lizned
Member
- First Name
- Denzil
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2023
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 51
- Location
- Atlanta USA
- Vehicles
- Mustang mache-e, Polestar2, Audi Q7, Taycan
- Thread starter
- #1
Hello - Long time lurker – first post.
TLDR: I am a car guy, this is a great car, I have had no serious problems at all, I would buy it again.
A little car context for fun. Always been a VAG fan, interesting cars from my past: 1976 Audi 100 coupe S, 1986 VW GTI 16V, 1993 VW Corrado VR6, 2013 Audi S7 and now 2021 Taycan. Dream car growing up was a 911 Targa and a 928.
My car philosophy: It is a most often a depreciating machine. Some are more fun to look at and drive than others. Buy what you want and live with it for a while (usually about 10 years for me).Balance the need for more power/features with the opportunity cost of the money spent on a depreciating asset. I like to buy new so that I know the history. If you are buying with an eye to resale, then can you afford it?
I arrived at the Taycan because I wanted an EV but not a SUV.I had a bad experience with the Audi S7 with both turbos and the transmission failing. I wanted to simplify rather than go green and in my opinion a lot of an ICE vehicle’s complexity is compensating for the fact that it is an ICE vehicle. I have no illusions about the green nature of EVs as I think it distributes the environmental impact differently rather than preventing it. I wanted the RWD only as once again I wanted to simplify.
My 2021 Taycan RWD:
RWD, with small battery (Enough for my use case and I suspect most others’. Why carry around extra pounds that I might need one day, marginal benefit vs. price in my opinion. Put the extra $ to work towards the next Porsche.)
Options:
Smokers pack since it was $0 (I don’t smoke but I like the ashtray for change etc.)
What I avoided:
PMCC – why would I need a second EVSE (mobile charger connect) when the car already comes with one(PMC).
Dealer bling:
Two Porsche key rings, Taycan aluminum lithograph, Taycan paperweight.
Dealer experience:
Good, I will go back and I would refer someone. About as good as you can expect these days. The service department is good, with the requisite attention, coffee, snacks and smiles. They did try to sell me tires at the 20k service (I was at around 22k) a few thousand miles earlier than needed and said I should ‘protect my investment with an alignment’ – pfffft – 1) Who ‘invests’ in tires? 2) If your old tires say “your alignment ain’t broke” then leave it alone for goodness sake.
Accessories:
Servicing:
Irritations:
Quirks:
Charging:
Driving/Consumption:
Tires:
Other thoughts:
TLDR: I am a car guy, this is a great car, I have had no serious problems at all, I would buy it again.
A little car context for fun. Always been a VAG fan, interesting cars from my past: 1976 Audi 100 coupe S, 1986 VW GTI 16V, 1993 VW Corrado VR6, 2013 Audi S7 and now 2021 Taycan. Dream car growing up was a 911 Targa and a 928.
My car philosophy: It is a most often a depreciating machine. Some are more fun to look at and drive than others. Buy what you want and live with it for a while (usually about 10 years for me).Balance the need for more power/features with the opportunity cost of the money spent on a depreciating asset. I like to buy new so that I know the history. If you are buying with an eye to resale, then can you afford it?
I arrived at the Taycan because I wanted an EV but not a SUV.I had a bad experience with the Audi S7 with both turbos and the transmission failing. I wanted to simplify rather than go green and in my opinion a lot of an ICE vehicle’s complexity is compensating for the fact that it is an ICE vehicle. I have no illusions about the green nature of EVs as I think it distributes the environmental impact differently rather than preventing it. I wanted the RWD only as once again I wanted to simplify.
My 2021 Taycan RWD:
RWD, with small battery (Enough for my use case and I suspect most others’. Why carry around extra pounds that I might need one day, marginal benefit vs. price in my opinion. Put the extra $ to work towards the next Porsche.)
Options:
- No panoramic roof (prefer the look of regular roof).
- Air suspension (spoiled with this in S7 and I have problem hump at the end of my driveway). The geo-location lifting works fine for me if I set it several feet prior to the obstacle.
- Bose audio – (Burmester seems a waste in a sub-optimal acoustic environment but I am a wannabee audiophile).
- Surround 360 – (wide car, massive blind spots).
- ACC – (sets up hardware for innodrive FOD, wife’s Q7 has it and it is very useful in our traffic).
- Taycan Turbo 20 inch wheels (stock 19s not to my taste);
- Storage pack.
- Black brushed aluminum sill inserts (the standard ones being silver and this being the only silver in the interior seems nutty).
- Lane change assist.
- 400V/150KW on board charger (low cost relative to potential benefit).
Smokers pack since it was $0 (I don’t smoke but I like the ashtray for change etc.)
What I avoided:
PMCC – why would I need a second EVSE (mobile charger connect) when the car already comes with one(PMC).
Dealer bling:
Two Porsche key rings, Taycan aluminum lithograph, Taycan paperweight.
Dealer experience:
Good, I will go back and I would refer someone. About as good as you can expect these days. The service department is good, with the requisite attention, coffee, snacks and smiles. They did try to sell me tires at the 20k service (I was at around 22k) a few thousand miles earlier than needed and said I should ‘protect my investment with an alignment’ – pfffft – 1) Who ‘invests’ in tires? 2) If your old tires say “your alignment ain’t broke” then leave it alone for goodness sake.
