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So, I have now owned by 4s for about a month. Overall, it is, by far, the best car I've ever owned (as well as driven). As with anything, there are some drawbacks. However, I would buy again. Notwithstanding the positives, I think some changes could be made to the Taycan, Porsche, and Electrify America, to make things better overall.

Instead of posting a 5 page post, I'm going to hit the highlights, and expound where necessary. Happy to expound further/answer questions.

TAYCAN:

Good: Incredibly responsive, great handling, very comfortable, torque that makes driving fun (and merging/crossing roads/moving in front of people who won't let you in), and effortless. The trunk is large and holds 2 sets of golf clubs+.

Bad: The Aero wheels look cheap in person. Innodrive will often slow down out of nowhere - even when there's no cars around (sometimes due to a school zone (when there's no school), and sometimes for no apparent reason at all). The upgraded leather, though very nice, is not so much nicer to justify the premium price. Certain settings cannot be left on: sound, regen when you lift your foot off accelerator, etc., and need to be reset every time you get in the car.

Ugly - The car, inside and out, shows pretty much every fingerprint. The trunk has a design defect - the interior curve causes the automatic closure to reopen consistently (almost regardless of what's in the trunk). The back seat is not as spacious as I recall it being at the auto show (maybe it's because I have a 4s, but I would assume the opposite to be true).

PORSCHE:

Good: The company deserves its reputation of quality, great driving cars, and a fun brand,

Bad: Their customer service phone number largely pushes you back to the dealer, vs. being an independent and helpful service (PCS' knowledge base and willingness to help is low overall). This is fine if you have a good dealer, but if you don't, it feels like the company doesn't care (and will never know about the dealer's poor service). Pricing is nickel-and-diming. It's great that you can customize just about everything. As a practical matter, though, that customization doesn't necessarily incrementally increase the cost of the car. Giving choices within a pricing structure would be much more user friendly and customer-oriented. For example, window trim in black or silver should be the same price, and simply a choice.

Ugly: My sales team was horrible, and I don't say that lightly. Everything from telling me my order was fixed (when it wasn't), to giving me outright misinformation about the car and features (causing me not to order what I wanted), to delivering the car with less than a 30% charge (with no charging cable!), and not walking me through the features on delivery (the feature walkthrough issue was beyond their control, but then they weren't proactive and didn't reach out to schedule same), they were beyond bad. I could write a lengthy post just about this. Add to it the fact that when I raised this with Porsche, they kicked it back to the dealer twice (the first time the dealer called, left a message, and then did not return my call back - the second time they listened to me, but did not address my issues). Then, when I said I was still not happy with the outcome and wanted Porsche to contact me, they did not (and still have not - ~3 weeks later).

ELECTRIFY AMERICA:

Good: Once you get how it works, it's a fairly easy system to use. Not 100% plug and play, but very close, assuming you have a working station.

Bad: The Connect app actually doesn't work for this - you need to use the Porsche Charging App. Locations are extremely few (and I live outside of Chicago), and those that are around have few chargers in general (and almost none above 50kw, which is nowhere near the 800 kw touted by Porsche when I locked my order). I know, they're coming - but when? This should be a priority (at least upgrading the current ones, but it doesn't appear to be). Finally, almost every cable requires convoluted/sideways parking to plug into the machine. Another 2 feet per cable wouldn't have cost that much more, and would have made it much easier to use.

Ugly: For a relatively new system, it's surprising how many of their chargers are faulty/won't connect/are down/can't be fixed by a phone call. This is a real problem, because it's not like gas stations - you can't go another mile and get a fill up. While there may be other non-EA charging stations in the area, that will cost you (undermining the "free" 3 year charging at EA for Taycan owners), and the third-party locations are often not higher than 50kw either. If you are very low on charge, 50kw is slower than watching paint dry.

