I agree 100% with you as these cars need to be bought on condition rather than on specification. I would rather buy a nice 1984-86 Carrera than a ratty 1987-89 one for sure!

 

i same with you

 

My wife sometimes takes it out with the kids, though she still drives it somewhat too timidly - recently collected a couple of tickets in her service car, so I guess she's just being cautious. Have let a colleague drive without me - but he could afford a 911 any day he chose to. In principle would gladly let any friend /family member whoose driving habits I kwow well drive while I'm with them - IF my car were a collector's item, it quite certainly would be different, but it's just a daily driver. Besides, sharing it creates more porschephiles

 

I love cars in general (probably obvious given that I regularly check out what's going on on this forum, and my choice of cars) and my Targa specifically, but I don't want to treat it as too precious.

So, yeah, I let valets drive it, certainly mechanics, friends and family who are interested, and would LOVE it if my girlfriend drove it (she's too nervous). Basically, if someone is passionate about cars, is an enthusiast, and is mechanically sympathetic, I'm happy to share.

 

I dreamed of driving a Porsche long before getting one, I do understand that some people did not have the same blessings I have had in life but also had that dream.

For that reason, if someone I know (friends, family, acquaintances, etc.) shows respect for others, and for cars in general, I will let them take the car for a spin while I am in it with them. Call it giving back to the porschephile community.

People who work on the car are a corner case, I need to have a relationship with them before letting them drive the car. For that reason, I avoid going to the dealership because I know there is a mechanic, a guy just moving cars around, a guy doing the detailing, a manager and a whole bunch of people who could drive the car. The indie place I go to is a two man operation and they are certified p-cars gearhead that are at _least_ as **** as I am.

I work downtown and sometimes have to use valet parking because I get in late but I always use the same attendant, I tip him well and he knows it will keep coming if the car is well kept. He always ends up finding the best spot for it. (i have to say that I did push the trip reset button on the first few occasions because I had Ferris Bueller flashbacks). I would not leave it with a valet at a trendy restaurant because these guys are not professionals. I would rather cab it so I can have a nice bottle of wine anyway.

There are only two people I would hand out the keys to with no conditions attached: my wife and my best friend whom I have known since I am 8 years old.

Just my 0.02,

T.

 

Excellent thread...always wondered why folks are so protective. For me, I let just about anyone drive my car. In fact, I switched cars with my pops this week as I needed to do some renovation to my rental house (he has F150)...Told my preacher he could drive it on a date night whenever...would let anyone who's a car buff take for a spin. Why hide your greatest material possession??? Wouldn't you want as many people as possible to experience it?

Love what one person said...I have insurance and warranty...check and check.

Still haven't heard any reasoning behind folks not letting others drive their cars...?

 

Hear, hear. I feel exactly the same way. I love my car but it's just a car, it's not my spouse.

I've let friends, girlfriend, co-workers and a neighbor drive my Porsches. If they're interested enough to want to try it, why not? I don't even bother to ride along with them, I just toss them the keys. It was pretty funny when I gave my keys to a friend at work. My parking lot guard didn't recognize him and almost had him arrested for trying to steal my car!

It's just a car...

DMoore
'09 C2S
'10 P4S

 

It's a car and I let anyone I trust drive it. My younger brother loves Porsches and I tell him all the time, it's in the garage, come and take it. My wife can't drive manuals so she doesn't drive it. My friends can take it if they want. Brother in laws, sister-in-laws, they all can have fun in it. I don't do valets, I park it myself and pay them to watch it. No strangers can drive it, like I said only people I know and trust.

 

Nowadays handing over the car key to someone else isn't just about the car's well being anymore .

1) Red light cameras and open toll roads -- can bill the owner even when he's not driving the car .

2) Having insurance is not a magic carpet to fly above the stress of dealing with repairs, inconvenience, diminished value , and even more important --the liabilities.

So being "protective" extends to all the fascets of the vehicle.

 

My (long term ) girlfriend (aka = "spousal equivalent" --term I heard on TV) does drive both a manual and PDK . She drives both the M3 and Honda Si frequently . With the 997.2S it's less frequent due to the roads and parking are not ideal .

However ---she lacks the strength to press the clutch in my Turbo . It has the power assist removed (Gt2 conversion) along with the stage 3 clutch which is very tricky to engage . I have posted in the Turbo forum about some of the time needed to adjust to driving with a stage 3 clutch .
Also --much like many have shared on the thread --she seems to enjoy it most sitting beside me . We both talk a lot about the car when we are out on a drive . We do this with the 997S too and it's easier for her to drive.

 

Absolutely (with the exception of valets - I try to park it myself).

Share the fun!!

 

Listening to everyone, our different answers probably reflect two things. First, whether our Porsche is just one toy among many, and particularly whether it's a 'personal' car or just another ride. Second, past experiences letting others drive our cars.

