How was your decision on your chosen Taycan model based

[im85288]

I am in the process of deciding on which Taycan model to choose and I think it would be interesting to see how others came up with their decision. In particular my feeling is that the choice may be heavily based upon weather the Taycan is your first EV or if like myself your moving on/adding to an existing EV. In my case I currently have a Tesla model 3 performance and having test driven a Taycan 4S I really loved everything about it with the exception of feeling the acceleration was a bit subdued compared to my model 3. My car before that was a BMW 435 XDrive and I am certain if I had gone from that to test driving the 4S my impression of the acceleration would be completely different. For that reason I am flicking between the 4S and the Turbo…with the Turbo being the one I feel I would not miss the acceleration from the model 3.

So I have created a basic poll and would be interested to hear other peoples opinions on their decision process.

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[kort]

I am in the process of deciding on which Taycan model to choose and I think it would be interesting to see how others came up with their decision. In particular my feeling is that the choice may be heavily based upon weather the Taycan is your first EV or if like myself your moving on/adding to an existing EV. In my case I currently have a Tesla model 3 performance and having test driven a Taycan 4S I really loved everything about it with the exception of feeling the acceleration was a bit subdued compared to my model 3. My car before that was a BMW 435 XDrive and I am certain if I had gone from that to test driving the 4S my impression of the acceleration would be completely different. For that reason I am flicking between the 4S and the Turbo…with the Turbo being the one I feel I would not miss the acceleration from the model 3.

So I have created a basic poll and would be interested to hear other peoples opinions on their decision process.

IMHO there are only 2 choices either a 4s or a turbo. the RWD gives a good tease of the car and if money is a concern then it isn't a bad choice, the turbo 4s is just too much, unnecessary IMHO.
if money isn't a big concern get the turbo.
I have a 4s and regret a little bit about not going for the turbo

 

[Pozuelo]

Turbo S for me. I am in the “only the best will do” camp, as long at it fits in my budget. A Rimac is not in my budget ...

 

[struther]

I came from a GTR and wanted to make sure I had similar if not better acceleration given the upgrade cost. At some point, I was so far beyond what I had budgeted that I said to hell with it and got the Turbo S with all the options I wanted. When I ordered my car, the 4S wasn’t available and the “Turbo” was the entry model.

 

[Genau]

Allocation availability has a huge impact on which Taycan people order. When I placed my order, the wait for a 4S was almost a year, and the wait for a Turbo or Turbo S was over a year, which I couldn't tolerate. Coming from ICE cars, my 4S is incredible, but I am curious how much more incredible the Turbo or Turbo S would be as my daily driver.

 

[Mike in CA]

I owned a high performance ICE Porsche (GT3) and an EV (e-Tron) so had experience with both. I won't go into my rationale for swapping the GT3 for a Taycan, but will comment on my Taycan choice.

If everything were equal I would have bought a Turbo; but they weren't equal. The delta between similarly equipped 4S and Turbo models with the options I wanted, irrespective of what already comes standard on the Turbo, was close to $30K.

The other half of the equation was an attempt at a realistic evaluation, somewhat unusual for me when it comes to cars, of how much performance I could reasonably use on the street. Aside from track and autocross events, for the sake of my license and public safety, I rarely used more than a fraction of the performance of my GT3. As a seriously quick car, if used to it's full potential, the 4S also has more performance than is truly safe to use when other people are on the road.

Is it a kick in the ass to hit the afterburners once in a while? Absolutely. Is that thrill even greater in a Turbo/S than a 4S? No doubt. But how much is enough? When I do indulge nowadays, I find myself looking in my mirrors more than I used to and feeling more like I got away with something that I probably shouldn't have been doing in the first place. I also don't feel the need any longer to impress anyone by having "the best" or "the fastest". I like to think that, god help me, I've "matured".

Given all that, my decision was pretty straightforward. I wasn't willing to trade $30K and a likely reduction in EV range for even quicker acceleration that I could use to impress friends (and myself, I suppose) some relatively small fraction of the time.

So, I bought a 4S and love the car. Happy ending, for me at least.

 

[Miwa]

There was no GTS yet, so Turbo it had to be, given the options I wanted.

 

[im85288]

Some great replies there, appreciate it considerably. Looks like the coming from an ICE car and then experiencing the 4S is leading the poll so far.

Out of curiosity I decided to compare as best I can like for like (with the crucial options I want such as reverse camera, heated steering wheel, adaptive cruise control etc) the 4S vs Turbo. All my prices are in GBP.

Base 4S starts at 83.5K, specced how I want it takes it to 101K.
Base Turbo starts at 115.8K, specced how I want it takes it to 120K.

So that leaves the Turbo 19K more…which is far less than the base price difference of 32.3K.

Then I added in things that I would get on the Turbo as a bonus that I wouldn’t spec but come as standard compared to the 4S. So we have PTV at 1K, PSCB at 2K, Roof lining race tex at 1.3K…I may have missed some but that’s a total of 4.3K. Take that away from the 19K and we are down to 14.7K.

