Porsche 911 Carrera (992)
Why 8.5: The entry 992: the 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat-six with the smaller turbochargers, 379 hp, eight-speed PDK as the only gearbox, 19- and 20-inch wheels, black calipers and the narrow-body shell that every other 992 widens or wings. The 992.2 update for 2025 added 9 hp and a digital instrument cluster and left the formula alone.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The 3.0 flat-six keeps its offbeat idle, the small turbos spool with a whistle, and the optional sports exhaust adds some overrun pop. But it is the most insulated Carrera yet, with a stock exhaust tuned for neighbours and, in Europe, a particulate filter, so little survives above 5,000 rpm. The quietest narrow-body 992.
6-cylinder · turbocharged · 7,500 rpm redline · rated 6.3 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €89k (2020) → €77k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
Two ISOFIX positions on the outer rear seats — jump seats, so the question is whether the seat physically fits behind a front occupant, not whether the anchors are there.
The rear anchors are the supported route — the manual points child seats there, and front-passenger ISOFIX is the exception rather than the rule. A belt-mounted seat up front needs the airbag off, and cars with a rear row don't always fit a deactivation switch, precisely because the rear seats exist.
Derived from production years and seating layout, not a per-car source. ISOFIX was standardised as ISO 13216 in 1997, required on new EU model types from 2011 and on all new EU cars from 2014.
The long version
Every 911 generation has a base Carrera that outsells the rest, and every generation's base Carrera is the one that goes to the office. The 992 version costs less than a Carrera T, comes with PDK whether you want it or not, and is bought by people who want one 911 to do everything: airport runs, school runs, the occasional B-road, the Alps once a year. Lease-funded and dealer-serviced, it accumulates 10,000 miles a year the way a Macan does, which is more than any other car in this rail, and it is rarely sold within the first three years because there is no premium to be had — nobody flips a base Carrera. Depreciation is gentle but real, the options list is the only thing that makes two of them different, and the sports exhaust is the only option that matters. The highest-scoring 911 on the Index for the least exciting reason: it is a car, and its owners treat it like one.