or1
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- O
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2019
- Threads
- 8
- Messages
- 264
- Reaction score
- 499
- Location
- Norway
- Vehicles
- Taycan GTS ST
- Thread starter
- #1
Taycan GTS: comfort and firmness, precision and power, solidity and good materials, and even reasonably practical. The suspension handles bumps with aplomb, and steering feel is very very good. The phrase extremely competent comes to mind.
Sport Turismo: I like the outside form of it with a beefier behind, and I appreciate the extra luggage space compared to a sedan. Sport Turismo being available was an important factor in choosing the Taycan. Nice to not have all the plastic cladding and added height of a Cross Turismo - but I could have had the compass in the Sport Chrono position, as there are more than enough clocks around already. (I could gone without Sport Chrono, but it is standard on GTS, and see next point.)
Drive Mode: Porsche’s logic (and maybe regulations) of always starting in Normal mode is wrongly thought out I think. If I change mode, then that is a conscious action that the car definitely should remember. If it had remembered, the Drive Mode knob could have been left out IMO. But the way mode behavior is, the knob is useful. That said, Normal mode is quite good. I have set up Individual to my liking, as a mix of Normal and Sport, but do not use it very often as I am not displeased with Normal.
Electric Sport Sound: what a waste. I know many of you think differently, but I don’t get it. An electric Porsche has great technology and its natural sounds are enjoyable, even when they are less present. Or rather, they are enjoyable also because they are less present. I embrace the electric sound image. I have tried the sport sound on a few occasions (it is standard on GTS), but I am embarrassed by creating so much noise artificially.
Consumption, range, charging: in summer with 21” wheels I am at or just under 200 Wh/km (20 kWh/100 km, 3,1 mi/kWh) in Norwegian driving on medium to long trips. We have a few motorways with up to 110 km/h max, mostly I am on lesser roads with speed a good deal less. Spirited driving takes it well above 200, careful driving can get me down 10%; winter is of course quite much higher. I have no quarrels with this. More range would be nice, but charging infrastructure in Norway is good and charging times are comfortably short even in battery saving mode. Mostly I charge at home anyway with low (kilo)wattage.
Charging of 12 Volt battery during long standstills: I have not had an empty 12 V battery yet, but what a silly algorithm the car uses to charge it. It should keep it charged forever by taking energy from the big battery. I as a user should keep the big battery OK and that should always be enough.
Mamba Green Metallic: see the picture. Need I say more?
Mission-E 21” silver/black summer wheels: beautiful I think, and they contribute to the driving feel. I have not hit any destructive holes or curbs yet! For comfort and noise 20” could have been better, but are there any as nice ones? I prefer open rims so that the brakes are well visible.
Surface Coated Brakes (PSCB): to me they look good, and they also work well. No squeaks for me, almost no brake dust, no rust.
Black and bordeaux (red) leather interior: I know it is not for everyone, particularly with Mamba Green exterior. But I think it all goes well together. Sitting inside looking at some black, some red and the green fenders and external mirror housings is a joy.
18-way seats with heating and ventilation: they suit me extremely well. I cannot imagine any way they could be better, even on long trips. Massage is not necessary when they are this good. (I have switched off comfort access, as the seatback is behind the B pillar when in my driving position - I’m 6 ft 4.)
Leather on door sills and B pillars: not the most necessary of options, but it avoids some annoying plastic parts and it looks good. Not impractical either, they take wear and tear quite well.
No privacy glass: I am in a clear (pun intended) minority here, but to me privacy glass makes the car look much less harmonious as it breaks up the window area. Practically I can see no downsides to not having it.
Instrument cluster: the physical and graphic design I think is excellent. The contents are a more mixed bag. The “power meter” could give some more info in numbers, like kW going in or out. The left “tube” is a bit wasted for me. As I like both Information and Trip visible, I think I should have been able to have one of them to the left. The way it is, I have to sacrifice more than two thirds of the map in the PCM screen to use MyScreen with Trip there (Trip, map, media instead of fullscreen map).
Night Vision Assist: the feature is not useful most of the time, but when it is it is very useful (quite many deer around here). Placement of the display in a tube could have been more flexible.
Center console: who invented the lid? It could have been worse, but not much. The space under it is not much to write home about either.
ACC, but no InnoDrive or Active Lane Keeping: I’ve written about it before, so I will be short (for once). I prefer active driving to half-good assistance systems that need to be surveilled all the time.
No HUD: I had HUD in my previous car, and liked it to a degree. But having a “clean windshield” also has its charm. Since the Taycan HUD design IME is a rather ugly covering of the instrument binnacle, and what it does is a bit limited, I skipped it. Maybe I have missed it once or twice, but I do not regret leaving it out.
PCM and passenger screen: I like how the screens are integrated in the dash, and they are big enough. Apart from that, it is a matter of software, and again a mixed bag. Functionality is OK when it works, which is most of the time. But it reboots by itself more often than it should, and there could be more user choice here and there. Why does MyScreen have to have three parts for example? I could make use of one third for Trip and two thirds navigation.
Maneuvering cameras: I don’t have active park assist, so I have a top view, front and back views and a set of side views. The images are mostly too hard to interpret for driving, with the side views least bad: they actually help a lot.
Over the air updates: rare and unsubstantial so far. But they are a tool, not an end in themselves. To me the important thing is that Porsche keep doing software improvements. It is not important to me to get them over the air, but sending them over the air would probably make them easier to handle for them, and in that sense they would be welcome.
No rear axle steering: I was in doubt about this one, but skipped it because I did not like the thought of feeling the rear axle go sideways on a slippery winter road (we have a lot of that in Norway) without knowing if it was just RAS. The improvements in turning circle and higher-speed stability did not seem to be very important for my use either. Later, I have become aware of some challenges with RAS when driving out from close to a curb. So I don’t regret, but could see the matter differently with more experience.
No active anti roll bars: I don’t track the car, it has a low CoG and rather stiff suspension, so I did not see the point really. My experience now is that it rolls very little also without the active bars, and even in Normal mode, and I have absolutely no regrets here.
Faults and repairs. nothing (apart from software glitches).
In short: a 9 out of 10. Software, the center console lid and space under it, maneuvering cameras and a couple of other things costs it that tenth point.
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Batmobile vibes
