albonya

So..

My blackberry slid under the passenger seat and then upon breaking, slid into an opening not much bigger than the phone into the area underneath the passenger side floorboard.

This is a one in a million shot into this opening.

Was wondering if it's worth it to have someone disassemble that area of the car or just to get a new $500 phone.

2006 C4

Thanks in advance for any advice.

With the intended $40,000.00 in options the price jumps to $120,835.00. I've noticed that the cars my local dealer are not optioned nearly this heavy. Will I be regretting driving the price up so high?

Additionally, is there value in the power kit? or would I be better off spending the money with a tuner? Ditto for the aero kit.

I'm a Skip Barber graduate and former "local" Autocross champion with the Corvette. Where I live I'll have the opportunity to drive the car near it's limits almost everyday.

Spend 130 and get the Turbo with Chrono.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

I tried a store bought CD this morning and it was playing just fine.

Seems that it is endeed the quality of the CDRs used. I will give it another try with some higher quality CDRs as suggested. If that helps, I'll have to burned my compilations again.

Store bought CD's can get bad burns too. Could also be a temporary problem with the laser or disc wobble/slip on the tray.

I have some problems with my PCM/CD player. After a couple of minutes of driving, the CD player (mp3-CDs) starts to have interruptions and after some of them, it tells me that it can't read my CD! And once it wouldn't even eject the CD anymore. Only the other morning it gave it back to me. I haven't tried a regular CD (non-mp3 that is) yet though.

Has anyone experienced similar problems? On rennteam, someone mentioned that campaign "W610" would fix this problem. Does anybody know what this campaign is about?

Thanks in advance.

I've had this problem as well. I've reduced it down to the quality of CD-R you are using to record the MP3's. Try using Verbatim CDR's or another high quality media. Avoid Maxell, TDK and Memorex, these are junk.

I re-recorded all of my MP3 CD's using high quality media and it has (so far) solved the problem.

Also turn on the highest quality setting on your burning software. Use error checking if possible.

Straight bolt on swap? Adapter (part #)? Not possible?

Thanks.

No they can't. The pipe diameters are different

yeah, figured that out a while ago.

there are tip adapters but you most likely have to have them fabbed.

(you can use the AWE 997S exhaust system and use those tips on a 997.)

The discussions here help me feel better about what I decided to do - buy. I picked-up my new C4S tonight - identical to the one that was wrecked a month ago and I bought it. It just wasn't worth it to lease with only $200/month difference between lease Vs buy (36 mo lease Vs 60 mo buy). I love the car and plan to keep it a long time. I can already write-off my mileage (buy or lease) so I'm not too worried about that and I wasn't thrilled about the undisclosed parts of a lease so I punted...

Thanks for all the comments and advice!

congrats.

I am considering getting the AWE Tuning Exhaust System (headers/mufflers/tips only) on my 06 997 C4 Tip. Has anyone installed one of their exhausts? After talking with Garret Lim at GIAC, he mentioned this is what he has on his TT and that it's very close to stock in idle and partial load but all business with the throttle open. A little bit on the $$$ side and I want to find out if it's worth the extra cash. They claim +39 crank hp, +31 crank tq with full system (incl cats) on the 997S.

Would love to hear any experiences people have had with these systems.

Their site: http://www.awe-tuning.com/pages/porsche/index.cfm

video/sound files/images/dynos on site.

Why not do the cats also as they are the biggest gain out of the three(20hp or so). I believe in another thread you are talking about getting the PSE, why not get the PSE and change the header and cats to AWE. That what I'm think of doing. The AWE muffler only add about 4hp.

I'm not considering the PSE. It's just a noise box. EVO V-Flow adds enough growl for under $600. I have a non-S and AWE told me their full system only gives 8-9 hp on that model but even that gets cancelled when the tips are added (??). The reason the S gets so much power from an exhaust switch is that the headers were detuned for that car and the cats restrictive. 997 non-S headers are free flow. I've been told that by 4 different tuners now and as a result, don't plan on swapping out my exhaust.

Porsche. But the dealer had to take 6K off of the sticker to get that payment amount and zero down to work for us. So in reality we are paying an interest rate around 6.5% which is what we would have got at the bank for a traditional loan.

So while Porsche Financial got 6.5%, the dealer had to loose 6K off profit. Either way, good deal for us.

FYI.....the amount between invoice and MSRP on a V6 Cayenne is roughly 5.5K so by that logic I got the car at $500 below invoice and a 6.5% loan for 3 years with nothing to sell. I feel good about my purchase.

