This is my initial review of my new 2022 992 911 Targa4S

Background/Context:

I am 60 years old. My first Porsche was a 2009 987 Cayman base 6 speed manual purchased about 5 years ago. My second Porsche was a 2015 981 Cayman GTS PDK purchased about 2 years ago. My daily is a 2014 Mercedes E350 (176k miles!)
This a preliminary review since I have not reached the recommended mileage (1,400 miles) before RPM’s are above 4,000. I have had the Targa since August 18th, 2022. Mileage is 723.
I will be very specific, even picky in this review, not because I am not loving this vehicle (I am!) but to provide feedback that may help others.

BUILD:
992 Targa4S
Carerra white
Bordeaux/black full leather interior
Targa roof in black
Power steering plus (here comes the hate messages!)
Wheel centers with color
GT sport steering wheel in leather
Porsche Crest on center headrests
Innodrive
911 Turbo wheels
Power sport seats 14 way
Under door puddle light projectors (my son really wanted me to get these)
Sport design side skirts
Sport Package
Premium Package

LOOKS:
I like the looks of the 911better than the Cayman from all views except the back. Nothing beats a Cayman from the rear. I do prefer the 911’s more rounded headlamps compared to the 981 Cayman as they are more traditional. I also prefer the 911’s more rounded bulges behind the headlights on the hood. The 981 had creases that I think were there to make the Cayman look more modern. I liked the Cayman 987 more from this vantage point. I am thrilled with the look of the Turbo S wheels. They are rare…why? I am glad that I chose the side skirts..pricey but finishes the look from the sides.

TARGA SYSTEM:
The Targa with the top down showing the two-tone interior is stunning. My biggest worry before owning the Targa was the potential for excess noise and buffeting when the top was down. I am more than satisfied with the Targa design. With the wind deflector up, one can literally not get any buffeting no matter where the windows are. The noise is so much less than I thought. My wife and I drove 80 miles on the interstate at about 75mph. We talked in normal voices the whole way! I am sensitive to noises and am thrilled that this is a non-issue!

INTERIOR:
fantastic. The change from the 991 gray smooth trim along the dashboard to the highly textured surface is a great improvement. I am surprised it was not an option. The fit and finish is excellent. So many expensive cars have a dash that looks like an iPad was glued on. I would never accept this. The 992 dash is beautifully crafted into the dash. The enter/exit feature of the seats is a luxury for me as well as practical in that it protects the side bolsters from wear: the seat moves back when the ignition is tuened off and the seats returns to the memory position once the ignition is turned on.
Seating: I ordered the 14 ways seats partly because the 18 ways were much more expensive and did not come with the much nicer backing of the 14 ways. The seats are comfortable but do not hug you (at least not me---5’8 170lbs. I do like the fact that they have the extension of the front under the knees. I somewhat am disappointed that they are not a bit more snug but I guess that is what the 18 ways are for.
The sport steering wheel blocks the outermost gauges more so than the standard wheel. I have viewed so many reviews that presented this situation as a big flaw. I did not think it was such a big issue. I still do not, however, the steering wheel really does completely block both outer gauges. It takes more effort than I thought to see them. The passenger can see them easily.
Back seat: There is so much more room than I thought! Even though the Targa has less space than the coupe, I was very please at the amount of space. I took my mother in law for a ride in the front seat while my wife was in the back seat. No problem (they are both about 5’2”).
There are 2 function buttons that are programmable. One on the wheel and one on the dash. The options are a bit limited. I have start/stop function “off” for the button on the wheel and “view” outside of car for the dash button.
The PCM is well designed. It is very easy to use and very intuitive. Well done Porsche!

