Buying advice for 4S/Turbo

[tophamn]

Are 2020 CPOs worth looking from reliability standpoint or 2021+ strongly recommended.
For eg, this CPO 2020 Turbo with 21 K miles meets a lot of my criteria.

From what I can tell, on the forum here and elsewhere, newer cars have fewer problems. FWIW my advice would be to go with as new a car as you can afford, and always CPO with Porsche warranty.

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[allo4324]

I just went from a 21 4s w/o sport chrono to a 21 turbo. Very happy with my choices. Very similarly optioned to what you are looking at. Would not be interested in going back to the 4s at this point. The power difference is pretty striking (not to mention enjoyable ).

I always stay away from the first year of a new model, and did not look at 2020 for either purchase. Both of mine were CPO, and I was not interested in anything else. I would rather pay the premium to avoid risk.

 

[Caraholic]

From what I can tell, on the forum here and elsewhere, newer cars have fewer problems. FWIW my advice would be to go with as new a car as you can afford, and always CPO with Porsche warranty.

Not true at all now. When they first released yes but all those bugs have been ironed out.

 

[tophamn]

Not true at all now. When they first released yes but all those bugs have been ironed out.

Well, maybe. I don't have any evidence but it does seem that most of the battery issues in particular are reported by people with 20 and 21 cars. That said it could just be that the early adopters are more active here on the forum ?.

 

[Caraholic]

Well, maybe. I don't have any evidence but it does seem that most of the battery issues in particular are reported by people with 20 and 21 cars. That said it could just be that the early adopters are more active here on the forum ?.

There was a thread not so long ago that had a poll of battery failures by year and they were pretty even among the years with actual later years being slightly higher.

 

[j.w.s]

Hi folks,

I am new to this forum, used to be active on rennlist few years ago. I am in the market for a Taycan, which will be replacement of 970.2 Panamera GTS. I am drawn to Taycan's buttery smooth driving experience, effortless power, modern interior and such. Would appreciate some advice from the forum in order to make a sound purchase decision.

Driving smoothness - recently I drove this 2024 RWD and 2025 Turbo. The RWD felt a lot smoother and easier on rough roads vs the Turbo. I wonder what are the reasons for that, and those factors would help me in finding the right car. The power difference was night and day, which is a different topic.

I am thinking of 2021-23 4S/GTS/Turbo. Initial research indicates to opt for Performance Plus battery, but that's so rare on 4S models. Should that be a big factor? I intend to use for short commutes on city and highway. Not much long road trips. Does the bigger battery provide noticeable performance difference

Sport chrono package - I have a similar option in PGTS. Not many 4S models have it. However, for EV does it make much of a difference given the instant torque. The clock is not a factor for me, and neither is the sound or suspension stiffness which could be altered with the steering wheel control. Am I missing out on some feature?

Charging - Given my primary use case of city/highway driving (seldom long road trips) - would a level 2 charger at home be sufficient

Price - Research also indicates EVs are a tough sell these days. How negotiable are the prices on autotrader/cargurus as an example

I plan to only look for Porsche Certified vehicles to have peace of mind. Any other perspective I should be familiar with? For example, some vehicles are not listed as Porsche certified, could that be negotiated if the selling party is a Porsche dealer? This will help in creating the right search query

Thank you for all the inputs!

Comparing a Turbo to a 4S, I suspect that the primary if not the only different in ride quality would be the tires and rims. A car with the 20" wheels would feel a bit smoother than one with the 21s, while a Turbo and a 4S on the same wheels would ride the same.

There is a difference in ride quality between the steel suspension and the air suspension, but I believe that steel was only an option on the base model, so you won't see it in your search. When I drove the RWD base model on steel suspension, I did not find it to noticeably be smoother in normal mode, and in fact I would expect air suspension to have an edge in that department.

The PDCC option, if fitted, improves handling in corners, but doesn't make the car more or less smooth in normal driving.