As I said, I'm happy to expound, but hopefully this is helpful to people waiting/considering buying. Also, given there are supposedly a number of Porsche employees on this site, attention to customer service (and responding to requests for follow up), should be a priority. Covid-19 has not affected the ability to pick up the phone or send emails.
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PanameraFrank

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Thanks for the write up! I agree with pretty much everything! Someday, maybe, Porsche will let us delete all the gloss black in these cars. One can dream, right? I think the iPad screen protector is a great & functional idea for the climate screen.

Which Aero wheels do you have?
 
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Thanks for the write up! I agree with pretty much everything! Someday, maybe, Porsche will let us delete all the gloss black in these cars. One can dream, right? I think the iPad screen protector is a great & functional idea for the climate screen.

Which Aero wheels do you have?
I have the 20" Taycan Turbo Aero Wheels. I will take a look at the iPad screen protector. Thanks for the tip.
 

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Thanks for the summary!

It is really sad to hear so many issues with the dealers from you and others. There are a few on here that have praised their dealer and sales rep, but the majority are facing exactly what you are saying. The total lack of communication especially for delivery, is unacceptable. It is terrible for their future sales. And this happens and has been reported from the UK, USA, Switzerland, France to mention a few Countries. There must be a total lack of training of these order takers. They certainly are not professional account managers.

I have had quite a lot of issues with my dealer and complained to the Porsche importer after some instances. They never returned any calls. Email answers could be a one liner and not addressing more than one issue even if I had listed three!

one example of bad service is that I have still not received my formal registration papers for the car after 2 months!

I have had much better support and experience by ordering two cars over the internet! The technical guys have been fully up to date and if any problems they have gone away to find the answers.

Porsche Connect Support have responded by a very nice person and was very helpful. I had asked to get some response to a number of issues I have with my car/ app. They at least logged a ticket with a number that I have but so far no further response.

Room for improvement!
 
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Thanks for the summary!

It is really sad to hear so many issues with the dealers from you and others. There are a few on here that have praised their dealer and sales rep, but the majority are facing exactly what you are saying. The total lack of communication especially for delivery, is unacceptable. It is terrible for their future sales. And this happens and has been reported from the UK, USA, Switzerland, France to mention a few Countries. There must be a total lack of training of these order takers. They certainly are not professional account managers.

I have had quite a lot of issues with my dealer and complained to the Porsche importer after some instances. They never returned any calls. Email answers could be a one liner and not addressing more than one issue even if I had listed three!

one example of bad service is that I have still not received my formal registration papers for the car after 2 months!

I have had much better support and experience by ordering two cars over the internet! The technical guys have been fully up to date and if any problems they have gone away to find the answers.

Porsche Connect Support have responded by a very nice person and was very helpful. I had asked to get some response to a number of issues I have with my car/ app. They at least logged a ticket with a number that I have but so far no further response.

Room for improvement!
FWIW, while waiting for my COVID-19 delayed car, I dealt with 2 dealers - one in TX (Sayed Azhar - Park Place), and one in WI (Jason Mays - Porsche Waukesha). They both knew of my impending delivery. Regardless, each let me test drive a car, and were extremely helpful. Jason even offered to walk me through the new car that I didn't buy from him. Needless to say, I will go back to Jason in the future, and if I lived in/near TX, I would go to Sayed.

So, there are good dealers out there, but it's clear Porsche is less concerned with quality control than they are volume. My dealer has a large volume. In the process of calling around to buy a different car, I mentioned my sales issues to another local dealer, who asked me, by name, if I was talking about my dealer. He said I was the 4th person who had complaints about them. My guess is my experience is not atypical.

I get that things were backed up lately, but now, more than ever, customer service is important. For the money and the reputation, the car had better be great. However, I also expect at least basic customer service, which I have not received from the top of the company down. To me, that's unacceptable.
 


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..,and those that are around have few chargers in general (and almost none above 50kw, which is nowhere near the 800 kw touted by Porsche when I locked my order). I know, they're coming - but when?
..,
Yes, most other Urban charging stations are 50kw because that’s all that the other cars on the market could accept.

