Buying a Taycan RWD with too many options. Am I making a mistake?

[Ross]

Also you can FoD PDLS lights to PDLS+ in US and UK and you can buy Power Steering Plus in UK

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[bah1590]

I have ordered a new MY2023 Taycan RWD with the freeze date on 5 July. Since this will be my first Porsche car, I was thinking of adding sufficient options to get a premium feel. But the build I am planning will take the overall car cost to $120k which is way higher than the base price. So I wanted some suggestions regarding whether this is an okay purchase, or to cut down on some options (or if I should upgrade the model typeinstead).

The build link for the config is http://www.porsche-code.com/PPQVBWS7. Here's a summary of all the options

The must-have options for me (Total price is $20k):

1. Spyder design wheels
2. Base premium package (without park assist, innodrive)
3. Performance Battery Plus
4. Adaptive cruise control

The additional (non-mandatory) options in my build (Total price is $9k):

1. Rear axle steering
2. Adaptive air suspension
3. Sport chrono package
4. Leather interior

Other remaining options are just some minor upgrades worth less than $2k in total so they are not worth discussing.

I am not sure asking this type of question really helps you. All you get is a lot of different opinions and imho it just makes it more confusing. I would look online especially on YouTube and do the best you can to review the different options for the different levels of Taycan and make your own choices and stick with them. In the end you are going to be happy no matter how you spec it because it is a great car.

 

[Ambroos]

My RWD Taycan, built January 2022 ended up at $110k before tax, and that's before the MY2023 price hikes.

My thoughts:
- Standard interior is surprisingly nice, I don't see a reason to go full leather
- Sport chrono is unnecessary, you get a sport button on the center screen instead if you don't spec it
- Adaptive cruise control is a must have if you are getting it as a daily driver and ever spend time in traffic, I have it engaged over half of the miles I drive. It leaves me more focus and energy to drive the fun parts myself, the car can drive the boring traffic jams.
- I don't miss rear axle steering. American roads and places are built to handle big cars, it'd be different in Europe. I drove an e-tron SUV before this (a medium-large SUV) and the Taycan is very similar in maneuverability
- don't get PIRM
- definitely get air suspension, even with the car lifted in air suspension lift there's some unavoidable bottom scraping, and the added comfort is nice. Dropping it down in sport plus chassis (which you still get even without sport chrono) makes it really feel glued to the road too

 

[tutis]

The rule of thumb used by leasing companies to calculate lease payments is very simple and deadly accurate; Each car model has a baseline depreciation curve, and the customer shoulders the full depreciation cost of the options.

So for example a Taycan RWD could be estimated to be worth 60% after 3 years and 20k miles, while a Taycan turbo could be worth 63% after 3Y and 20k miles. This percentage is applied to the without option list price of the car. Leasing companies are not dumb; this calculation rule works and reflects with great accuracy the residual market value of the car. The secret sauce is on the baseline curve itself. No secondhand car buyer will pay you double for the RWD Taycan than other RWD Taycan on the market because you put $80k of options on the base RWD bringing the total new cost to $160k; highly specced cars command a very small premium on secondhand prices compared to more lightly equipped (but not bare bones) models.

All options added to a car (say panoramic roof, extra stereo, RWS, etc. etc.) get fully depreciated over the life of the lease. So if you add $20k worth of options to the car and you have a 36 month lease, then before further interest that's an extra $555 per month on the "baseline" of your lease.

This method of calculation implies thus that if most of your options are included in the next level up trim that you should upgrade to the next trim level as you will only be paying through the lease for (1-baseline depreciation)*∑(value of the options) instead of 100% of the cost of the options.

Now many will say that they don't care about residual value because they intend to keep the car etc. They are missing the point; the lease give you a put option on the finance company. You never know what will happen in 2-3 years; some battery tech revolution will come out, or the world will go into deep recession, etc. You would be really happy to be able to "put" your car back to the finance company having only suffered a 40% depreciation, rather than say an 80% depreciation if the a new battery tech makes this one obsolete. And even if you want to keep the car, you can always call the leasing company and make a deal to buy your car from them at a value slightly above the true market value despite it being much lower than your contractual residual value. THey're smart, they'll take it.

