How best to future-proof my Taycan purchase?

[XLR82XS]

You think you can drive 60k without getting a paint chip?

Hell no! ~600 miles on my Taycan and the front bumper has a small mark already in the PPF. (entire car is wrapped)

What most people don't realize is that ever little piece of debris, no matter how small, will cause paint/glass damage when impacting a surface at high-velocity. That's why you'll see a "sparkly" pattern in high-mileage windshields when sun hits it or bright light applied.
Same goes for paint. Put a flashlight on a front bumper or headlights with some mileage and you'll see the little divots all over.

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[DerekS]

Hell no! ~600 miles on my Taycan and the front bumper has a small mark already in the PPF. (entire car is wrapped)

What most people don't realize is that ever little piece of debris, no matter how small, will cause paint/glass damage when impacting a surface at high-velocity. That's why you'll see a "sparkly" pattern in high-mileage windshields when sun hits it or bright light applied.
Same goes for paint. Put a flashlight on a front bumper or headlights with some mileage and you'll see the little divots all over.

Correct. And for whatever reason, Porsche windshields seem to be extra soft and prone to pitting.

I need to replace mine after my gravel truck incident last week. It has so many sparkling pits that it's a distraction. Also need to replace the PPF and I'm hoping like hell most of the white marks I've got didn't make it through to the paint.

 

[XLR82XS]

At least PPF is doing it's job and helping to preserve your original paint.

 

[DerekS]

At least PPF is doing it's job and helping to preserve your original paint.

I hope it did its job! We'll see when it's removed how many of these marks made it through. I'm pretty sure at least one did.

 

[rich_r]

I don’t think the taycan is a “must lease” just cause it’s an EV. In fact I think there are some reasons why it might make a good long term buy:
-any expensive luxury sedan tends to have rapid depreciation but the panamera seems to hold its value a little better than Mercedes s class and bmw 7 series . I’d expect the taycan to follow that path
-one reason luxury cars tend to have steep depreciation is due to high out of warranty repair costs. As an EV, the taycan should have lower repair and maintenance costs out of warranty. Yes right now there are some teething pains due to it being a new platform nd model.
-Yes automotive tech will change over the next 10 years. But that doesn’t change the car you already own; it just changes your perception. Some people have FOMO while others are content to keep their cars beyond the point where they are the hot new thing. If you continue to like the way it looks and drives then why not keep it.
-I think its elegant yet modern design will keep it looking good for the long term
-Porsche leases seem like a ripoff atkeast in the US due to the higher than average interest rates they charge

 

[Klepper]

I don’t think the taycan is a “must lease” just cause it’s an EV. In fact I think there are some reasons why it might make a good long term buy:
-any expensive luxury sedan tends to have rapid depreciation but the panamera seems to hold its value a little better than Mercedes s class and bmw 7 series . I’d expect the taycan to follow that path
-one reason luxury cars tend to have steep depreciation is due to high out of warranty repair costs. As an EV, the taycan should have lower repair and maintenance costs out of warranty. Yes right now there are some teething pains due to it being a new platform nd model.
-Yes automotive tech will change over the next 10 years. But that doesn’t change the car you already own; it just changes your perception. Some people have FOMO while others are content to keep their cars beyond the point where they are the hot new thing. If you continue to like the way it looks and drives then why not keep it.
-I think its elegant yet modern design will keep it looking good for the long term
-Porsche leases seem like a ripoff atkeast in the US due to the higher than average interest rates they charge

I agree, I don't think the Taycan is a "must lease". I won't re-post my thoughts on leasing vs buying (I bought btw), but there is a good discussion about it here:

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/thoughts-in-leasing-vs-purchasing.5888/

 

[whitex]

How do you come to that conclusion?

You might know this EV car rental company in Germany:



The owner bought a new EV for himself. So I asked him, why not a Model Y?

He replied: I would like to know before my purchase by which technical specifications (promises) a manufacturer is measured and do not want any subsequent degredations OTA.

