[Gallatin]

Are there any options that you have on your 718 that you don't like? Are there options that you wish you had added?

I kept my 718 fairly light on options, although, I do wish I had added Sport Chrono simply for the automatic rev matching.

 

[winter.zed]

Are there any options that you have on your 718 that you don't like? Are there options that you wish you had added?

I kept my 718 fairly light on options, although, I do wish I had added Sport Chrono simply for the automatic rev matching.

Yes. The "Connect" (option code IU2). It was available for 2017 cars in Canada. I got it for the Apple Car Play. I figured I will use that instead of factory nav.

Carplay/Apple Navigation - and by extension the "Connect" package - that does not do much else - is an absolute waste of money. Just utter garbage. A waste of CAD1130. If I had bought $1130 worth of valve caps with the Porsche logo - it would've been more useful. Seriously.

Otherwise the car is super-fantastic. Absolute "barebones". Only paid options are heated seats (need them in Canada) and leather seats (for the two-tone bordeaux/black seats - that I really like).

Just wish I bought the nav...

 

[trusted]

I find the Apple Nav with Connect to be on par with if not better then the Porsche Nav. But maybe the implementation is better in the US?

I wish I'd have ordered the colored wheel crests...but I'm fixing that as we speak.

 

[TieGuy]

Yes. The "Connect" (option code IU2). It was available for 2017 cars in Canada. I got it for the Apple Car Play. I figured I will use that instead of factory nav.

Carplay/Apple Navigation - and by extension the "Connect" package - that does not do much else - is an absolute waste of money. Just utter garbage. A waste of CAD1130. If I had bought $1130 worth of valve caps with the Porsche logo - it would've been more useful. Seriously.

Really?
Wow, I didn't see that one coming.

Even though my car is still not with me, I have to admit the seat belts in chalk would have been nice inside my 718. But that feature wasn't available when I placed my order back in January 2017, so no perfect match with the "Sport Tex in Graphite Blue / Chalk" for TieGuy. But who am I kidding? I'm waiting for "almost a decade" now, so I won't complain about the seat belts.

 

[trusted]

Even though my car is still not with me, I have to admit the seat belts in chalk would have been nice inside my 718. But that feature wasn't available when I placed my order back in January 2017, so no perfect match with the "Sport Tex in Graphite Blue / Chalk" for TieGuy. But who am I kidding? I'm waiting for "almost a decade" now, so I won't complain about the seat belts.

Your dealer should be able to order and install different seat belts for you. I know at least one person who had this done.

 

[Potato]

In retrospect, would have gone full leather interior. But not complaining, car is a lot of fun.

 

[Viffermike]

Yes ... Carplay/Apple Navigation - and by extension the "Connect" package - that does not do much else - is an absolute waste of money. Just utter garbage. A waste of CAD1130. If I had bought $1130 worth of valve caps with the Porsche logo - it would've been more useful. Seriously.

Just wish I bought the nav...

This doesn't bode well for my en-route car since I, too, went with Connect and CarPlay and skipped the overpriced factory nav/Connect Plus. We'll see how it works out, especially since @trusted has had a good experience with the former setup.

I can't imagine CarPlay to be as bad as having your phone on a bracket with an exposed charging wire and no mirroring to the PCM screen. For me, and for what I know about CarPlay, I bet it works fine, but everyone's MMV. I just couldn't justify an extra $2K+ for factory nav AND a separate phone/SIM subscription.

 

[RussellHodgson]

The only option I should have gotten which I didn't was the interior light design package. Not having lights on the visor mirrors is a bit annoying. But that is it.

 

[Nlongfellow]

I've had nav in all of my cars for years and I NEVER use it (end up using my phone). So I opted to just get CarPlay this time. I travel quite a bit and rent a lot of cars wth CarPlay. It's essentially better than having your iPhone mounted on your dash for a few key apps (screen mirroring for a few key apps). So it's not perfect, but at least allows us to get improvments over the years as Apple improves the CarPlay experience. Yes, Google Maps is far better and Apple Maps sucks. Has gotten better over the years, but still has quite a bit of data issues. So in my opinion, it's more practical than the embedded Nav that I would never use (for me at least - others may have different preferences).

I would recommend the full leather interior. It's $2900 but it makes the internal experience a little nicer. I will be using mine as a daily acces car (I don't commute anywhere). So having a little more luxury inside appeals to me. Some people don't care as they don't own the car for the interior experience, but the driving experience. So again, it's all about preference and how you use it. This is what I really like about the Porsche experience too. You can really customize your car fairly distinctively to suite your own preferences.

