So I've had my 4S over a year now, 15K+ miles on it. Lovalovalova it! It's been a tank, totally reliable so far. Every day I'm psyched to be able to go drive ANYWHERE! By far the nicest car I've ever owned. Heck, the damn thing gets 30 mpg on a flat highway...with humongous range!

Complaints? I've listed a few elsewhere on this site; most is nitpicking. I do have one substantial complaint about a glaring blunder that just does not befit a car of this magnitude:::

The iPod interface just SUCKS!!! Yes, I said it...and it's true. It's illegal in WA to use a cell phone while driving...well, if that makes any sense they should throw you in prison for using the iPod interface while driving! Personally, I don't...it's just too distracting and dangerous. If you want to select a band and then an album or song...good freaking luck. WAY too many non-intuitive steps, and it has to be done on the central touch screen monitor. Yes, it's true...that wonderful PCM circle next to the tach that is meant to allow you to do stuff like this while driving and not dying DOES NOT WORK WITH THE IPOD! It'll select songs on the current album playing and that's it; you want a new album, forget about it.

What's particularly annoying is it works just fine with my friend's generic mp3 player...guess I should just get one of those. More annoying still is what I paid for the Burmester, yet can barely use it.

Enough whining, that's it! Only major complaint; otherwise, my car rocks so hard I can deal with this just fine. But Porsche should still fix it!

 

I'm very happy to hear how much you're enjoying your 4S. I got mine almost 2 months ago and feel very much the same regarding the positives you've pointed out. It very encouraging to know that I have a lot more to look forward to with this car. I'm not sure I understand your complaint regarding the iPod interface. Is it your gripe that you cannot easily switch through songs and playlists while driving, or is it something else? My only complaint with this interface so far is that the connection will occasionally drop for a second or two, as if a telephone call is coming in. However, it's not so bad that I would want to take the car in for this issue...I will trouble-shoot this issue first with the iPod and the iPod cable.

 

Why not try the USB stick route? Just create a simple folder structure on a USB stick (artist/album/track.mp3) and pop that into the UAI.

 

if you have an iphone or an ipod touch why don't you connect it via bluetooth instead of the ipod port then you can just control your music through the actual device and have it stream to the stereo

 

Yes, my gripe is being completely unable to switch through albums and playlists on the convenient small round PCM screen on the dash while driving. It's true that you CAN do that with other devices than my iPod; it's just that I bought the iPod Classic and have it loaded with every album I own lossless; it would be nice to be able to use it!

I should have gotten into the many things I do LOVE about my car:

The interior is to die for. Birch Anthracite inlays look amazing, almost like stone. Against full black leather, just love it.

Exterior looks hot too in Basalt Black. I know many slag on the looks of the Panamera, I guess I'm missing something...I think it's gorgeous.

The transmission is fantastic...and being able to change to sport and sport plus is awesome. I even like the toggle shifters that many seem to hate.

Burmester stereo ROCKS!

Bi-xenon headlights are wonderful.

Trunk, with fold down seats and ski pass through, is a great staging area for all of my rock climbing gear (dig the motorized hatch); cross country skis in the winter. Love the way it's sort of a disguised station wagon once you fold down the seats; I went car camping in it on a climbing trip, worked out great. I used to like this about by SAAB 9000 Turbo years ago, but it lacked the ski pass through.

The sport exhaust sounds great...I can't even imagine how killer the GTS sounds!

I like the idea of the thermal noise reducing break resistant glass. My SAAB got broken into once from a rear passenger window; it would be interesting to see just how break resistant that glass really is...

I love and use the adaptive cruise control all the time...it's great!

Rear seating is excellent.

I could go on and on and on...these are some of my favorite things about my wonderful car!

 

Hummerchine,

thanks for sharing your experience. glad to hear that it's working out well.

can you tell us more about the adaptive cruise control? it takes the car to a complete stop, is that right? have you had any problems or frustrations with it?

the adaptive cruise control was something i wanted to get but didn't have enough confidence in, since Porsche just started offering it (as opposed to MB which has had it for more than a decade). previously people have complained about having to turn the engine off and on to correct problems associated with this.

 

Don't let -kip- see this thread, he might blow up and hate you all.

 

I THINK the adaptive cruise will take you to a complete stop...I have not tested it that far! It will certainly slow you down to the (slower) speed of the car in front of you! Very occasionally it will sense a car ahead of you slowing down rapidly, and/or veering into a turn lane and brake suddenly, scaring you a bit in the process. I'm way used to that now, can pretty much see it coming. Otherwise it works like a dream, I use it way more than I've ever used cruise in the past. I even use it driving down residential streets on the way to work in the morning, put it on 7 mph over the speed limit and you are good!

What is MB?

 

Mercedes Benz?

 

I have adaptive cruise control on my S, and I am very glad I ordered it. It is so nice on the commute home in bad traffic, taking over throttle and brake control so I just have to pay attention but not do anything but steer (and on the freeway there isn't even much of that). I love real driving, but driving/sitting in Bay Area commute traffic isn't fun and I am very happy to let the car do it. Like MIA997TTBeast, I also use it on straight surface roads when they back up, having it take me along at 0-40 MPH there.

Yes, it will take the car to a full stop -- it does so all the time for me. If you never quite come to a stop, it will keep speeding back up again as well. But if the car stops completely, you need to touch the throttle to get moving again. Also, once in ACC, you can dial up what speed you want with the control. So even if you were only going 20, you can set that you want to go up to 65 as possible if traffic clears.

I have come to totally trust the ACC over time. From what I understand from my coworkers at Bosch (Bosch made the ACC for Porsche, and is where I work now) the only way it can go wrong is that it won't see stationary objects, so if there is something in the road which fell off a truck, it won't see that. If that weren't true, it would think the guard rail or other stationary objects where obstacles as you came up to turns. Thus, you should still be paying attention (of course). But otherwise it is quite reliable.

The important part is to check the ACC speed indication is yellow (on) or white (off), though. It can be scary if you unconsciously touched the brake at some point so are not in ACC anymore, but think you still are until you notice your car is not slowing down!