Accessories:
- Porsche trunk liner – one with the taycan sedan shape on it very nice - suncoast
- Porsche windshield sun screen - suncoast
- Fitcamx dash cam 4k front HD back. Fitted it myself took me about 3 hours being very careful to not scratch anything or break any clips. I am pretty experienced at wrenching on cars so it wasn’t too bad. Hardest part was bending plastic mirror housing far enough to come out of anchor points, feels like it will break but it doesn’t. Camera works great (actually ended up doing fitcamx in our other cars too – interestingly the Audi Q7 kit is 100% identical to the Taycan kit).
Servicing:
- 20000 miles service and recalls for major software (colored icons) and seat wiring all happened in one go over a couple of days. Macan loaner was ok but I definitely wanted the Taycan back.
- OTA updates – no problems so far.
- No major or persistent problems to report.
- Porsche logo or blue spinner hanging PCM a few times – restart car or 2 finger PCM restart fixes.
- "Please take over steering" message comes up fairly regularly (Doesn’t happen in any other car so Porsche’s implementation is a little off).
- Starting to develop a door rattle – I think it is either driver’s door at the top rear or rear door at the top front. Need to investigate.
Irritations:
- I have a large collection of FLAC music files on a usb-c – why the #$%$@1# does the album list always start at the top. If I go into an album and then go back out why can’t it stay where I was in the list – pretty basic and the most annoying thing for me (I know: ridiculous 1st world problem).
- Why does apple carplay always take over when it connects – remember the source I was on please.
- Water coming out of trunk after car wash.
Quirks:
- When in hard rain the roof is very noisy – I am guessing they don’t have much sound insulation up there.
- Trunk closing a little sensitive to ‘obstacles’ that aren’t actually in the way.
Charging:
- Initially used supplied PMC EVSE (mobile charger plus) without any problems for a few months with a Hubbel industrial grade receptacle.
- I now have a dual clipper creek EVSE HCS-D50P because my son and daughter both have EVs too. This setup works very well.
- I use a profile set to 50% minimum and 85% max. It works well I charge about once a week, occasionally twice.
- Used EA (free Porsche plan) on several road trips with plug and charge, never had a problem and car was ready before I was. BTW I have not seen this mentioned but if you are going to exceed 30 minutes, charge for 28-29 finish, unplug and then start over and it starts another 30 minutes free session (I have only used EA about 20 times but never paid and never had a problem even though I am southeast and not a huge amount of charging infrastructure here). I also don’t have a particular problem with Walmart - I try to remember from whence I came and not be a snob.
- I have left the car parked for up to 4 weeks at a time while away, not plugged in and sitting around 70% charged and I have never had a problem upon my return.
Driving/Consumption:
- I occasionally drive it like I stole it but most of the time I am trying to set an example for my teen drivers and not get scolded by my wife.
- The unrelenting torque and instant pickup of an EV is addictive, add in the 2 speed transmission and this car is fun to drive when you want it to be. It can also be docile enough for a daily commute while taking conference calls.
- I am less interested in straight line 0-60 and care more about handling, fast bends, highway on ramps and overtaking in traffic – all very good in this car.
- I often use ACC, it works well but I think it waits a bit too long to start braking when coming up on other stopped cars and thus isn’t as smooth as it could be
- I rarely use regen as I prefer to coast, if I am on a long hill without ACC and starting to speed too much then I will use regen.
- Thre older children 13 -18 years old. ^ foot sone fits in back seat without complaint. If all three are seated back, there then 13-year-old complains. So middle seat is for small kids or short journey only.
- Consumption is good but I don’t really worry about it. I am happy with the small battery. My car usually shows around 215 miles @ 85%.
- Actual all-time consumption:
Tires:
- Came with Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires.
- Good tires, good handling wet or dry, good braking, quiet.
- Had 1 puncture that I plugged at home without any problems.
- Currently at 26000 miles and will probably get another 1000-1500 miles out of them. I am happy with that given the weight of the car and the occasional driving like I stole it.
- I will replace with the same tires (no alignment issues here).
Other thoughts:
- I lurk on the forum occasionally and I do get mildly concerned when I see other people having problems with batteries and drivetrains. I usually keep cars for around a decade, so far it seems like this car should be ok for that. I think battery and EV drivetrain warranty for 8 years is good enough. I will see how the next year goes before deciding on any additional extended warranty (S7 experience was out of warranty and was not good).
- I mentioned that my son and daughter have EVs. Son has a Polestar2 with pilot and sport packs and daughter has a Ford Mustang Mach-e RWD select with technology package (spoiled kids I know). Those cars are very good, not as beautiful or exciting as the Taycan but very good and a lot cheaper.
- Interesting for all of those with range anxiety, the kids have these EVs as their first cars and they simply accept the range and work within it. They have no range anxiety since they never had longer range. They have charged in the wild a couple of times and are entirely unconcerned about it. Of course having parent provided home charging probably helps.
- I think having L2 charging at home is crucial and I can’t imagine living long term with an EV without it.
- My wife is almost up for something new (she loves her Q7), she wants an SUV EV so it will be between the Porsche Macan EV, Lotus Eletre, Audi e-tron Q8, BMW IX or Range Rover EV. Mercedes is out as it looks to station wagony to her (her technical term). So we will be all in on electric. We may add some generation or solar cell capability to the house as a fallback for electrons.
- If I did it again: While the extra power of any higher model would be fun for a while, the RWD is great and is enough for the traffic around here. I would buy the exact same car again. I might get a little more adventurous on the color but I also really like the black/black and I am unconcerned about others who may dislike it.