 

[winter.zed]

This doesn't bode well for my en-route car since I, too, went with Connect and CarPlay and skipped the overpriced factory nav/Connect Plus. We'll see how it works out, especially since @trusted has had a good experience with the former setup.

I can't imagine CarPlay to be as bad as having your phone on a bracket with an exposed charging wire and no mirroring to the PCM screen. For me, and for what I know about CarPlay, I bet it works fine, but everyone's MMV. I just couldn't justify an extra $2K+ for factory nav AND a separate phone/SIM subscription.

I was thinking the same as you. Did not want anything detachable in the "cockpit".
It's a convertible. First off - I don't want to worry about parking with top-down, and second - I just like a clean looking interior.

I owned iPhones since the 3Gs came out (currently I'm on a 6) but never used the maps, because they were just crap. Did use TomTom before (which was purchased by Apple, as I understand) but they were OK.
So I decided to test-drive the Apple maps for a few months before I ordered the car. After a while I figured I can live with it, but I was always happy to go back to either Google maps, or factory nav. Besides, we just bought a 3 series loaded with a bunch of tech - for my wife, so I said for the big family trips we'll use that car anyway.

The carplay/maps - is the same implementation as the US, so no US/Canada difference on this one. I live near Toronto - a very well mapped region. Yet the apple maps is just plain wrong with suggestions many times.
That being said - somehow arrival times are still fairly accurate.

Carplay also disables all other phone functionality of PCM (I knew that from before, though). So adding tiles/shortcuts to contacts on "MyScreen" on PCM is pointless. All I do with the custom "MyScreen" is add a few radio stations... Not much else useful.
Yes - Spotify works better through Carplay than it does through the bluetooth, but that's about it.

I am at a point where I ordered a T-Design9 mount mentioned here by somebody. It is about 3x as expensive as mount should be, but "desperate times call for desperate measures...". Hope it looks good and works properly. Does not look too bad on their website. Will mount it close to the glovebox, and run a black lightning connector wire from there. Should be pretty short and not very visible.

And here's an other one - may not apply to most people - but I'm getting older and more forgetful, so this is becoming a major, major PITA:
- to use carplay one has to connect the phone to the center console armrest USB plug. The phone is hidden away in the closed armrest tray - which is fantastic, looks very clean, and it is a good idea. Except - .... - 9 times out of 10 I forget my phone inside the closed tray when I leave the car.... That's because I don't see it. Again - that's just me, more forgetful, but it's still annoying to go back out to the car every time...

 

[Viffermike]

I was thinking the same as you. Did not want anything detachable in the "cockpit".
It's a convertible. First off - I don't want to worry about parking with top-down, and second - I just like a clean looking interior.

I owned iPhones since the 3Gs came out (currently I'm on a 6) but never used the maps, because they were just crap. Did use TomTom before (which was purchased by Apple, as I understand) but they were OK.
So I decided to test-drive the Apple maps for a few months before I ordered the car. After a while I figured I can live with it, but I was always happy to go back to either Google maps, or factory nav. Besides, we just bought a 3 series loaded with a bunch of tech - for my wife, so I said for the big family trips we'll use that car anyway.

The carplay/maps - is the same implementation as the US, so no US/Canada difference on this one. I live near Toronto - a very well mapped region. Yet the apple maps is just plain wrong with suggestions many times.
That being said - somehow arrival times are still fairly accurate.

Carplay also disables all other phone functionality of PCM (I knew that from before, though). So adding tiles/shortcuts to contacts on "MyScreen" on PCM is pointless. All I do with the custom "MyScreen" is add a few radio stations... Not much else useful.
Yes - Spotify works better through Carplay than it does through the bluetooth, but that's about it.

I am at a point where I ordered a T-Design9 mount mentioned here by somebody. It is about 3x as expensive as mount should be, but "desperate times call for desperate measures...". Hope it looks good and works properly. Does not look too bad on their website. Will mount it close to the glovebox, and run a black lightning connector wire from there. Should be pretty short and not very visible.

And here's an other one - may not apply to most people - but I'm getting older and more forgetful, so this is becoming a major, major PITA:
- to use carplay one has to connect the phone to the center console armrest USB plug. The phone is hidden away in the closed armrest tray - which is fantastic, looks very clean, and it is a good idea. Except - .... - 9 times out of 10 I forget my phone inside the closed tray when I leave the car.... That's because I don't see it. Again - that's just me, more forgetful, but it's still annoying to go back out to the car every time...