I think what helped is that fact that we bought our 996CAB from the same guy and told him that we did NOT need a new SUV (we had a great ML430 that was under warranty still and drove like a champ) as well, we basically came in with the number $800 a month 36mos 12K/yr and zero down. He came back with that payment but like 3 or 4K down to which I said "these are my requirements, if you can't meet them, just let me know so we can go...I do NOT want my time wasted."

That's not too bad and I don't mean to be disrespectful in any way but you might want to run your lease through a calculator or spreadsheet. With a purchase price of $49k, 6.5% State Sales Tax, 6.5% and $0 down (assuming a 56% residual - current ALG) the payment would be around $758 a month or $1515 less over the whole lease. Not a huge amount but it has to be hidden in there somewhere.

Not bad at all. if you don't mind me asking what bank offered you the 2% on a Porsche lease?

It's really up to you the driver whether or not leasing is a good idea. If you like to constantly drive the latest models with the latest tech, lease. If you drive your car until the wheels fall off, buy. However I do think it's bad to buy and then trade up every few years because at that point you are experiencing the maximum amount of depreciation in the shortest period of time on your resale or even worse, a trade-in.

$200 less a month to lease than buy? That doesn't sound right and I wouldn't trust that dealer, sounds like he's padding rates or pushing a purchase, or he is giving you the payment on a 36 month lease and a 60 month financing (which still should probably be $600 more than a 36 mo lease). If you look at a 36 month lease vs. 36 month buy payment, the lease payment will be less than half (or should be).

There's no reason for a dealer to take a lease over a buy (other than they might think they can beat you with doublespeak and confusing terms), either way the bank owns the car until it's paid for or returned. Even though you return it to the dealer, the bank still owns it and it gets bought by the dealer (if they think they can retail it for a profit) or they auction it for the bank.

Here's a great, accurate Lease vs. Buy Calculator. If you plug in the numbers you'll see that a lease is going to be a lot less than a buy payment on a monthly basis in every instance.

http://www.bloomberg.com/analysis/calculators/leasebuy.html

Another super simple way to look at calculating the payment is:

Take the amount that you buy the car for (cap cost), subtract the residual you are getting and the amount you put down. That number is the total base amount for your lease. Add tax and interest and then divide it by however many months you want your lease to be, that is your payment.

Best of luck.

>>I'm not a fan of leasing because even with perfect information, there is still room for manipulation. Ask yourself why dealers are so motivated to lease a car over selling them. It has nothing to do with moving units, the margin is higher (source:Finance mgr at a prestigious Dallas dealer) because they can be more creative with YOUR money.<<

Interesting stuff but I don't think it's entirely true.

They can only manipulate you if you don't know what 's involved in a lease calculation and you don't keep track of the cap cost through every part of the process but other than that a lease deal is no different than buying. The margins are not higher, they pay a fixed cost for the cars and finance them from Porsche just like you would, albeit at wholesale (thus the need to sell them). They only make a higher margin if you give it to them. Essentially, they can only manipulate you if you go into a dealership uninformed. This applies to both buying and leasing.

Financing is no different at a dealer for purchasing or buying. You're simply financing part of the car vs. all of the car. You can deduce the interest rate from a money factor very easily (MF (expressed as a decimal x 2400). Just don't let them talk to you about a rate of 3 like it means 3%.

The thing that should be illegal is that they don't have to give you the best rate if they don't want (even if it's available to you) when you're buying or leasing, this is why it's essential to have your own financing, one less number for them to fudge but they can only make money on the financing if you finance through the car maker (Porsche) who, ironically may have the best rates.

sunracer

Dealer may prefer you lease for several reasons, one being that you'll be back in 3 years and hopefully get another car from them and another being that they will most likely be able to sell your return for above payoff. He may have just been being straight with you and recommended leasing due to the depreciation you incur

Your car may never need service. Major service I would put at 3k or more. The only reason to mention this is that everytime you need expensive service you are adding cost to an already depreciated asset and value plummets even further. Porsche parts, though they are made to last, are also made for peformance and if you drive it for performance, you take a bigger toll on the parts. Impossible to tell if/when they'll go out.

Some finance companies (I know Porsche does) include Gap Insurance on your lease as well. Though this isn't total replacement, it covers any gap between the value of the car at time of an accident and what you owe on it (which is important since it is estimated that most cars lose as much as 20-30% of their value after 3 months).

Having leased 5 cars in the past 12 years from 4Runners, to X5's to Cayenne's to an LR3 and a 997 (both in Jan of 06) and I've learned a bit from each experience. My advice is take a lease if you plan to keep your mileage down (a 10k mile per year lease will up your residual 2-3% points) and if you do not plan to buy the car down the road and NEVER put a big down payment on a car. Depreciation in the first 2 years will kill you if you have to or want to get out of the car.

