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Is the Porsche Satnav any good ?

david.m

Well-known member
Joined
15 Oct 2008
Messages
67
Hi, can anyone help me. I am about to buy an 05 or 06 C2s and have been offered one that ticks most of my boxes but doesn't have satnav. How do people rate the Porsche satnav system, is it worth having or would you just stick to a Tom Tom or similar. For example does the Porsche system allow full input of postcodes.
Regards
 
Hi david.m and welcome.

Most 997's for sale I've seen have satnav fitted as many customers would expect it on what is a £65k car (minimum, brand new). I certainly wouldn't buy a 997 without it. Whether it's any good is slightly different. PCM 2.0 as fitted to the late 996's and early 997's don't have the postcode search facility. IIRC, PCM 2.1 doesn't as well. All I know is that the Gen 2 PCM equipped cars does have post code search. The PCM fitted cars will not be able to compete with the mobile sat navs you can buy today, but what for it is, I find it still a useful piece of kit to have. I use my PCM 2.0 quite a lot and the handbook (supplied separately) contains lots of other features as well.

~ Maxie
 
The system is OK but more importantly is that most people want it.

Portable systems are normally more advanced however i personally hate dealing with wires and attaching to the screen.

If the car is an absolute bargain then you can always retro fit for £1,500.00 but I would personally buy a car with it.

You can enter postcodes up to say KT18 5.. which then shortens the search for road names.

What is the rest of the spec?
 
:welcome:

The first generation 997 satnav is good but not brilliant. You cannot input postcodes, but once you have gone through the process of spelling out the town, road etc., it does work quite well. But, with cr&p graphics.

A high end TomTom will be much more functional, but and this is a big BUT, IMHO PCM with navigation is pretty much a must have for a 997

In the current market it will make relatively little difference in the price you pay, but in the long term will make the car a lot more desirable.

Like Maxie, I use mine all the time and have no probs.

In terms of other options, the desirables that will help on resale are CD changer, Bose, PSE (Porsche Sports Exhaust) and Sports Chrono pack

Clive
 
Clive / Maxie, as per my post you will find that in the least the later gen1 sat nav's do take a post code to a point. Mine certainly does, as it did on my 06 plate Cayenne.
 
Jamie said:
Clive / Maxie, as per my post you will find that in the least the later gen1 sat nav's do take a post code to a point. Mine certainly does, as it did on my 06 plate Cayenne.

I'm going to check when I get home Jamie, but I'm sure I don't get a postcode option when I select destination input, just address and POI.

Clive
 
Ahhh, it isn't an option as such in mine. When you are selecting town, you are able to input the post code up to first five characters instead which then shortens your choices on road names.

I haven't done it for a while so will go and check now!

When I bought my Cayenne in 2006 I saw an article in Christophorus detailing this new feature which when I asked the OPC he said - no you can't do it but when we tried you could. So, your 54 plate might not have the function.

Be right back - going to check...
 
Have just been out to the car and succesfully entered the first 5 letters/numbers of the post code within the 'town' entry box which then brought up Epsom which I confirmed. I then went into street and it shortened down the options to streets within that post code.
 
early 997 can be updated to software 3.0 that does postcodes. Not as good as portable, but agree that it is expected for car to have PCM.
 
When did PCM 2.1 come in? Which is what I have got??

I think the updates Paul are very expensive. I seem to remember it would cost in the region of £450 to upgrade mine.
 
Cool, thanks Jamie - as you would guess, I'm in IT so I haven't looked in the manual :pc:

Paul, if I need to update my software does that involve an expensive visit to an OPC :?:

Clive
 
Sadly an update does mean an expensive trip to the OPC :( (new Disc)
I've never really struggled with the PCM, I've toured Europe and the UK on it easily..
In its favour it does tend to choose roads very similar to those picked by Autoroute, so whilst you can't plot route out of the car, it does give you an idea prior..
I do actually prefer the mapping to my Tom Tom as I tend to zoom in and out to get a general idea of location, for that I find the TT very poor along with its lane notification.. however I have seen some units including the Porsche design that do offer the lane notification option..
The PCM does offer and advance warning in both the speedo display and main PCM display.
IMHO

garyw
 
Jamie - yes I think then you do have PCM 2.1 if you are able to input part post code.

An upgrade doesn't necessarily have to involve an expensive trip to an OPC for upgraded discs. I upgraded my 2002 discs to 2005 ones last year for about £40. One guy from the PCGB forum proposed he would buy all the latest discs for PCM 2.0 and then make copies for as many people who wanted them as long as they shared the costs with him. So instead of us all paying £400 each (or whatever the cost is), we paid one tenth for duplicate discs.

Not strictly legal I appreciate but every little helps.

~ Maxie
 
So to help the original poster, when did PCM2.1 first come in as standard? I think it might be 06 plate but not entirely sure...
 
Sorry for the later reply...

I upgraded my 2005 997 to what I was told was 2008 spec.
However, early 997's came fitted with an older HARDWARE version (early 2005 - Jamie your's should be later version) that means they cannot be upgraded to 3.3 (I'm now on 3.0).

The big difference is that I cannot play MP3's on the head unit.

I got a deal on the 2008 upgrade (part number details attached), and hoped that I would get to keep the software upgrade discs (cd's).
However, the OPC (CARDIFF - great guys) advised that they were not allowed to release these to the customer, and in fact all I had purchased was the mapping DVD.

It is important to remember that the software CD's only upgrade the amp/phone etc. The Nav section is upgraded by the Nav DVD that stays in the car.

This is a big grey area. If you are anywhere near Cardiff, give them a call (Martin Wright) and ask them if the discs they kept back from Paul Sykes can be used to upgrade your car! Same goes for any other OPC that has done this recently - they should have the discs.

But remeber, this will not give you postcode functionality - that is provided by the Nav dvd upgrade.

...you may find someone out there who can provide you with a nav dvd for less that the £450 that porsche will want! I didn't do this becasue a) I wanted the whole software update b) I'm not giving porsche any excuses when it comes to warranty (please don't get me started on that again!;-)

Hope this helps!
 

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