[sergeyb]

I have taken the Base and 4S on long test drives and decided to build mine and about ready to place the order.

The Porsche Code

www.porsche-code.com

I am looking for the following feedback as I am totally new to EVs but not to Porsche (2016 Macan and 2020 Cayenne).

- Summer tires vs. All-Season. How do Summers ride vs. All-Seasons as I my plan is to take Summers from factory hoping for them to be soft and quiet but not lasting much than 10K miles and then purchase All-Season Michelins as the kind that I saw on lot are Conti and they looked like they will be very noisy.

- Battery+ upgrade seems to be a given after going back and forth on it since a lot of new cars now coming up with 100kW batteries and 300-mile EPA ranges and on my drives the car was showing that it was quickly running out of range and what I am reading is that the upgraded battery getting around 30 miles of extra range and possible to squeeze as much as 274 miles of range but mine is loaded with possibly heavy performance adds so if I am getting 225 miles then I am able to cover distances between EA stations on my projected longer routes.

- InnoDrive. This sounds like a deal at $1,570 on top of the Tech Package but more I researched it, I just do not see value or use for it for my situation. Also, this should be available as FOD but dealer said No. So, I Deleted that and put the Savings toward the Battery.

- Home Charting with Electrify America Home Charger. I see lots of options out there, but I plan to charge at EA stations only so their Home Charger that is in stock at $649 sounds like a deal and works well with their app. I wonder if anyone has it and what's the experience.

 

[Ferrariderm]

I have taken the Base and 4S on long test drives and decided to build mine and about ready to place the order.

The Porsche Code

www.porsche-code.com

I am looking for the following feedback as I am totally new to EVs but not to Porsche (2016 Macan and 2020 Cayenne).

- Summer tires vs. All-Season. How do Summers ride vs. All-Seasons as I my plan is to take Summers from factory hoping for them to be soft and quiet but not lasting much than 10K miles and then purchase All-Season Michelins as the kind that I saw on lot are Conti and they looked like they will be very noisy.

- Battery+ upgrade seems to be a given after going back and forth on it since a lot of new cars now coming up with 100kW batteries and 300-mile EPA ranges and on my drives the car was showing that it was quickly running out of range and what I am reading is that the upgraded battery getting around 30 miles of extra range and possible to squeeze as much as 274 miles of range but mine is loaded with possibly heavy performance adds so if I am getting 225 miles then I am able to cover distances between EA stations on my projected longer routes.

- InnoDrive. This sounds like a deal at $1,570 on top of the Tech Package but more I researched it, I just do not see value or use for it for my situation. Also, this should be available as FOD but dealer said No. So, I Deleted that and put the Savings toward the Battery.

- Home Charting with Electrify America Home Charger. I see lots of options out there, but I plan to charge at EA stations only so their Home Charger that is in stock at $649 sounds like a deal and works well with their app. I wonder if anyone has it and what's the experience.

Thats a solid configuration and a big options list. I think you have ticked all the boxes I would have!

On your specific questions:

I have the factory Continental tires and they seem to hold up well (only 4800 miles driven so far) The car is heavy with a lot of power so i expect a faster wear, but so far so good. What really makes the difference is the air suspension which is fantastic and gives the Taycan an almost limo ride when in comfort mode. Having said that I drive around in Sport Plus suspension mode 98% of the time, I willingly trade comfort for handling.

Just get the 93KWH battery. I'm getting about 275miles in summer with the bigger battery and 230 in winter (Mild California winters) and I drive a fair number of 200 mile round trips. So I would really not get the smaller battery if possible.

I don't have Innodrive or Active cruise control (just the basic cruise control). I really wish I had the active cruse but I bought a Turbo that was in the dealer showroom and that was not optioned. I've heard a few negatives on Innodrive but I have no personal experience. Given how much you are already spending on options, if it was me, I would probably go ahead and add it if only to see how the technology develops over the next few years.

Lastly I just use the Porsche charger that comes with the car at home. I do have the upgraded one, but I think any level 2 charger should work fine... I hardly ever use any other chargers other then my home charger.. It's just really convenient charing from home.

Best of luck

 

[PorscheGuyFrom AZ]

I have taken the Base and 4S on long test drives and decided to build mine and about ready to place the order.

The Porsche Code

www.porsche-code.com

I am looking for the following feedback as I am totally new to EVs but not to Porsche (2016 Macan and 2020 Cayenne).

- Summer tires vs. All-Season. How do Summers ride vs. All-Seasons as I my plan is to take Summers from factory hoping for them to be soft and quiet but not lasting much than 10K miles and then purchase All-Season Michelins as the kind that I saw on lot are Conti and they looked like they will be very noisy.

- Battery+ upgrade seems to be a given after going back and forth on it since a lot of new cars now coming up with 100kW batteries and 300-mile EPA ranges and on my drives the car was showing that it was quickly running out of range and what I am reading is that the upgraded battery getting around 30 miles of extra range and possible to squeeze as much as 274 miles of range but mine is loaded with possibly heavy performance adds so if I am getting 225 miles then I am able to cover distances between EA stations on my projected longer routes.