September 25, 2009. We both were sick with a virus but the NSX needed service. Like most of our cars, it was our only car and very personal. It was Cindy's "when we win the lottery" car, and I bought it for her as a surprise retirement present. (Cashed in one retirement account to manage it.) Her stroke seven years later meant she couldn't drive it any more, but even with me chauffeuring, she loved that car. The seats, the leather, the sound it made passing five thousand. Owned it since new, 140,000 miles, but looked and felt like it just left the dealer's lot.

The Acura dealer who sold and serviced it offered to come pick it up. The driver was the senior service writer, about forty-five or so, and someone we trusted so I said okay. He drove by our house with a loaner sedan and this time Cindy didn't want him to take the NSX. No good reason, just didn't feel comfortable this time. No stupid premonition nonsense. She just knew it needed work (it was running on the spare tire in the rear) and she didn't feel safe letting anyone else drive it but me. He reassured both of us that he had driven the NSX on the spare before, not to mention doing it often for other models. "People worry about that little spare, so they'd rather we pick up their car if it needs a tire."

Next day I get a call. He took an NSX on a mini-spare down one of our "sports car roads" to reach the dealership. He took our NSX down that road. On a winding mountain road, the spare "came off the rim" and/or he cornered too fast and the unsurprising oversteer caused him to go off the road onto rip rap that tore the tire's sidewall. Pick your explanation. They had the car taken to the dealer by flatbed and the general manager assured us they would have "the minor damage" repaired and looking like new in no time. Turns out the emphasis should have been on 'no'.

When we recovered, we drove the loaner the forty miles to the dealer to review the damage and their plan to fix things. Turns out the driver bounced it off the stone face of the mountain first, then it spun round backwards sliding over some large rip rap and finally bounced off the guard rail before coming to rest. The dealership owner got involved. "Could have happened to anybody. I'm sure your insurance will cover it. We need that service bay for other customers. When can you have it moved?"

The frequent reference in this thread to "I have insurance" reminds me of her assertion. Having insurance does not mean it doesn't cost you a lot of time, arguments, heartache in the case of a personal car, and in the bottom line money when someone damages a major asset like an exotic car.

Obviously, the dealer was liable. She was just counting on our not caring enough to fight. Fortunately, we have an excellent insurance company in USAA. They took over, had the car flatbedded to the premier body shop for the NSX. Their West Coast Damage Manager worked to find a way to get the car repaired, and when it obviously could not be repaired, the company gave us a very generous estimate of the current market value in buying the carcass from us. Then they gave us a very low interest loan for any car we cared to replace it with. They also agreed that we could sue and doubtless win, but they offered to pursue the dealer for us if we preferred. Frankly, I have better ways to spend my retirement than sitting on wooden benches in a courtroom unless someone is paying me a consultant's fee. So we let them recover from the dealer, and of course they won the argument.

So. Trusted person. Experienced driver. Old enough to have common sense you would hope. The time lost on trips to try and save Cindy's lovely NSX at a specialty repair house 100 miles away continued until November. With cash in hand, we then went looking for a replacement car.

The NSX was a low-production, essentially hand-made car, much like the Porsche GT. Total production volume over fifteen years (Maybe? About that anyway) was about what Porsche makes in Carreras in a year. I briefly considered buying another one from somewhere in the country and having it trucked in. But we all know how much energy has to go into arranging PPI's, shipping, and funds transfers... all the hassle of buying these lovely cars at a distance. I just couldn't find the energy with all the health problems we have, especially since Cindy still wouldn't be able to drive it after we bought it.

We went looking for alternatives. Let me be honest. I always admired the Porsche marque and wanted one since sometime in the sixties when the 911 was first released to replace the 356. That much is fine. But I didn't want to buy any car last Fall. We had a car we were perfectly happy with, and we expected to die owning that car. USAA gave us lots of price/cost information. I made calls to Audi, Mercedes and Porsche dealers around Southern California. We planned a day trip to visit three dealers, maybe four. And in the end, we saw this C2S at the first dealer and decided it was satisfactory.

You should not buy a car like this because it is 'satisfactory'. But I was damned tired of driving rental cars by then, it was getting dark, and the next dealer was in Beverly Hills with an hour's freeway driving between the first dealer and his offerings. Yeah, yeah, okay. It's silver. Black leather. And fast. I'll pay this much. Take it or leave it. They took it and we drove home.

The dealer for the NSX finally lost her argument a couple of months ago. Roughly a year of the original hassle arguing with her and then replacing the NSX with a Porsche, followed by intermittent day-long efforts to gather evidence that USAA needed to take her to the arbitration they won. Cindy is still bitter about it and we're driving a car we have to take twice as far for service. "Nice car I suppose, but three hours in California freeway traffic to get an oil change?"

