soguinness

Hello folks

(Jump down 3 paragraph to read about my observations about 992)

I have been looking to upgrade to a 911 for the past few months. Since we do not have any 992s in the US, I have relied on the info found in rennlist to help build my spec. However I finally had chance to rent a Carrera S 992 convertible in Stuttgart (Porsche Drive) and drove around which gave me a lot of insights about the car. I thought I’d share those with you all.

Background about me: I am 32 and I’ve never owned a Porsche before. My previous cars were a Merc C class, and BMW 3 series with all the M sport stuff. I don’t track but loved sports cars all along but never able to afford an M3 for instance until to this day. A few months ago I test drove a 2015 Carrera S (naturally aspirated) and it blew me away. For me it was mostly its handling and the awesome sound inside the cabin. It was so good that I started looking into jumping to the Porsche brand.

Luckily I had a trip planned to Germany, and learned about the Porsche Drive program here on Rennlist. I booked a convertible 992 for 3 hours (€279 including insurance - you just pay for the gas). It had almost all the options on it. And it was a blast to drive. Below is what I learned from it. Hope it helps someone on this forum.

Exterior:

Looking at the photos on this website and the configuration online, I was so sure I wanted a midnight blue. I saw it in person today and it was my least favorite. I have seen white, jet black, midnight blue, orange, yellow, red, and agate grey at Porsche. Turns out to my eyes best ones were white, grey and red. Didn’t really expect this. I recommend everyone to see the cars in person before you pick your color.

Sport fascia and side skirt: the car I drove had sport fascia and sport side skirts. I like the sport fascia overall but I think it makes the car look like a 991. I will take it standard body. Side skirts look quite ugly IMO. I will stay away from it.

Engine: oh boy - this was a little disappointment for me. The 2015 I drove back in US had an awesome engine noise inside the cabin. 992’s engine was quite muted. You had to push hard to hear a good note - and I felt most of it was coming from the sport exhaust. Don’t get me wrong - the sound was still great but it was way better on the 2015 naturally aspirated one. This makes me wanna comb through the preowned market one more time.

PSE is definitely must have. Didn’t like the exhaust note when the PSE was off.

I noticed some turbo lag however. This was my 2nd disappointment. I did couple of rolling starts and noticed quite a bit lag between me hitting the gas pedal and the car jumping forward. I’m not sure if it was something else but I don’t even recall this much lag on my 3 series sport plus mode. I’m probably wrong though, it has to be better comparing to a 3 series.

The mode switch button part of the chrono package was so handy. All this time I thought it was stupid to pay for this but I used it quite frequently. On the other hand, I never needed normal or wet mode. Normal mode was just so boring and muted. I drove sport mode at all times but switched to sport plus frequently for passing cars and making some exhaust noises in tunnels In sum, I thought the chrono package could be one of the must haves just bcs of its convenient button. Or is there a way to set the car into sport mode at all times?

Verdict on the engine: it is very fast and fun. I loved it. Way more than what’s needed for US roads definitely. Just as a reference though, in comparison, a bmw m5 has a better engine sound and feels like pulls faster.

Interior: I felt the quality wasn’t as good as I expected. I found myself comparing the interior to my $50k bimmer quite frequently. Why, Porsche? There was squeaking and creaking sound in many places. Things didn’t feel as solid as in my bimmer. The piano black buttons on the doors and in the center console are so cheap looking, and cheap feeling. Also the piano black plastic around the terrible looking nubin didn’t feel very solid and stable. I could move it around a few mms and hear some creaking from it. Oh did I mention I hated the nubbin? It is way less intuitive than I expected. I couldn’t be sure if the mode was switched after moving the nubbin and always had to look at the screen to understand which mode I was at. Because It didn’t give me a lot of feedback. Why is park not part of the gears? Why does it feel weird changing between gears?

Besides the quality though I’d say the interior looks great - but not sure if it is $110k + interior though. I saw way better in Mercedes and BMWs.

I also couldn’t figure out if the interior was all leather or not. It looked like the door and some part of the dash was leather but didn’t feel like it to the touch as it wasn’t very soft and leathery. Wasn’t impressed at all.

Things I loved, and thought should be part of my spec:

• Sport exhaust: this makes it sound great. Especially with the muted engine, I’d say this should have been a standard option on the car. Spec it for sure. My favorite is the burbles when you took your foot off the gas. No pops like in m3/4/5 though. Not sure why.
• Surround view/park assist: this is awesome. As soon as the car detects objects close by, this mode gets activated and the screen shows the surroundings of the car. It got activated in all the parking lots and once in a traffic jam. I couldn’t however figure out how to activate this manually? Anyone figure this out? Anyway if it is not as easy as a single button, I’ll probably not use it manually.
• Active lane assist (blind spot detect): this was really helpful because the visibility on the rear window is quite bad given the shape of the car. I had trouble changing lanes and being confident about it until I started relying on the warning signs of the blind spot detect. The rear arc and the windows block you from seeing it all.
• Bose or not Bose? I’m still confused about this. None of the speakers had Bose logo on it so I had assumed it was the standard audio which sounded great to me. However when I got into the settings menu for the audio, there were options such as Bose surround system and I could activate it. Does this mean the car had Bose audio option? Or is the standard audio also manufactured by Bose?
• Chrono package: I feel this is a good option to have just for the convenience of the button. It is a sports car and driving in sport plus isn’t always needed and could tire you easily with the loud exhaust node and high revs. Switching between modes therefore is important and the button on the wheel is quite helpful.
• GT steering wheel: not sure why this isn’t standard but I feel it is better with this. Easier to grab and hold the steering wheel with the two bumps.

