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I loved mine, it was my first Porsche.
Black sport seats, no sunroof, Tequipment rollbar and Scroth harnesses, hollow spoke wheels for the track, no muffers.
The harder I drove that car, the more it wanted. I miss it.
Looks like a pre-owned 991.2 (hopefully GT3 or GTS) is in my future because I'd lose my lunch sitting in a 992.
Stepping into the ring (again) and putting my first 992 impressions here
Had the pleasure of going to the early access at the LA Auto Show this morning with my dad, we had a great time and beelined it to the separate Porsche hall housing the 992s
I am quite underwhelmed and sadly a bit disappointed even though I know I am just a fart in a hurricane.. it's like they just decided to throw the 991.2 with a Panamera in a blender and this is what we end up with, versus evolving the 911 organically from the very successful/loved 991 generation into the future as the icon and heart of Porsche
Again, I recall first seeing the 991 in the flesh at my local dealer's showroom and I still remember it was a black 991.1 C2S launch car. I was amazed and shat myself, I had to have one. Couldn't find flaws with the car
Today I saw the 992 for the first time, then walked over to the white Panamera e-Hybrid close to it. I thought the Panamera actually has a bit nicer looking of an interior, and felt like the 992 really is now a 2 door Panamera FWIW. If you like the Panamera or a tech laden cruiser/daily driver I think this will be a great car, and I do not doubt the performance or tech goodies. Sure, even looks from the rear like a 991.3 tron-style (kind of cool and futuristic), maybe like a car from Blade Runner 2048...But from a design standpoint I am really left scratching my head and amazed that PAG greenlit this. I know the car will sell, but it's hard to explain why I don't see it in the same light as 996/997/991 as I followed along those generation launches. This car just feels a bit different to me, even if it looks arguably similar to a 991.2 on the outside.
The bad
First off, the badging. There's badging in the new LED lights (in case you somehow missed that it's a Porsche...), and now on the back it's a clusterf*&*. You have the P O R S C H E lettering on top of the light bar, and then "911" in retro font abutting the classic "CarreraS (or Carrera4S)" and it's just too busy. You can delete the badging I know, but I dont even know if it's an option to get the classic "CarreraS" badging without the retro-homage 911 next to it, so maybe we are forced into that. I personally don't like the retro homage 911 font as the car feels like it belongs in the Tron movie, pick a side. Now that 911[Carrera model here] is in the door sill as well, maybe undeleteable.
The third brake light. In person it's even worse. Take the glow stick you had as a kid (the yellow fluid marker looking one), imagine it red, grab another one, put some black electrical tape around them, and tape them on the middle of the rear grill that looks identical to the 991.2's vertical rear black grill. But it gets better, the third brake light vertical length is not the same as the rest of the rear grill vertical lines as we all know, so it stands out even more. And it's much "thicker" than the slats. The best part? It's a vertical third brake light, right above the long and not bad looking lightbar. So you have a long futuristic cool looking horizontal standard lightbar lighting up, with an obnoxious vertical third brake light that is ugly as sin right above it, forming a nice upside down T effect? Much much prefer the 991.2 design subjectively, on my C4 I have the cool lightbar and remarkably a complementary small red third brake light strip that is also horizontal, matches well.
The nubbin. Why??????? What on Earth. It looks just as odd in person IMO. You see this wide, futuristic looking 911, massive 21 rear wheels, big exhaust exits in the back, huge brakes, futuristic everything, and then how do you put the car in drive. Pull this tiny nubbin... The funniest part is that they couldn't even just stick the Panamera style shifter in the 992 which looks better (when they are matching the 911 to the Panamera already...), but instead decided to mimic Braun as we all know. If you opt for the comfort access/entry and drive option, I noticed at least you'll get a very tiny fob insert in the ignition to match. I would rather yell "HEY SIRI, PUT CAR IN DRIVE" at the flakey voice control option than use that nubbin
The front hood. Why does it not line up with the front side fenders!!!
The front bumper, looks ripped off the Panamera as already discussed. Great to make the legendary 911 follow the design language of the 718/Panamera/Cayenne, why on Gods green Earth would they do it the other way around and make the other model lines follow the 911
The rear bumper. There is so much open space around the US plate on the rear fascia of the 992, no idea why and personally makes the license plate look like it's floating a little bit, not flush anywhere. Don't like it but personal opinion
The black trim around the nubbin. The cars were locked but through the window I couldn't help but laugh at the fingerprints galore all over the surrounding black nubbin trim on each car in the light. You'd think everyone was eating popcorn in the car
RS Spyder wheels for 992 - I dont know why but I prefer the 991.2 RS Spyder wheel design, which seemed to be similar to the BBS mag wheel design (not the same obviously). 992 design chunkier/blockier and don't know if they needed to do that.