- InnoDrive. This sounds like a deal at $1,570 on top of the Tech Package but more I researched it, I just do not see value or use for it for my situation. Also, this should be available as FOD but dealer said No. So, I Deleted that and put the Savings toward the Battery.

- Home Charting with Electrify America Home Charger. I see lots of options out there, but I plan to charge at EA stations only so their Home Charger that is in stock at $649 sounds like a deal and works well with their app. I wonder if anyone has it and what's the experience.

Hello!

I'll give you feedback on your 4 questions and then I have some other ideas/feedback to offer up for your consideration.

* Summer vs All Season Tires - If "soft and quiet" is what you like, you need to know that the Taycan is waaaaaay quiter than your Macan or your Cayenne. Tire noise is not an issue. If you want an even softer ride, I suggest you not get 21" wheels and go with 20" instead. The 20's will ride softer than any 21's due to the taller rubber sidewall. My Taycan Turbo has the all season Continental tires and 20" wheels and it provides BY FAR the smoothest ride (if set in Normal drive mode) than any car I have ever owned including an S Class Mercedes. So my recommendation is order your Taycan with All Season tires but get 20" wheels.

* Performance Battery + - I think its a no brainer that you should get the larger battery. Resale value is one reason. Having an extra margin for error on a long road trip is a second reason. The third, and what I think is the most important reason, is that batteries will degrade over time. If you keep your Taycan a long time, it will eventually experience battery degradation of 15% to 20%. if you get the bigger battery at the start, then in 6, 7 or 8 years net of the degradation, you'll still have about the same range that is provided by the standard 79kWH battery.

* InnoDrive - My Taycan has the InnoDrive system and I can tell you that the InnoDrive functionalities that are over and above those of the Adaptive Cruise Control are worth ZERO. The Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) does everything I need or want including maintaining a safe distance from the vehicles in front, bringing the car to a complete stop if necessary and then accelerating when traffic starts moving again. ACC is great if you spend a lot of time driving in traffic - - all you have to do is steer and the car will do the rest. InnoDrive also has a fatal flaw which caused me to permanently turn it off - - if InnoDrive is turned on and you happen to be driving on a secondary or tertiary road where the Taycan has "insufficient data," then the ACC will not work at all. Yes that's right, the supposedly "smart" InnoDrive system stupidly disables your cruise control! Ridiculous. I recommend you not spend the extra money on InnoDrive - - it is worthless IMHO.

* Home Charging with Electrify America Home Charger - If you read to the bottom of the Standard Equipment List for your Build (There's a clickable link near the bottom of the page) you'll see that the Taycan comes with a basic Level 2 charging unit. There is no need to purchase a third party charging unit. You might want to order a Porsche Wall mounting kit for the charger (costs about $160 I believe). I have that mounting kit and it keeps everything nicely organized. Here's a photo of the setup in my garage:

In addition to providing feedback o the 4 items you listed, I have some additional thoughts:

* Must Have Options - Your build list has almost everything. As a compliment to your good taste, here is a list of items you selected that I think are absolute "must have" options on a Taycan 4S: Leather Interior, Sport Chrono Package, Power Folding Exterior Mirrors, Surround View, 14-way Power Seats, Storage Package, Thermally & Noise Insulated Glass and Adaptive Cruise Control.

* Could You Spend Less and Still Have an Awesome Car? - In my opinion you've selected some options which have relatively little value and, if you eliminated them from your build, you could save a considerable amount of money. The options I think you might want to rethink include:

1. Roof Lining in Race-Tex - With the Panoramic Roof, the is precious little roof that needs to be lined. You could save nearly $1,700 if you eliminated this option.

2. Front Seat Massage Function - I don't have this on my Taycan but I did have it on a Mercedes S-Class. The massage was gimmicky and neither my wife nor I liked how it felt. After tying it once, neither she nor I ever used it again during the 6+ years we owned that vehicle. You could save $1,150 if you dropped this option.

3. Porsche Surface Coated Brakes - Nearly all of the braking as you are driving a Taycan is of the Regenerative Breaking variety so the real "friction" brakes come in to play only a small fraction of the time. Since the brakes are used so little, I don't think there's any reason to pay nearly $3,500 for upgraded brakes. On a gasoline engine Porsche I could see the value of an upgraded brake set but I think it is of minimal value in an EV.

If you dropped the above 3 options from your configuration you'd save $6,330.

In addition to these 3 options, I'd suggest you think about your wheel choice. Yes, the wheels you chose look great but if you value a smooth ride and want the smoothest ride possible, then you could further reduce the cost of your Taycan by nearly $2,700 if you opted for the 20" Turbo Aero Wheels instead (I have the 20" Turbo Aero Wheels on my Turbo and they ride great and are also excellent when the Taycan is being driven aggressively.

