So, you want an all-wheel-drive sports car as a four-season daily driver with major league traction? Fair play. In this category, the entry-level all-wheel-drive variant of the Porsche 911 was always the default option, but it’s off the table if you’re buying new. See, when Porsche unveiled the facelifted 911, the base Carrera launched without an all-wheel-drive counterpart. The only way of getting an all-wheel-drive 992.2 was by going up to the Carrera 4 GTS or Targa 4 GTS, at least until now. This is the new 911 Carrera 4S, and while it’s more affordable than a GTS, it certainly isn’t cheap.
As you can imagine from the nomenclature, this is essentially a 911 Carrera S with all-wheel drive. That means you get a three-liter turbocharged flat-six somewhere under the rear lid, one with a 29-horsepower bump over the old 911 Carrera 4S. Output now stands at 473 horsepower, matching the peak output of the 911 Dakar and the old 911 GTS. Mated exclusively to an eight-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic, this sort of power should be good for a manufacturer-claimed zero-to-60 mph time of 3.1 seconds and a top speed of 191 mph. Serious numbers, but not the most serious ones on tap.
See, the preliminary base price of the new Porsche 911 Carrera 4S is $156,450, and things only go up from there. Want a stowable roof? The 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet carries an early preliminary price of $169,650, and the Targa 4S has a preliminary price of $171,350. Putting the soft-roofed examples aside for now, even the coupe is a lot of bones. Even if we adjust the 2024 Carrera 4S for inflation, we’re looking at a starting price some $12,724 higher for the new one, although you do get extra stuff for the extra cash. Things like brakes off the old 911 Carrera GTS, sure, but also features that used to be optional just a few years ago.
Every 2026 911 Carrera 4S gets a limited-slip rear differential, a bit more leather than zero-option pre-facelift models, Matrix Design LED headlights, a sport exhaust, and wireless smartphone charging. All good stuff, and it should be a brilliant vehicle to drive if the base two-wheel-drive 911 Carrera is any indication, but $156,450 is a lot of coin, especially when you look at what else is out there.
For instance, if you don’t need rear seats and are okay with a through-the-road all-wheel-drive system, a top-trim Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray stickers for $119,745 including freight. It’s purportedly quicker than a 911 Carrera 4S with a zero-to-60 mph time of 2.5 seconds, comes with extended leather and a Bose sound system and blind spot monitoring and heated and ventilated seats, and you won’t have to wait to get one.
If you’re alright with a slower, heavier car so long as you save some serious money, a V8-powered Mercedes-AMG GT 55 starts at $138,900 and does feature a chest-beating V8. Occasional use rear seats are a no-cost option, and you’ll still be ending up with a machine that can run from zero-to-60 mph in 3.8 seconds and spit power to all four wheels.
Still, if you’re alright with spending $156,450 before options on a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S or Targa 4S, you might be able to take delivery before the snow really flies. The first examples of the new model are rolling into showrooms in the fourth quarter of this year, and order books are open now. However, if you want a new all-wheel-drive 911 but don’t want to spend more than $150,000, there’s always the chance a Carrera 4 might come along.
Top graphic image: Porsche
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Others have said this, but this is mostly an inflation issue.
Jason wrote about inflation adjusted 911 prices on the other site:
https://www.jalopnik.com/finally-a-chart-that-shows-when-porsche-911s-were-most-1848104737/
But, that was written in 2021, before the recent crazy inflation, so add another 18.4% to those prices to get to 2025.
If you want to be really outraged, inflation between 2020-2025 has been a total of 24.2% !!!
Oh, and the dollar has also lost about 15% versus the Euro since January, so German products are going to be even more expensive now.
I think even in the 964 days, it was still when assembly line techs were lifting a 911 transaxle with their legs as they were on their back bolting it in.
They weren’t cheap then for a reason. That the quality was still great is insane.
Some plastics in the 996 aside (which held up if you took care of them), Toyota Production Method was one of the best things to ever happen to Porsche.
Why anyone would want an AWD 911 is beyond me. RWD + Rear engine, and winter tires can get you through anything.
“However, if you want a new all-wheel-drive 911 but don’t want to spend more than $150,000, there’s always the chance a Carrera 4 might come along.”
Or just buy something else. Or forgo the AWD.