800kw? No. No one is planning 800kw. (Not publicly! Maybe in some research lab somewhere.)

The Taycan is 800 Volts (nominal). Maybe that’s the confusion? Maximum (Theoretical) charge rate is 270kw. I’ve seen 260-ish, but only with a very warm, very empty battery and then it quickly ramps down as the battery fills.
 
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Yes, most other Urban charging stations are 50kw because that’s all that the other cars on the market could accept.

800kw? No. No one is planning 800kw. (Not publicly! Maybe in some research lab somewhere.)

The Taycan is 800 Volts (nominal). Maybe that’s the confusion? Maximum (Theoretical) charge rate is 270kw. I’ve seen 260-ish, but only with a very warm, very empty battery and then it quickly ramps down as the battery fills.
Maybe I was thinking 400 kw? In WI, I'm closeish to a 350kw charger. It's much faster than 50kw, but still not 80% in 20 minutes.
 


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Bad: The Aero wheels look cheap in person. Innodrive will often slow down out of nowhere - even when there's no cars around (sometimes due to a school zone (when there's no school), and sometimes for no apparent reason at all). The upgraded leather, though very nice, is not so much nicer to justify the premium price. Certain settings cannot be left on: sound, regen when you lift your foot off accelerator, etc., and need to be reset every time you get in the car.
I ordered these optionso_O, and they are 2.15x the price in the US because of tax...

I am wondering if you have seen the standard interior in person?

I had to order mine only seeing a Turbo and Turbo S in person... I know some of you here thinks the standard interior is acceptable, but I decided to upgrade based on all the pictures I have seen online. My logic is not that the leather is worth 5K(11K in my case), but that the leather interior should be the standard for a car in this price range...I am fine with both black and red, and went with red for more differentiation...

The dealer says porsche HQ will reject warranty claims with after market rims...not sure if it is B.S...but I rarely see any Porsches with after market rims in my market.....i went with the turbo(usd5K) coz i thought the 19 is hideous, and the mission E with is just too expensive at (usd13K)...is the turbo rim so cheap that you would go with the 19 if you get to choose again?
 

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I ordered these optionso_O, and they are 2.15x the price in the US because of tax...

I am wondering if you have seen the standard interior in person?

I had to order mine only seeing a Turbo and Turbo S in person... I know some of you here thinks the standard interior is acceptable, but I decided to upgrade based on all the pictures I have seen online. My logic is not that the leather is worth 5K(11K in my case), but that the leather interior should be the standard for a car in this price range...I am fine with both black and red, and went with red for more differentiation...

The dealer says porsche HQ will reject warranty claims with after market rims...not sure if it is B.S...but I rarely see any Porsches with after market rims in my market.....i went with the turbo(usd5K) coz i thought the 19 is hideous, and the mission E with is just too expensive at (usd13K)...is the turbo rim so cheap that you would go with the 19 if you get to choose again?
From our perspective, our American friends should not complain, after all they pay so little money for these cars! :angel:
 

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Maybe I was thinking 400 kw? In WI, I'm closeish to a 350kw charger. It's much faster than 50kw, but still not 80% in 20 minutes.
350kW is common on ElectrifyAmerica and PetroCanada stations (though I never saw above 150kW in my usage of PC stations).

The “5% to 80% in 22 minutes” quote from Porsche is possible, but it requires your battery to be at the perfect temperature (probably around 85-90°F). I think planets need to align and unicorns need to be dancing in a circle around your car as well.

But seriously, I have seen my car go from 7% to 77% in 21 minutes. The initial battery temp was 91°F.

But “normal” charging sessions at DC Fast chargers are 30-45 minutes, depending on how full you want to be. My trip’s data says my average time was 40 minutes for all stations, 50kW and higher.
 
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I ordered these optionso_O, and they are 2.15x the price in the US because of tax...