* Could you Have an Even More Awesome Car? - When I first clicked on your Build Link and I saw the $154,000+ price tag, my initial reaction was "Wow that's almost Turbo territory!" Then my second thought was "That is GTS territory!" So my suggestion to you is if you are willing to spend $154K+, maybe you should consider ordering a GTS and go for the added performance. The GTS provides a bit more value for the money spent, and if you were willing to do without some of the "exotic" options you picked (like Night Vision Assist), you could get a GTS and have near-Turbo levels of performance for about the same amount of money as your 4S build.

I went ahead and tried to configure a GTS order for you. I came up with something that's a bit above the $154K but I think it would be an absolutely awesome car for you. Check it out:

The Porsche Code

www.porsche-code.com

Sorry for the long post but I try to be as helpful as possible to those who are planning a built to order Taycan.

Good luck to you and Happy New Year.

 

[sergeyb]

@PorscheGuyFrom AZ

Thiis is such an awesome and super helpful feedback. Thank you for taking the time to dive into my build and provide point by point inputs. I have spent countless hours building my Macan back when and then most recently Cayenne and then advising others on their builds on the Macan forum in particular, so I think I spent more time on the Taycan configurator given additional learning that needs to be taken into account and then driving Base and 4S provided by the dealer on multi day test drives in town and out of town, so I did consider all trims to match my target build to my needs and then balance it with the price, so I ended up with my 4S build that is roughly $105K base price plus $50K in options which makes no sense with GTS and Turbo builds within 10%-20% more. So please stay with me for another round of this if you may for my rationale for this build.

1. General Build Perspective: 4S vs. GTS vs. Turbo
Both of my current Porsche SUVs are Turbos, so I lean toward Turbo bits (lighter like window silver trim) and tuning (higher/softer) vs. GTS dark/in-black bits with lower/stiffer tuning. So, GTS while within price reach is out and the delivery date is minimum of 6 months away best case plus add any delays related to supply of Matrix lights (standard in Black on GTS) that totally bombed Premium Packages a week ago on 4S builds that had $7,400 Premium Package selected with them in it. I really prefer non-Matrix LED in Black that I absolutely love for the look on my Cayenne. So, then I said OK, let's see what a Turbo would be converted from 4S, and I ended up with $183K PNUTD554 and over $200K all in which is now +$40K more than the $160K all in 4S with main value of having Turbo bits and more power that is at an impractical spectrum for my needs, so the value is not there for me for the $40K. However, I asked the dealer to time me one of these and they say 1 year plus wait now for a Turbo, but 4S slot is available now for March build and later April delivery. Therefore, my 4S build to me is a Turbo like with all the cosmetic (Race-Tex Liner spend that both SUVs have and Fabric liner on my loaners was just a non-starter) and performance bits without really being one and can arrive in time to enjoy most of 2022 later Spring/Summer.

2. Wheel, Tire, and Brakes

Wheels: I appreciate all the points on these items, and I could not agree more with your rationale that I did consider when making these choices. This is why I ended up where I did. I drove Base and 4S models with 20-inch wheels and looked at other wheels at the dealership and just did not like the look to my perspective of what I want it to look for myself, so the only style that I liked is the RS Spyder for symmetry and pop which matches the styles of Turbo wheels on the SUVs that we have having that 2 tone contrast look and symmetry with good exposure of rotors and calipers. I would totally get a 20-inch if there were more choices with the look that I would like.

Tires: So now since I have settled on the 21-inch and want to drive all year around with winter around here 3-5 months a year but super mild this year with Nov/Dec at way above 45F surface temps for Summer tires. Therefore, I am trying to understand if going Summer tires from factory (current choice) is softer/quieter than All-Seasons from factory. I do have the Cayenne with full winter wheel/tire set for winter (and factory 21 inch with Summers from factory) so not concerned driving in very cold and deep snow situations but want to maximize enjoying the Taycan every other time. My Taycan test drives were almost too quiet on 20-inch wheels which I liked a lot and on one I could turn the Sport Sound on for the noise which was a lot of fun.

Brakes: 4S comes with Steel brakes and Red Calipers standard and this is a bonus look and more than enough for performance to your point as I like regenerative feature when I was testing out the Taycans totally realizing that brakes are barely used. I do have similar Steel/Red caliper brakes on the Macan Turbo and of course you use them a lot, but they generate a lot of brake dust and after having them replaced at 60K miles we had lots of squealing issues and the dealer had to redo them several times (no such issues with factory set). However, there is no winning with brakes with Porsche as I have PSCB brakes on the Cayenne and currently under TSB and back order of revised rotors and components for squealing started at 10K miles, but the tech said they see these issues starting at 100 miles. My rationale is that while Red calipers look good on our White Macan, they do not look good to me on the Ice Grey Taycan so I can go color them Black for $900 which is not a value if I still get the brake dust while not much or any. So, for +$3.5K in PSCB I would be getting White Caliper, which is my color of choice on my build, mirror like rotors, and no brake dust which is material to me as my time cleaning wheels is almost zero after I ceramic coated Cayenne wheels with PSCBs. Therefore, there is a lot of value for the $3.5K here for me given all the benefits and first-hand experience with these. However, the squealing of the PSCBs may never be resolved and most likely be under class action so the dealer told me that I cannot lose with this choice as I will be getting new components or brakes as a bonus either way. I am currently squealing like crazy and waiting on the revised rotors/components to fix the Cayenne at no cost.

