I took delivery of my 991S Cab back in October and love it! Took it to a DE event at Roebling Road near Savannah and where you pointed it is where it went (seemingly at any speed).

I do have two annoying issues I'd like to get feedback on. The first is there seems to be no way to get the backlight on the instrument cluster to come on during the day when in Auto mode. Ift I'm wearing sun glasses and go into a shaded area I really can't see the tach or speedo very well. If the headlights aren't on when in Auto, then the dash lights aren't on.

Secondarly, the back-up lights are worthless. Especially with the top up, I can't see anything behind me when backing up. I have to get out of the car and check that things are clear. When I put the car in reverse while looking out the back, I notice no difference when the back up lights come on.

Anyone else having these issues?

 

I haven't noticed the issue with the instrument backlighting, but then I live in a desert. Even what passes for shade here is pretty bright in terms of lumens per sq inch. I'll check tomorrow to see if I can find a way to turn on the backlighting without turning on the lights.

I haven't noticed that problem with the back-up lights either. I seem to remember seeing the bushes lining my driverway quite easily when I back out, and I do have to maneuver since it isn't a straight shot from the garage to the front gate.

I'll be happy to pay specific attention tomorrow and report a result. Gives me an excuse to drive the car tomorrow when I have no errands, and even in a desert the Winter days get short, so postponing my driving until dark is easy enough.

The visibility is amazingly good for a convertible, but it is restricted compared to the 991 coupe. That's why the Parking Assist is standard in the back. I only remember one time I really needed in the last two months though. The detailer arrived and parked his trailer quite close to the area where I put the 991 when I back it out of the garage. Just as he started to holler, the Parking Assist began beeping.

Gary

 

Are your sunglasses polarized?

 

I haven't noticed the OP problems.

I do admit to after 10k miles in 9 months, not trusting myself backing up. It is either the hips, the acre of pristine paint on the, uhm, substantial, rear end, or the low hanging exhaust tips, but...

 

I have a coupe, and no problems with visibility backing up. I've got an 80 foot driveway back to my garage, and I routinely back it in. I have to maneuver around a couple of obstacles along the way, and have an inch of clearance on the passenger side when entering the garage. I find the backup lights work well so I can easily see what I am doing in the dark.

I have noted the under-lit dash issue at times, but when it was a problem, I just turned on the headlights. Problem solved.

 

Okay, I went on a long Sunday drive I'll probably report elsewhere. The car rolled over 4,500 miles as I backed into my hundred-foot driveway with the kink in the middle. Here's what I discovered
I can't reproduce this problem. We don't have deep shade here, as I mentioned earlier, but even so I can't find any situation where the instrument lighting is too low. It isn't really backlighting in the traditional sense, at least it doesn't appear so. It looks ... well, I can't find a reference in the ten-minute limit I usually apply, but it looks almost electroluminescent as if the light is emitting from a coating excited with an electrical field. Sounds like serious overkill, but this is a Carrera. In any case, that's how it looks, and the contrast with my black dial faces is superb. The letters appear to be on even in daylight driving.

There is a control for adjusting intensity, and also a menu item under 'car-options'. I wonder if your setting is inadvertently too low or even set to 'off'.

I do wear polarized sunglasses now that I don't fly, and I saw no effect from those at all.

I tested this when I stopped at a restaurant after dark. I backed into a parking place instead of pulling in forward. I found that it was not apparent that the back-up lights were on and I found myself saying "it's a good thing I can see to back up without them." Obviously, as I realized, that meant the combination of the ambient lighting in a parking lot and the back-up lighting was enough to steer the car in reverse. That's the whole point.

Okay, ambiguous result. So when I got home, at my ranch in a dark rural area, instead of entering the drive forward, I opened the gate, turned the car around and backed up across the front gravelled area. The gate area has the posts of course, but also two twelve-foot arborvita shrubs sheared square to the driveway side, so it's a tunnel ten feet long, maybe more. The garage is standard two-car width with an eight-foot-wide eonymous on one side and a cottonwood tree on the other. It is wider than the gate entrance but twenty feet of "better get it right" passage into the garage. The centerline is offset from the gate by perhaps fifteen feet. I normally pull in forward. Just saying. A suitable test.

Tonight I backed in. Had to take two shots at the gate because I was too close to the lefthand shrub to start cranking the steering over to get lined up with the garage. (Those arborvitae are eight-feet across as well as twelve-feet high. They looked cute in their little pots at the nursery in 1985. What can I say?) Second time was the charm. I slipped sideways until I could pick up the eonymous shrub in my driver's-side mirror and then turned again to line up with the garage door. Pressed the remote opener only after I saw the door in my mirrors.

Once again, I couldn't see the effect of the back-up lights once I began final approach, because the lights in the garage come on when I open the door. Basically, at no point did I say "Wow, look at those bright back-up lights!" but neither did I ever wonder what was behind me. However, when I would touch the brakes while aligning the car, I would say "Now that is bright!" because the LED brake lights would come on and they are considerably brighter than the back-ups.

Basically, my objective assessment would be that the back-ups are bright enough to steer by when ambient lighting is dim, but not so bright their effect is even visible when ambient lighting itself is moderately bright. I am not impressed, especially here in a rural desert community where you could play a football game after dark by lining up a bunch of our typical pick-up trucks with their back-up lights pointed at a field. Lots of people use their back-up lights to see what they're doing when loading or unloading a truck after dark. These Porsche lights would be laughable in that context.

On the other hand, I don't buy a sports car for the ease of loading it with cattle in a field by the dark of the moon.

Overall, I'd say they are adequate, but not impressive. No good at all for rustlers. Good thing I didn't try backing down Topanga Canyon Road when I was considering buying a 991.

Gary