I am wondering if you have seen the standard interior in person?

I had to order mine only seeing a Turbo and Turbo S in person... I know some of you here thinks the standard interior is acceptable, but I decided to upgrade based on all the pictures I have seen online. My logic is not that the leather is worth 5K(11K in my case), but that the leather interior should be the standard for a car in this price range...I am fine with both black and red, and went with red for more differentiation...

The dealer says porsche HQ will reject warranty claims with after market rims...not sure if it is B.S...but I rarely see any Porsches with after market rims in my market.....i went with the turbo(usd5K) coz i thought the 19 is hideous, and the mission E with is just too expensive at (usd13K)...is the turbo rim so cheap that you would go with the 19 if you get to choose again?
I have test driven all 3 cars, with both standard and race-tex interior. Standard interior is nice - always black on the ones I test drove. I got the brown, which comes with the rose gold accents - which is a nice touch. It is a clean look and very comfortable. However, I guess I was expecting a dramatic difference in the leather softness/quality because of the upgrade. My wife bought a top-of-the-line Audi A7 in January, and many of the features that are standard on her car are options on the Porsche. Her leather seems as nice, if not nicer, than my 4s.

Edit: I would not go with the standard wheels. I would have gone with the next wheels up (about $600 more), which my dealer incorrectly told me I could only get if I also upgraded the brakes (for another $2,000+).
 
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350kW is common on ElectrifyAmerica and PetroCanada stations (though I never saw above 150kW in my usage of PC stations).

The “5% to 80% in 22 minutes” quote from Porsche is possible, but it requires your battery to be at the perfect temperature (probably around 85-90°F). I think planets need to align and unicorns need to be dancing in a circle around your car as well.

But seriously, I have seen my car go from 7% to 77% in 21 minutes. The initial battery temp was 91°F.

But “normal” charging sessions at DC Fast chargers are 30-45 minutes, depending on how full you want to be. My trip’s data says my average time was 40 minutes for all stations, 50kW and higher.
Thanks. I know you've had much more time, many more miles, and significantly more experience with E cars than me. I am coming from a Jeep, so that should give you some perspective. I also never upgraded either of my garages (home because it's on the market, summer home because I'm going to replace the garage). So, I rely on charging stations more than the typical owner on a weekly basis. Therefore, charge time is much more important to me given I need more of a charge (running between states weekly), than most people. As I said, near my primary home (Chicagoland), 50 kw is all I have from EA (2 machines, 1 of which has been inoperable since i got the car). That's a bit ridiculous if you ask me.

I think Porsche sold a few things on which they ultimately didn't deliver. Such as settings that change based on your eye movement - remember that? Mileage above 300 miles (I can probably do that if I run it in the proper mode, but then speed, air, etc. are automatically reduced), and there's no way a Turbo or Turbo S is getting there. "Free" charging for the first 3 years (which has been limited to 30 minutes of charge, not unlimited). The bottom line is it's a great car, but Porsche, the company, is not user-friendly, helpful, or especially honest, based on my experience with this car.
 

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@TC Fan, not sure if you got Sport Chrono in your config, but if you did then I believe that you can solve most of your concern with
Certain settings cannot be left on: sound, regen when you lift your foot off accelerator, etc., and need to be reset every time you get in the car.
By using the Individual mode.

I think the highest I saw Porsche advertise for charging was 400kW but that was clearly stated as being a prototype. They pretty quickly realized that they could not push the batteries that hard without consequences. Also we are already hard-pressed to find 350kW chargers. And the 350 is only attained at 1000 volts so 270kW is reasonable at 800V due to current cable limits.

Hope you enjoy driving the car, that was always my main focus. And with that I don't expect to be disappointed.
 

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is the turbo rim so cheap that you would go with the 19 if you get to choose again?
I really like the 20" Turbo Aero wheels and I know a lot of others do as well. There will always be a slight compromise in aesthetics for Aero wheels but they're good looking, IMO.
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