Taycan Turbo 2020, Electrical System Error Stop vehicle in a safe place

Mike in CA

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Thanks so much for sharing this story Mike. Sounds pretty intense... What would be your suggestion here, return it (initial conversations with my attorney say that I can get out of it easy) or keep it and wait until it is fixed asking for some compensation from PCNA and knowing this issue will be on my car history? I agree that Group Action is hard and involves a lot of effort from many owners, but seems like there's a lot of issues out there.
I really hesitate to suggest one course of action or the other. It's just so subjective and dependent on your personal tolerance for an adverse situation and how much emotional investment you have in the new car.

The experience with my GT3's engine was quite traumatic at the time and after waiting for the car for almost 2 years, having to see it carted off on a flatbed after 2 weeks of ownership and no apparent problems was pretty heartbreaking. But after 3 months it came back good as new and I got 7 long years of major pleasure out of owning it.

If I were in your shoes, I'd probably wait and see if Porsche could fix my new Taycan. I'm not saying that's the right thing for you to do, it's just probably what I would do, especially if I could get some additional compensation out of PCNA. FWIW, I don't believe it will be a blemish on your car's history. It's just a repair; not like a collision or something that will show up on a CarFax report. Anyway, I wish you the best with your decision.
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chrisk

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but even if you want to keep driving a Taycan, I really don't see why one would keep the 2020 car that already had issues, if you have the option to use the lemon law to either exchange it with a new model or get your money back and then buy a new one.
 
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iltaycan

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I’m fine with Porsche being behind others in Technology - cause they have other “skills” - I just would rather they not try - rather than do it as badly as they‘ve done it in the Taycan...

if you’re behind - don’t release crap and pretend you’re catching up - focus on your strengths and then bring fully formed products to market - what Porsche has done is really really slap stick…and it’s starting to show.

OTA updates - ROFL - :CWL: - I’ll take $1 bets we never see an OTA update - and it’s not just technology for OTA updates - it’s mind set - software engineering process - culture - roadmap -porsche is too stuck in a model year mentality…and they don‘t do all their own software - most of their software is done by their supply chain - yeah releaseing sofwtare updates from 75+ different vendors - I wouldn’t release that either - testing and integration is a nightmare…
Unfortunately I have to agree with you, I believe the Taycan was not fully tested or ready for General Availability and was probably released by pure market pressure. It's hard to believe for a company of this level that people have many issues and dealers have no proper training or spare parts. I had problems with other German car companies which we all know about, but nothing even close to this. Any issue was promptly repaired with a loaner provider instantly and very prompt and courteous service. Porsche seems to be lacking all of it. Maybe they have internal organizational problems or maybe they grew too fast selling cheaper cars when their dealer infrastructure wasn't prepared for it. At least in Atlanta if you need service you need to wait longer than a month if you are lucky for any kind of service. No other high end German brand does this. As many people say, Porsche drives lovely and it would have been nice if they would have waited and tested the Taycan thoroughly before releasing it to the market.
 

daveo4EV

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General Availability and was probably released by pure market pressure
I also believe there was some legal requirement to release this car from the diesel-gate settlement - I believe that is the _ONLY_ reason a limited number of Taycan’s were delivered before the end of calendar year 2019…

I welcome confirmation or refutation on my assertion from people who have references - but yeah this product was released on a schedule…good thing Porsche knows how to make a decent mechanical beast - cause they are clearly learning on everything else.
 

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+1 with daveo4EV
 


Kingske

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I also believe there was some legal requirement to release this car from the diesel-gate settlement - I believe that is the _ONLY_ reason a limited number of Taycan’s were delivered before the end of calendar year 2019…

I welcome confirmation or refutation on my assertion from people who have references - but yeah this product was released on a schedule…good thing Porsche knows how to make a decent mechanical beast - cause they are clearly learning on everything else.
If Tesla would use its current irrationally high market cap of ~$700B as leverage to acquire BMW or Daimler (markets caps of $40-50B) and succeed in combining its deep software know-how with the Germans' mechanical design and quality manufacturing know-how, most other legacy car makers might be in trouble, including VW/Audi/Porsche.
 