STEERING/HANDLING
Oh my…absolutely fantastic. There is 0 steering play with perfect weighting. I cannot imagine how it could be improved. The handling is just breathtaking. I have not even been over 4,000 revs yet and I can tell this car will be a blast when I can really use the full capability.
This is the first turbocharged car I have ever owned. I do notice a bit of turbo lag but it is about ½ of a second. I think I am very sensitive to this now because I have been concentrating on feeling the difference between the Targa and the Cayman. I thought that I would appreciate the earlier on set of torque with the 911 vs the Cayman and I do. I love the power onset without having to ring out the revs. I probably would not enjoy a GT3 as much as the Targa.
Sound: Arguably, the 981 Cayman has one of the best sounds of any Porsche. I was preparing myself to experience a much less pleasurable sound. I have been pleasantly surprised at the sound that the Targa makes! It is very close to the 981 Cayman.

It is a stunning piece of beautiful engineering and provides me with joy!

 

As a prospective Targa buyer, thank you for the detailed comments!

Congratulations on the car, and enjoy your beautiful spec in good health.

Aaron

 

Greetings and congratulations on the new Targa! I also picked up a new Targa 4S last week and happy to second some of your comments and also share a few thoughts about some particular options on our new build.

First I want to underscore and agree that I was worried about the wind buffeting but in the end it's not an issue for me. The wind deflector works wonders and I enjoy the windows down when I want the full "open air" experience, and windows up is similar to the cab with wind deflector and windows up (my wife's preferred configuration) with a reasonable level air turbulence.

I expected to prefer the cab for a "true" convertible experience but the targa has met all my needs and I think it exceeds the cab in appearance. The rear glass gives great light and visibility when the top is closed vs. the cab too.

We took a build that another buyer had cancelled, so it's not exactly how we would have built it, but it was close enough to meet our needs and check the important boxes (unfortunately it checks some boxes I wouldn't that will probably cost me at resale). It also gave us a chance to try some options we might otherwise have skipped.

Our build has the Sport Design exterior + side skirts. I was not sure what I thought of this as I originally had primarily seen the "normal" 992 front end but the more I saw the Sport Design exterior the more I feel in love. I probably wouldn't order a 992 without it now, although it's an expensive asethetic option.

Our car has Rear Axle Steering. I have not pushed it hard yet but coming from a C2 cab I'm not sure I see a huge difference (which really calls into question the 4, the S, and the RAS, but that's another story and not sure I'm ready for that fight haha). RAS is not terribly expensive but I'd probably skip it. My opinion could change with time of course. Strangely no PDCC although if I added RAS I would have probably added PDCC too... I'd probably skip both in a future build though.

White painted wheels - Love it or hate it. This was something we were nervous about and not sure what to expect when we saw the build sheet. In the end it goes nicely with the white monochrome look of the build and I'm happier than expected. It's certainly unique. But damn that brake dust shows up quickly...

18 ways - They aren't extremely different than the 14 ways but I would say they are more comfortable. We had 14 ways in the C2 cab and we were happy with those as well. I don't think the bolsters make entry/exit difficult (I've seen people worry about this, it's a non-issue). At this price point we'd probably get them again.

Beige leather interior - I've always preferred darker interiors, at least a nice saddle brown, if not grey or black, so we were not sure about the beige interior but in the end it matches nicely with the white exterior. It gives the car a very premium vibe inside when paired with the wood trim. I will say that the wood trim was delivered with a small crack that will be replaced by the dealer. We had the base silver trim in our C2 cab and I agree with the OP that it's excellent. We would probably go with the base trim if going with slate or black interior.

LED Matrix PDLS+ in Black - I've heard those that love this just for the look but in terms of night time driving performance I don't see any difference over the headlights included with the Premium pkg we had on our C2 cab. I don't see enough aesthetic difference for the cost and I'd definitely skip these in a future build.

...

Before we got the Targa we were afraid we'd prefer the cab and wish to order and eventually trade for our preferred spec but we've really started to fall for this build and it looks like she'll be hanging around for a while...

Happy driving OP. Here's to a beautiful fall season with the top down.

 

Nice builds, you all will enjoy them. Also good spec's. I too have a Targa 4S and love it, I am coming from a 992 Coupe and several 911's before (both targa and coupes). The 992 is by far the best iteration I have had of the 8 or so that I have had.