Also, secure your own financing before you go if you can get a great rate. More on this below.

Happy, Depreciation on a 997 is about 12% a year averaged right now (about 50-70% of the total in the first 2 years) and change as the market changes - sometimes daily. The best residual on a 3 yr/12k lease for a new 997 C2 is about 58% (through Porsche FS, Chase may have a slightly higher one).

There are only 4 numbers in a lease payment calculation: Cap Cost (price you pay), Residual, Money Factor (interest rate), Trade In value (cap cost reduction) and Cap Cost Reduction (money you put down). All dealer costs will be factored into the Cap Cost so that number should be negotiated first, don't let them stray off this topic, get a number in stone they're willing to sell for.

The financing is where they can screw you. This is the only area of a lease where they don't have to divulge the best residual/MF combo to you. They have incentives to put you into Porsche Financing which may not be the best rate so be careful here. They can also try to pad the rate (Rusnak in CA does this shamelessly) This is why it is important to get your own financing before going in. Try to obtain as much current residual info as you can before going in too. It's not too hard to find on the net (cars.com, leasecompare have decent info although it's not always accurate.)

Negotiate your deal with $0 down first and then discuss cap reduction after your deal is in place. After you say you now want to put money down, don't let them change ANYTHING in the deal in terms of the financing, they will try and screw you.

After you've collected as much info as possible, go to carbuyingtips.com and download the Xcel spreadsheet from their Lease section. This form is based on the Federal Lease Act and calculates everything for you and gives you a good idea about what you should pay (if you have a lease now, take your yellow lease paperwork and plug it into this spreadsheet, you may be surprised - or shocked!). I walked in with one of these when going to get my 997 and said "This is the deal I want" and handed them the sheet. Deal I got was darn close and that way they know you are informed about the car/lease and won't waste time trying to screw you.

Other things to try and do before leasing:

-Make sure your credit is top tier. Anything below 720-740 and you're going to pay more.

-Take a 36 month lease or more but never a lease term longer than the warranty (48 months). This is just not smart if there are mechanical problems in your 5th year. Also, Porsche (only company I know of with 24 month terms on a 997) will penalize you with a high cost of borrowing (10% +) if you take this short term simply due to the depreciation they have to absorb. They will give you good residuals to try and cover this up but you're getting screwed.

-Get a car that's already on a lot, don't order one (unless you absolutely have to). You will get a better deal on a car that is spec'd for your state that the dealer has to pay to keep on his lot everyday than you will a one off car spec'd to your racecar tastes that the dealer is going to have a tough time selling if you decide to back out. Also, financing terms can flucuate quite a bit from time of order to delivery and you cannot do your financing until the car arrives at the dealer.

-Sell your current car if you have one. DO NOT trade it in. They will try and give you auction rates. Even if you have a current lease you can sell that car at any time and simply pay the bank off like any other vehicle.

-Mark up on a 997 is about 12-14% over sticker. That's what they're making on the deal. This margin is what you want to negotiate. Expect to pay 7% of this at least (most dealers are getting sticker for their cars).

-If you want a great deal, get a stick. There are far more of those than Tiptronics.

-If you have a few extra $$$ buy Expert Lease Pro from Chart Software to help with your research. Great Tool. $70, will save you thousands. Calculates margins and cost for every option (kbb does not do this for Porsche).

-Don't fall for the line "Every $1000 is about $30 a month on your payment so if you want this deal I'm offering at $1400 a month for $1250 a month, you're asking for another $5000 off the car". This is BS and is an attempt to manipulate you. This "calculation" doesn't take into account the residual or MF and is not spread out over time (the way a lease is structured).

At the end of the day a car is a bad investment and depreciation is severe and quick. If you buy the car outright and drive it for 10 years (with no major service - important) then you can get value. It is rare that you will not need major service on a Porsche at some point. If you lease or buy with the plan to maybe sell in a few years, don't put a lot of money down. Put that money you were going to put down in the markets and try for 5% or if you're lucky the market average of 10%. You have a chance of getting enough return to offset your financing costs and if you get some great returns, you can offset some depreciation.

Sorry for long post but I've learned a lot from intially paying $5k over sticker for a 4Runner in 1997 (!!) to getting $5k off sticker on a 997 (and even better an LR3 for my wife at $700 above dealer cost) and since it's easy to get ripped off when doing any car deal, I feel any information you can get empowers you and helps you get a good deal.

good luck.

Straight bolt on swap? Adapter (part #)? Not possible?

Thanks.

S wheels have a much more aggressive look in my opinion. Sport Design look more geared towards the "street machine" type of car.