Dan3141

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I have been a Porsche enthusiast for a while or at least I was before I purchased a Taycan Turbo 2020 on 12/28/2020. My experience started being awesome as one could expect owning a Porsche! I loved the drive, the electronics, the sound system, all the options, etc... Very unexpectedly... two weeks into the ownership the issues started... I started getting this "Electrical system error Stop vehicle in a safe place" message when trying to start the car and the car would not start at all. At first I didn't think much of it after leasing many different German brands for over 25 years. So, I Googled the error and read that a simple switch off, lock the car and wait 15 minutes would clear the error; so, I did that and voila the error was clear and the car worked fine which I was OK since I had similar issues with other German brands many times. The issue started showing more often after a few days until about 3 weeks of ownership with 552 miles in the odometer the car would no longer start and had to be towed to a Porsche dealer. The tow truck driver tried to jump start the car 12v battery with no luck and we had to push it to move it around so he could get it on to the truck.
At first the dealer would not even give me a loaner; I quickly complained with Porsche NA and a Taycan 4S loaner was provided to me the next day. The dealer claimed diagnosis for these cars is slow and they had to be in close contact with Porsche of Germany. Three weeks after initial diagnose, the dealer sent me a text message indicating that a decision was made to replace the High Voltage battery on my Taycan and the order was placed with no ETA of deliver, but they would let me know.
I contacted Porsche of NA again and they told me I would get my car back some time in late March or April which I said it was unacceptable. I requested Porsche to at least take over my car payments while my Taycan was being repaired since apparently it was going to take around three months. So far today I still have not heard from Porsche NA or the Porsche of Atlanta dealer. May be I have been too patient and too nice with them, I have not called many times and I have not raised my voice even once and I have been very polite so far.

I have to say that I am a bit scared about driving the Taycan 4S loaner I have, but so far it is operating good. It had 200 miles when I got it and it now has a little over 1K. So far the only issues I had with this one was the trunk not always closing and while charging it, due to the car not releasing the charging cable. So far I have been able to get it released by pushing the main car start/stop button a couple of times which seems to reset the charging port and allows the release button to operate. The 4S loaner I have is pretty basic and has almost no options and less things to break.

I am posting this for two reasons:
One to inform the public about the issues that current owners like me are having with this product and weigh these real issues when making the decision of buying one. I deeply regret my decision of buying this car and I will do all that is possible in the law to return it.
The second reason I post this is to know if I am the only one person in this position or there are others. I read many bad stories and technical issues in this forum about this car that many users are having, but I am not sure how everyone feels about this, have we been taken advantage of by Porsche and should get together and do something about it or is this a normal situation and we should just accept it and go with the flow?
Exactly the same experience on my end. I told Porsche I want it lemon law-ed.
This car is not ready for general availability.
 
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iltaycan

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I have been a Porsche enthusiast for a while or at least I was before I purchased a Taycan Turbo 2020 on 12/28/2020. My experience started being awesome as one could expect owning a Porsche! I loved the drive, the electronics, the sound system, all the options, etc... Very unexpectedly... two weeks into the ownership the issues started... I started getting this "Electrical system error Stop vehicle in a safe place" message when trying to start the car and the car would not start at all. At first I didn't think much of it after leasing many different German brands for over 25 years. So, I Googled the error and read that a simple switch off, lock the car and wait 15 minutes would clear the error; so, I did that and voila the error was clear and the car worked fine which I was OK since I had similar issues with other German brands many times. The issue started showing more often after a few days until about 3 weeks of ownership with 552 miles in the odometer the car would no longer start and had to be towed to a Porsche dealer. The tow truck driver tried to jump start the car 12v battery with no luck and we had to push it to move it around so he could get it on to the truck.
At first the dealer would not even give me a loaner; I quickly complained with Porsche NA and a Taycan 4S loaner was provided to me the next day. The dealer claimed diagnosis for these cars is slow and they had to be in close contact with Porsche of Germany. Three weeks after initial diagnose, the dealer sent me a text message indicating that a decision was made to replace the High Voltage battery on my Taycan and the order was placed with no ETA of deliver, but they would let me know.
I contacted Porsche of NA again and they told me I would get my car back some time in late March or April which I said it was unacceptable. I requested Porsche to at least take over my car payments while my Taycan was being repaired since apparently it was going to take around three months. So far today I still have not heard from Porsche NA or the Porsche of Atlanta dealer. May be I have been too patient and too nice with them, I have not called many times and I have not raised my voice even once and I have been very polite so far.

I have to say that I am a bit scared about driving the Taycan 4S loaner I have, but so far it is operating good. It had 200 miles when I got it and it now has a little over 1K. So far the only issues I had with this one was the trunk not always closing and while charging it, due to the car not releasing the charging cable. So far I have been able to get it released by pushing the main car start/stop button a couple of times which seems to reset the charging port and allows the release button to operate. The 4S loaner I have is pretty basic and has almost no options and less things to break.