So in short, be smart and don't add more than ~50% of the price difference between your trim and the next level up trim, particularly if the next level up trim includes some/most of your desired options. You'll be better off with the financing and you'll have a much better value "put" option that protects you for the end of the lease.

 

[DL_AU]

Nice spec! After a couple of months' ownership of a RWD, I'm quite comfortable with the choices that I made. Most owners seem to be happy with the options that they selected, which suggests that (1) any Taycan is good, and/or (2) we are all adept at post-purchase rationalisation and/or (3) all of the hours that we spent researching each and every option allowed us to spec a car that was 'just right'!

So, keeping in mind my confirmation biases, here are my thoughts:

• Full leather is beautiful, but less 'necessary' in a Taycan than in most other cars.
• Rear axle steering and hydraulic suspension are two options that don't induce any regret
• Larger battery is not necessary. It is expensive and heavy
• Fake sound is great for the first 20 minutes.... not so much thereafter
• Although I bought sport chrono, it is redundant in a Taycan
• Heads-up display is helpful on every drive - whether it is to monitor speed (...a good idea in a quiet car that builds incredible speed with few visceral indications...) or to follow navigation prompts
• ACC gets used more than I imagined, especially of highways
• Heated steering wheel... so nice on a cold morning!

 

[Lansford]

What is FoD here? I thought PIRM would be helpful for figuring out the charging stations on your route. I'm not really concerned about the optimal battery temperature setting it provides, I just want an easy way to figure out charging stations along the route.

Regarding the sport chrono, is there any noticeable difference between sport plus and sport mode? I'm just buying it for that? The wheel button and the clock are definitely not my deciding factors

Can you even switch now given you have been allocated an RWD? If not, perhaps reduce a few things and think about an upgrade to the 4S in a few years. $120k does seem a bit high. You can get rid of a few things -- RAS, Sports Chrono...as two examples. And if you really don't want to full leather that too. That should get you down about $10k

By comparison, you can get a pretty nice 4S for about $130k

 

[Lansford]

The rule of thumb used by leasing companies to calculate lease payments is very simple and deadly accurate; Each car model has a baseline depreciation curve, and the customer shoulders the full depreciation cost of the options.

So for example a Taycan RWD could be estimated to be worth 60% after 3 years and 20k miles, while a Taycan turbo could be worth 63% after 3Y and 20k miles. This percentage is applied to the without option list price of the car. Leasing companies are not dumb; this calculation rule works and reflects with great accuracy the residual market value of the car. The secret sauce is on the baseline curve itself. No secondhand car buyer will pay you double for the RWD Taycan than other RWD Taycan on the market because you put $80k of options on the base RWD bringing the total new cost to $160k; highly specced cars command a very small premium on secondhand prices compared to more lightly equipped (but not bare bones) models.

All options added to a car (say panoramic roof, extra stereo, RWS, etc. etc.) get fully depreciated over the life of the lease. So if you add $20k worth of options to the car and you have a 36 month lease, then before further interest that's an extra $555 per month on the "baseline" of your lease.

This method of calculation implies thus that if most of your options are included in the next level up trim that you should upgrade to the next trim level as you will only be paying through the lease for (1-baseline depreciation)*∑(value of the options) instead of 100% of the cost of the options.

Now many will say that they don't care about residual value because they intend to keep the car etc. They are missing the point; the lease give you a put option on the finance company. You never know what will happen in 2-3 years; some battery tech revolution will come out, or the world will go into deep recession, etc. You would be really happy to be able to "put" your car back to the finance company having only suffered a 40% depreciation, rather than say an 80% depreciation if the a new battery tech makes this one obsolete. And even if you want to keep the car, you can always call the leasing company and make a deal to buy your car from them at a value slightly above the true market value despite it being much lower than your contractual residual value. THey're smart, they'll take it.

So in short, be smart and don't add more than ~50% of the price difference between your trim and the next level up trim, particularly if the next level up trim includes some/most of your desired options. You'll be better off with the financing and you'll have a much better value "put" option that protects you for the end of the lease.

Great feedback and advice

 

[XLR82XS]

IMHO lose the leather interior, and lose the ACC.
Base interior is very nice. I don't feel like I missed out, and if you're looking to save money.

F**k no. Leather is key. Is there really a difference between IMO & IMHO? If it's not honest then it's worthless.