Things I’m confused about:

• all leather vs leather seat only: I really don’t understand the difference between the two. Both look similar in the photos. I think I will have to see some more vehicles to figure out if this is a worth upgrade.
• SPASM: the car looked quite low to my eyes. On the other hand I haven’t used the axle lift option in any of the speed bumps and pot holes, and some I thought was quite challenging. Either way I returned the car without any scrapes, so maybe SPASM is okay in terms of ground clearance. Although the ride was quite bumpy IMO - I will most likely skip this.
• Axle lift: I was considering this bcs of my steep drive way but I doubt this is very useful since it takes a few seconds for it to raise the car. I ended up taking the risk and going into all kind of places without it. I think even if I have this feature I will end up not using it just bcs it is not convenient and fast enough to operate. I mean, will you really stop before every bump and raise the car and then proceed? You will most likely not.

Hope this gives you some more ideas about the car. Perhaps my expectation was too high which caused some disappointment but overall I thought the ride was great: it handles great (although I haven’t pushed it that much into corners), it is insanely fast and yet feels safe. It’s exhaust makes good notes, and it’s cabin is spacious, and luxurious enough for a convertible sports car. But quite honestly I am a little confused at this point and will wait a little out to see if Porsche can address some of the issues, as well as see what BMW has to offer with the next gen M3.

chance6

So you mentioned the nubbin...that little nubbin is legendary around these parts.

The engine is very similar to 991.2 GTS, which I found to be quite satisfying to drive.

You could always go GT3, that would solve your engine note issues.

quale

You mentioned you liked the sport chrono package but didn't need all the modes: "On the other hand, I never needed normal or wet mode. Normal mode was just so boring and muted". Perhaps using normal mode could have softened the edge of the SPASM option: "the ride was quite bumpy IMO - I will most likely skip this".

Psorcery

I agree with you on it not being very intuitive which is my biggest gripe with the car along with a couple other styling points. There's just way too much going on in that interior, those screens, and all the different options/settings. It's messy and not tidy.

As far as axle lift goes... You can push the button and it will lift as long as you're travelling under 40MPH.. You don't have to do it when you arrive at your driveway. You can do it prior to that. It's a great feature which you can learn to use and time properly. Very useful.

evilfij

The only nice leather interiors are going to be the agave and truffle club leather options. If they are similar to the panny/cayenne club leather they will be nice sort of designo level on a merc.

Regular Porsche leather is nothing to write home about and that is being generous. I actually prefer the “rubber dash” base interior on 991 (have not seen a 992 in person yet) over the regular full leather and I know some others who agree.

A 2015 is a normally aspirated engine. The 3.0 turbo on 991.2 and now 992 has low down torque, but it is not going to sing like an NA engine (especially a GT3).

Front axle lift is really easy to use and I use it all the time because the GT3 is really low and the front end sticks out so far, but I doubt you really need it on a regular 992.

John Mclane

European cars have particulate filter, it may explain some of the perception of your drive.

FAL is nice to have. just a side note , the C8 saves up to 1000 places based on GPS where the nose lifts automatically., Porsche is behind in a whole lot and they don't seem to care as nothing drives like one.

uniqueMR

Just jump into 992s and they are coming end of September.
Enjoy it. Problem solved

chance6

+1 to Front axle lift- car really lifts up in about 1 second- it's really quick. Have it on my GT3 and wouldn't leave home without it.

destaccado

• all leather vs leather seat only: I really don’t understand the difference between the two. Both look similar in the photos. I think I will have to see some more vehicles to figure out if this is a worth upgrade.
  

The dash (this is the big one), the door panels, the seats (unless that's a change in the 992 and they're all leather now) ....etc I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting a few parts as well.

ffm99x

There is a small and a big full leather option. The small being at 2500 euros is only dash and upper door parts and back of the seats.

Porsch

Plastic dash looks and feels so cheap.

SeanWRT

What was the engine of the 3 series you have that you think 992s is laggy compared to?

Porsche911GTS'16

Thank you for your insightful review of the 992. You discuss important details that many of the journalists glossed over or did not discuss at all.

Pwannabe

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'd recommend you try driving a 991.2 Carrera T.

K-A

Sound won't be near the N/A / larger displacement / higher compression 2015 indeed. IMO 991.1's are some of the best sounding cars out there, and the 9A2's simply don't compare in that dept. What's a real extra bummer is how the 992 seems to be even quieter than the 991.2(?) I thought Porsche was promising to make it sound better.

991.1's being the last of the N/A cars will naturally essentially certainly continue to hold their values much better than the newer Carreras.

Interior of the 992 feels more like a luxo car than a sports car to me.

Also, I noticed some turbo lag in the 991.2 GTS I drove as well (stupid fast car, did everything very well, my only complaints were highly underwhelming sound and some turbo lag), which I imagine the 992 S will be similar to in power delivery.

The 992 seems to be an incredibly engineered car that isn't tickling the emotional bone. I don't understand how Porsche can be so dense to the fact that emotion > everything when it comes to 911's and sports cars (especially when being the kings of delivering just that rendered them the success they are today). Sales figures constantly prove this, as do resale values, as does the fact that the (now only remaining N/A) GT cars are booming right now.... and insanely OUTSOLD the F/I CARRERAS in 2018 and 2019! What does that tell you, Porsche?

I guess they're only listening to China in that regard.