UPDATE 7/16: Thoughts on First 72 Hours with my Brick

realsmartz

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UPDATE 7/16: Throwing out an update, as this should be a helpful case study for anyone thinking of purchasing a Taycan. It’s been 15 days since my Taycan was towed away. Porsche “customer service” is a black hole. No one has any authority to make any decisions and follow up is basically a game of kick-the-can. I am no closer to a resolution or ETA on getting back a car for which I paid six figures. I had to fight to even get them to pay for a rental (finally agreed to up to $75 a day reimbursement). The dealer is Chicago was responsive and helpful at first, but they seemed to have moved on. I email Porsche customer care every few days to get an update and all they can say is that they have reached out to their contacts in the parts department, but don’t have an answer...still 15 days later. Buyers beware. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have gone with Porsche. This forum has highlighted a number of issues, so I had an idea of what I may be getting into, but this is far worse than the worse-case scenario I had imagined. The excitement and thrill of getting in that car (if/when I do get it back) is absolutely killed by this experience. Porsche is terrible. Don’t do it.

UPDATE 7/6: It is a transmission issue. Dealer in Chicago is waiting on the mothership to get the part approved and sent. Said it would be an easy fix. Initial estimate is 7 to 10 days, but we will see about that. The part will have to be shipped and make it through customs, which isn’t going to be quick. Still trying to get service records from Philly dealer and Chicago dealer is having his tech pull all the data they can. Still shocked the Philly dealer didn’t notice any issues or get any alerts in the 50+ miles they put on it. Also shocked that we were told to just keep driving and take it to a dealer when we got to Chicago. I had three teenagers in the car with me for goodness sake - what if something would have happened? Thankful it didn’t and that all the issues were mostly at slow speeds. I knew it felt like a transmission issue, but didn’t think the car had one.

Original post: Live in Chicago, bought a Taycan RWD in Philly. Flew in and picked it up Wednesday morning. Beautiful car. 45 minutes into the trip on I-76 in stop-and-go-traffic it stops accelerating and I get an engine control failure alert. Thanks to this thread, I tried the key cycle and it cleared the error. Pulled over and called the dealer, who ultimately said it was may be a fluke from the update and keep trucking. The car at that point seemed “jerky” when braking. Told by the tech to set the brakes and maybe they were just breaking in. My response was that it had a feel similar to an ICE transmission failure - jerky and knocking - but only when braking. Continued on to the highway because I didn’t want to part with my new toy. No issues accelerating or braking at high speeds, but definitely issues braking at low speeds when making charging stops at stop signs/traffic lights. Made it to Youngstown, OH with only one other engine control failure alert. Key cycle cleared it, but car was driving like shit in traffic. Wake up the next day with same issues, but powered through it with four engine control alerts that cleared with key cycle every time - always at slow speeds when braking. Car still was braking very “jerky”. Make it to our summer house in Northwest Indiana with an appointment to get it to the dealer Wednesday. Charge it up at the house overnight. Wake up today and take it for a spin because for some reason I thought a good night’s rest would clear the error. Still in denial phase. Make it 1/2 mile down the road and get the error, but this time is says it’s still driveable. Lol. However, it is making an insane grinding noise, the alert didn’t clear with a key cycle and it won’t go into park. It’s currently sitting in my driveway waiting for a tow truck tomorrow morning to visit the dealer.

Overall: I’m super pissed. Porsche should be ashamed. I’m a little bit ticked at the dealer who sold it to me, as they put 50 miles on it before I picked it up and I’m shocked they didn’t notice any issues. Also, no loaners at my dealer in Chicago, so I guess I will just pay for nothing. I spent some of the ride home googling lemon laws and dreaming of a class action. HOWEVER, it is an awesome car when it works. I’ve never owned a Porsche (been in the Lexus/Toyota family for some time). It’s a beautiful car that caught a lot of attention from onlookers. RWD model is good enough for me. Navigation/connect app is mediocre at best. It’s super conservative and slow. I used Googlemaps to the charging stations I found via Connect. Charging was a breeze on the route, except our stop in Youngstown, which took a ridiculous amount of time...but I will say someone had hacked into the station next to ours and it was playing the Wii theme song. Charging from 20% to 85% took around 20-25 minutes. Lots of quirks with the media and display tech, but it may just take some getting used to. We will see how long it takes to get it back from the dealer.
Porsche Taycan UPDATE 7/16: Thoughts on First 72 Hours with my Brick E92559BC-3DEB-4EA8-AAFC-627E5FD5A7AD
Porsche Taycan UPDATE 7/16: Thoughts on First 72 Hours with my Brick 0EA8A6A6-8115-48F3-B179-B2D087CD2E65
Porsche Taycan UPDATE 7/16: Thoughts on First 72 Hours with my Brick 67827FA0-2FCE-4609-96D9-951C6977F0E5
 
