I took delivery of a new 911.2 4S with manual transmission back in late October last year, (arrival at the dealership https://youtu.be/ivratfGRLoU and the day of handover https://youtu.be/6oCXyPHwGeA) and in early November I had the car booked in with a detailer and Xpel authorised installer. I decided to go with a full Xpel Ultimate body coverage with Gyeon Q2 MOHS coating.
Now road legal having a front number plate applied, I chose not to go with the stranded screwed to the bumper black plastic mounting plate.
On handover I noticed that the rear spoiler was not aligned correctly and was sitting slightly raised from the rest of the adjacent body panels. This was resolved by the Porsche dealership, and on first washing the car I noticed a completely straight 15 cm vertical scratch on the passenger's side rear side glass window, which was 100% parallel to the vertical edge of the glass. The dealership arranged a specialist to machine out the scratch.
On driving the car I also noticed occasionally a rattle/vibration noise coming from the passenger-side front dashboard area when driven on rough road surfaces, and when the ambient temperature was over 12 degs. So booked the car in with the dealership to get this fixed. I drove the car with one of their technicians to demonstrate the rattle/vibration noise. As few days later the dealership informed me that they believed they have identified the issue; however to get this resolved the whole dashboard would need to come out. Also to complicate the issue my wife had already organised and booked hotel accommodation for a driving holiday in Wales for me to familiarize myself with the car and this was in two weeks time!. 10 days later, the day before we were due to go on our trip to Wales, I collected car from the dealership, with them assuring me that they have resolved the fault. Driving through Wales would be an ideal test ground. Thankfully, 730 miles later the vibration noise has not returned.
I confess I would not have expected to experience such poor quality workmanship from Porsche. So I have informed Porsche UK of the situation and am yet to see what they will offer as a gesture of goodwill!
The driving trip in Wales effectively started with the Evo Triangle which, after all the hype, we were underwhelmed with. We stayed overnight at Bangor and the next day we drove along the Llanberis Pass (Snowdonia) which was enjoyable, then we drove down through Betws-y-Coed and towards Aberystwyth and then across to Builth Wells and finally to our hotel at Llandeilo.
The next day's plan was to have an early start and drive the various roads through the Brecon Beacons, including the Black Mountain Pass, the A4067 and the A4059, and then do the return journey.
However since the last time I drove along the Black Mountain Pass the Council has restricted the speed limit from 60 MPH down to 40 MPH which was disappointing, plus they had recently resurfaced the road will tar and loose chippings so it was not a particularly nice experience having the noise of loose stone chippings hitting the car! So as not to repeat the same ordeal we decided to drive down to Rhossili Bay in the Gower peninsular for the afternoon. So we typed our destination into the SatNav and we set off. However we found that the latest Satnavs are just as bad as in my previous car - even though we set it to the 'Fastest' and not 'Shortest' route, we still found ourselves on single-track roads with the occasional passing place - not great! So we resorted to the good old fashioned OS maps with my wife being the navigator. We got to Rhossili Bay with no major incidences... only to find that the normal carpark was having a major update and was down to a third of its normal size! There was additional parking in a field but the entrance was not suitable due to the low clearance height of the car. However we found a space in the original car park.
Driving through Swansea also had its issues with speed bumps, so to the annoyance of the drivers behind I gingerly drove over these at a snail's pace. However on one occasion I did hear a scraping noise. Back at the hotel and looking underneath the car I believe this was the plastic flap that is located directly in front of the front wheels which was scraped and not the front splitter... phew!
The next day was driving back home. My wife and I were shocked by the poor condition of the so-called 'main' roads in Wales with multiple potholes and the debris from the broken road surface. If you dodge the pothole you drive over the loose remains on the road! On closer inspection of the car I have noticed a high number of stone impact marks on the rear arches, but fortunately the stone protection film has saved the car, and taken a bit of a beating!
One of the roads that I did enjoy was the A483 - there is a section where you are driving on a gradient with lots of nice sweeping bends.
So what have we learned in the first 1700 miles with the car?
The sport suspension (20mm height reduction) is definitely firm and on poor road surfaces it can be a bit tiresome on long journeys, being jiggled about so much; however we drove home without any stops which took us over 4 hours, and had no aches or pains from the journey. The stance of the car just looks great with the 20mm drop. Having the 18-way sport plus seats really helped to cushion the firm ride (I believe these have more padding than the 4 way seats).
Also we were pleasantly surprised how much luggage space there is in the front bonnet. We just needed to put one small backpack on the backseat.
Having the 'Mode Switch' dial I found the 'Individual' mode option very handy to quickly switch from 'Normal' to my 'Individual' setting being Sport,with sport suspension. Having a manual for me was the icing on the cake and a very enjoyable experience, especially with the rev matching and sport exhaust.
