ChrisLA
Active Member
- First Name
- Chris
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2022
- Threads
- 4
- Messages
- 41
- Reaction score
- 59
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
- Vehicles
- 4S CT
- Thread starter
- #1
I’ve been resisting writing this, maybe because I keep on waiting for the other shoe to drop. But after seven months of ownership and about 7,000 miles on the odometer, I think I really “know” the car now. It’s a 2023 4S CT, Mamba Green, well-optioned.
LIKES
- Overall. The car is extraordinary. We’ve been a BMW family for 30 years but this is our first Porsche and it’s certainly the “nicest,” most luxurious car I’ve ever owned. Interior finishes and overall build quality is off the charts. No creaks or rattles, and road/tire noise is fairly low. We’ve had virtually no problems and the car drives like an absolute dream.
- Performance. The car’s performance can be breathtaking, and that’s with me almost never taking it out of Normal mode. I often refer to it as a “teleporter”: I look at where I want to be, and in an instant I’m there. The car is planted in the curves, utterly rock solid at speed, without the high-weight plowing I was expecting. No, it’s not really a sports car and doesn’t have the agility of a 911, but its handling is competitive with most any sports sedan out there.
- Range. After spending so much time researching and reading these forums, we came to the car with low expectations for range… and have been pleasantly surprised! We consistently get max range of 270 miles at 100% SoC, although we typically charge to 85% which gives about 230-240 miles. We usually drive that down to about 100 miles before recharging, which we always do at home. Far from best of class, but completely acceptable.
- Color. The color is sublime. As good as it looks in pictures, in person the Mamba Green is next level. Such a pity that it's not longer available. The number of “nice color” compliments we receive borders on silly — people seem drawn to it. LA is a valet culture and my car often receives rockstar parking, definitely a first for me.
- Practicality. As a CT, it’s a practical family car and daily driver. It’s not terribly spacious compared to an SUV, but its “wagon-ness” delivers legitimate utility.
- Active Cruise Control. ACC is an absolute necessity for LA and the Porsche version works well. With ACC active, lane changes can lead to unexpected lurches forward if the destination lane is clear, but you come to anticipate it and can quickly brake to bleed off the sudden acceleration.
- HUD. It’s a minor thing but I love HUDs in my cars, and the Taycan one works well. I really like having nav directions projected onto the HUD, but unfortunately I use CarPlay/Waze almost exclusively and that app does not integrate with the HUD.
- Sport Sound. I like the sport sound. Obviously it can be polarizing and many folks don’t, but the first thing I do when I get into the car is twist the mode selector to the right to select Individual mode, which turns on the sound (and adjusts a few other settings). My wife, on the other hand is not a fan. YMMV
DISLIKES
Our dislikes are all pretty minor, and do little to detract from our enjoyment of the car.
- Low. I mean, duh — it’s a low car. No one buys this car and is taken by surprise there. But even with the CT being a little higher up, this is a vehicle that can sometimes be a little challenging for middle-aged folks like myself to access. And it’s downright difficult for seniors. My elderly mother-in-law won’t ride in the car because it’s too difficult to get in and out of.
- Front Valence Replacement. Did I mention the car is low? My wife accidentally got too close to a parking space wheel stop, and when she reversed out the front valence caught and tore. Not covered by warranty, and about a $1,000 repair. Obviously not a problem with the car per se, but a cautionary tale.
- Backseat. There’s no getting around it: the backseat is quite cramped. Two people can be relatively comfortable back there, but this is NOT a car that does five people well.
- PCM Hangs. Much has been written about the PCM, and how some believe the UX feels dated and lacks sophistication. They’re not wrong, but it’s also not terribly meaningful in practice. The PCM is perfectly fine, generally speaking. What is annoying, however, is we need to reboot it manually 2-3 times a month when it hangs on us. A minor procedure, but not something you would expect from such an expensive car.
- Backup Camera. It is objectively awful. Full stop.
- Quirky Seat Memory. This one is almost certainly user error of some sort, but sometimes my seat settings do not automatically recall if my wife was last driving (even though the user account is actually very good about automatically switching back and forth — weird, huh?). Quickly pressing the seat memory button to recall my position causes the seat to partially but not completely return to its correct settings. Pressing and holding the seat memory button appears to get further into the process, but I usually have to do this two or three times for all of the various seating elements to return to their expected position.
- Active Lane Keep. We have ALK, but not Innodrive. Frankly, I don’t know if this feature does much of anything. Yes, it will occasionally alert and gently tug at the wheel if I run roughshod over road lines, but if I’m on the highway and want the car to independently stay within its lane, I’m out of luck. I start to drift over the line and pretty much always need to manually correct. I’m not looking for full self-driving functionality here, but I had thought I was paying for something a little more capable.
- Fingerprint Magnets. The entire dash is covered with screens (we have the passenger screen option), which we like. It’s futuristic and cool, and my daughter loves having her own screen so she can control the radio. But all of those touchscreens are fingerprint magnets, and it’s no small feat to wipe them down. You really need a microfiber and spray to really get everything back to spotlessness, which can be a hassle.
- Misc. There are other little personality quirks, like the bizarrely useless wireless charger, and the occasional contortions you need to make to get CarPlay to reconnect. Again, all tiny quality of life things that quickly fade from memory.
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