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luckystone

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Awful to experience your first drive like that. I can't imagine picking up my brand new car in two weeks and experience the same issues, I'd go crazy. Hope they fix it for you asap. I'm wondering if cars produced end of june still would have this issue?
 

KTC

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Overall: I’m super pissed. Porsche should be ashamed. I’m a little bit ticked at the dealer who sold it to me, as they put 50 miles on it before I picked it up and I’m shocked they didn’t notice any issues. Also, no loaners at my dealer in Chicago, so I guess I will just pay for nothing. I spent some of the ride home googling lemon laws and dreaming of a class action.
Being pissed would be an understatement. You might be taking home the award for soonest-major-event-after-new-car.

I'm sure you saw the Porsche recall posts. Did your dealer confirm they did WMA 5/7 and AMB5 first before pick-up? What did Chicago say on diagnostics?

I'm so sorry for your experience. Collectively this dampens all of our enjoyment. Hope this resolves for you quickly. Strong encourage you to email Porsche Car NA.
 

dwaltchack

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man, I hate that for you. I hope it gets fixed quickly.
 

Torv

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Sounds to me like a dealer who cares more about revenue than customer satisfaction. My dealer wouldn't let me pick up the car until they installed the AMB5/6 power failure update. Your dealer sounds like he was more concerned about making his monthly numbers.
 


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Sounds to me like a dealer who cares more about revenue than customer satisfaction. My dealer wouldn't let me pick up the car until they installed the AMB5/6 power failure update. Your dealer sounds like he was more concerned about making his monthly numbers.
Agreed. @realsmartz, can we get the dealer name so that those of us in the NJ/NY/PA area can be forewarned?
 

chrisk

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This one sounds more like a persistent problem with the rear motor than the well discussed power loss software bug.
Good luck!
 


KTC

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Dealer was Porsche of the Main Line. Sent them an email tonight asking if the update was installed.
Sarah what's your car's built date?
 
OP
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realsmartz

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Sarah what's your car's built date?
Not sure how I find out the specific date. Anecdotally, I signed the purchase agreement the first week of June and was told the car was stuck in port waiting for a sensor but they were giving priority to sold cars. Main Line gave me a delivery date of the end of June. It arrived at their shop around June 16th, I believe. I wasn’t able to get down there until the 30th to pick it up. All that being said, maybe a late April/early May build?
 
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kort

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Live in Chicago, bought a Taycan RWD in Philly. Flew in and picked it up Wednesday morning. Beautiful car. 45 minutes into the trip on I-76 in stop-and-go-traffic it stops accelerating and I get an engine control failure alert. Thanks to this thread, I tried the key cycle and it cleared the error. Pulled over and called the dealer, who ultimately said it was may be a fluke from the update and keep trucking. The car at that point seemed “jerky” when braking. Told by the tech to set the brakes and maybe they were just breaking in. My response was that it had a feel similar to an ICE transmission failure - jerky and knocking - but only when braking. Continued on to the highway because I didn’t want to part with my new toy. No issues accelerating or braking at high speeds, but definitely issues braking at low speeds when making charging stops at stop signs/traffic lights. Made it to Youngstown, OH with only one other engine control failure alert. Key cycle cleared it, but car was driving like shit in traffic. Wake up the next day with same issues, but powered through it with four engine control alerts that cleared with key cycle every time - always at slow speeds when braking. Car still was braking very “jerky”. Make it to our summer house in Northwest Indiana with an appointment to get it to the dealer Wednesday. Charge it up at the house overnight. Wake up today and take it for a spin because for some reason I thought a good night’s rest would clear the error. Still in denial phase. Make it 1/2 mile down the road and get the error, but this time is says it’s still driveable. Lol. However, it is making an insane grinding noise, the alert didn’t clear with a key cycle and it won’t go into park. It’s currently sitting in my driveway waiting for a tow truck tomorrow morning to visit the dealer.