With all the above and the fact that the GMFV is obviously higher for the Turbo and the excitement factor undoubtedly is increased..say the car is kept for 3 years that’s an extra 5K a year for the Turbo.

According to my checks on the configurator using Porsche finance as an indicator the difference between the GMFV after 3 years is 20K. Which basically means the 15K more recoups another 5K on sale (worst case scenario).

So now taking the 5K from the 15K more total moves the difference over 3 years to 10K…so just over 3K a year to have the Turbo…makes it much more appealing.

Having said all of that, I am personally holding of to see if the GTS model is announced (my dealer has took a deposit from me for it and stated it’s 100 percent coming). Once announced I’ll decide between that and the Turbo…if for some reason it’s not announced Turbo it is!

 

[Wakesurfer]

I owned a high performance ICE Porsche (GT3) and an EV (e-Tron) so had experience with both. I won't go into my rationale for swapping the GT3 for a Taycan, but will comment on my Taycan choice.

If everything were equal I would have bought a Turbo; but they weren't equal. The delta between similarly equipped 4S and Turbo models with the options I wanted, irrespective of what already comes standard on the Turbo, was close to $30K.

The other half of the equation was an attempt at a realistic evaluation, somewhat unusual for me when it comes to cars, of how much performance I could reasonably use on the street. Aside from track and autocross events, for the sake of my license and public safety, I rarely used more than a fraction of the performance of my GT3. As a seriously quick car, if used to it's full potential, the 4S also has more performance than is truly safe to use when other people are on the road.

Is it a kick in the ass to hit the afterburners once in a while? Absolutely. Is that thrill even greater in a Turbo/S than a 4S? No doubt. But how much is enough? When I do indulge nowadays, I find myself looking in my mirrors more than I used to and feeling more like I got away with something that I probably shouldn't have been doing in the first place. I also don't feel the need any longer to impress anyone by having "the best" or "the fastest". I like to think that, god help me, I've "matured".

Given all that, my decision was pretty straightforward. I wasn't willing to trade $30K and a likely reduction in EV range for even quicker acceleration that I could use to impress friends (and myself, I suppose) some relatively small fraction of the time.

So, I bought a 4S and love the car. Happy ending, for me at least.

Mike in CA sums it up!!! I did the same - compared my 4S spec against a similar Turbo. The gain was just not worth the $30,000. It was not a $$$ issue but rather usability decision - would I really feel the difference on the street between the two? Maybe..................but not enough to put me over the edge. Very satisfied with my 4S.

 

[schad]

Coming from an ICE, ordered a 4S.

I agree with Mike in CA. For a car that's seldom if ever going to see a race track, the crazy acceleration is a gimmick. It's a really enjoyable gimmick, to be sure, but it's a gimmick nonetheless. My personal threshold for "good enough" 0-60 times is 4 seconds. Past that point, the diminishing returns are very diminished indeed.

If I had unlimited funds, of course I'd get a Turbo S, because why wouldn't I? But even for those of us who could afford any flavor of Taycan, it's often not a question of "Turbo or 4S." It's instead a question of "Turbo, or 4S and $20k worth of something else that's fun." For example, $20k will buy you a lot of track days and sets of tires.

 

[Torv]

I chose the 4S simply because it's 90% of the Turbo S for 60% of the cost. One second faster in the 0-60 is almost meaningless when the 4S is already faster than 95% of the cars on the road.

 

[NC_Taycan]

Like other early adopters, the options were Turbo or Turbo S at the time. I had promised myself after a 650i vs. M6 mistake never to settle for the "lesser" model. However the only two differences that I have found meaningful are the extra power at launch control starts in the Turbo S (highway passing and other acceleration is the same) and the PCCB brakes which would definitely matter on a track. I do plan to track the Taycan 5-6 days a year but I couldn't justify the extra for the PCCB or Turbo S just for those 5-6 days when I'm tracking for fun, not for time.

After driving a loaner 4S I can say there is a driveability difference - you feel the weight in the 4S. The 4S just feels sluggish. But it's still a great ride and I would be quite happy with the 4S were the Turbo not available or out of reach.

 

[schad]

I had promised myself after a 650i vs. M6 mistake never to settle for the "lesser" model.

550i here, and I share your resolution.

 

[DerekS]

No options for the RWD folks huh?

Well, I came from a Targa 4S into a Taycan RWD.

My decision was based around having EV-envy for a long time but was waiting for the right car to come along to replace the Targa.

The rumors were the Taycan was going to be an 80K car so I assumed that would be my choice...then it launched with 130-180k ranges between 4S and Turbo. Too much for me.

So I continued to sit it out, then the Taycan RWD launched which was more inline with my budget. It's still not my ideal car (I prefer 2 doors and an open roof) but it's the closest thing to an EV that meets my needs right now.

 

[im85288]

No options for the RWD folks huh?

Apologies for that, added those in now.

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