Porsche owner has test drive
 

Porsche owner has test drive this Saturday. Trying to decide between a 981 and the c7. Love the looks of the c7. Hope it has the the right feel and quality of porsche. FYI I want to like the c7.

If you knew how many times we have heard someone follow that with a "but..." , you probably wouldn't have said it :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Get the one that flips your skirt (get what you want; enjoy what you have).:cheers:

Please let us know how the C7 compares and feels. Just read a post by a Cayman R owner with C7. He likes them both but commented the C7 doesnt feel anything like the Porsche, he said it feels like a Vette. Meaning the C6. I am hoping for an improvement.

I guess a road test is the only way. Keep us posted.

For what it's worth, every single opinion by an automotive journalist that I've read (and I believe I've read all of them) disagrees with the bolded statement. They all seem to think it feels different and better than the C6.

Also, a Cayman R is the previous generation, which has hydraulic steering, so it's going to feel different.

I wish you well! By the time the true C7 afficionadoes get finished with you, you'll wish/may wish you hadn't posted.

Then again, there is always time for people to change. I'm pretty eager to hear the good and bad of your impressions and we'll just have to see who permits you to speak without negative responses.:D

Really can not go wrong with either of those. Are you talking Boxster or Cayman and are you looking at the "S" model??

Looking forward to your impressions when comparing the two cars. :lurk:

^ You may find this Thread, recently posted, interesting:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c7-g...-training.html

:thumbs:

The test will be time. When gm's (not just vettes) roll off the line been fairly good
on some fits. This C7 seems to be proving that wrong for some reason.

But found on many past gm's after rack up mileage and good ole everyday driving
things seem to loosen up and not in a good way. Whereas imports (german) stayed
solid. I've had 4 BMW's and felt solid from day one. Since americans like their
gadgets, us cars have been loaded with them which cause problems. Import were
focused on quality and driving. Now that they have to get into the gadget game,
they are finding similar problems too. Still seems like pulling teeth to get imports
equal, take HUD, vettes like a video game, german will give you the speed and
couple others LOL LOL LOL

I think I can add some thoughts to this thread: Today I drove a C7 auto Z51 3LT with Sport exhaust. I will have a C7 Z51 before April 2014. I have owned many cars in the last 8 years: C5 & C6 Z06, 996 Porsche 911TT, 997 Porsche 911 S, Box & Box S, BMW ZCP M3, BMW V10 M5, Z3 & Z4 M Coupe, Audi S4, Audi R8 V8 & have driven 2013 911 & 911-S,Jag F type V6 & V8, Audi R8 V10, McLaren MP 4C, Ferrari 458 & many Lambo's. I currently have a Lotus Evora S and a few other toys..

C7
Interior:
Seats are much improved over C6 & have a quality feel close to my wife's BMW. I wish the C7 had a thigh extension like BMW & the new 911 Porsche. The seat controls are hard to reach when the door is closed. This seems to be typical problem with many manufactures. I wonder why the new trend for manufactures is to have electronic instrument clusters. The version in the C7 is well done I just wonder what happens when the car is 20+ years old. The center Mode selector knob has a nice quality feel similar to my BMW I-Drive. The only negative its surrounded by a cheap silver plastic console that wraps around the shifter, I wish it was covered in leather or a soft touch material. The rear view mirror has a high quality feel. The start button looks out of place and doesn’t fit the theme of the dash, I wish it was round. IMO The carbon dash is worth the extra money, beats plastic and gives the interior an upscale look.

Exterior:
This car has many looks. I normally don't care for white sport cars but man it sure looks great in the C7 especially with the black package. Photos don’t do this car justice. IMO The rear looks good in the base C7 but when you add the Z51 spoiler it seems to take away from its exotic euro look. This car has many sharp lines and edges and certain colors detract from it.. I am having a hard time deciding what color combo to get.

