2001 Porsche 911 Reviews - Page 2 of 3

What you don't say is that the new 911 is excessively noisy, common, not that involving to drive, and like the Boxster is assembled from low-grade plastics. The drivers door goes clang rather than clunk. The indicator stalk goes snap and not click. Now, don't get me wrong, the 911 has always been a specialist car, but the latest (996) incarnation is an emasculated version of its predecessors. It lacks that wonderful air-cooled whirr, it's no longer built like Grandpa's toolshed, and unless you go for the insanely priced Turbo it really doesn't feel that fast. It's a grand tourer -- a sort of "PC Porsche" for the nineties -- and not a lot more. You're welcome to it...

The 996 is noisy (noisy in a bad way: it's not nearly as enjoyably vocal as its air-cooled predecessors), the interior is of risible quality (one assumes you've never traveled in a BMW or Audi), and the Carrera 2 suffers from surprisingly bad understeer, especially when driven uphill or downhill in the wet. There's also little sensation of speed: I'm surprised you downgraded from a Turbo to a normally aspirated model as the latter is dull as ditchwater by comparison. I get a more enjoyable sensation of speed standing on a Circle Line elevator.

Which reminds me. Because of the lack of weight over the front (I can't imagine if Porsche were to launch the 911, they'd choose the same bizarre 68%/32% weight distribution that has taken them decades to get right), the ABS is perpetually cutting in on broken and uneven surfaces: it can catch you out. Mind you, at speed they suffer absolutely no fade and go some way to restoring confidence.

However. The standard-fit stereo is lacklustre, the optional sunroof buffets at 30mph, and although the car is now a common sight throughout the UK, you still have people making gestures at you and refusing to let you out of junctions.

The 996 is the one car I thought I'd love, and eventually sold it in a mixture of annoyance and confusion some four months after purchasing it. It is a good car, certainly, but worthy of its sixty thousand pound price tag? Not. It's a thirty thousand pound car with a 100% sucker tax for the badge on the front: you only have to look at Porsche's per-car profit to realize that. A fool and his money are indeed soon parted...