What's the best alternative to the Taycan?

[Zcd1]

@Dabz That is what I did. Had a J1.1 Taycan GTS and wanted a J1.2. Local Porsche dealers just weren't interested in getting me an allocation so I could spec exactly the car I wanted. At Porsche prices I want what I want and not the 4S on the lot that they were pushing. Hello Audi. The Audi dealerships might be just as bad for you as Porsche has been but if they are better the e-tron GT is a fraternal twin to the Taycan for a whole lot less money.

So performance stays the same. Build quality stays the same. Less money out of pocket. Prestige probably takes a small hit versus Porsche. So it's kind of how is the Audi customer service in the UK?

A friend swapped his ‘21 4S for a refreshed ‘25 eTron GT.

He prefers the Audi.

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[gtm]

A friend swapped his ‘21 4S for a refreshed ‘25 eTron GT.

He prefers the Audi.

The Audi has been great so far. I like the back much better than the monkey butt on the Taycan. Front is a toss-up. Porsche reminds me of a Tesla, but that Audi "grill" is a bit much. Driving wise it's pretty much identical. Software on the Audi is equally bad. The Audi dealer is much better. No attitude. Has 4 EV techs instead of 1. It's not night and day better but I have zero regrets leaving Porsche.

 

[prj]

A friend swapped his ‘21 4S for a refreshed ‘25 eTron GT.

He prefers the Audi.

There are two problems with the Audi:
1) More rattles than the taycan, if you turn the B&O up then the door cards and everything else moves around. Can be solved aftermarket.
2) The facelift steering wheel has the horrible capacitive buttons like the ID series. Fuck that with a vengeance, I don't know if the pre-FL steering wheel could fit, but it was a complete deal breaker for me.

 

[Jhenson29]

Front is a toss-up.

Matter of opinion I guess, but, to me, the front is not a toss up. They aren’t even in the same category to compare.

that Audi "grill" is a bit much

All of the fake EV front grills are really ugly IMO. No offense.

The Audi dealer is much better. No attitude. Has 4 EV techs instead of 1. It's not night and day better but I have zero regrets leaving Porsche.

That’s really unfortunate. My local dealer has always been great the last 10+ years I’ve worked with them. I had a red chassis error this past week. Dropped it off unscheduled Tuesday night. They had it fixed by this morning. No charge. I was expecting to pay at 65k miles, but I guess not. And a little over 2 days for an unscheduled repair seemed pretty good to me. First time the car has been at the dealer in over 2 years also. And I never get attitude. They are always friendly and helpful to me.

Just want spread some Porsche cheer amid all of the doom and gloom.

All that said, I had an ICE Audi a number of years ago and the Audi dealer service was fine also.

 

[d00d]

My last Audi was a V10 S8 sedan, they didn't produce anything afterwards that was of interest.

 

[prj]

My last Audi was a V10 S8 sedan, they didn't produce anything afterwards that was of interest.

The 4.0TT S8 was far superior, I owned mine for 8 years. Great car, almost nothing broke either. AC sensor, Webasto temp sensor, and one of the rear exhaust valve cables got a hit so had to replace it. That's it. Just normal maintenance apart from that.

 

[JackSparrow]

Ferrari Luce.
Ferrari Purosangue.
Audi S6 Etron
Mercedes AMG GT-EV or GT63 or GT63-S-E
Audi S8, RS6, Etron GT, GTRS
Mercedes S63-E performance
Pretty much anything that seats 4 and mixes grace, pace, and space.

 

[gtm]

There are two problems with the Audi:
1) More rattles than the taycan, if you turn the B&O up then the door cards and everything else moves around. Can be solved aftermarket.
2) The facelift steering wheel has the horrible capacitive buttons like the ID series. Fuck that with a vengeance, I don't know if the pre-FL steering wheel could fit, but it was a complete deal breaker for me.

1) Zero rattles on my car (but not exactly a ton of miles on it yet). In general the fit and finish is the equal of the Taycan. B&O is marginal but so was the Bose in my Taycan. Both kind of suck for the price point.
2) 100% agree. Capacitive buttons are possibly the worst design ever. Whoever put those on the steering wheel obviously never drove the car. So annoying. They never heard of a scroll wheel? But not a deal breaker for me. I've learned hand position discipline that helps a little.

 

[prj]

1) Zero rattles on my car (but not exactly a ton of miles on it yet). In general the fit and finish is the equal of the Taycan. B&O is marginal but so was the Bose in my Taycan. Both kind of suck for the price point.

If you turn it up enough where the bass is loud, the bass vibrates the door cards.
Rattle is not the right word. It's a design issue, not that something is broken or rattles around when driving, there was no such issue.