Back safely at home.
So what's next?
At the end of April we are driving up to Edinburgh, then on to Fort William and up to the Isle of Skye, hoping the road surfaces in Scotland are in better condition than in Wales!
Now road legal having a front number plate applied, I chose not to go with the stranded screwed to the bumper black plastic mounting plate.
On handover I noticed that the rear spoiler was not aligned correctly and was sitting slightly raised from the rest of the adjacent body panels. This was resolved by the Porsche dealership, and on first washing the car I noticed a completely straight 15 cm vertical scratch on the passenger's side rear side glass window, which was 100% parallel to the vertical edge of the glass. The dealership arranged a specialist to machine out the scratch.
On driving the car I also noticed occasionally a rattle/vibration noise coming from the passenger-side front dashboard area when driven on rough road surfaces, and when the ambient temperature was over 12 degs. So booked the car in with the dealership to get this fixed. I drove the car with one of their technicians to demonstrate the rattle/vibration noise. As few days later the dealership informed me that they believed they have identified the issue; however to get this resolved the whole dashboard would need to come out. Also to complicate the issue my wife had already organised and booked hotel accommodation for a driving holiday in Wales for me to familiarize myself with the car and this was in two weeks time!. 10 days later, the day before we were due to go on our trip to Wales, I collected car from the dealership, with them assuring me that they have resolved the fault. Driving through Wales would be an ideal test ground. Thankfully, 730 miles later the vibration noise has not returned.
I confess I would not have expected to experience such poor quality workmanship from Porsche. So I have informed Porsche UK of the situation and am yet to see what they will offer as a gesture of goodwill!
The driving trip in Wales effectively started with the Evo Triangle which, after all the hype, we were underwhelmed with. We stayed overnight at Bangor and the next day we drove along the Llanberis Pass (Snowdonia) which was enjoyable, then we drove down through Betws-y-Coed and towards Aberystwyth and then across to Builth Wells and finally to our hotel at Llandeilo.
The next day's plan was to have an early start and drive the various roads through the Brecon Beacons, including the Black Mountain Pass, the A4067 and the A4059, and then do the return journey.
However since the last time I drove along the Black Mountain Pass the Council has restricted the speed limit from 60 MPH down to 40 MPH which was disappointing, plus they had recently resurfaced the road will tar and loose chippings so it was not a particularly nice experience having the noise of loose stone chippings hitting the car! So as not to repeat the same ordeal we decided to drive down to Rhossili Bay in the Gower peninsular for the afternoon. So we typed our destination into the SatNav and we set off. However we found that the latest Satnavs are just as bad as in my previous car - even though we set it to the 'Fastest' and not 'Shortest' route, we still found ourselves on single-track roads with the occasional passing place - not great! So we resorted to the good old fashioned OS maps with my wife being the navigator. We got to Rhossili Bay with no major incidences... only to find that the normal carpark was having a major update and was down to a third of its normal size! There was additional parking in a field but the entrance was not suitable due to the low clearance height of the car. However we found a space in the original car park.
Driving through Swansea also had its issues with speed bumps, so to the annoyance of the drivers behind I gingerly drove over these at a snail's pace. However on one occasion I did hear a scraping noise. Back at the hotel and looking underneath the car I believe this was the plastic flap that is located directly in front of the front wheels which was scraped and not the front splitter... phew!
The next day was driving back home. My wife and I were shocked by the poor condition of the so-called 'main' roads in Wales with multiple potholes and the debris from the broken road surface. If you dodge the pothole you drive over the loose remains on the road! On closer inspection of the car I have noticed a high number of stone impact marks on the rear arches, but fortunately the stone protection film has saved the car, and taken a bit of a beating!
One of the roads that I did enjoy was the A483 - there is a section where you are driving on a gradient with lots of nice sweeping bends.
So what have we learned in the first 1700 miles with the car?
The sport suspension (20mm height reduction) is definitely firm and on poor road surfaces it can be a bit tiresome on long journeys, being jiggled about so much; however we drove home without any stops which took us over 4 hours, and had no aches or pains from the journey. The stance of the car just looks great with the 20mm drop. Having the 18-way sport plus seats really helped to cushion the firm ride (I believe these have more padding than the 4 way seats).
Also we were pleasantly surprised how much luggage space there is in the front bonnet. We just needed to put one small backpack on the backseat.
Having the 'Mode Switch' dial I found the 'Individual' mode option very handy to quickly switch from 'Normal' to my 'Individual' setting being Sport,with sport suspension. Having a manual for me was the icing on the cake and a very enjoyable experience, especially with the rev matching and sport exhaust.
Back safely at home.
So what's next?
At the end of April we are driving up to Edinburgh, then on to Fort William and up to the Isle of Skye, hoping the road surfaces in Scotland are in better condition than in Wales!