Planet 9

**Rainer** · #1 05-28-2008, 01:29 AM

I just have to tell somebody ... and I can still hardly believe it myself, but I did take the plunge and placed a firm order on a new 2009 Carrera:

- Carrara White with Sand Beige, of course (just like my CS)
- 7-speed PDK
- Mechanical LSD
- Universal Audio Interface (iPod, USB, Aux) for PCM
- Colored Crests on Wheel Hubs

She will be delivered the 2nd week of November, and now the murderous wait starts again just like two years ago … tick – tock – tick – tock

**suneet** · #2 05-28-2008, 01:32 AM

Congrats. Did you get the C2 or the C2S?

I don't think you could've chosen a better color

though I would go for a black interior or red interior.

**Santa Fe** · #3 05-28-2008, 01:39 AM

Sounds very nice. Be sure and post in the other Porsche Models forum here when it arrives. A bunch of us are former Carrera owners and will enjoy discussing your new "toy" er transportation device...

**Rainer** · #4 05-28-2008, 01:44 AM

Thanks Suneet and Santa Fe!
It's a C2. The beige interior is in part driven by the fact that I live in El Paso. It stays relatively "cool" when parked in the sun. My wife has a two tone (beige seating surfaces with black surrounds) SLK and you really don't want to touch the black leather surround with your legs on a hot day, if you're wearing shorts...

saucerman · #5 05-28-2008, 02:30 AM

well let us know when you get her...then we can kick you to the curb and you can join the 911 forum...that is unless you plan on keeping your cayman.

November...that's sure a long wait...but it will be worth it...

**Rainer** · #6 05-28-2008, 04:05 AM

Originally Posted by saucerman

well let us know when you get her...then we can kick you to the curb and you can join the 911 forum...that is unless you plan on keeping your cayman.

November...that's sure a long wait...but it will be worth it...

Aaah,
It's so good to have friends...

ezmoney · #7 05-28-2008, 07:30 AM

Originally Posted by Rainer

Thanks Suneet and Santa Fe!
It's a C2. The beige interior is in part driven by the fact that I live in El Paso. It stays relatively "cool" when parked in the sun. My wife has a two tone (beige seating surfaces with black surrounds) SLK and you really don't want to touch the black leather surround with your legs on a hot day, if you're wearing shorts...

Congrats on the Carrera! I had to laugh about the relatively "cool" comment. I lived in El Paso for a short time while in the military . . . Fort Bliss (1966). How do you deal with the brown dust that seems to be on everything? I remember having to constantly dust everything.

Croc-ket Man · #8 05-28-2008, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by ezmoney

Congrats on the Carrera! ... How do you deal with the brown dust that seems to be on everything? I remember having to constantly dust everything.

Rainer will wash it every time the C2 changes its color to macadamia!

Gator Bite · #9 05-28-2008, 03:51 PM

Congrats...... 7 Speed PDK and Mechanical LSD. Nice. So the LSD is new for this year, right? Is it only availabe with the PDK?

**Rainer** · #10 05-28-2008, 08:11 PM

Thanks to all of you!!

Originally Posted by ezmoney

Congrats on the Carrera! I had to laugh about the relatively "cool" comment. I lived in El Paso for a short time while in the military . . . Fort Bliss (1966). How do you deal with the brown dust that seems to be on everything? I remember having to constantly dust everything.

... particularly during spring, a.k.a. as "the windy season". Can be a real PITA!

Originally Posted by Croc-ket Man

Rainer will wash it every time the C2 changes its color to macadamia!

At least for now. Admittedly, I'm pretty anal with my cars. Really wonder how long the local powers to be will allow car washing on the driveway. The thought of running my new Carrera through a car wash just kills me

.

Originally Posted by Gator Bite

Congrats...... 7 Speed PDK and Mechanical LSD. Nice. So the LSD is new for this year, right? Is it only availabe with the PDK?

Yes, Gator Bite, it's new and it can also be added to the 6-speed manual tranny. In case you wonder, there is absolutely no pricing available for anything as of yet. The Tiptronic appears to have vanished from the options list.

**tme110** · #11 05-28-2008, 10:57 PM

Hahaha, no pricing?!?! That may make for some fun surprised down the road. What do you mean PDK cost $22,000???

**Rainer** · #12 05-29-2008, 11:09 PM

Originally Posted by tme110

Hahaha, no pricing?!?! That may make for some fun surprised down the road. What do you mean PDK cost $22,000???

Just to ease your worries, I just came back from a trip to Germany, where I was able to get some pretty good estimates for the PDK. I'm factoring in the exchange rate and some padding and shouldn't be too surprised.
Also, I negotiated with my dealer a 50/50 split on any markup between the present 2008 and the new 2009 model plus a fixed discount on the total order value.

ezmoney · #13 05-29-2008, 11:17 PM

Originally Posted by Rainer

At least for now. Admittedly, I'm pretty anal with my cars. Really wonder how long the local powers to be will allow car washing on the driveway. The thought of running my new Carrera through a car wash just kills me

.

Do you keep your cars in a garage or do you keep them covered? I witnessed cars being sand blasted down to bare metal and windshieds looked like obscure (frosted) glass. It happened when a tornado came out of the desert. The tornado didn't hit the cars directly. The dust kicked up by the storm did the damage.

**Rainer** · #14 05-30-2008, 01:25 AM

My cars are either in the garage at home or under covered parking at work - always!

BTW, I'm living here now for 20 years, and, to my knowledge, there has only been one small and short-lived tornado out in the desert about twentyfive miles north of El Paso near Chaparral over the White Sands Missile Range Area in 2007(Tornadoes Sweep Through Borderland - News Story - KFOX El Paso).
The weathermen here are regularly emphasizing the fact that the local climate and the location of El Paso alongside a high mountain ridge reduces the probabilities of severe tornadic activities to something close to nil.
However, what we do have here quite regularly during the enormous climate changes in spring are windstorms with considerable sustained windspeeds. 50 miles sustained are common and gusts tend to go up to 75 miles or higher. If the geographic locations of adjacent areas of low and high pressure are just right, this wind picks up copious amounts of dust from the surrounding desert and carries it into the city. Destructive dust storms are also quite rare. This year, we may have had four that lasted an hour or two. In most cases the dust particles are very small, more like powder. The impact force is also small and there is rarely any real damage, IF the car is well waxed. A good coat of wax reduces the friction between the dust particles and the skin of the car considerably and is key to keeping cars in good shape here. I've had cars for eight years without any visible scratches or other paint and glass damage.
But I admit, I have developed an eye for "real" dust storms and avoid them like the plague. The most dangerous time of day happens to be the rush hour timeframe between 4 and 6 pm. If the sky changes around this time to an eerie yellowish hue (you know what I mean), I stay at work longer and go home later. The media are reporting these events reliably, so one can actually avoid surprises.