3. Battery
I was leaning toward the standard PB the whole time thinking I do not need the extra power and range for my needs and rather save the weight and cost, but I never considered the perspective of degradation that you are bringing up so making PB+ battery is the absolute must as I plan to keep it long time with this level of investment so thank you for that deep perspective that any current ICE (gas) car owner would not think about. I will be adding this as another learning feather to my EV cap.

4. InnoDrive
This must go for the reasons that you mentioned, and when I used ACC on my test drives, as it was already too naggy with driver attention prompts when not having your hands on the wheel and videos I watched are even more annoying when someone was using it. Your point on having not enough data and how it handles it is a definite to skip it. I have not owned a car with ACC yet, but I do need it on this one for the features ACC offers. Also, I was not planning to have the Tech Package as I only need ACC, but on its own ACC is $2K or so and Tech Package is $4,300 and has 3 more features that I do plan to use at least sometimes so I could not forgo getting all of them for just $2,300 more. This is a typical Porsche package trap that got me for sure. I can see my son using Passenger display on daily school rides, then Parking feature I can see using, and the Head-up that by all counts very redundant to the amazing main screen but I can see using it at night, and it would be a major bonus if it does project Night Vision since we have so many animals crossing where I live. One question I do have about ACC is that does it use Coasting with InnoDrive claiming to do so. I am not familiar how Coasting works on the Taycan in combination with Regenerative braking, but I do use it extensively on the SUVs which is basically having transmission disconnect from engine and having car glide freely using its own momentum resulting in material increase in MPG. Therefore, I assume Taycan coasting will preserve some energy or regen it when gliding.

5. Home Charging
I can totally do what you did with just the basic charger that comes with a car, but I am leaning toward EA charger since I can benefit from incentives on its purchase/install and then using the same EA app for charging needs on the road and then I hope it looks a little better when installed. Then my plan is to take the one that comes with the car with me on long drives for emergency without having it out of the bag so to speak and hopefully never having to use it.

6. Massage Seats
I have 18-ways in the SUVs, and they are perfect for them. However, 14-way is my choice for the Taycan given slimmer look since interior is pretty narrow and more symmetrical. One benefit of 14-way is the Massage function for + $1K or so, therefore, since I am saving about $430 by not getting the 18-way then I had to take advantage of this feature but not without researching its value. Two owners that optioned these absolutely raved about this feature so that is a go for me since 14-ways are little stiff and massage function would be welcome on long drives that I am considering for both front passengers. I am sure my son would love it on his daily school drop off/pickup as we spend 2 hours a day for school rides alone.

I think I covered all points on how I ended up with my build, but I am looking for further inputs and critique if you could take the time as I am close on deciding to put the order with March build and April delivery a very major deciding factor if true and not expecting much out of the 2023 model year that most likely to be just a rollover year with a special Base addition or so as they typically offer. One main bonus for me with 2022 is Android Auto since I am a Google Pixel phone user and do not get the draw of the iPhone after trying it for a little while and missing a lot of Pixel features. iPhones do not have speedometer feature on Google maps as an example.

I cannot thank you enough for your super helpful insights and taking the time to look into my build.

Happy New Year!
Sergey

 

[PorscheGuyFrom AZ]

@PorscheGuyFrom AZ

Thiis is such an awesome and super helpful feedback. Thank you for taking the time to dive into my build and provide point by point inputs. I have spent countless hours building my Macan back when and then most recently Cayenne and then advising others on their builds on the Macan forum in particular, so I think I spent more time on the Taycan configurator given additional learning that needs to be taken into account and then driving Base and 4S provided by the dealer on multi day test drives in town and out of town, so I did consider all trims to match my target build to my needs and then balance it with the price, so I ended up with my 4S build that is roughly $105K base price plus $50K in options which makes no sense with GTS and Turbo builds within 10%-20% more. So please stay with me for another round of this if you may for my rationale for this build.

