Is the Porsche 911 a Good Car?
- With shocking performance, near-perfect driver inputs and capability that far outstrips its model positioning, the refreshed 2025 911 Carrera S remains one of the most compelling and complete sports cars you can purchase that has a warranty.
How Does the Porsche 911 Compare With Other Sports Cars?
- Look for most to cross-shop the new 911 Carrera S against the Mercedes-AMG GT, Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and Aston Martin Vantage. Throw a dart — you simply can’t go wrong here — but the 2025 911 Carrera S offers one of the best balances of performance, refinement and usability.
A $148,395 volume model? Such is the market right now when navigating the Porsche 911 lineup. Folks who can afford a new 911 like to load ‘em out, and the mid-tier Carrera S is often the first and final stop for a fiercely loyal subset of Porsche buyers. According to the German brand, 35% of all 911s sold in the U.S. are a Carrera S, accounting for 33% of all Carreras sold globally.
Related: 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S Gets More Power, $148,395 Base Price
What Is the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S?
If you understand any Carrera S from the 997 generation (2005-11 model years) on, understanding the new 992.2-generation 911 Carrera S is a cinch: Take the base Carrera and turn the performance dial up 15% to 35%, depending on the generation. In the 992.2, you’ll see a bigger leap than is historically expected, with the twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter flat-six-cylinder thrumming at 473 horsepower and 390 pounds-feet of torque, up 85 hp and 59 pounds-feet over the standard Carrera and Carrera T. That’s a big gulf considering the 992.1 generation (2020-24 model years) of the 911 Carrera S added 64 hp to the regular Carrera.
The rest of the refreshed Carrera S is familiar fare. Bigger brakes, louder exhaust, stiffer suspension, stickier tires and a spikier powertrain are all hallmarks of that “S” appendage, now further tweaked for the new generation. Porsche Active Suspension Management and Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus are standard, as is the sport exhaust. The optional PASM Sport suspension drops the ride height by nearly 0.4 inch, now without helper springs and incorporating damper tech from the prior GTS.
Speaking of the GTS, its big ol’ 16-inch front and 14.9-inch rear brake discs are now standard on the 2025 911 Carrera S, with carbon-ceramic discs as an option. Also optional is the trick rear-steer setup. This is also the first Carrera S you must fully untether from the corresponding GTS trim; the 2025 911 Carrera GTS’ 3.6-liter hybrid drivetrain is not only the first electrified production Porsche 911 in history, it’s also wholly distinct from the 3.0-liter hearts in the Carrera, Carrera T and Carrera S.
911 Carrera S Vs. 911 Carrera GTS T-Hybrid
So, the family tree tessellates further. I’ve yet to drive that revolutionary GTS T-Hybrid, but I had the keys to the freshly squeezed Carrera S for an entire afternoon facing down nothing but a loop of California canyon road squiggling through the mountains north of San Diego. My first run was in a deep blue Carrera S Cabriolet; despite the 992.2 generation’s updates, the car remains intimately familiar, with the overwhelming majority of switchgear and cabin presentation carried over from the prior generation.
… Only, it’s not exactly as I left it. The left-hand ignition is now a simple push-button toggle, a downgrade from the prior twist-start dongle that was at least a fun simulacrum of a key, itself a downgrade from the 991 generation’s (2012-19 model years) requirement of an inserted key fob. Forum folk are quite incensed by this but, eh, I’ve already wasted enough digital ink on this — who cares. If this is the carbon-fiber strand that broke the camel’s back, you weren’t in the market for a new 911 to begin with, and this is coming from one of the biggest Porsche obsessives you’ll meet.
Returning motifs like the Braun-shaped gear selector are contrasted by concessions to modernity. The 992.2 standardizes lane departure steering assist, a tech antithetical to the very essence of the 911 that can, thankfully, be defeated quickly. And the driver’s display is now entirely digital, the 992.1’s partly analog readout replaced with pure, uncut electrons.
How Does the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S Drive?
Frankly, I only noticed this change the following afternoon as I sifted through both product information and interior photos. It’s still very much a 992, and I was far too thrilled with the view out the front and the accelerative pressure on my chest to take note of the minutiae. Porsche claims a 0-60 mph scramble in 3.3 seconds for the Cabriolet and 3.1 seconds for the coupe, both absurd figures that snap into sharp relief the first time you hit that red “overtake” button on the steering-wheel-mounted drive selector.
The new Carrera S is, as far as I can tell, about as quick in a straight line as you’d ever need a sports car to be. It’s the perfect balance of satisfaction and stupefaction, quickly — and I mean quickly — reaching speeds that’d skip you straight to the backseat of the cop cruiser without utterly overwhelming the senses like the 911 Turbo. The S is supposed to be a simple step up in performance, but it makes the standard 911 Carrera feel like a base Boxster.
While the speedo spins, you’ll crease your boots at that toe-curlin’ scream. The turbo 3.0-liter six-cylinder isn’t as sonorous as the two free-breathing 4.0-liter engines found elsewhere in Porsche’s family tree, but the S’ whistling, ripsaw rasp channels every bit of the flat-six’s high-strung, nitro-sewing-machine character. In the mountains, I set the dual-mode exhaust to wide open, spooking deer and trucks alike to the side of the pass.
Naturally, it’s equally as satisfying and impressive to blast through a zag of tarmac as it is frustrating to write about considering each stint behind the wheel of a Carrera sees me invariably babbling with the same breathless chorus. No matter the configuration, a modern 911 is one of the most immediately confident and familiar driving experiences you can have, regardless of environment. The brake pedal bite, the accelerator response, the PDK dual-clutch transmission’s shift logic — it’s all nearly perfect.
Grip is tremendous, buoyed in no small part by the gluey Pirelli P Zeroes, 245 width in front and 305 width for the rear. Front-end composure is some of the best in the business, allowing turn-in speeds and sharp directional changes that you swear would unsettle most other cars. There are faster cars than a 911, but there are none that are so effortlessly confident over a fast road.
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What’s the Difference Between a 911 Carrera Coupe and Cabriolet?
This was particularly true of the coupe. The Carrera S cabriolet (or any 911 cab, really) is about the best top-down motoring experience with a warranty that you can have for under $200,000 with what feels like 95% of the capability of the fixed-roof car, only with the slightest of cowl shake. My Guards Red coupe test car, on the other hand, was a missile thanks to the addition of the sport suspension and carbon-ceramic brakes. Dump the power wherever — on the straight, midcorner, anywhere — and the remarkable combination of torque vectoring, ceramic brakes and rear-axle steer lends preternatural levels of firepower containment, while that sport suspension sharpens a stick that could already split an atom.
All right, I’m getting a bit dramatic at this point, but it’s simply one of the most fulfilling and enjoyable new cars on offer today, even if you’ll have the devil’s own time keeping the purchase price under $150,000. Each time I approach any 911 positioned under the GT3, I forget my prior experience and believe there’s simply no way it could possibly meet expectations — and each time, I’m forced to write the same article.
It’s just that damn good.
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