Works on my 06 997. there is a section in the manual for it. cool thing is, it recognizes any folder system you use on the disc. So if you want to put 8 albums on a disc or different bands, you can make a folder for each and they will show up on the PCM screen. pretty much removes the need for the changer if you didn't get it stock.

That's exactly what I'm hoping to be able to do, avoid adding a changer. Does the PCM immediatly recognize your MP3 disk as such, or do you have to go into a menu of some sort? Mine just tells me it is not an audio CD. I'm thinking that I don't have either the latest software, or hardware to read the disk. Hopefully it is the software, & it can be upgraded.

I just did a search of the 05 Manual for the 997 and there is no mention of mp3 at all so it looks like it might have been an addition for 06.

Yes, the system recognizes it and a little wma/mp3 icon pops up on the lower right of the Main screen. If you hit the Audio button there is an entry at the top for "Folders" above "Track List".

Works on my 06 997. there is a section in the manual for it. cool thing is, it recognizes any folder system you use on the disc. So if you want to put 8 albums on a disc or different bands, you can make a folder for each and they will show up on the PCM screen. pretty much removes the need for the changer if you didn't get it stock.

Kit I bought was $1575.00 from Suncoast Motorsports. Your dealer might give you a better price if you also have it installed. I reccomend finding a good motorsports shop in your area to do it though. Dealer quoted me $600 to install this stuff (not including the activation). I got it done for a fraction of that.

I never priced the wheel by itself. To have the carbon wheel MF only installed during build is a $1350 option so I would assume it's a bit more to purchase as an add-on. $1575 package was a dealer special from Porsche (supposedly).

http://e-partssales.com/Merchant2/merchant...ory_Code=996int

Do you know if it is also that simple for a manual 997? And by the way, what is the part number for the multi-function wheel for a manual 997? Is it the same number as the tiptronic ones?

I'm really not sure if it's the same for the 6 spd.

The part number for the same carbon kit that I ordered is different for the 997 6spd.

It is: 99704480037A10

It is actually a better deal to purchase the Wheel, shifter and ebrake than to buy the wheel by itself. I don't know what the individual part number is for the wheel only.

Activating the wheel is going to likely cost you a few hundred bucks at the dealer.

So what were the part #'s used for the install.

Well, I just got my wheel replaced and want to post some real world info.

Sorry for the confusion but in the 997 the wiring harness for the multi-function wheel is actually installed even if you don't have that option (at least mine was).

After install however, you will have to have the new multi-function wheel activated/programmed with the Porsche Dealer equipment. Not only do you need this to use the multi-function buttons but you need it to also activate the Tiptronic rocker switches on the wheel so your car will be straight auto only until you have it done.

No additional parts. They just swapped the stock leather tip wheel for the carbon multi-function (was told it only comes in the MF when you buy it as an add on with the shifter/ebrake) and then ran it over to the dealer for the computer re-program. This apparently is not a PCM based procedure, they have to interface the ECU (I could be wrong but that's the way I understood it).

Carbon kit I installed: 99704480038A10 on a 2006 C4 Coupe Tiptronic.

I will be installing mine next week. :clapping: If you let me know how I could check the increase of hp, I can try to find out for you.

Heejin in Seattle

Heejin

To do a very basic test, you can take it to a shop that has a Dynamometer and do a chart before and after install. Not sure what the cost involved is though. Please post if you in fact decide to do this.

Well, I just got my wheel replaced and want to post some real world info.

Sorry for the confusion but in the 997 the wiring harness for the multi-function wheel is actually installed even if you don't have that option (at least mine was).

After install however, you will have to have the new multi-function wheel activated/programmed with the Porsche Dealer equipment. Not only do you need this to use the multi-function buttons but you need it to also activate the Tiptronic rocker switches on the wheel so your car will be straight auto only until you have it done.

>>>I can't give you any advice on AWE's products but I can tell you that they really do lot's of research and developments.

I am a member of the PCA Riesentoter region so as Todd from AWE. I always see Todd testing new products on the track. They also have a dyno at their shop.

I personally have a lot of confidence in AWE's product even though I don't have any of them because I can't afford them. If I got the money to do mods, AWE's products will be my first choice.<<<

Thanks Kam. Jeff Moss at Torque Factory out here pretty much said the same thing. I'm kind of torn between the AWE system and the Gemballa Powerkit exhaust (the sound is killer but I can't seem to find any pricing info for it which would be helpful).

that +39 at the wheels AWE is claiming is on the 997S only. They were talking 20-25 with the 997 but haven't released that system yet since they are working on tips for it (at least that's what I was told).

In case anyone was curious, the Gemballa Powerkit for the 997 is around $7000 installed (!).

See corrected post below.

See corrected post below.