2017 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S review – Roadshow

Sep 2016

The Good The 2017 Carrera 4S is a joy to drive, thanks to a responsive engine and an impressively quick transmission.

The Bad The 911 can pick up some serious wind noise at speed, and if you include every option, the car’s price heads north of $150,000 in a hurry.

The Bottom Line The latest iteration of the 911 might add two turbochargers, but its core character remains the same — it’s a wondrous sports car that won’t become a chore on longer jaunts.

These days, everybody wants their cars to be superheroes. We want them to be sporty, but not so sporty that we can’t be comfortable. We want power, but we’re not willing to give up fuel economy. We want our cake and, dad gum it, we want to eat it too. Cost keeps most cars from achieving this goal, but most cars aren’t the Porsche 911.

While it may have started its life as a lithe rally machine, the 911 has grown considerably, spawning many different variants along the route, nearly all of which sport turbochargers as of 2017.

It’s an efficiency move, no doubt, but the 911 has soldiered on through worse, and I’m happy to report that the car you see here, the 2017 911 Carrera 4S, hands out the cake on a fork and begs drivers to take a bite. Whether it’s cruising down the expressway in proper grand-touring form or whipping about the back roads of Insert State Here, it’s a delight.

Easy to pick out of a lineup

If you’ve seen a Porsche 911 since 1966 or so, it’s not hard to pick one out on the road. Its rear-engine layout gives it a familiar, demi-ovate silhouette that hasn’t changed much, save for generational expansions along all three axes. Mild revisions for the 2017 model year include a revised front end, new taillights and a new engine cover. This specific color, Graphite Blue, is worth the $710 cost of admission.

If you’re unsure what you’re looking at, the litany of badges across the rear end will definitely remind you.

Nick Miotke/Roadshow

Inside, 911 traditions remain, like the five-gauge binnacle and the left-side ignition, but they’re given a 21st-century update — the key now stays in your pocket, and the center-right gauge houses a 4.6-inch color display.

Even though the infotainment screen dominates the center stack, there are still loads of dials and buttons. I found the menagerie of controls below the shifter, which adjust all manner of chassis and powertrain bits, confusing at first. By the end of my week with the car, though, opening the exhaust or lifting the front end (a $2,590 option) was muscle memory.

My tester came with a blue-and-white leather interior, and it was hard to find a surface that didn’t feel nice and expensive. The seats, despite carrying a Sport moniker, are comfortable and supportive on long trips. Except for the rear seats. No matter how big the 911 gets, the rear seats are, have been, and always will be, a cruel joke.

Thankfully, I could fold down the rear seats and use the parcel shelf as additional grocery storage. If you need to grocery shop for more than two people, the 911’s frunk will need some help, as it’s just big enough for several backpacks or a smaller weekender bag.

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No longer analog

Whether tucked away inside the suspension or right up front on the gauge cluster, technology makes the 2017 Carrera 4S decidedly digital. Drop $3,970 for the Premium Package Plus, and the 911 picks up LED headlights that provide ample illumination, auto-dimming mirrors and heated and cooled seats.

Porsche’s latest iteration of its PCM infotainment system is snappy and very easy to figure out — except for the settings menus.

Nick Miotke/Roadshow

As for infotainment, I was blown away by the latest iteration of Porsche’s infotainment system, which is new for this year. It now supports Apple CarPlay, but not Android Auto. The screen features a proximity sensor, hiding extraneous bits until a hand draws near.

I found this new infotainment system easy to use, but slightly difficult to fully figure out. For example, it gave me three different ways to change settings — use of the Opt button on a specific screen, through the touchscreen’s Settings menu or forcing attention up to the gauge cluster’s information display, which has its own control stalk.

If you need to remain connected on the road, the 911 car can be equipped with a 4G LTE antenna supporting a Wi-Fi hotspot. Optional onboard apps deliver fuel prices, weather, online destination search, news and even Google Earth maps to the screen. Porsche also has the Porsche Car Connect app, which lets the driver control vehicle functions using either a phone or wearable device.

While it may not come loaded with every new safety system on the planet, Porsche will add adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency braking for $2,490. Another $850 tacks on blind spot monitoring. Parking sensors and a backup camera come standard, which helps keep the shiny parts shiny.