If I was buying a Porsche, the main reason I’d buy it would be to have as a fun 2nd car.
And that means I’d probably go with something like a RWD Boxster or Cayman with a manual.
Absolute insanity. 911s went plaid in pricing eons ago. I would infinitely rather spend $150K on a nice 993. At least you will likely never lose a cent on the thing.
But reality is I would rather have three mint ’80s 911s than any of the modern water-cooled ones. Heck, I think you can get one of the less desirable but still VERY desirable to me ’60s 911s for what a modern one costs – and those are still going UP in value.
But the rich are different than you and me – they have all the money.
So here’s something fun, is the 911’s price has basically remained 1:1 with inflation since it first came out.
Base price yes. Price with options – not so much. And all the stuff you want in a modern car costs extra.
And then there is that whole “relative disposable income” thing. 911s are in reality, WAAAAY more expensive today than they were in the ’80s, even if they were never a working man’s car.
All the extras back then cost more, too
There were very, very few options back then.
According to chatgpt 22 options for base 964 + special factory requests. Dunno what those were, I guess anything was possible with deep enough pockets. Yes, it’s less options that today, but now more that ever they are just options, one doesn’t need (or even can) tick every box.
I am talking about 911s of the 60s-80s. And there are more than 22 options for JUST interior leather bits and bobs for a modern 911.
As others have pointed out, and having nearly bought a Porsche Cayman a few years back, Porsche makes MANY things that are just standard expected features on other premium cars today expensive options. The base price absolutely balloons once you start ticking boxes.
And rely on ChatGPT at your peril. It doesn’t know what it doesn’t know.
Porsche is pulling an Icarus with their virulent greed these days. There is going to come a point when they simply cannot charge a cent more, and you’re not even vaguely getting your money’s worth anymore. I like Porsche as much as anyone, but a poverty spec 911 is a $125,000 car now, doesn’t even have a differential, and has a plastic interior that wouldn’t look out of place in a Mustang.
Filling a Porsche with basic niceties that are standard kit or damn close to it in other luxury cars costs $20,000. By the time they hit lots a base 4 cylinder Macan is essentially an $80,000 car at this point, a barebones Cayenne is a six figure proposition, and in you’re now paying exotic prices for any desirable 911.
I get that the rich are richer than ever and are going to continue to get even richer, but the ultra wealthy don’t usually stay ultra wealthy by incinerating money. We’re at the point that a Porsche costs 20%+ more than whatever they’re competing against in most classes. Maybe the name recognition is enough o carry them forever, but to me between their current stratospheric costs and the Porsche Tax at arguably its highest rate ever I have a feeling that the bubble is going to pop, and it will be ugly when it does.
The 911 was always a “flagship” vehicle though. It isn’t meant to be particularly accessible, it is meant to be a Porsche 911.
The Boxster though, now that was the car a mid-level manager could afford if they pinched their pennies a bit. Ticking zero options – not even the metallic paint – a 2025 Boxster is about $77k. Think the mid-level manager’s dream is dead.
As a mid level manager who’s hoping to get into a 718 as a weekend car in a few years but can’t currently make the numbers make sense I feel attacked
Given you’re a mid-level manager, allow me to introduce you to a cromulent ride for someone like you:
https://www.bmwusa.com/vehicles/x-models/x1/suv/overview.html
How dare you. I would NEVER drive an entry level luxury car and I especially wouldn’t never drive a front wheel drive one.
What about fully embracing the middle manager, but putting a early 2000s depressing sitcom spin on it?
What’s today’s equivalent of a gently used Chrysler Cirrus?
— —-
Actually being serious, the correct answer is a 2015 or 2016 Type 981 Boxster S with a manual and sport exhaust. Preferably sport steering wheel, but it’s an easy swap. BOSE or Burmester. If you want PASM, get it, but from experience I’d say it’s not necessary.
That’s it. That’s all you need. That’s all you ever need.
Buy the best one you can find, in the color you want. Pay what they want. They’re not ever going to be cheaper.
When Porsche Classic does the replacement for the PCM 3.0 in another five or so years, pop it in to get CarPlay and all that jazz, where it all “just works” with no futzing, and it looks like it came with it.
Drive it until you shouldn’t be driving anymore.