1. General Build Perspective: 4S vs. GTS vs. Turbo
Both of my current Porsche SUVs are Turbos, so I lean toward Turbo bits (lighter like window silver trim) and tuning (higher/softer) vs. GTS dark/in-black bits with lower/stiffer tuning. So, GTS while within price reach is out and the delivery date is minimum of 6 months away best case plus add any delays related to supply of Matrix lights (standard in Black on GTS) that totally bombed Premium Packages a week ago on 4S builds that had $7,400 Premium Package selected with them in it. I really prefer non-Matrix LED in Black that I absolutely love for the look on my Cayenne. So, then I said OK, let's see what a Turbo would be converted from 4S, and I ended up with $183K PNUTD554 and over $200K all in which is now +$40K more than the $160K all in 4S with main value of having Turbo bits and more power that is at an impractical spectrum for my needs, so the value is not there for me for the $40K. However, I asked the dealer to time me one of these and they say 1 year plus wait now for a Turbo, but 4S slot is available now for March build and later April delivery. Therefore, my 4S build to me is a Turbo like with all the cosmetic (Race-Tex Liner spend that both SUVs have and Fabric liner on my loaners was just a non-starter) and performance bits without really being one and can arrive in time to enjoy most of 2022 later Spring/Summer.

2. Wheel, Tire, and Brakes

Wheels: I appreciate all the points on these items, and I could not agree more with your rationale that I did consider when making these choices. This is why I ended up where I did. I drove Base and 4S models with 20-inch wheels and looked at other wheels at the dealership and just did not like the look to my perspective of what I want it to look for myself, so the only style that I liked is the RS Spyder for symmetry and pop which matches the styles of Turbo wheels on the SUVs that we have having that 2 tone contrast look and symmetry with good exposure of rotors and calipers. I would totally get a 20-inch if there were more choices with the look that I would like.

Tires: So now since I have settled on the 21-inch and want to drive all year around with winter around here 3-5 months a year but super mild this year with Nov/Dec at way above 45F surface temps for Summer tires. Therefore, I am trying to understand if going Summer tires from factory (current choice) is softer/quieter than All-Seasons from factory. I do have the Cayenne with full winter wheel/tire set for winter (and factory 21 inch with Summers from factory) so not concerned driving in very cold and deep snow situations but want to maximize enjoying the Taycan every other time. My Taycan test drives were almost too quiet on 20-inch wheels which I liked a lot and on one I could turn the Sport Sound on for the noise which was a lot of fun.

Brakes: 4S comes with Steel brakes and Red Calipers standard and this is a bonus look and more than enough for performance to your point as I like regenerative feature when I was testing out the Taycans totally realizing that brakes are barely used. I do have similar Steel/Red caliper brakes on the Macan Turbo and of course you use them a lot, but they generate a lot of brake dust and after having them replaced at 60K miles we had lots of squealing issues and the dealer had to redo them several times (no such issues with factory set). However, there is no winning with brakes with Porsche as I have PSCB brakes on the Cayenne and currently under TSB and back order of revised rotors and components for squealing started at 10K miles, but the tech said they see these issues starting at 100 miles. My rationale is that while Red calipers look good on our White Macan, they do not look good to me on the Ice Grey Taycan so I can go color them Black for $900 which is not a value if I still get the brake dust while not much or any. So, for +$3.5K in PSCB I would be getting White Caliper, which is my color of choice on my build, mirror like rotors, and no brake dust which is material to me as my time cleaning wheels is almost zero after I ceramic coated Cayenne wheels with PSCBs. Therefore, there is a lot of value for the $3.5K here for me given all the benefits and first-hand experience with these. However, the squealing of the PSCBs may never be resolved and most likely be under class action so the dealer told me that I cannot lose with this choice as I will be getting new components or brakes as a bonus either way. I am currently squealing like crazy and waiting on the revised rotors/components to fix the Cayenne at no cost.

3. Battery
I was leaning toward the standard PB the whole time thinking I do not need the extra power and range for my needs and rather save the weight and cost, but I never considered the perspective of degradation that you are bringing up so making PB+ battery is the absolute must as I plan to keep it long time with this level of investment so thank you for that deep perspective that any current ICE (gas) car owner would not think about. I will be adding this as another learning feather to my EV cap.

4. InnoDrive
This must go for the reasons that you mentioned, and when I used ACC on my test drives, as it was already too naggy with driver attention prompts when not having your hands on the wheel and videos I watched are even more annoying when someone was using it. Your point on having not enough data and how it handles it is a definite to skip it. I have not owned a car with ACC yet, but I do need it on this one for the features ACC offers. Also, I was not planning to have the Tech Package as I only need ACC, but on its own ACC is $2K or so and Tech Package is $4,300 and has 3 more features that I do plan to use at least sometimes so I could not forgo getting all of them for just $2,300 more. This is a typical Porsche package trap that got me for sure. I can see my son using Passenger display on daily school rides, then Parking feature I can see using, and the Head-up that by all counts very redundant to the amazing main screen but I can see using it at night, and it would be a major bonus if it does project Night Vision since we have so many animals crossing where I live. One question I do have about ACC is that does it use Coasting with InnoDrive claiming to do so. I am not familiar how Coasting works on the Taycan in combination with Regenerative braking, but I do use it extensively on the SUVs which is basically having transmission disconnect from engine and having car glide freely using its own momentum resulting in material increase in MPG. Therefore, I assume Taycan coasting will preserve some energy or regen it when gliding.