Overall: I’m super pissed. Porsche should be ashamed. I’m a little bit ticked at the dealer who sold it to me, as they put 50 miles on it before I picked it up and I’m shocked they didn’t notice any issues. Also, no loaners at my dealer in Chicago, so I guess I will just pay for nothing. I spent some of the ride home googling lemon laws and dreaming of a class action. HOWEVER, it is an awesome car when it works. I’ve never owned a Porsche (been in the Lexus/Toyota family for some time). It’s a beautiful car that caught a lot of attention from onlookers. RWD model is good enough for me. Navigation/connect app is mediocre at best. It’s super conservative and slow. I used Googlemaps to the charging stations I found via Connect. Charging was a breeze on the route, except our stop in Youngstown, which took a ridiculous amount of time...but I will say someone had hacked into the station next to ours and it was playing the Wii theme song. Charging from 20% to 85% took around 20-25 minutes. Lots of quirks with the media and display tech, but it may just take some getting used to. We will see how long it takes to get it back from the dealer.
E92559BC-3DEB-4EA8-AAFC-627E5FD5A7AD.jpeg
0EA8A6A6-8115-48F3-B179-B2D087CD2E65.jpeg
67827FA0-2FCE-4609-96D9-951C6977F0E5.jpeg
it is becoming quite evident that the dealerships are not well versed on these cars, that they will outright lie, come up with random excuses and plain old BS when issues crop up. this is terrible.
Porsche customer care is no help at all, they are a black hole where complaints go to die, no feedback no follow up terrible customer support.
for a company based on customer satisfaction and experience they are about a 2 out of 10
fail fail fail
 

amazing

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Being pissed would be an understatement. You might be taking home the award for soonest-major-event-after-new-car.

I'm sure you saw the Porsche recall posts. Did your dealer confirm they did WMA 5/7 and AMB5 first before pick-up? What did Chicago say on diagnostics?

I'm so sorry for your experience. Collectively this dampens all of our enjoyment. Hope this resolves for you quickly. Strong encourage you to email Porsche Car NA.
Is there anyway to check in the vehicle which of these (WMA 5/7 and AMB5) updates have been installed ? I've had my car about 2 weeks. Have 900 miles on it and zero problems so far.
 

KTC

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Is there anyway to check in the vehicle which of these (WMA 5/7 and AMB5) updates have been installed ? I've had my car about 2 weeks. Have 900 miles on it and zero problems so far.
You can ask your dealer for a service record. It should show everything from when they received the car to point of sale.
 

TycanNewHampshire

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it is becoming quite evident that the dealerships are not well versed on these cars, that they will outright lie, come up with random excuses and plain old BS when issues crop up. this is terrible.
Porsche customer care is no help at all, they are a black hole where complaints go to die, no feedback no follow up terrible customer support.
for a company based on customer satisfaction and experience they are about a 2 out of 10
fail fail fail
Fully agree...as I mentioned before, my first month was a horror show. It did get better for me.
I go back to another comment of mine where I suggested that they ship these with a 'dealer profile' that allows the OTA updates to be downloaded and installed while in transit/on the dealer lot that needs 'auto-install' configured.
Just an example of @kort comments, the dealers shop I think is doing 'all they can', but they need better training/support from HQ. For example, I made sure they did a full download of all updated before delivery (which took them an extra 5-days!) and even after this when delivered they assured me it was updated. Well, glitchy things were happening in the first couple of days and digging in, I went to the 'updates' tab of the PCM and; yes, they downloaded the updates, but they did not have the checklist/SOP's to follow through and actually go in and 'install' the updates. I had over two-screen-pages of updates that I had to manually 'install' and after a 1-1/2 hours session in my garage, some fo the glitches were going away.
That is just one anecdotal example on where they need to 'support the platform' more holistically across the board.
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