Aaalright alright… you “need” a AWD Porsche. Well these days, Porsche has mid-level managers like you covered as well…
https://configurator.porsche.com/en-US/mode/model/95BAU1/
As long as you don’t pick any options that make it special, you should be able to afford that
Audi Q5PORSCHE Macan.LOL
It’s still possible. The Macan is $1k a month for a lease with more money down than you should ever put on a lease, but really that payment isn’t too far off from the norm ($650 ish per Google) and probably not any more than a really nice pickup truck. I didn’t bother to check lease deals on the boxster.
I just checked three local dealers – there were a grand total of 3 718 Boxsters on the lot, including one 4.0 priced at $123k.
There were about 100 Macans between those three dealerships, so not surprising they have lease deals available.
I’d highly encourage you to check MSRP of 911s through the years and check that with an inflation calculator.
Ah, I see you don’t know how the actual wealthy buy things. They don’t pay for things with real money, they take a margin loan out against a portfolio and pay interest only while leaving the money they would have spent in the market. They’re earning (market returns – interest) which is a positive number in the long run instead of being out the cash which gets them nothing but the depreciating Porsche in this case.
Eventually the markets turn and they do some tax loss harvesting to offset the sales of some of their better assets with unrealized capital gains (easy enough to avoid wash sale rules by just having a fund based off the S&P500 and swapping it for a total market index fund locking in the losses but keeping the capital in the market for the rebound or to move back to the other fund after 30 days). Then they pay off the loan with essentially tax free money.
If you hold on to that loan long enough for the (market return – interest) to grow the unspent assets more than the cost of the car, you’ve traded some market time for a Porsche and done nothing but slow your portfolio growth a bit.
There is no bubble. I think you (understandably) don’t understand that a $2-3k/mo lease for a 911 4S is just not a lot of money to people who make $50-100k/mo
Porsche model/options have worse side effects than anal leakage and death
yay inflation. are we winning yet?
Lowest rate in 24 years so yeah
Lol that’s not even vaguely true. It was lower in 2021.
? From a cursory search on government websites the annual inflation rate has been lower multiple times in the past 10 years.
But OAN says we’re winning bigly on inflation. Nobody’s ever seen inflation this low. It’s negative inflation actually.
Where do you get that? It’s hugely wrong.
So far since January 2025, average inflation is 2.6%
Since 2000:
12 years with inflation greater than 2.6%.
13 years with inflation LOWER than 2.6% !!!!!!
Maybe we just go by month? May 2025: 2.4%
But since 2000, 143 months above 2.4%, but 163 months less than 2.4%.
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
I think the 911 should be offered as rear engine FWD.
If you’ll pay for it, they will build it
Arguably, this statement needs to be true for the 911, too.
Twice as much as a not-fully-optioned American pickup truck?
I’m OK with that.
Even if the pickup truck is half the price and way faster? Porsche and other European manufacturers seem to have an agreed upon top speed and it is slower than most fast American vehicles
After watching a youtube helping of hellcat videos, that may be a good idea.
I’m also not sure by what measure an ICE Silverado is faster than a Carrera 4S (3.1 seconds 0-60, 191mpg top speed).
Porsche really needs to chill out with their pricing lately. A base 911 is going to be a $200k car before too long.
counterpoint: inflation is making the dollar so weak it’s becoming a joke currency.
But inflation is at the lowest rate in 24 years. Do any economists read car blogs?
The tariffs haven’t really hit retail shelves yet, then the cpi reporting will lag behind that by weeks / months.
I’m really curious how this shakes out. There was a while where there were literally no container ships headed our way from China. Unless they somehow caught up since there are going to be some empty shelves at big box stores.
How do you figure that? There are multiple months or year over year inflation rates in the last 24 years that are lower than recent. What’s the source for the lowest rate in the last 24 years?
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
The dollar is currently ~$1.18 to the Euro. Which is actually pretty good. Lots better than the $1.35ish it was when I went to Europe in 2011 to get my 328!, and only a little worse than it was when I got my M235i in 2015. I am SURE Trump’s tariff bullshit is playing into this pricing though.
Counter-counterpoint – Porsche is, has been since the 80s, and always will be a very greedy company. Which is fine, their market will bear it, but don’t think for a minute they aren’t absolutely printing money with every single car they sell. Remember, tiny little Porsche at one point was so rich they very nearly managed an effective hostile takeover of VW (all in the family, but still…).