5. Home Charging
I can totally do what you did with just the basic charger that comes with a car, but I am leaning toward EA charger since I can benefit from incentives on its purchase/install and then using the same EA app for charging needs on the road and then I hope it looks a little better when installed. Then my plan is to take the one that comes with the car with me on long drives for emergency without having it out of the bag so to speak and hopefully never having to use it.

6. Massage Seats
I have 18-ways in the SUVs, and they are perfect for them. However, 14-way is my choice for the Taycan given slimmer look since interior is pretty narrow and more symmetrical. One benefit of 14-way is the Massage function for + $1K or so, therefore, since I am saving about $430 by not getting the 18-way then I had to take advantage of this feature but not without researching its value. Two owners that optioned these absolutely raved about this feature so that is a go for me since 14-ways are little stiff and massage function would be welcome on long drives that I am considering for both front passengers. I am sure my son would love it on his daily school drop off/pickup as we spend 2 hours a day for school rides alone.

I think I covered all points on how I ended up with my build, but I am looking for further inputs and critique if you could take the time as I am close on deciding to put the order with March build and April delivery a very major deciding factor if true and not expecting much out of the 2023 model year that most likely to be just a rollover year with a special Base addition or so as they typically offer. One main bonus for me with 2022 is Android Auto since I am a Google Pixel phone user and do not get the draw of the iPhone after trying it for a little while and missing a lot of Pixel features. iPhones do not have speedometer feature on Google maps as an example.

I cannot thank you enough for your super helpful insights and taking the time to look into my build.

Happy New Year!
Sergey

Nice to meet you Sergey. My name is Bill.

I’ve got a busy day ahead of me so I can’t give you a detailed reply right now but I will do so later.

From your response it’s clear that you are carefully considering everything. And I agree that with the availability of a 4S build slot soon, getting a nearly maxed out 4S is the way to go!

Glad I helped you decide to get the big battery.

I will answer your other questions later, I promise.

Regards,

Bill

P.S. The first Taycan I test drove was a Gentian Blue 4S with the Black and Chalk interior. It looked awesome and the acceleration was outstanding. The only reason I didn’t buy that 4S on the spot is it lacked the Sport Chrono package so there was no Chrono/Clock on the top center of the dash and it didn’t look like a Porsche to me without that.

 

[sergeyb]

Nice to meet you Sergey. My name is Bill.

I’ve got a busy day ahead of me so I can’t give you a detailed reply right now but I will do so later.

From your response it’s clear that you are carefully considering everything. And I agree that with the availability of a 4S build slot soon, getting a nearly maxed out 4S is the way to go!

Glad I helped you decide to get the big battery.

I will answer your other questions later, I promise.

Regards,

Bill

P.S. The first Taycan I test drove was a Gentian Blue 4S with the Black and Chalk interior. It looked awesome and the acceleration was outstanding. The only reason I didn’t buy that 4S on the spot is it lacked the Sport Chrono package so there was no Chrono/Clock on the top center of the dash, and it didn’t look like a Porsche to me without that.

Nice to meet you Bill and privilege having your help on this forum, and I feel bad taking so much of your time. You have certainly helped me tremendously, so I feel have total confidence in my build especially they are giving me a discount and April delivery sounds too good to be true.

I agree that Sport Chrono is a must on the Taycan for the No Clock look reasons and really thin to my taste Steering Wheel, which is totally the opposite to the newer Macans with GT Wheel being smaller and thinner that I did not like. Both of my testers were optioned without it, and it felt odd to me. They had 2 examples with it on the Sedan and the CT and it felt right. I do enjoy using Sport Chrono on the Cayenne and the wheel is perfectly thick enough to be super comfortable. I do wonder if Sports Chrono enables any more power in Sports+ Mode during regular driving (no Launching) as I would benefit from max pickup on a daily drive in 4S. Base felt way too slow from the line in my daily test so that eliminated that option although on the long highway ride it was obvious that 4S is not using the front motor, so the Base actually drove better on the highway in my test.

All the best to you in the New Year!
Sergey

 

[PorscheGuyFrom AZ]

Nice to meet you Bill and privilege having your help on this forum, and I feel bad taking so much of your time. You have certainly helped me tremendously, so I feel have total confidence in my build especially they are giving me a discount and April delivery sounds too good to be true.

I agree that Sport Chrono is a must on the Taycan for the No Clock look reasons and really thin to my taste Steering Wheel, which is totally the opposite to the newer Macans with GT Wheel being smaller and thinner that I did not like. Both of my testers were optioned without it, and it felt odd to me. They had 2 examples with it on the Sedan and the CT and it felt right. I do enjoy using Sport Chrono on the Cayenne and the wheel is perfectly thick enough to be super comfortable. I do wonder if Sports Chrono enables any more power in Sports+ Mode during regular driving (no Launching) as I would benefit from max pickup on a daily drive in 4S. Base felt way too slow from the line in my daily test so that eliminated that option although on the long highway ride it was obvious that 4S is not using the front motor, so the Base actually drove better on the highway in my test.