 

[DerekS]

F**k no. Leather is key. Is there really a difference between IMO & IMHO? If it's not honest then it's worthless.

The H is for humble, I thought.

 

[FMO]

Must haves IMHO
- air suspension
- 14 or 18 way seats
- sports sound (joy everyday)
- wheels you like
- colour you like
- [base sound and base interior are great so no need to spend more here]
- auto dimming
- folding mirrors

don’t regret the RWD - as good if not better than 4S other than standing start - but that’s a trick that gets old quickly … for daily driving conditions this is a fast car relative to almost anything you can drive daily

After 1 year of joyous ownership all I regret is not having 21s over 20s but those can be changed … ENJOY!!

 

[Nogas2]

I have ordered a new MY2023 Taycan RWD with the freeze date on 5 July. Since this will be my first Porsche car, I was thinking of adding sufficient options to get a premium feel. But the build I am planning will take the overall car cost to $120k which is way higher than the base price. So I wanted some suggestions regarding whether this is an okay purchase, or to cut down on some options (or if I should upgrade the model typeinstead).

The build link for the config is http://www.porsche-code.com/PPQVBWS7. Here's a summary of all the options

The must-have options for me (Total price is $20k):

1. Spyder design wheels
2. Base premium package (without park assist, innodrive)
3. Performance Battery Plus
4. Adaptive cruise control

The additional (non-mandatory) options in my build (Total price is $9k):

1. Rear axle steering
2. Adaptive air suspension
3. Sport chrono package
4. Leather interior

Other remaining options are just some minor upgrades worth less than $2k in total so they are not worth discussing.

 

[Nogas2]

I have ordered a new MY2023 Taycan RWD with the freeze date on 5 July. Since this will be my first Porsche car, I was thinking of adding sufficient options to get a premium feel. But the build I am planning will take the overall car cost to $120k which is way higher than the base price. So I wanted some suggestions regarding whether this is an okay purchase, or to cut down on some options (or if I should upgrade the model typeinstead).

The build link for the config is http://www.porsche-code.com/PPQVBWS7. Here's a summary of all the options

The must-have options for me (Total price is $20k):

1. Spyder design wheels
2. Base premium package (without park assist, innodrive)
3. Performance Battery Plus
4. Adaptive cruise control

The additional (non-mandatory) options in my build (Total price is $9k):

1. Rear axle steering
2. Adaptive air suspension
3. Sport chrono package
4. Leather interior

Other remaining options are just some minor upgrades worth less than $2k in total so they are not worth discussing.

My Taycan is almost exactly the same config in Ice Grey. I love it and like the Sport Chrono. I didn’t get the rear axle steering.

 

[Jhenson29]

So in short, be smart and don't add more than ~50% of the price difference between your trim and the next level up trim

Wow, that’s…really difficult. Even I went over 50% on a 4S relative to a Turbo and I thought my spec was fairly moderate. No way with the GTS now. And does it just keep going? Add $15k in options, then up a trim. Then add $15k in options and up a trim. Again and again.

It’s an expense not an investment.
My $0.02. ?‍

 

[tutis]

Wow, that’s…really difficult. Even I went over 50% on a 4S relative to a Turbo and I thought my spec was fairly moderate. No way with the GTS now. And does it just keep going? Add $15k in options, then up a trim. Then add $15k in options and up a trim. Again and again.

It’s an expense not an investment.
My $0.02. ?‍

If you want to get the best bang for your buck, that’s what the financial logic would dictate. But of course buying a Porsche isn’t a fully rational affair. My comment was also under the condition that the next trim up had the options you were speccing as standard; but we know that only some options come as standard with the next trim.
The risk is that you spec a RWD with so many options that although it is still a little cheaper MSRP than a lightly specced 4s, your lease payments end up costing more on the RWD as you have a greater difference in amount between what you are paying up front and what the lease residual value is because of the calculation method.

 

[gkiratbajwa]

Thanks @tutis for the financial advice. It's very helpful. I only have an allocation for rwd, so i can't change the trim level. And 4s orders have longer waiting time, so I'll be sticking with rwd.

Also I'll most likely finance instead of leasing, but after all the advice I'll probably cut down on some options (leather, sports chrono, pirm). I don't want to cut down on others since they really improve the driving experience.

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