Ok - the good
GT2RS style exhaust - PSE option looks better than the 991.2 dual tips
Fuchs inspired exclusive wheels - saw a pure silver polished option and a silver/matte black option like the 50th anniversary 911, looked very similar if not the same to the silver Fuchs we saw on the Speedster concept. Looked great
The actual buttons and toggle switches in the car from what I can tell looked great and high quality, better than the black plastic buttons in the 991.
the 992 Sport Seats Plus option (traditional 4/18 ways I believe) looked much cooler in person. I forgot if it was just the sport seats plus or all seats, but they now have a nice leather strap pull to get the seat down rather than the plastic switch you would slide up on prior gens.
As said above, the rear light bar and how it integrates into the rear lights is cool and futuristic looking.
In summary gents, I am a bit fearful... I'm still considering replacing my .2 C4 with a 992 eventually (lol) since I use my C4 as my daily and it's a wee bit overkill I realized to switch between two GT Silver 991.2s (meanwhile in Syria), but now more than ever I want to hold onto my 991.2 GT3 and tell her sweet nothings... I like the futuristic look and feel that they are going for much more in person with the 992, but the "bad" that I wrote about really sour it IMO.
What's great about the 992 so far for me is that it has cemented how amazing the design of the 991 was, maybe that will change over time but that's how I feel for the time being
Last edited by sampelligrino; 12-02-2018 at 12:45 AM.
What's discouraging to me is that I know at some point, the leaders of this company sat down and said, "Yes, this is the best we can do with this 3rd brake light. No possible way we can make it look better. Go with this design." "Yes these are the best, most ergonomic designs for the interior and switches and gages. Go with these." "Nope, no reason to make the body lines and cuts line up on the hood. Go with these." "Nope, no way to design the side mirrors to flow better. Sport Design Mirrors on the 991 were clearly a mistake. Go with these."
I think exterior looks too conservative, especially the square front. Interior simply looks like a car from 80s.
the shaver **** is simply a joke. It goes to show you how bad the C-suite is to allow it to happen.
Ultimately, the ultra-conservatism of 911 design will kill it off.
Not to mention, the slow electrification of 911 and boxster/cayman. Tesla will take most of market shares of premium sports car when roadster and cheaper variant are released
Agree 100%. I think I'm reasonably well versed on the nuances of the many 911 models in history and even I sometimes get confused flipping past pictures of 991s and 992s.
The agonized hand-wringing from 991 fans is especially interesting to watch, because IMO the 992 just isn't that different from the 991 on the outside. Yes, I could rattle off the bulleted list of the changes, but as whole the exterior is just not that drastic of an update. I am admittedly biased toward the older cars (964: peak 911; 997: peak water-cooled), but to me, if you bought into the 997>991 redesign, you're just as much a part of the 911's Chinese-market "Panamera coupe" Audi-fication as any 992 buyer will be.
Yep. Funny thing is all of the strong opinions about the direction of the brand coming from those, including the thread starter, that has been Porsche owners for about 5 minutes. Porsche is alive and well. The new car will do fine and most whining here now will end up purchasing the 992 and declaring the best ever as they do with every model they currently have the 992 in their driveway and then it will start all over again for them when the newer model comes out until they purchase that one as well.
Me, I have a 2 year lease on my 991.2 Turbo and will purchase the latest, greatest new Turbo for my daily as I have done pretty much every 1 to 3 years since 1989. I have loved them all and look forward to the new stuff in the future as the performance and handling keeps getting better and better.
What's discouraging to me is that I know at some point, the leaders of this company sat down and said, "Yes, this is the best we can do with this 3rd brake light. No possible way we can make it look better. Go with this design." "Yes these are the best, most ergonomic designs for the interior and switches and gages. Go with these." "Nope, no reason to make the body lines and cuts line up on the hood. Go with these." "Nope, no way to design the side mirrors to flow better. Sport Design Mirrors on the 991 were clearly a mistake. Go with these."
Sad if this is the best they think they can do.
Close, but the specific language used would not have been "this is best we can do." The language would have been more like, "This is the best we can do without spending more money."
Some folks are just convinced that since the 992 is newer, it has to be better. I'm not buying it - literally or figuratively. To each his own, but for me, the 992 is a major interior and exterior design misfire by the powers that be at Porsche. I have given the engineers at Porsche props on more than one occasion on this forum. In this case, when it comes to engineering the 992, to me, they laid an egg. That is okay. We are all deserving of a mulligan or two. For me, I am most disappointed by the homogenization of the 911 and Panamera. That and the nubbin. What's the over/under on how many generations the nubbin lasts? I'd be surprised if it did not go the way of the dodo bird by the time the 992.2 rolls around.
What's discouraging to me is that I know at some point, the leaders of this company sat down and said, "Yes, this is the best we can do with this 3rd brake light. No possible way we can make it look better. Go with this design." "Yes these are the best, most ergonomic designs for the interior and switches and gages. Go with these." "Nope, no reason to make the body lines and cuts line up on the hood. Go with these." "Nope, no way to design the side mirrors to flow better. Sport Design Mirrors on the 991 were clearly a mistake. Go with these."
Sad if this is the best they think they can do.
I have never agreed with any comment anywhere, more than this.
11-30-2018, 06:07 PM