PS. Not sure I would have ordered the white wheels either (as you said) but I can say I have never seen that on any spec (and we have seen 100's if not 1000's on the site). I would say very unique and likely you will not run into anyone with that combo. Also, when you mentioned it in your post, I was like uhh that might be bad... When I scrolled down and saw the pictures, not bad at all. The good news is, if you ever did grow tired of it - you can change that pretty easily.

Here is mine...

 

All of these comments are excellent and further support the options I decided to order and the options I decided not to order on my Targa 4S. Really appreciate the time all of you took to post your good, detailed comments. I have been following Richard's comments for quite some time and absolutely love his Targa. Now if I can just get my allocation. I was #3 in May 2022. Hoping that with the August allocations I have moved up to #2 on the wait list. I submitted my demand order back on November 6, 2021.

 

Fantastic write up on the new Targa 4s. And the followups are great too! I've had my 2022 Targa 4 for 9 months. After 6k miles, I can say it's rock solid and no different than the first drive home. The handling and steering; fit and finish; power and presence -- just superior to anything I've ever owned. And it never gets old just taking a glance after parking it. Here's one from a couple of days ago.

 

Richard and Go Bruins - Beautiful cars. I love seeing all the different variations. I'm impressed how different the silver vs. black targa bar looks on builds. I was actually worried I would not like the silver but I think it suits our car nicely and looks great on Richards dark car too. On the other hand this black targa bar adds some nice contrast on a "silver" (sorry don't know exact color here) targa. This variation w/ the targa bar gives an extra way to add some contrast on the cars, which is a nice touch. Mix in the wheels and even different front/rear end options and the variations are endless... something we really enjoy about the Porsche experience.

Btw - In my comments I didn't really even mention power, handling, driving experience because I assume we all understand how absolutely top notch these cars drive. We came from other brands and originally we did a short-term lease of the 911 for a few months and fell in love. After that no car I drove felt quite as good and we realized we didn't want to settle for anything else.

In fairness I will say the one place where Porsche falls short is on the PCM and specifically the SXM satellite radio implementation. Its beyond terrible, but with the new PCM update w/ wireless Android auto and Apple music I'm not using SXM as much. We have SXM in our BMW X5 and absolutely love their implementation. 100x better. We crossed shopped a Cayenne when we got the X5 and just couldn't deal with the infotainment and interface. For us the X5 fits our needs for long road trips, filling it up with stuff and people. I also like the BMW implementation of adaptive cruise which is really good, although I don't have (and haven't tried) Porsche's equivalent (Innodrive. I guess). For us the Targa is just for the pure driving experience and I am beyond satisfied and that overrides any other factors.

 

Funny how the OP Targa in White and the second White Targa, the colors look drastically different. Must be the camera or camera settings.

 

beautiful

 

the other Targa was in shade which threw off the color balance.

 

I agree with the above. I am happy that Porsche does not slap an iPad on the dash. The integrated screen keeps the dash looking like it should. Apple CarPlay is what I universally use. I tinkered with using the native stations and Sirius/XM, but it was clunky and ill conceived. When I listen to Sirius now, it's through CarPlay.

As for the black targa bar, it's a great contrast, but only for certain colors. My car is Dolomite Silver, so it works well. But with GT Silver, I'd have kept the silver bar as is. Here are a couple better shots to see how it works.

 

I also like how the Targa script is in silver/chrome in contrast to the black Targa bar. I agree, the black Targa bar only works well on certain colors. I am ordering an aventurine green color* and I think the black Targa bar works OK with aventurine.

*Unless, of course, I win the lottery in which case I will order PTS in either Dark Sapphire Metallic or Yachting Blue in which case I will go with the silver Targa bar for those PTS colors.

 

Aventurine is one color that can work with black or silver targa bar. Just make sure you match the wheel color. I went with silver/silver on my Aventurine.

 

Here is a new picture I took of my Targa 4S yesterday in front of the Milwaukee Calatrava art museum in Milwaukee WI.. Only had a few minutes before the parking police said "move along"

 

Gotta say, I’m usually not a huge fan of those rims, but they sure do work with your build. Beautiful ride!!