Tracym

Is there any thing I should know about a launch car? Are they worth getting?

Tracy

rss997

yes, if price is right, they are awesome1

Phil S

From what I have seen there isn't anything special about a launch car. I certainly wouldn't pay anymore for one. Other than the code showing up in the list of options I don't know how they are any different from any other car. Since launch cars are typically the first car the dealer has received of a new model I would think most of them have had many test drives.

aaoun

they're just like every other car, just with certain configurations

docjackson1

if you are talking about a 997 c4s launch car, they are well equipt. all of the options are desireable ones (nav, sport exhaust, leather, etc). when i purchased mine in february, there were plenty around, and most dealers would heavily discount them. they had an msrp of $102, 080. it seemed then that $5000 was an average discount, but if you carefully shopped them, you could do better than twice that. there are probably still a couple available-if you can get one, you are getting a marvelously equipt bike-just check the mileage. there have been a few threads in the past on launch bikes-search and you will find them.

aaoun

i think the 4s came in two launch configs...with or without PSE

m.

docjackson1

i hadn't seen one without pse, but once you hear that exhaust sound, you would not be without that option.

Putt-Putt

I don't think most people would know a launch car if they saw it on the road. It's just another Porsche.

Tracym

I was curious ff they came with some special equipment and a better price like the club cars. It sounds like it's just a marekting thing to hype the new release.

tkids

I heard from a dealer that they were not moving that well. They stated that the Black and Tan for the 4S were not doing it for people??? If you were to go after one of those I would certainly be asking 10-12% off MSRP if new. I know of no special equipment.

dstrimbu

All the PAG 762 code cars have XLF. I researched them to death; yes, $5k off was the immediate starting point here in Chicago in January.

The launch cars are built to allow one unit per US dealer. The cars are generally optioned well. Not sure what the dealer's choices are in terms of accept / reject on these vehicles. They are definitely not Club Coupes, not by any means. Beautiful cars, but don't let the dealer BS you as to the exclusivity of the launch cars.

I decided to buy an Arctic Silver / Black full leather car, and I'm glad I did. The Sand Beige interior was just a bit too much for me... that being said, it would have been my second choice after the car I chose... I got $8k off MSRP on my C4S. I would have taken the launch car for the same price, but MW didn't want to deal that day.

If you take the time to search online inventories at www.porschedealer.com, you can find the total number of launch cars left on the ground in the US. I know for a fact that there were 64 cars on-ground on January 30th of this year - but a lot of time has passed since then.

Good luck!

nikandriko

I've done both some theoretical and data driven analysis on the number of produced 2006 C4S black/beige $102,080 launch cars.

The short answer is that it's not extremely rare, i.e. 5-6% of the 997.1 4S population.

My most relevant posts on this other rennlist thread are this and this.

Production of these cars started in June 2005 and seems to have ended in September 2005. So far, I've detected 173 but in theory there should be ~1 per US dealership, i.e. ~189.