Driving/Engine: It’s hard to beat American low end torque. Engine Feels strong throughout its rev band, unfortunately I had to keep the car under 100 MPH so I am not sure if it keeps pulling hard after triple digits . This engine gives you a lot of low end power were most people spend 80% of their time. IMO The exhaust sounds amazing the tone is much better than the Z51 C6. The steering feels much better than my old Z06 and is just as good as many new electronic steering system I have experienced in cars costing 100k or less. The 911-S steering feels more edgy with a little better direct feel to the road compared to the C7. It’s not drastically different they feel similar I just think the 911-5 feels more planted at low speeds. For my money I don't feel the Porsche is worth the extra 60k premium when comparing both cars with similar options. I like the Driver Mode knob its allows you to turn the C7 into a GT cruiser or a very capable high performance sport car (similar to the M button on my M3 & M5). The C7-Z51 is hard to beat and at its price point it truly gives cars costing double the amount a run for their money..
:D

For me, at this time, Porsche is way out in front of the C7. Porsche sent me, unsolicited, a wall poster/calendar and a felt tip pen. GM has sent me nothing.

I'm on the fence waiting to see what freebies GM sends me, before I make my decision.

The 981 Boxster with its 3.4 F-6 (not the base Boxster) is thee one to compare to the C7, for me, since it's basically 9/10th of the new 911 for 3/5th the price of a new 911. First of all the $61,850 base price entry point for the Boxster S equates to basically a 2LT Z51/MRC/NPP C7 coupe. The price of the Porsche quickly skyrockets from there on...which is a few strikes for me especially with desirable options like the performance-enhancing extras such as the Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV), Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM), and the Sport Chrono Package.

I think just on those points alone would dissuade me and would be the major justification to opt for a semi-loaded C7 Z51 coupe which by the way has proven itself already to either equal or even beat out the new 911 Carrera S on some key performance numbers.

Both are very nice cars but, again for me, it'll come down to best bang for the buck. Good luck and have fun with whichever you choose, OP! :thumbs:

But what if your bank account could afford more than $61,850? Not everyone has to make purchase decisions based solely on price. All those guys driving new 911's could afford a new C7, but would they?

I know I'm aware and that's why I stated, for me. Just justifying it from a financial viewpoint. Shooot, if I could I'd get a new 911 Turbo or the GT3. However that would mean just 1 car in the household instead of 2 or 3 nice cars. Case closed there though... the highline Porsches are awesome machines w/ topshelf quality build & parts.

I'm with you Joe. You can walk into a lot of BMW dealerships and have a pretty decent free breakfast. Croissants and Cappuccino. Try that at a Chevy dealership. Yesterdays coffee and stale Dunkin Donut "holes". Says a lot about the cars.

Comparing it to 2013 boxster s. Totally different buying experience. Chevy dealer not so nice. Don't really care about that as hopefully I am not in the dealership a lot. I got the free poster too. Porsche does take care of their customers. The GM quality issues do scare me. I know with porsche it will be quality. I had one issue in 5 years. Price point is about the same since the vette sells at window. You can get an 80k boxster for 70k

My co-workers and managers (all whom drive really nice cars) flipped out on how nice my C7 is... After driving the Corvette on the road for a few days now, I'm confident when I say you're going to be pleasantly surprised.

I am actually contemplating both as well. The 2 issues that are bothering me are below

1.) Test drive - I live near one of the largest corvette dealers in the US. I inquired about a test drive and was told "We will not allow any test drives, period". This is dis concerning since I can go by the local porsche dealer and take a brand new 911 for a ride without issue.

2.) Service - I had a C6 and to be quite honest the service is no where near the quality of porsche service. Actually, I had a significantly better service experience with my daily driver VW. I can honestly say service is a big factor when spending 70+ on a car.

Its really simple. No test drive no purchase. The dealers will start to be more open to test drives when the frenzy dies down. They have to move product to stay in business. Tell your dealer that when they are ready to let you test drive the car to give you a call. I do agree with the service aspect. IMO a good service department can make or break your ownership experience. I have seen a few dealers that can't be trusted to do an oil change properly. I tend to test drive the dealership first and if they meet my expectation after some research at that point I would consider buying a car from them. You can buy the car anywhere and even go to a forum dealer that has allocation and can arrange a courtesy delivery. However the buck stops at where you are going to get the car serviced. If you don't have high confidence in the dealer you choose for service I think you would be better off considering another brand. No matter how much you like the car if you can't get it serviced competently the experience will not be positive.