Burmester on the Taycan also sounds much better, I don't know why. My B&O on my Audi S8 was great, maybe just lacking a little bass, but on the e-tron GT it's underwhelming.
It's way better than the Bose on the Taycan though, that's just crap.

I think on the Burmester Auro3d is doing a TON of heavy lifting.

 

[babylou66]

The 5N handling is superb imo. Certainly night and day with the normal 5. It drives a lot more 'fun' than the Taycan, but as I said - doesn't have the luxury of the air in Taycan's with air specified.

Yeah the seats either fit you and feel nice or they don't. They fit perfectly for me and so I am very happy with them.

As I said - the 5N fulfils all of the other briefs, other than a proper luxury car 'feel'. But it's my daily and suits my needs perfectly. The load area is also better for me than the Taycan ST, due to being wider.

The Taycan edges it on looks and luxury feel though

Bought a used on today to use as a daily driver bridge to August when my Cayenne EV arrives. Selling my Volvo EX30 tomorrow that I bought as a bridge in September. On Monday a public recall in USA comes out on the EX30 due to battery dendrites which means that vehicle will depreciate $10k by Tuesday. FYI dendrites = fires so the packs will have to be replaced.

 

[f1eng]

Without reading 7 pages of this thread, has anyone suggested a Lucid Air Grand Touring? It's bigger, with WAY BETTER packaging, great straight line performance, great range. Thoughts?

Not available in England

 

[Dabz]

After 10 pages I feel I should add a sit-rep to this thread, rather than just “liking” various comments!

My drivers window now doesn’t go fully back up when entering the car. So add that to the list of issues (along with what seems like a slow puncture in one tyre, though that isn’t Porsche’s fault at all).

However I also took the car for a spirited drive along my very favourite road and Happy Place (military road on the Isle of Wight for those wondering) and the car reminded me how good it is to drive. So it’s won back part of my heart.

I’ve contacted Audi to go on the list to test drive the new RS5 Avant (yes I know, plug in hybrids are rubbish, I read the posts). I also know the Taycan needs money spent - new rear tyres, now a front one I expect, warranty extension, MOT in May - so in the absence of a better option before then I might be forced to invest in the car and buy another year with it. Which is sad because while I enjoy driving it I don’t trust it, and it’s developing more issues almost every day at the mo

 

[f1eng]

FWIW the time I changed car before I bought my Taycan was 2018. I wanted a plug in hybrid and my final short list was Toyota Prius against Porsche Panamera PHEV.
In the end the weight, size and complexity of the Panamera was not adequately compensated by any positive attributes so I got the Prius, 600kg lighter, much smaller and much more sophisticated hybrid system.

I was going to sell my Prius when the Taycan came but stories on here during my 17 months wait for its delivery convinced me to keep it, and I still have it but mainly because my dog hates travelling in the Taycan - no idea why.

Generally as an engineer and racing car designer the only hybrid system I admire, because it is elegant, simple and just better, is the Toyota one, also on Lexus and maybe others have a license. It certainly is no Porsche in terms of ride or grip, though 4 wheel wishbone suspension gives quite good handling up to the limit of the small tyres IME.

Anyway when I decided on an EV I looked at all those available and the Audi E-Tron GT was my preference but oh my, what a disappointing drive. It is huge, like a Taycan, but feels cumbersome and the steering feel is disappointing. I didn't buy one...
When the CT version of the Taycan came out I asked my local dealer if I could measure the boot space - for my dog ironically - and they offered me a test drive.
To my amazement it was massively better handling than the Audi, particularly steering feel, and really felt smaller than it is to drive. Two days later I ordered one.

My view also is that if driving dynamics on Oxfordshire roads is a priority nothing is likely to match a Taycan, and mine, with torque vectoring, RWS and PDCC handles markedly better than any of the loan Taycans I have had too, so better than the demo car.
I love it.

I am going to keep it, and I still have the Prius and others just in case, though I didn't bother to take my Ferrari off SORN for the last 3 summers I had the Taycan.

I realise I am just another person writing there is no alternative with similar characteristics.
I am not in the least influenced by "prestige" (obviously, having already chosen a Toyota over a Porsche) but I rather agree with those suggesting having a second car as a backup...

 

[69Mach390]

I was going to sell my Prius when the Taycan came but stories on here during my 17 months wait for its delivery convinced me to keep it, and I still have it but mainly because my dog hates travelling in the Taycan - no idea why.

Never heard this before, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a high pitch sound that the car makes that we can’t hear.

 

[d00d]

My dog is able to sleep on the back seat, maybe the hatch area is different.

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