All the best to you in the New Year!
Sergey

Happy New Year!

Now that I know the visual appearance of the Taycan is very important to you, I'm happy to give you positive feedback - - IMHO the wheels you chose are the very best looking alternative for the Ice Grey Metallic paint. And the upgraded brakes with the White Calipers are also the best looking with your wheel choice. Although I've not seen an Ice Grey Porsche in real life, on my computer screen it looks like a better color than the Dolomite Silver so I think your Taycan is going to look awesome!!

One thought I have which impacts the exterior appearance is the Power Charge Port Cover. That option puts a black "lip" on the side of the car and I don't think the lip is attractive. I think the black lip detracts from the appearance of the Ice Grey body. Perhaps you should delete the Power Charge Port Cover for visual appeal reasons? I think your exterior will look better and you'll have one less thing that could fail. If your battery were ever to become totally depleted, you couldn't open the Power Chart Port Cover to recharge the battery very easily!

Another small suggestion I have is you should order the "Trunk Liner, rear" for $221. I have it for my Taycan and it is a high quality product, is good looking and it protects the carpet in the trunk extremely well.

My last recommendation for an option you should add to your build is the "On-Board 150 kW/400V DC Charger" for $460. This will dramatically increase the rate at which you can recharge the battery at DC Fast Charging Stations. Unless I'm mistaken, you need to have this option if you are to attain Porsche's claim of "Recharge the battery from 5% to 80% in just 23 minutes." With the standard on-board DC charger your 5% to 80% recharge time would be in excess of 90 minutes I believe.

I think these are all the option suggestions I have for you.

Now to answer your question about the Sport Plus mode: My understanding is that Sport Plus is supposed to deliver a bit more performance than does the Sport mode but, in my Turbo I really can't tell any difference between the two. For me, the only difference between the two is that in Sport Plus mode the Electronic Sport Sound is turned on. When that happens the sound makes me think of the Starship Enterprise. The Sport Sound is a bit gimmicky IMHO so I usually keep it turned off. But when friends have taken a test drive in my car, most of them say they really like the Electronic Sport Sound. Since earlier your said your test drives were "almost too quiet," I'll wager you'll uses the Electronic Sport Sound all the time. Without that sound, and with the Noise Insulated Glass you are ordering, your Taycan will be a very, very, very quiet vehicle!!

I personally love the combination of quiet cabin and incredible power/acceleration of the Taycan. I don't miss hearing the noise of an engine or shifting gears one bit. In fact, now whenever my wife or I are driving our Cayenne,, we both think that the Cayenne sounds like a noisy bucket of bolts (which it most certainly is not)!

Turning to your question about the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Coasting, if the ACC is off and you are driving in the "Normal" driving mode (which provides the smoothest ride), the Taycan will coast when you take your foot off the accelerator. If you do this and you are driving at all downhill, the Taycan will pick up speed since gravity likes to pull the 5,100 pound Taycan down hill. If the ACC is turned on and you have a cruise control speed set, when you come to a downhill stretch of road, the Taycan will use regenerative braking to prevent the car from picking up speed. It doesn't coast, it invokes regenerative braking to hold the desired speed which in turn puts some electricity back into the battery.

If you are wanting to squeeze as much MPGe as possible out of your Taycan, you should use the ACC as much as possible. If you do, whenever you are driving downhill the battery will be receiving a bit of electricity. I get to see this in action each week when my wife and I go to shop at the nearest Whole Foods Market which is 20 miles away from our home. Our house is at nearly 3,300 feet elevation and the Whole Foods is at approximately 1,600 feet elevation so our trip to Whole Foods is a "downhill" trip. If I use the cruise control for that entire trip to Whole Foods, when I arrive the estimated range remaining is a few miles more than when I left my garage.

I hope these thoughts and responses are helpful and please feel free to ask any other questions. I'm happy to answer.

I think it's incredible that you are able to get a Taycan built in less than 4 months - - that's amazing in the current market. And to think you are getting the Taycan at a discount is truly unbelievable. Yu must be a very good customer of that Porsche dealership!

 

[sergeyb]

We have our first snow of the year here in Indiana so New Year is looking good already.

I appreciate the additional feedback so I can be sure I have covered everything.

1. Appearance: Color, Wheels, and Brakes
The look of course is very important to me to be right so balancing what is available through build and what we already have is a major variable. Our Macan is Carrara White and Cayenne is Chalk. My testers were Neptune and Ice so I had plenty of time to evaluate them by driving and looking at them on the outside in variety of situations and lighting conditions. Neptune was running ahead since it matches the blue highlights on the screens and sort of the color of electricity but looking at the bright hood when driving and then having it turn completely dark blue at night and look kind of dull in other light conditions, then turning Neptune under bright only conditions was a not going well. Then it does draw a lot of attention in traffic in the sea of grey since it is just too bright for our Indiana conditions. Ice is instantly an amazing color if you spend the time looking at it but otherwise under grey sky it is just bright silver, and I am totally opposite of silver. However, it looks more into a glossy premium white spectrum under bright conditions and then bright (not dull like Dolomite) silver in cloudy conditions which one it for me. Then to continue the monochrome theme, I like the silver around doors, that matches with wheel silver accents, so then I have to have white calipers.