I am posting this for two reasons:
One to inform the public about the issues that current owners like me are having with this product and weigh these real issues when making the decision of buying one. I deeply regret my decision of buying this car and I will do all that is possible in the law to return it.
The second reason I post this is to know if I am the only one person in this position or there are others. I read many bad stories and technical issues in this forum about this car that many users are having, but I am not sure how everyone feels about this, have we been taken advantage of by Porsche and should get together and do something about it or is this a normal situation and we should just accept it and go with the flow?
Hi, Just to give an update to everyone. My Taycan is still at the dealership, it has been 55 days so far, there is no end in sight and no updates from Porsche. I attempted to solve this directly with Porsche without any luck, I now have my attorney in touch with PCNA to seek a replacement or refund ASAP, not looking good. In the other hand, the Taycan 4S loaner that I have been driving for almost two months now, is working perfectly fine, no issues. Good luck everyone and enjoy the cars that work.
 


andrewket

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Hi, Just to give an update to everyone. My Taycan is still at the dealership, it has been 55 days so far, there is no end in sight and no updates from Porsche. I attempted to solve this directly with Porsche without any luck, I now have my attorney in touch with PCNA to seek a replacement or refund ASAP, not looking good. In the other hand, the Taycan 4S loaner that I have been driving for almost two months now, is working perfectly fine, no issues. Good luck everyone and enjoy the cars that work.
Where are you located? I assume you’ve researched the lemon laws in your jurisdiction. In many locations, anything past 30 days requires a full purchase buy back. Porsche should execute on this so that the title isn’t permanently tagged as a lemon.
 
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iltaycan

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Where are you located? I assume you’ve researched the lemon laws in your jurisdiction. In many locations, anything past 30 days requires a full purchase buy back. Porsche should execute on this so that the title isn’t permanently tagged as a lemon.
I am in GA and here the law is 30 days as you mention. Still Porsche is taking their sweet time even with an attorney involved. PCNA told my attorney they need to investigate the issue and would respond in 30 days :) This is after the car had been at a Porsche dealership way over 30 days and now almost 60 days. They don't seem to care about resolving the issue anytime soon. I am thinking we will have to go the lemon law route.
 

Mr.Smith

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A note on Tesla and OTAs:
The average car has over 100,000,000 lines of code so software is nothing new for any OEM.
If we are talking about infotainment systems then yes, Tesla makes a beautiful interface, but this comes at a cost that no other OEM will take. Tesla thinks per quarter for the stock price, to raise $, every other OEM thinks in decades.

Tesla sells a car not fully completed, then OTAs after the car is in the hands of the customer. This works in a SaaS world, but not in the automotive world.
The recall on the S/X MCU was because of excessive OTAs with improper coding.
Porsche will ever do this. They will have the dealer do most of the work instead of a recall & lawsuites years down the line .

All EVs have problems, but it comes down to how the manufacture will stand by their product.

In terms of Tesla buying a real OEM as @Kingske points out, this will never happen. The only reason Tesla exists is by selling stock. If they actually built cars the proper way, they would lose even more money than they already do (ex credits)
 

chrisk

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I am in GA and here the law is 30 days as you mention. Still Porsche is taking their sweet time even with an attorney involved. PCNA told my attorney they need to investigate the issue and would respond in 30 days :) This is after the car had been at a Porsche dealership way over 30 days and now almost 60 days. They don't seem to care about resolving the issue anytime soon. I am thinking we will have to go the lemon law route.
This confirms what I posted on another thread. This is known tactict from manufacturers to delay the lemon process and an experienced lemon attorney will immediately tell you this. This is the same as how Porsche handled my Macan oil leak lemon request..

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...e-and-electrical-system-error.3782/post-54992
 
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andrewket

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The recall on the S/X MCU was because of excessive OTAs with improper coding.
It wasn't excessive OTAs it was excessive logging. The MCU is running linux and they had verbose logging on writing to flash. Dumb, no doubt, but it had nothing to do with the frequency of OTAs, other than an update requires a reboot which will create a bunch of logs.
 

feye

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If Tesla would use its current irrationally high market cap of ~$700B as leverage to acquire BMW or Daimler (markets caps of $40-50B) and succeed in combining its deep software know-how with the Germans' mechanical design and quality manufacturing know-how, most other legacy car makers might be in trouble, including VW/Audi/Porsche.
Please NOT!!! Go on youtube and check out software reviews of the new EQA. The guy said by far the best system he has seen. The upcoming EQS will be the global EV benchmark.

The HI-SI battery in all your Taycans is better than any other battery on the market. That is why your Taycan is super efficient but also super powerful. Please leave the German car industry allone and give it some space and a little time to do their thing.
 
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iltaycan

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This confirms what I posted on another thread. This is known tactict from manufacturers to delay the lemon process and an experienced lemon attorney will immediately tell you this. This is the same as how Porsche handled my Macan oil leak lemon request..

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...e-and-electrical-system-error.3782/post-54992
Thanks for letting me know. My attorney is waiting until this Friday and if we get no response/resolution from Porsche we will be proceeding with the lemon law route since there doesn't seem to be another option.
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