This reflects my 5.5 years experience with my MS90D, first and foremost the AP.

After driving Teslas for 8+ years, I will tell you, their OTA is one of the reasons I am switching. Here are some reasons why:

1. OTA lets Tesla sell unfinished products - one of my Model S (2017) didn't have automatic headlights or automatic wipers for almost a year, while they were working on it. People who purchased FSD feature in 2016 got nothing for 4+ years (I mean NOTHING, not even a mention on the screen the car that the option was on the car).
2. Tesla uses that as an excuse not to fix your car, they always tell you "fix is coming next update, if not, the one after that, if not the one after that" etc, including one time they told that to customers who had physically discolored screens (someone thought they could compensate by changing the pixel colors in software, ha)!
3. Every OTA fixes things but breaks others. Every update you need to check the car to make sure it works as is did the day before - some functionality may be broken or missing. I've experienced updates where for example my front windshield defrost just stopped working for a few weeks (until the next update), actually worse, it turned into a "frost" button instead. Sometimes the car just behaves differently, for example my wife's Tesla got an update once which got a new "feature" which automatically unfolded side mirrors as soon as the car started moving. So she got into the car in a tight parking spot, folded the mirrors as she has done many times before, started backing up, not realizing the mirrors just unfolded automatically! $600 for mirror assembly replacement btw, not covered under warranty of course, because you are supposed to go online every update and read all the fine print before driving the car - almost nobody does that, but it gives Tesla legal liability shield. Oh, the very next update they fixed it, mirrors only unfolded above some minimum speed, not as soon as car moved. Too late for my wife's car though.
4. Tesla experiments on customers, for example trying different battery management strategies on different cars, then seeing what happens. For some customers, the batteries degraded quicker, so Tesla learned, but of course capped those batteries as far as max charge (car range), max power delivered to motors, and charging speed, in order to not have the batteries die or catch on fire, both of which would fall under the 8 year battery warranty, so cost to Tesla. Not fun waking up to a new, more limited car.
5. This one is subjective, but in order to minimize development and maintenance costs, every Tesla gets upgraded to latest software. The result is that it runs slow on older cars, like loading latest iOS today on an iPhone 6. That and they started to prioritize form over function, so for example the buttons used to be near the drive line of sight, were good size and colored to easy to identify while driving. Then Tesla decided tiny monochrome buttons, nested within menus look much cooler, so they moved everyone to that. To get to the phone app, used to be a quick and easy click, now it's multiple clicks, far away from driver's line of sight, and tiny monochrome buttons.

I'm sure OTA could be used for good, but unfortunately the negative abilities like selling vaporware, or limiting the car parameters to avoid warranty claims, are too lucrative and therefore tempting for companies to pass up. With everyone trying to compete with Tesla, I hope some manufactures will resist the temptation to do what Tesla does.

 

[TycanNewHampshire]

"Porsche Drive".....it is only in limited markets, but you can do a 'single vehicle' or 'multi-vehicle' subscription and concierge delivery service based on 1 or 3 month subscription or with multi-vehicle you can drive as many Porsche models as you want.
It is a novel concept and you basically have a subscription service to your vehicle and will always be guaranteed the newest and latest-n-greatest.
That is my only suggestion on 'future-proofing', otherwise it is Porsche.....and a vehicle, after all and they want turnover.
https://www.porsche.com/usa/accessoriesandservices/porschedrive/subscription/

 

[KenTO]

Sorry no - that was quite a while ago.

From memory:

- Any stars on the windshield = replace
- Any chips on the paint = repaint that panel
- Any tears in the leather = repair

My car had like 60K on it and was well used. It had all of that wear and more. I ended up selling it to Carmax instead (as is) and came out ahead.

I have leased 4 Porsches (3 911s, Macan S, Taycan 4S) which were all used as daily drivers, and paid nothing on lease return. I returned the car to the dealer and got into a new Porsche, and leased from Porsche Financial Services, not a third party. I think these two factors are key to returning a vehicle, and by the way, normal wear and tear should be covered.

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