2. Port Charge Cover
One of the testers had it and another one did not. The glossy black stripe does not bother me, but I did like the sliding door functionality vs. the pop door that is more for a gas car. The Port Charge Cover was a must for me after that. However, I do need to take into consideration that it may not open if power is out so will need to think ahead for emergencies. Another very good learning point.

3. Trunk Liner
I will certainly get this one from dealer for free or cheaper from SunCoast, so I do use those, and they are nice.

4. ACC does it all as you say. I think I am glad I skipped InnoDrive and applied the savings to the bigger battery.

5. Sport Sound = Loved it!

6. Discount
I have an incredible relationship with my dealership although they could not help but mock my request for discount with their free lifetime oil changes on the Taycan but then I was totally blown away with $2,500 discount before I added the bigger battery and then after I added it, I pushed some more, and asked for $3,500 off the build so will find out tomorrow if they would do it or not. They let me drive 2 Taycans on multi day long drives to my work locations and now they are giving me a discount. I guess buying 4th car overall in the last 7 years with last 2 being Turbo trims, expensive winter wheel sets for both, and doing maintenance at the dealership helps a lot. I am basically the ideal customer for them that just keeps on giving including Porsche and JDP surveys. However, they did a lot back for me on out of warranty issues with the Base Cayenne, Macan, and now new Cayenne under TSB for the PSCB squealing.

 

[PorscheGuyFrom AZ]

We have our first snow of the year here in Indiana so New Year is looking good already.

I appreciate the additional feedback so I can be sure I have covered everything.

1. Appearance: Color, Wheels, and Brakes
The look of course is very important to me to be right so balancing what is available through build and what we already have is a major variable. Our Cayenne is Carrara White and Cayenne is Chalk. My testers were Neptune and Ice so I had plenty of time to evaluate them by driving and looking at them on the outside in variety of situations and lighting conditions. Neptune was running ahead since it matches the blue highlights on the screens and sort of the color of electricity but looking at the bright hood when driving and then having it turn completely dark blue at night and look kind of dull in other light conditions, then turning Neptune under bright only conditions was a not going well. Then it does draw a lot of attention in traffic in the sea of grey since it is just too bright for our Indiana conditions. Ice is instantly an amazing color if you spend the time looking at it but otherwise under grey sky it is just bright silver, and I am totally opposite of silver. However, it looks more into a glossy premium white spectrum under bright conditions and then bright (not dull like Dolomite) silver in cloudy conditions which one it for me. Then to continue the monochrome theme, I like the silver around doors, that matches with wheel silver accents, so then I have to have white calipers.

2. Port Charge Cover
One of the testers had it and another one did not. The glossy black stripe does not bother me, but I did like the sliding door functionality vs. the pop door that is more for a gas car. The Port Charge Cover was a must for me after that. However, I do need to take into consideration that it may not open if power is out so will need to think ahead for emergencies. Another very good learning point.

3. Trunk Liner
I will certainly get this one from dealer for free or cheaper from SunCoast, so I do use those, and they are nice.

4. ACC does it all as you say. I think I am glad I skipped InnoDrive and applied the savings to the bigger battery.

5. Sport Sound = Loved it!

6. Discount
I have an incredible relationship with my dealership although they did could not help but mock my request for discount with their free lifetime oil changes on the Taycan but then I was totally blown away with $2,500 discount before I added the bigger battery and then after I added it, I pushed some more, and asked for $3,500 off the build so will find out tomorrow if they would do it or not. They let me drive 2 Taycans on multi day long drives to my work locations and now they are giving me a discount. I guess buying 4th car overall in the last 7 years with last 2 being Turbo trims, expensive winter wheel sets for both, and doing maintenance at the dealership helps a lot. I am basically the ideal customer for them that just keeps on giving including Porsche and JDP surveys. However, they did a lot back for me on out of warranty issues with the Base Cayenne, Macan, and now new Cayenne under TSB for the PSCB squealing.

Sounds like you are all set for locking in your order Sergey!

Please post some photos when you take delivery - - I’d love to see how it looks in real life. I know it will be gorgeous and, with your combination of paint color, wheels, brakes and two-tone interior, your Taycan may be so unique that it is truly one of a kind!

 

[David G Doshay]

I went with the PSCB because they will get used infrequently due to regeneration doing the bulk of the braking. The one thing that bothered me on my 911 was seeing rust build up on the rotors when I did not drive much. So my thinking is that the iron rotors on a car that does not use the rotors very much will similarly rust. Thus, Surface Coated Brakes will prevent that rust.