2025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet Review: Effortless Excellence

Is the Porsche Carrera Cabriolet a True 911? 

• Absolutely, as long as you’re not convinced a true 911 needs a manual transmission or a wide choice of go-fast options. For drivers who want a comfortable, confident and absurdly capable droptop, the new Carrera Cabriolet is about as good as it gets.

What Sports Cars Does the Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet Compete With? 

• Competitors include the Mercedes-Benz SL, BMW M4 convertible, Chevrolet Corvette convertible and Aston Martin Vantage Roadster. In that lineup, the Porsche offers the best balance of performance, comfort and poise.

It happens every time I review a new Porsche 911. Whether it’s a GT2 RS or a Carrera T, I declare whatever version I just drove to be the most complete, well-rounded and usable slice of the expansive 911 lineup. Call it cognitive dissonance — or maybe just a short attention span — but I seem to think every new 911 is as near to perfection as a sports car can be, offering a definitive balance of driver engagement and effortless approachability. Why bother with anything else — including other 911s?

I considered this fact prior to the arrival of a 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet test car earlier this spring. From both a spec-sheet and spiritual perspective, a base Carrera Cab is the least enthusiast-oriented 911; not only does the Carrera (logically) have the least power, but the advent of the 992.2 generation for the 2025 model year restricted the manual transmission to the Carrera T and GT3.

Furthermore, a soft-top convertible will almost never be as capable or structurally rigid as a coupe, leaving the base dual-clutch-automatic-only Carrera as the softie, lease-and-release special of the 911 family. I know what I said about my prior experience with driving new 911s, but this can’t possibly be worth considering when the wondrously warp-speed 911 Carrera S exists, right?

Right?

Is the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet Quick?

It depends. In a vacuum, the Carrera Cab is a tremendously capable sports car, rich with tactility and driver satisfaction — especially with the top dropped, which facilitates maximum aural access to that twin-turbo 3.0-liter flat-six. Not as uncorked as the Carrera S or as shockingly sonorous as the naturally aspirated engines in the 911 GT3 and certain Cayman/Boxster variants, the Carrera’s basest-of-base six-cylinder still gnashes and zings like a mad titanium sewing machine; you hear every bit of its heritage and strong performance.

Strong is the key word here. The Carrera’s 388 horsepower and 331 pounds-feet of torque are up 9 ponies over the prior 992.1 Carrera, with Porsche claiming a 3.9-second 0-60 mph scoot for Cabs equipped with the Sport Chrono Package, as mine was. That is, of course, an underrated figure; as Porsche engineers have put it to me directly, a driver of average skill can expect to hit the official factory figures on street surfaces in most ambient conditions. Hot shoes will drop a few tenths off the scramble in controlled environments.

How Comfortable Is a 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet?

And I must say, this new Carrera Cab is very much a “real-world” car. Can you take it on a track and expect not only durability, but impressive capability? Of course. It’s the lowest caliber 911, but it is still a 911. It’s not the vaunted “911 distillate” that used to define the base Carrera, but it offers an exceedingly well-rounded package from both a performance and usability perspective. With meetings, vehicle debuts and events to attend, I crisscrossed the Los Angeles metroplex in the 911 Carrera, treating this super sportster as would someone with a monthly lease note.

As expected, it was a very “premium” experience, with a taut but refined ride, impeccable driver inputs, a reserved demeanor when you want it and interior trim tolerances that must be some of the best in the industry. It’s bigger, nicer and more refined than a Boxster, sharper and cooler than a Mercedes-Benz SL, and a better aire libre four-seat rocket than the BMW M4 convertible.

Will it impress the traditional Porsche enthusiast? No, but that’s been the case for a few generations now. I think the standard Carrera — coupe or cabriolet — is all things to the type of buyer who would be interested in a standard 911 Carrera in 2025. The traditional Porsche nerd has long since migrated to either the Carrera T, S or GTS, leaving a very sizable group of loyal Carrera buyers to be very, very happy with the black, white or silver 992.2 Carreras stocked by their local dealer. Paint to Sample? Air-cooled? Weissach? The heck you talking about? This is a 911, man. Not sure what “997” or “930” have to do with any of this — whatever they might be.

Even if you can’t afford the jump to the stick-shift, purist-baiting Carrera T, the 992.2 Carrera remains a remarkably well-rounded, balanced and exciting Porsche sports car that effortlessly conveys the 911’s finespun characteristics. Any modern 911 — no matter the roof, transmission or trim — possesses innate and immediate confidence for any level of driver that is as preternatural as it is reassuring.

How Does the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet Drive?

Out on the stupidly snaking Angeles Crest Highway, the Carrera Cabriolet was nearly unflappable, demonstrating more chassis capability than straight-line speed. It was quick, too; Porsche’s eight-speed dual-clutch PDK transmission appears to operate not in milliseconds but in picoseconds, with impressive shifting character when left in Auto mode and lightspeed shifts when operated manually via the steering-wheel paddles.

Power comes on thick and progressively, only noticeably dropping off north of the tallest speed limits in the nation. As great as the old naturally aspirated Carreras were up through the 991.1 generation of the early to mid-2010s, these modern twin-turbo mills offer a distinctly buzzy, torquey character of their own. It’s an engine that’s well suited to the PDK’s shocking preciseness, spinning up or piping down depending on the environment.

The softest Carrera it might be, but you’ll have to press the Cab pretty far to notice the structural foibles of the soft-top configuration. Cowl shake is as minimal as it could ever be in 2025, and everywhere else this car is the evocative and aspirational Porsche droptop that the fixed-roof car can never be.

So, there you have it: The softest 911 proves itself to be anything but. Leave the purist-pleasing to the spicier T, the speed seekin’ to the S and the effortless excellence to the Carrera Cabriolet.

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