I have the latter issue with my current car, a BMW 2 Series with what it calls the "Technology Package". Yes, it's easy to leave the phone in the car. Not a big deal, though ...

I've run some sort of nav in my cars (and motorcycles) since 2003 and have had all manner of GPS/smartphone mounts -- ranging from a slick MINI-authorized dashboard mount for my 1st-gen Cooper to several solutions from RAM Mount and Pro-Clip -- before having OEM nav in my last two cars. I am pretty much over the dash-mount thing; integration is now mainstream, whether it be factory nav or smartphones. CarPlay and Apple Maps can pretty much only get better (and has since both were introduced); the factory nav can't. So I'm gonna give it a whirl. If it doesn't work out, I can always have the OEM nav dealer installed.
@RussellHodgson That was a last-minute add for me, and I'm so glad I added it. One of my frustrations with my 2 Series is how sparse the interior lighting is compared to the 3 Series and up -- no visor lights, for instance. No car by a luxury marque should be without some of that!
@Nlongfellow For the amount of coverage and the quality of the leather, I feel full leather is THE option bargain of the 718 lot -- and I remember reading a post on P9 that stated that the leather interior bits actually weighed LESS than the standard plastics. SOLD!

 

[RsZk]

I think its more of a what if I don't get it, will I regret it? That's how I felt anyhow when going thru the configurator several times!
Get what you want IMO and have no regrets.

 

[GregW]

Navigation comes standard in Australia, and after only a few uses I prefer it to any iPhone-based system. There are lots of helpful directions about lanes and upcoming turns and it 'talks' clearly over top of the music.

Greg

 

[TieGuy]

I would recommend the full leather interior. It's $2900 but it makes the internal experience a little nicer. I will be using mine as a daily acces car (I don't commute anywhere). So having a little more luxury inside appeals to me.

Exactly how I see it... Mine will be a daily driver as well, so I want to jump in and simply ENJOY the ride to the fullest.

@ trusted: Thanks for your input. Shortly after reading your lines I sent an email to my sales guy. I'm curious how he will respond.

@ winter.zed: Your comment about forgetting the cell inside the car made me laugh, thanks for making my day. But hands down, I'm 38 years old / young and I also tend to forget my phone when it's hidden...

Cheers.

 

[TieGuy]

Your dealer should be able to order and install different seat belts for you. I know at least one person who had this done.

And the answer from Porsche just came in: No. Nope. No way! :crying:

 

[Barry]

And the answer from Porsche just came in: No. Nope. No way! :crying:

Suncoast Porsche in Florida sell the optional different coloured seatbelt assemblies, so I would guess it is possible to retrofit them......

 

[trusted]

And the answer from Porsche just came in: No. Nope. No way! :crying:

That's baloney. The only issue I could see is that chalk color belts might be a special order part and take some time to get shipped. Other then that almost any Porsche dealer service shop should be able to install them.

 

[GregW]

That's baloney. The only issue I could see is that chalk color belts might be a special order part and take some time to get shipped. Other then that almost any Porsche dealer service shop should be able to install them.

Agreed. After all, seat belts are technically a "consumable" and do need to be replaced if worn.

Greg

 

[4802]

Agreed. After all, seat belts are technically a "consumable" and do need to be replaced if worn.

Greg

Exactly & I fully concur. Porsche parts sell complete seat belt assemblies for all of their models & ordering one in any colour currently available should be absolutely no problem. Probably a pretty expensive exercise but easily achievable nonetheless. Aftermarket companies like Maxspeed-motorsports.com sell replacement seat belts in a variety of colours to fit multiple cars including Porsches. Seatbeltsplus.com entire business is selling replacement belts because of the need to replace them & again they sell a variety of colours.

 

[TieGuy]

Guys, you are absolutely right. NO question about that...

The thing is, that very reply from Porsche last Thursday actually represents my overall experience with the Porsche dealership here in Berlin.
I hate to say it, but the way my order was handled so far feels kind of cold, lazy and without any commitment.

Porsche is a luxury brand and that being said, I expect royal treatment. I already wrote that in another thread. I've been driving Mercedes Benz for ages, so switching over to Porsche was kind of a big decision.
Which also came along with a great amount of anticipation and joy over my very first Porsche.
Sadly that got lost on the way...