Anyone traded up from a 986 to a 996?

[ike84]

I have a 986, a wife, and 2 kids with a third on the way (not in that order).

As far as the 986 goes, I LOVE driving it by myself like a bat out of hell, my wife loves riding along for a back roads joy ride, and when my oldest son turned 2 (granted he's a big kid) we turned off the airbags, put his booster seat in the front and started going on drives together. He's not a huge fan of the top down (I wouldn't imaging many young kids would enjoy that experience) but does enjoy it. With that being said, he does not love riding in it. The only way to get the kids to love a car ride is to put a tv in there for them, and this is not the car for that.

I have a good friend who had a 996 cabriolet, black on black, beautiful car. He got it for the same reason you said - weekend drives with the wife in shotgun and the kids in the back. When he didn't have the kids, the back seat carted around his golf clubs. He enjoyed the car but he did not buy it because he loves to drive it (the way that most of us 986ers do their car). He drove it like a puss and loved that everyone talked about his porsche. I drove that car before he sold it (thinking too that I wanted to move up since the fam was getting bigger) but the prior comments are spot on - these cars are not the same. The 996 is a tourer, and it's a fantastic one at that, but it is remarkably different in feel from a 986. I passed on that car.

So, in summary, I kept my 986 because of what it is. It wasn't worth giving it up so that occasionally the family could ride along, at least not when they don't love it like I do. Our family car is an escalade for that reason, and everyone is always happy at the end of a ride in that big girl.

On a side note, it's worth mentioning that those back seats did not have the hard.mounted clips between the seats and back. You know, the ones that are mandatory on current cars because of how safe they are. So, there's not much difference there between the back seat of a 996 and the front seat of my 986. I personally think the only reason those seats are there is because it would otherwise be empty space unless they substantially shortening the wheelbase, compromising handling doing so (as evidenced with the gt2 and 3, where they just left em out altogether)

Lastly, speaking of back seats, (OP, stop reading here please) I will add a quick blip about the Cayenne. They're a joke. We looked at them when my wife wanted to trade up from her rav4 and there's no difference between those backseats. Same for the audi q6. We needed a stick of butter and a prybar to get me out of that thing, and forget about crawling back there to change a kids diaper while on a road trip! From a performance standpoint that thing is a beast (especially the turbo s, holy hell) but it is not a family suv. I generally despise GM vehicles, but there is no beating the middle row of an escalade lol.



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