[Porsche9]

Hi everyone. My family and I attended a PCA event today for the local premiere of the new 718 and open house for the brand new Chandler Porsche dealer. The new dealer is a welcome addition to Phoenix area especially since there was only one Porsche dealer in all of the Phoenix area that has a population of over $3.5M. The event itself was really nice with about 200 PCA members attending.

Part of the event was an opportunity to see and test drive the 718. They had two base models and two S models. In person the car looks great. I really like it. The only complaint I have about the looks is the excessive badging. The model designation is easy enough to delete but the Porsche badge based on my inspection will likely need to have the whole piece replaced if you don't like it. I'm sure the aftermarket will come up with something.

As for the test drive. I grabbed a S. Unfortunately all the cars were PDK (the sales guys said they expect the take rate on the manual will be less then 10%) so the level of engagement is less then I'd like in a sports car. In terms of handling the car is pretty awesome and acceleration is pretty impressive. Now for how the car sounds. From the outside revving it in neutral both the base and the S sound pretty good considering it's a turbo 4 cylinder but it's definitely no flat 6. From the inside on the car the sound was disappointing. The S I drive had the sport exhaust which one would expect would add some volume but in my opinion it was pretty quiet and had a bit of a vacuum like sound when you laid into the throttle. You could also tell the speaker mounted at the back was pumping in sound. For me it was disappointing.

In terms of throttle response, there was definitely lag right off of idle. It's not too bad under partial throttle but when you put it to the floor there is a definite half second of nothing and then it comes on. Other then that the power delivery was very linear and it doesn't drop off up top.

For me, I prefer NA flat six so I know what I'm sticking with. We were also there until they opened up and I didn't see a single person sitting with a sales person to make a purchase.