TAYC4S

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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 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.
You should post this on the Porsche Twitter Account - its amazing how fast companies of all shapes and sizes respond to anything posted on Social Media...
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OP
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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

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.
Thanks. I did not get sport chrono because I didn't want the dash thing. I'm very happy with the lines of my dash, but if I had to do it all over, I'd get everything in the performance package but that.
 
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You should post this on the Porsche Twitter Account - its amazing how fast companies of all shapes and sizes respond to anything posted on Social Media...
Good idea. I will do that now. We'll see if they respond.
 

Marty

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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.
I was thinking about ordering a 2021 4S but the seemingly never ending problems are discouraging me. In your opinion, roughly what % of the glitches you and others have written about will be resolved for the 2021 models?
 

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I was thinking about ordering a 2021 4S but the seemingly never ending problems are discouraging me. In your opinion, roughly what % of the glitches you and others have written about will be resolved for the 2021 models?
There’s no real way to predict what issues Porsche and the EV Charging Station networks will address. They certainly fixed some of the issues I had with the car. But not all.

If you require a 100% reliable car and fueling network, the Taycan is not for you. Buy a 911. Or a non-hybrid Panamera. Or a Honda Accord.

This is a first gen vehicle. It WILL have issues. Mostly you won’t notice the issues. But that depends entirely on your personality and sensitivity to challenges.

I‘Ve driven it 13,000 miles in all weathers, charging over 100 times, using a dozen different charging networks. Bugs happen to me; it’s a blessing and a curse. I still LOVE the car.

You’ll need to pry my keys out of my cold dead hands.
 


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There’s no real way to predict what issues Porsche and the EV Charging Station networks will address. They certainly fixed some of the issues I had with the car. But not all.

If you require a 100% reliable car and fueling network, the Taycan is not for you. Buy a 911. Or a non-hybrid Panamera. Or a Honda Accord.

This is a first gen vehicle. It WILL have issues. Mostly you won’t notice the issues. But that depends entirely on your personality and sensitivity to challenges.

I‘Ve driven it 13,000 miles in all weathers, charging over 100 times, using a dozen different charging networks. Bugs happen to me; it’s a blessing and a curse. I still LOVE the car.

You’ll need to pry my keys out of my cold dead hands.
Well said. I think I’m the same time will tell. I can put up with some bugs, as long as I can report and get feedback. I’ll be good.
 

Singularity

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I've now owned the car for 1.5 weeks and driven approx 1000 km. Used public chargers a few times and some home charging.

Pretty much no issues of any kind yet. Important to keep in mind that the ones with issues are always the vocal ones on internet forums and such. The ones with no issues are mostly not saying anything, they're just living their life and enjoying the car.

So in summary there can be issues, and over the long run there will most likely be some issues. It's a new model that is bound to have bugs. But I don't believe Taycan is somehow an especially problematic or broken car, I think it works well for most people, for the most part. Just important to have the attitude of expecting and accepting some issues, this is not the right car to buy just now if you're allergic to issues with your car.

I will write my full review once I've driven a bit more, I think I've still only scratched the surface with 1000 km. Planning a major road trip for next month so maybe I'll write the review after that. But what I can say already is that it is an epic car, no doubt about it. Can fully recommend it to anyone.
 

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"The trunk has a design defect - the interior curve causes the automatic closure to reopen consistently (almost regardless of what's in the trunk)"

Have to comment on this as I've found no such issue on my Taycan 4S. The trunk works just like any other trunk and has been perfectly fine and logical in my use so far.

The trunk doesn't close by itself if there is too much stuff in there, just like any automatic trunk closure on any car. In the Taycan it's a bit tricky since the trunk opening is small, low and sloped, so a bit difficult to see when the stuff is actually outside the limits - it requires bending ones head to properly see in line with the opening to check if something is sticking out of it. If nothing is sticking out of the limits, the trunk will close.

If the trunk behaviour is something different to what I was describing, it surely is a fault with the specific car. In my use it has been quite fine and consistent. Of the 20 times I've used the trunk I've run into this reopening issue once when the trunk was filled pretty full, and a small readjustment of the stuff in there fixed it. Just like with any other trunks.
 


Miwa

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I was thinking about ordering a 2021 4S but the seemingly never ending problems are discouraging me. In your opinion, roughly what % of the glitches you and others have written about will be resolved for the 2021 models?
I expect PCM will have different bugs in perpetuity, like the rest of their PCM systems. But, I don't think that sort of thing is going to much different than any other make. My 2017 Macan still occasionally has the cameras not work, or the PCM crash, and I've experienced similar things on other makes.

The 12V system issues are scary, but I wonder if that's more affecting people using apps. I don't really expect the app experience to be great, so if you are buying a car to access it via app and do non-driving things, then good luck. (I never did get Porsche Connect enabled for the Macan, because it required doing stuff at the dealer I never bothered to do)

That said, software is fixable, where driving dynamics are fixed at build time, so it's all about priorities. :p
 

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I agree with the above. Does the car have glitches/bugs? Sure, but every Porsche PCM I've ever used does. If you're buying a car for the excellent software.. you're at the wrong dealership. Porsche has made strides and now has an average to slightly above average infotainment system but it'll just never be top tier. It won't happen.

The only really concerning issue I've seen is the 12v battery. That seems like it may be more of a charger/app issue but who knows. I know that most EVs have reports of 12v battery issues, the iPace forum is littered with them.
 

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Great write-up and your issues are exactly why I am on the fence about taking the Taycan when and if it ever shows up at the dealer. One difference for me is my dealer is totally awesome, so much so that the Taycan is slated to be the 5th Porsche I have bought there, plus I’ve bought 2 VW’s, a diesel Touareg for me, and a diesel Jetta wagon for my daughter. And all of the cars (7!) bought have been since 2013. The dealer is a big reason why I keep going back, car nits aside. I’ve had terrible dealers before, which is the main reason why I’ll never buy a BMW again.
 
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"The trunk has a design defect - the interior curve causes the automatic closure to reopen consistently (almost regardless of what's in the trunk)"

Have to comment on this as I've found no such issue on my Taycan 4S. The trunk works just like any other trunk and has been perfectly fine and logical in my use so far.

The trunk doesn't close by itself if there is too much stuff in there, just like any automatic trunk closure on any car. In the Taycan it's a bit tricky since the trunk opening is small, low and sloped, so a bit difficult to see when the stuff is actually outside the limits - it requires bending ones head to properly see in line with the opening to check if something is sticking out of it. If nothing is sticking out of the limits, the trunk will close.

If the trunk behaviour is something different to what I was describing, it surely is a fault with the specific car. In my use it has been quite fine and consistent. Of the 20 times I've used the trunk I've run into this reopening issue once when the trunk was filled pretty full, and a small readjustment of the stuff in there fixed it. Just like with any other trunks.
Yes, I can move stuff around, and get it to close. The opening is small, but the underside of the trunk is unnecessarily curved, causing it to be more irritable than it should be. To me, that's a design defect.
 

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Yes, I can move stuff around, and get it to close. The opening is small, but the underside of the trunk is unnecessarily curved, causing it to be more irritable than it should be. To me, that's a design defect.
Can the trunk be closed manually or must you use the automatic closing mechanism?
 
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You should post this on the Porsche Twitter Account - its amazing how fast companies of all shapes and sizes respond to anything posted on Social Media...
FWIW, I did this right after I saw your post. No response. Granted, I don't have many followers, so I probably "don't matter" in the eyes of social media.
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