That was the situation as of September. The Porsche was a satisfactory replacement for the NSX, but you couldn't say much more because it was a shotgun wedding. Hell, I didn't even get a weekend to pick my trousseau. Uh, I mean my options. I just took the first acceptable one they showed us.

Finally, with time coming to make that trip for service again, I told Cindy we ought to trade down for something we could get serviced here. "With my neck, I can't even drive it the way it deserves. Let's get a Corvette or a even a damned Honda Accord or a Buick. We're not kids and we don't have to have a sports car or even a GT these days." That stroke that keeps Cindy from driving was pretty severe. It was an aftermath of heart surgery and caused "global aphasia" so she has trouble with language. (To trivialize a long list of related symptoms our doctors will know.) She spent a day thinking about it.

Then her answer was "Buy a neck brace. If your neck won't let you drive it now, get a neck brace. The NSX was mine, but it's gone. The Porsche is yours. Get a neck brace and sign up for a track day. Enjoy it."

The Grand Prix region of PCA held a DE day out at Willow Springs in early October. I took the C2S out there. I even chuckled good naturedly about having to accept novice status and an 'instructor' since I haven't been on a track since I lost my racing medical after injuring my neck back in 1994. He was a nice guy and we had a good time together.

I may say more about the track time in another post, but it wasn't an epiphany or anything. I haven't had a street car on a track for thirty years and for most of the day my subconscious was judging the Carrera against the track behavior of a Formula Ford. Forgive me, but I remember muttering something about "like a goddam Buick" when it understeered into the banked corner on the Streets of Willow. I enjoyed the company a great deal, but until the final session, I spent my time between sessions figuring out how many mods I would have to make in order to post a 'decent' time with this pig.

The last session was an open one, not the novice group I had been running. Sitting in the pits I had realized the race car standard my butt was applying to judge this car and I vowed to just go out and enjoy a few laps treating it as a fast road in a good car. That attitude combined with running among experienced drivers made all the difference. For one thing, I didn't have to worry about people suddenly braking in the middle of a turn because they lost confidence. It was just about a dozen of us with a Lambo, a couple of Turbos and some very well prepared classic 911's. And my Carrera S.

It took a couple of weeks to sink in, but I realize now that by the end of that last session, it had become my Carrera S. Not just some car we grabbed off a lot to replace the NSX someone robbed us of. Sure I had respected it. I respect all fine machinery. I'm an engineer. But we hadn't bonded until that day at the track. See, we had this shotgun wedding between us.

Having reached the point of dumping it for a Civic or a Mercedes or something made a difference I guess. I stepped back off the ledge, took it to a track, and learned to love it for itself. Oh yes. And "this pig" posted one of the best times of the day, even if it wasn't as good as a race car would have managed. It took fourteen months, but I have a personal car again. Fourteen months.

Nobody. And I mean nobody drives one of our personal cars except in circumstances that make it unavoidable -- like those test drives required after they work on certain parts of the car. Valets? No chance. I pull up and ask if they'll let me "Leave it right there?" while holding out a twenty-dollar bill. Never been turned down yet.

This Porsche dealer knew the drive for service was bothering both of us. He offered to have "a trusted driver" pick it up for us and return it afterwards.

No chance in Hell.

Now is our reasoning clear?

Gary

 

I'm very sorry to hear about your wife. Recently I had a loved one suffer a stroke and it is heart breaking and my heart goes out to you and your wife.

 

It is, but she survived and we cope. Life goes on, which is the important bit that was not at all obvious for quite a while there. And apparently she likes the Porsche enough to stand up for it. Even if the stock leather is not as nice as her NSX enjoyed.

Do wish I'd had time to play with the options list a little bit. Well, time and the inclination. I remember being a bit grumpy, and to top all, we were having one of our periodic "soak-the-substrata-and-fill-the-reservoirs" monsoons in California and the rental car we drove on our expedition felt like it wanted to commit suicide any moment in the heavy rain and heavier traffic.

Anyone from Southern California will appreciate why I didn't want to start over the pass to Beverly Hills from Woodland Hills at the witching hour between five and six pm. But I'm not sure "it was raining" is any better of a reason to buy a car like this than it seeming "satisfactory". Either we had a guardian angel watching over us to get this good one, or... well, maybe fifty years experience buying cars works subliminally even when you're grumpy.

Do you suppose?

Gary

 

I bought my car in a similar shot gun way. I had made up my mind that I was going to buy an AMV8 Vantage when my lady convinced me to at least try a 911. After my short test drive I was not 100 percent that I wanted the car until we pulled back into the dealer and my sales person (a very good friend of mine) had another couple there to look at the car. It was the last 09 on the lot. As soon as he walked them over to look at it a light switched in my head and I just said this one is sold so no need to look at it. If that would not have happened I'm almost positive I would have bought the AM and regretted it several months later.