Is Porsche Connect worth it?

[tigerbalm]

For my road-trip usage, Porsche Connect is a must-have – especially as built-in navigation is the only way to get battery conditioning for fast charging:

• Navigation map updates
• Live traffic reports and re-routing
• POI and charger routing (for those that are not in the built-in database)
• Monitoring charging process remotely (while eating at fast charging stops or destination charging at hotels)

If the Apple Maps integration could handle battery conditioning – it would give me more pause for thought.

As of now – from year 3 onwards – Porsche Charging, Connect and Tracking is in the budget planning. But agreed – they certainly add up – and it would be nice if Porsche provided the three services in a single discounted package.

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[Isaac]

Hi The key to this is the "my road trip usage" and I completely agree that if you are using the car for frequent long trips with 3rd party charging then that could tip the balance to buying it. I mostly charge at home and if doing a longer journey take the X5 hybrid. Still overpriced though....I don't buy it more on principle because I am fed up with Porsche price gouging. Interesting that you also purchase ABRP. I noticed that it plans routes and stops much better than the onboard systems. Porsche admitted in their listing documents a while back that they had problems with software development that was delaying new car launches.

 

[mjoe]

Indeed, a very interesting write up. How much kilometers did you calculate for your Taycan on a yearly basis?
Maybe calculate in a broken windshield from time to time?
oh and you need to calculate in new breaks and fluids from time to time that they want to sell you otherwise your warranty gets useless. Not sure what is a must and what is a over the top..

—

regarding your nav services:
- I use Google maps for navigation with traffic ( really hope for head up navigation integration in J1 I cars)
- ABRP free for calculating my ionity stops
- offline Porsche navigation in parallel to do the pre heating and keep in mind battery stats.

But having maps and PCM nav in parallel was an iOS 17 thing. Did not test it with iOS 18. Heard it is broken here again.

 

[tigerbalm]

Indeed, a very interesting write up. How much kilometers did you calculate for your Taycan on a yearly basis?
Maybe calculate in a broken windshield from time to time?
oh and you need to calculate in new breaks and fluids from time to time that they want to sell you otherwise your warranty gets useless. Not sure what is a must and what is a over the top..

I have 44k km on my two year old Taycan. About 28k km of that was road-trips. Agree my budgeting isn't perfect. I tend to add to it when I have a firm idea of costs. I find it hard sometimes to get advance indication of what costs would be – my Porsche Centre is a little reluctant to quote for future work with no specifics.

I want to build in better inflation handling into my next version. I keep a dedicated savings account for the car – and feed a monthly amount of 680€ into it – so that there are funds available when lumpy costs arrive.

Its a bit of an eye-opener to see that Year 9 (2031) will be a 1,000€/month to keep the car on the road.

But I also find that if I don't scrimp – not be too cost sensitive – and have a good relationship with my Porsche Centre (only one in Ireland) – my cars can be kept in "like new" condition.

 

[Scandinavian]

For my road-trip usage, Porsche Connect is a must-have – especially as built-in navigation is the only way to get battery conditioning for fast charging:

• Navigation map updates
• Live traffic reports and re-routing
• POI and charger routing (for those that are not in the built-in database)
• Monitoring charging process remotely (while eating at fast charging stops or destination charging at hotels)

• Navigation map updates. If they were reliable and up to date. Nor always true for me.
• 
  
• Live traffic reports and re-routing. As I said they are so out of date for me that they are not any help. Happened several times here in France and through Germany
• 
  
• POI and charger routing (for those that are not in the built-in database). Much better results when using ABRP and also checking for alternative chargers in areas via ChargeFinder in my view. Long trips I always plan via ABRP or Google Maps anyhow. And for charger routing I find ABRP much better. Have had several phone calls and mail exchanges with Porsche mobility about inaccuracy in their planning.
  
  
• 
  
• Monitoring charging process remotely (while eating at fast charging stops or destination charging at hotels). Yes the lack of that plus the possibility of preheating is a downside when staying at hotels etc. But a very small annoyance. I can not do anything with the charging at HPC anyhow.

I agree the costs in the overall scheme is not huge, but I do not see any real value from them. And Porsche’s attitude about their pricing just irritates me

I now have started to use the Ionity subscription (mostly use Ionity anyhow) plus the periods (months) I need a backup, I use Tesla monthly. You can turn on and off the subscription by months without any costs. My main backup. And if I am really stuck I just use my credit card.

It is a pity that Porsche has started to be driven by accountants.

 

[Scandinavian]

Its a bit of an eye-opener to see that Year 9 (2031) will be a 1,000€/month to keep the car on the road.

Actually you are there already in 2029!

 

[agility65]

Haven’t used it for 6 months and don’t really

miss it.

 

[Mr. 2021 Taycan]

To answer the question directly, NO.

 

[moto_geek]

The biggest feature they DON'T have, doors locked? or unlock or roll your windows remotely.

We never renewed, Car Play is all you need in my opinion and everything that needed data will come from your phone for information previously mention. Maps/Album Art Phone SMS/Text, Notifications. In fact, if you look at the Porsche App Car Play interface, there is a lot more functionality people are not aware of. There is driver specific settings and customizations in it.

The only thing we ever used remotely was that part of that was looking how much % battery charging/left remotely in my home or while in store/coffee shop monitoring it. But don't miss it now and definitely not worth the money they ask.

Agree with others, just the preheat which is still enabled without subscribing to "Connect" is what we need.

 

[hnoor]

I think it's absurd that they would make us pay $319 yearly to perform basic functionalities on this car such as check current state of charge, climate control, lock/unlock. My wife's 5 year old Audi e-tron let's you do all of that for free and these companies are basically the same. I urge you all to contact Porsche connect customer service and complain. I called them and sent them an email about this.

My firm belief is since they are not making money from servicing these cars, this is their workaround to try to squeeze every penny they can out of us.

 

[n3ophyte]

I urge you all to contact Porsche connect customer service and complain. I called them and sent them an email about this.

Have you had a response from Porsche yet?

 

[hnoor]

Have you had a response from Porsche yet?

Not yet, it's only been a few hours

 

[tophamn]

I think it's absurd that they would make us pay $319 yearly to perform basic functionalities on this car such as check current state of charge, climate control, lock/unlock. My wife's 5 year old Audi e-tron let's you do all of that for free and these companies are basically the same. I urge you all to contact Porsche connect customer service and complain. I called them and sent them an email about this.

My firm belief is since they are not making money from servicing these cars, this is their workaround to try to squeeze every penny they can out of us.

BMW owners pay.

 

[tophamn]

To be fair to Porsche it costs them money to enable and maintain these services so why shouldn't we pay? - at least you get a choice, rather than them loading the cost on the car purchase price. If you think about the cost of ownership with insurance, tyres, electric-charge, service, depreciation, etc. this is lost in the noise. Anyone wanting a cheap car came to the wrong place.

 

[lcarron]

In Vegas, when it is over 100 degrees F (38 C) in the sun, I’m very happy to start the air conditioning 5 minutes before getting into the car. I use it every day and this is priceless, and this is why I’m paying the yearly subscription for it.

At 150 K the car this is a shame, I know!!

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