I have read every thread on this issue. You have said more in one sentence than than most explanations which go on and on....Brilliant!!

 

One other point - if you plan on keeping the car a while, from a maintenance perspective, the PDK will require a new clutch at some point whereas the tiptronic is relatively low-maintenance.

 

I wouldn't make my decision based on that possibility.

 

I've never heard this. Interesting. How long is a long time, 100000 miles?

 

Nicely stated.

 

Tips need maintenance too - internal clutches/torque converter. Also, last I checked, manual clutches need replacement too. A dual clutch pack is no more difficult to replace than a clutch/flywheel.

 

PDK, PDK, PDK, PDK, PDK, PDK, PDK, PDK, PDK, PDK, PDK, PDK, PDK, PDK,
because its the best transmission like in this world - period

 

When I bought my car I was only looking at manual and would have never considered TIP...The dealer told me to try PDK... the experience was awesome....went PDK and never looked back.

 

My 09 C4S is my first automatic car. The PDK is amazing. I didn't believe a automatic could be that good. I had been looking at getting a M3 but didn't like the dual clutch in that car so I would have gone stick. I drove the PDK and was instantly sold. It is so much better than the Tiptronic

Living in a snowy area I do appreciate the 4 wheel drive. It is quite nice to have when wheels have various amounts of traction, eg patches of ice and going through a plow line. That said if we only had a few snow/ice days a year I would have preferred the C2S. I decided to sell my 01 S4 beater because we have too many days when snow and ice are an issue and thus I went C4S as my ONLY car.

 

We were never BMW fans. Nothing seriously flawed with BMW design choices, but we didn't like the treatment we got in the local BMW dealers on the occasions when we considered one. But in terms of the cars themselves and daily driver utility with occasional extremely... uh... 'sporty' driving I'd have to agree the M sedans are a better choice than the earlier model Porsches we considered. I wouldn't necessarily agree if the choice were for a second car of course.

But I agree completely that the 997.2's that came out in '09 are a different matter altogether. As others have mentioned, we were ready to walk out and go shop other brands of car until they begged us to wait until they could bring around "this latest model with the new engine and suspension." It took us about half a block to decide this model Porsche belonged in our shopping list, and only another hour or so to decide to buy that particular one they had dug out from behind all the others for us to test.

For those who haven't tested one, picture a more comfortable suspension than the earlier models for daily driving, but when you hit the sport setting, it handles like the 'sport' suspension from earlier years but moved half a notch closer to a GT3. At least the GT3 that was current when we were making this choice fourteen months ago. I believe that one was still based on the older 997, though I can't swear to it.

To the OP: if you have a choice between them, definitely take the '09. And if you have the additional choice to opt for the sport chrono package, it adds lots of nice features on top of the way the '09 PASM package already improves on the older suspension. Or so the owners tell me. We didn't see one with that option to consider darn it.

Gary

 

Speed Merchants races a 09 Carrera S PDK....they pulled the PDK to check the clutches at 10,000 RACE MILES.....zero wear....just changed the fluid and bolted it back in.

PDK shifts so fast and so perfectly it really does not wear out clutches.

 

Yes.

 

Thanks so much for the replies. I'm surprised by the number of very helpful comments received so quickly. This is a much more active board than some of the others I am on. So with your help I have decided on a 2009 C2S with SC. Until I read more about the SC I just assumed it was a stop watch on the dash that I would never use. Guess I was way wrong.

Follow up question – What are the Pros / Cons of the early Launch Cars? I assume 90% of the Green / Beige I see advertised for about $68-$70K are all launch cars. Should I avoid them, and if so why?

Thanks again

 

The green ones were the C2S and the grey were the C4S if I remember correctly. The issue I had with the green is that they were GREEN and I did not like that color in a 911 and had horrible luck trying to sell my wifes green jetta in the past. The green launch cars also did not have NAV or any other nice options that I wanted.

The grey C4S were nicely optioned but came with the expensive carbon bucket seats. Which is cool for a weekend car or track car but for a DD its really a pain to get in and out of.

So if those are not issues to you then I see no other reason to avoid them. Others may say that they were used as demo cars and driven hard or abused on test drives, for me that is not a big issue if the price is right. Thats based on my experience with cars.

 

Here is a great car you should consider - LINK. An outstanding buy from a respected Rennlist member.