonderful.

Heated Seats - love it.

Bluetooth - love it. Being able to keep my cell in my pocket has been great.

Ipod integration - when its working right (see entry below)

Illuminated Model Designation on Door Sill - makes me smile every time I open the door.

Illuminated rear foot wells - I drop things down there too often .. glad I can see .. even in the daytime in the garage.

Thicker Sports Steering Wheel (round) - love that thicker round wheel - perfect.



Not as useful:

Ashtray - ok, not a feature, but totally useless. I'd like it if there was something useful I could do with the space, short of me installing a fake "ejector seat" button.

Sport Chrono - not used it much yet... could probably have done without (for the money) but doe like the coolness of the chrono on the dash and the few user-configurable settings one gains. But once, set.. its set.

Voice control - I've used it occasionally for changing radio stations, but the system isn't quite as easy as it should be (or maybe not as capable)... too many steps required .. not intuitive. That and it has real problems understanding some things (maybe its a connection between the way things are spelled and how it expects things to be spoken). Getting the radio to select the right station when I say "Station KJAQ" has been a real hit and miss, for example. I'd love to be able to say "Station XM-Big 80's" when my source is currently FM or CD, for example, but thats not possible. You first need to change the source "Source sat" and then another command (button push again) "station big eighties". For dialing phonebook entries by voice, thats where the payoff will be... if I can get a usable phone out of Verizon that is small and downloads phonebook by bluetooth.

Universal Audio Interface: It works.. somewhat. I still want the feature, but am not happy with the current implementation. The iPod interface is not good yet.. it only supports the older i-boxes, not the new iPhone generation stuff that dropped the charging by 12v firewire pins. (blame this on Apple and Porsche) The behavior of the solution when you turn the car off is not very good - after several days, the ipod forgets where it was and resets to default (start playing from song on, shuffle turned off again) - I'd think one could have the total system sleep the ipod and have it resume in the state it was in once you start up the car again (so long as the battery doesn't discharge). I'm not sure who is at fault but I suspect both Apple and Porsche are to blame here too. Seems Porsche figured you would plug in the iPod when you get in the car and take it with you most of the time .. .but the way the ipod is plugged in is not designed for frequent plug in/unplug operations... so... The cable is sub-standard - way to bulky and connectors to big. Fitting an iPod photo in the tray with that cable is not trivial when sitting in the car and will likely over time, if I remove the ipod regularly to use outside the car, cause the cable to fail.

But then, I really play the iPod when I'm driving, so once its set up and working (for me) I love the fact that I can do it.

Illumination in the door trays - small LED type light... useful if in pitch black, but seeing into the tray with the door shut is problematic anyway (since its as tight as a jet fighter cockpit). I probably could have saved some cash on this option.





WISH I COULD GET:

convex drivers side wing mirror. I'd love to get the same field of view on the drivers side as on the passengers side and not have to move my head to the side so much. I could do without the stupid "Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear" stupidity. Do people really judge distances and make timing calculations that precisely based on what they see in wing mirrors?

Configurable data line in the Onboard Computer Display above the odometer:
It would be nice if the user could configure what is displayed on that line. Right now, it reads out the audio source - CD/iPod/ broadcast station call letters. I'd like to have the option to display that and the track title and artist as well.

For the navigation system, or just for the map - I'd love to have the ability to display the distance to the next town in the OBC line (if nav routing - to the next town on the route, if just map driving (no routing active) the next town on this road - or major city).

User loaded phonebook - since I've got a verizon phone, that serves me perfectly in everyway but its inability to transfer phonebook (thanks Verizon/Samsung)... I'd love it if I could upload a phonebook via USB pen-drive (file on USB drive created by using a Porsche supplied application if need be), or at least key a few in by using the keyboard on the PCM. There is a hard drive in the system - so there is non-volatile storage.

Spare Tire/wheel/tools - not sure how this would get implemented - maybe by a magic bag of holding to store the thing, but it would be nice to have an emergency wheel that can be driven hundreds of miles, and a place to store the take-off wheel... even if its using a special rack that bolts to the roof/engine cover on the Carrera/Targa/Cabrio.

Rear storage solution - Given that I've got no 0-13 year olds, nor likely would ever have them in the rear - and that the seats are not usable for adults - I'd prefer giving up on the rear seats and having an intentionally designed rear storage area instead that gives ways of securing / hiding items in the back and reconfiguring the space. Given the Targa hatch, I could really make use of it, more formally than shoving things below the folded down back seats.

One touch up of passengers window - my VW New Beetle has it, so why not my Targa?

Remote key one-touch opening of both windows and the roof - why isn't this already standard. The aftermarket doesn't support it either.. .not enough Targas apparently. This is really a no-brainer that Porsche could easily have implemented.

No stupid warning stickers about the airbags on the sun visors - I'm smart enough to know better... stupid lawyers and tort system in the US.

 

Minok,

a couple of things you can probably get your wish on:

* phone book - I use a Verizon/Moto RAZR V3mm I think is the model - a few years old, but works perfectly and a bonus - a short USB cable (I use a retractable) plugged into the storage area will charge it. It's a pretty basic phone though - I'm not much of a phone geek, but there may be other more "modern" phones that also work well.

* iPod - consider getting an iPod Classic. I just got a new one to replace my older 5thG, I guess is what it was. Mainly I wanted 120GB over 80GB, but the upside is much better sound quality. Both of those iPods work perfectly and leagues better than in my BMW - no issues at all. And the Classic is lower profile and fits nicely in the space with the cable snaked - easy to get in and out. And there's enough room for my phone and a small alarm remote for my house.

* Spares - I think "Edgy" has one of the better solutions. I ordered a repair kit. I also found, on ebay, a new jack and toolkit - seemed like that could make a repair go easier. There is also a spare and "holder" for the back seat available since the 997.2 has no way to secure the tire in the trunk. Probably about $900 for that setup unless you can get some of the bits on eBay. And the take off has to go up front - or on a roof rack

* Ashtray - more storage , but not much - I got one of those rechargeable LED flashlights to replace my lighter - makes the space seem useful now.

* Airbag warnings - some good posts on how to remove - or order some Euro visors. Some Euro leather ones might be nice against the Alcantara.

 

I like my car with all the options except the 'wart', but it is necessary using the sport and sport plus modes! I broke 600 miles today...Love this car!

 

Would get all of the options shown below again without a doubt, excepting the multi-function steering wheel. Other than for adjusting volume, does anyone really use this?

 

:Volume, shifting, and...steering - yes, steering is a must - that's what I'm hoping for - anything else useful will be gravy.

 

I use it for answering the phone, countlessly for adjusting the volume, zooming in and out on the navigational map, and for scrolling through the various pages within the PCM. It's sort of neat not to ever have to take your hands from the wheel.