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?
2025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet, front | Cars.com photo by Brandon Lim
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.
2025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet | Cars.com photo by Brandon Lim
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.
2025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet | Cars.com photo by Brandon Lim
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.
1 / 402025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet | Cars.com photo by Brandon Lim
About the make
Porsche
Porsche is one of the world’s most powerful brands, currently offering a mix of iconic sports cars and luxury performance sedans and SUVs.
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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.2025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet | Cars.com photo by Brandon Lim
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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- Shop for a 2025 Porsche 911 Near You
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2025 BMW M5 Touring (Wagon) Quick Spin: Practical Performance
By Joe Bruzek
June 7, 2025
2025 BMW M5 Touring, front | Cars.com photo by Christian Lantry
There’s been a resurgence of wagons for U.S. buyers in recent years, but there’s a catch. These are $100,000-plus, 600-horsepower-plus ultra-high-performance wagons like the Audi RS 6 Avant, Mercedes-AMG E63 wagon, Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo Turbo and now the BMW M5 Touring. I recently spent a short amount of time in the M5 Touring at the Midwest Automotive Media Association’s 2025 Spring Rally where, having previously reviewed the two prior generations of the M5, I was excited to test the new electrified plug-in hybrid M5 with its combined 717 hp and EPA-estimated 25 miles of all-electric range. Even after a short drive, it was clear that the new M5 is a very different beast than its predecessors, and doubly so with its new wagon body style.
Related: 2025 BMW M5 Touring: A 717-HP Station Wagon for $122,675
Size and Heft
While the previous two generations of M5 weren’t small by any measurement, the M5 Touring has a dominating presence with its long roofline, chiseled exterior styling and full-size SUV-like curb weight of 5,530 pounds. The M5 sedan and wagon are the same length at nearly 201 inches long overall, making them 5 inches longer than the 2018-23 M5 and 7 inches longer than the 2013-16 M5.
1 / 292025 BMW M5 Touring, profile | Cars.com photo by Christian Lantry
Electrified Engine
The powertrain does the M5’s hulking appearance justice with 717 hp that zaps the tires instantly. It combines an electric motor housed in the transmission that makes 194 hp and 207 pounds-feet of torque with a 577-hp, twin-turbocharged V-8. There’s no delay in acceleration like previous gas-only turbo V-8s, and it’s a thrilling wallop when the go-pedal goes down.2025 BMW M5 Touring | Cars.com photo by Christian Lantry
Unfortunately, the roads were damp and it was cold (mid-40s Fahrenheit ambient temp) during my drive, which made for a hairy experience with the M5 Touring’s Pirelli P Zero R tires. The P Zero R is a maximum-performance summer tire that fits between Pirelli’s P Zero summer tire and the P Zero Trofeo RS track-oriented tire. In the wet and cold, they seriously struggled, with even a light prodding of the accelerator pedal sending the wagon-butted rear end wagging back and forth. Interestingly, an M5 sedan was also available for drives, and its Michelin Pilot Sport S 5 tires (also a max-performance summer tire) were less susceptible to slipping and sliding. This was with the drive settings in sport-oriented configuration, of which there is an overwhelming number of individual settings for various adjustable controls like the steering, suspension, transmission, etc. Like in other BMWs, I prefer to set up the M1 and M2 steering-wheel buttons with one for the most comfort-oriented setting and the other in the raciest setting for easy switching of drive modes.
Handling
Other impressions from driving the M5 Touring, like handling characteristics, will have to wait for drier roads, but there are a couple things to note: If you couldn’t tell, this isn’t a dainty vehicle; it drives with heft and brute force versus delicacy and balance. Think sledgehammer instead of scalpel. And that’s not uncommon at all, with most mid-size luxury performance sedans and wagons trending the same way. I will say, however, that the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo Turbo S is an exception that defies all physics with its agility and Porsche-ness despite being a fully electric wagon that weighs 5,200 pounds. The one I tested was over $200,000, however.
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About the make
BMW
BMW is an independent German automaker that produces a full line of performance-oriented luxury cars and SUVs, including plug-in hybrids and EVs.
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Shop the BMW M52025 BMW M5 specs and reviewsCompare the 2025 BMW M5
M5 Cargo Room and Interior
On to the wagon bits. What defines this vehicle is something relatively ordinary: its normal cargo area. The M5 wagon’s 27.2 cubic feet of cargo space puts it between the subcompact BMW X1 SUV and the compact BMW X3 SUV, according to BMW specifications. A couple of interesting features include cargo area backseat releases and a two-position cargo shade that can cover the full cargo area or only part of it for larger items.2025 BMW M5 Touring | Cars.com photo by Christian Lantry
BMW Vehicles With the Most Cargo Space Behind the Second Row
1. 2025 X7: 48.6 cubic feet
2. 2026 X5: 33.9/33.1 (40i, M60i/50e)
3. 2025 X3: 31.5 cubic feet
4. 2026 X6: 27.4 cubic feet
5. 2025 M5 Touring: 27.2 cubic feet
6. 2025 X1: 25.7 cubic feet
7. 2025 X2: 25.3 cubic feet
8. 2025 X4: 18.5 cubic feet
That interior is dominated by a combined digital instrument panel and center touchscreen that are massive and high-quality but also contain important climate and vehicle controls that replace traditional buttons. You can’t simply jump in and intuitively use the system; it takes acclimation and exploring to find everything you need. During my drive, I needed my co-pilot’s assistance to turn on the defroster. The interior is nicely styled, however, with fun textures and ambient lighting that give it a very modern and techy feel.
The Unmeasurable Wagon Effect
BMW’s head of the M Division recently told a BMW publication that current demand for the wagon is outpacing demand for the sedan in the U.S. (The M5 wagon hasn’t previously been available in the U.S.) It’s a strange trend to hear for the U.S. market, especially because it’s the other way around in Europe. Is it really because the M5 is more practical as a wagon than a sedan? Perhaps, but it could also be that the M5 Touring is something of an ironic sports car. Or, it could be an anti-SUV statement. Or, maybe a 717-hp all-wheel-drive wagon that does 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds and up to 190 mph is pretty damn cool, and who knows if we’ll ever get it again. It’s certainly not cheap, however, with an as-tested price of $144,375.
