How much is car insurance for a Porsche 911 Carrera?

The 911 Carrera has been Porsche’s signature vehicle for over 40 years.

If this quintessential super-luxury sports car has caught your attention and you’re wondering how much it costs to insure, simply enter your zip code in the box to get competitive car insurance quotes from leading insurance companies.

First, however, take a few moments to read on and learn more about the 911 Carrera–some recent enhancements, specs, safety features and other considerations that affect the cost to insure this classic of the sport- and racing-car world.

Porsche History – A Long Tradition, Alive and Well

The 911 Carrera is Porsche’s flagship rear-engine sports car. It has arguably garnered more praise and won more automotive competitions than any other car since it was first introduced in 1963. Early models carried the series label 911 until 1989. This was followed by the 964 Series from 1989 to 1993, and the 993 Series from 1993 to 1998.

These models were all air-cooled; water-cooled engines arrived with the 996 Series available from 1998 to 2005, and continue with the present 997 Series, a fleet of highly-praised vehicles that offers the sports car enthusiast an enormous range of power and options in hardtop and convertible versions.

Porsche refers to all these series under the general heading 911 Carrera.

Before discussing Porsche’s current 911 models, we should note that if you’re interested in a used or vintage 911, you will find many available vehicles to choose from in all price ranges, as well as insurers willing to cover older Porsches.

The amount of driving you do, the age, provenance and valuation of your older Porsche, and whether you own another daily use car may all factor into your insurance cost.

Take the time to research different insurance options in order to understand and adequately protect your older Porsche 911.

From 2009 to the Present: Models and Features

Reviewers are excited about the most recent 911 models in the 997 series. When the entire line was updated in 2009, Motor Trend gushed: “…all we could do at the end of the drive was shake our heads in admiration: They’ve done it again. They’ve built a better 911.”

Edmunds and US News echoed this sentiment, as did Popular Mechanics, Car and Driver, Automobile Magazine and the rest of the who’s who of car reviewers. What’s special about the current generation of 911 Carreras? Let’s take a quick look before we get to safety and insurance considerations.

In 2009, Porsche introduced new, more powerful engines for its basic and S-version 911 Carreras. Porsche also began using direct fuel injection for the first time, producing noticeably better power and efficiency.

The 3.6-liter 345-horsepower six-cylinder is available on the base Carrera and the all-wheel drive Carrera 4 in their coupe and convertible versions, as well as on the power-sunroof Targa model.

Each of these models also has a more powerful counterpart equipped with a 3.8-liter 385-horsepower six-cylinder engine: the Carrera S, the Carrera 4S, and the Targa S. Starting prices range from $77,800 for the base 3.6 Carrera to just over $100,000 for several S models.

Need more power? The Carrera GTS, GT3 and GT3 RS rear-wheel drive models all boast 3.8-liter engines with 408, 435 and 450 horsepower respectively, starting in the low $100,000s.

The Turbo and Turbo S all-wheel drive models are powerhouses at 500 and 530 horsepower respectively, the latter yielding 0-to-60 mph acceleration in as little as 3.1 seconds when equipped with advanced performance options.

While these max out between 193 and 196 mph with starting prices from $135,500 to $172,100, the GT2 RS model, at 620 horsepower and a maximum speed of 205 mph, will cost you a minimum of $245,000, and is the most powerful production vehicle in Porsche history.

Porsche’s new seven-speed transmission with an automatic mode and manual shift option, the Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK for short), uses Porsche’s double-clutch technology and is available in all except the racing-style manual-transmission GT3, GT3 RS and GT2 RS models.

With the PDK transmission, there are actually two half gearboxes inside, one for even and one for odd gears. Gear shift actions are overlapped so as to provide efficient, seamless gear changes for the ultimate smooth driving experience at optimal sport ratios.

Although some racing car purists will always prefer a manual transmission, the PDK has produced the consistently faster acceleration and wins the approval of most reviewers.

Safety and Insurance Considerations

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety do not provide crash evaluations for the 911 Carrera.

These major crash-testing agencies focus on standard consumer transportation such as minivans, sedans and SUVs, and test only some sports cars at irregular intervals.

The current 911 Carrera is equipped with important safety features, however, such as the complete Porsche Stability Management system including anti-lock brakes, as well as tire pressure monitoring, brakepad wear sensors, reinforced impact-absorbing body construction, front, side and head air bags, side impact protection, and seatbelt pretensioners with force limiters.

Despite these safety additions, the insurance industry considers high-performance sports cars and their drivers an inherently greater risk and cost, so insuring a Porsche Carrera is expensive compared to conventional consumer vehicles.

The national average for a typical policy on a base-model Carrera is around $2275 per year for the hardtop coupe and $2680 for the convertible.

These averages can vary a lot depending on driver age, driving record, credit history, state and town in which you live, annual mileage and other considerations. For example, the base Carrera 911 coupe costs on average around $1470 to insure in Maine, whereas in Louisiana it costs closer to $3500.

With so many variables affecting the price of insurance, it’s important to compare rates and terms to get the best deal you can on insuring your Porsche 911 Carrera.

Simply enter your zip code in the box and begin shopping for car insurance.

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