You mentioned 2024 and 2025 cars. The 2025 suspension is different than the 2024, especially if you order the Active Ride option. I suspect the 2025 Active Ride version to be smoother in normal mode than the earlier cars, but I haven't driven them back to back.

 

[ash707]

I am very thankful for the responses to this thread!! I have spent lot of time researching. Here's how I am thinking along with some questions at the end

Must have

1. Sedan, 2021+ CPO - 4S, GTS, Turbo, <30K miles
2. Performance Battery Plus (PB+). It is standard on GTS and Turbo
3. Full leather - bonus: two-tone
4. Premium package with Pano glass, Bose (will likely add aftermarket subwoofer) or better, LCA

Highly preferred

1. Wheels and calipers: Body colored matching wheels, or high gloss black. It depends. The right wheel can really accentuate the appearance and make the car much more desirable.
2. Exterior color: Carmine Red, Frozen Blue Metallic - these are rare to find
3. Exterior Color 2nd choices - Metallic White, Chalk, Silver. Lots of choices here including my current ride. Would really prefer something different on the Taycan. Also, not a fan of dark colors - totally personal choice.
4. Interior: Non-black. Bit queasy about Alcantara on some GTS as it doesn’t age well. My current PGTS has full leather
5. Power charge port cover
6. Heated steering wheel

Nice to have

1. Porsche intelligent range manager
2. Sport chrono package

Questions

1. Without Sport chrono package
   1. There’s options for Sport, Sport+ in the center console, correct? Granted its a few quicks away
   2. In addition, Sport button is always present on armrest screen, and just 1-click away. Correct?
2. Heated steering wheel - This is such a convenient feature. Surprisingly not that common. What package contains this option? Haven’t seen any “cold-weather” kinda package. I have seen some cars with a specific line item “GT Steering wheel”
3. On Porsche website, some cars are listed as Pre-onwed but not CPO. Would the dealer CPO them for additional cost? Following up with dealer will take time vs setting the right filter on the website if they usually CPO on request.
4. When I start making offers to Porsche dealers (given CPO requirement), thinking of negotiating 5-10% off the asking price. Don’t know how that would pan out.
5. Some cars have an option like "high powered charger 150 KW/400 V - $400". What difference does it make, and what's standard?

This is a long post. Thank you for reading this far. Appreciate your responses!!

 

[whitex]

@ash707, I didn't see any mention of Rear Axel Steering. Is that on your radar? Personally I like it, mostly for tight slow speed turns (parking lots, u-turns), but I'm sure it helps at high speed (never drove with and without back to back to compare). Some people don't care for it (more to possibly break?). I figured you should at least me aware it exists.

 

[whitex]

1. Some cars have an option like "high powered charger 150 KW/400 V - $400". What difference does it make, and what's standard?

Now that Tesla has announced opening Superchargers to other brands, this becomes a very useful feature to have if you want to have the option to charge there. It will allow you to charge at Tesla Superchargers (today only at chargers with MagicDocs, but Porsche announced they will provide access via adapter you can own) at 150KW, instead of 50KW without this option - that's 3x the charging speed, or 1/3 the time spent at the Supercharger. This is standard equipment for 2025+ Taycans.

 

[whitex]

Without Sport chrono package

1. There’s options for Sport, Sport+ in the center console, correct? Granted its a few quicks away

AFAIK no Sport+ or Individual drive modes without SportChrono.

Heated steering wheel - This is such a convenient feature. Surprisingly not that common. What package contains this option? Haven’t seen any “cold-weather” kinda package. I have seen some cars with a specific line item “GT Steering wheel”

There was no "cold weather package". I think the steering wheel option should explicitly mention heated, for example on mine it was:
2PJ Heated GT Sport Steering Wheel $280
You can always check, it's a button hidden at the rear of the bottom spoke of the GT steering wheel.

 

[Gachnar]

Heated Steering will be listed. If you find a car that was delivered in the north it's very common as it's a cheap option ($280). If you look at ones that come from warmer states, most don't bother. Steering wheel heating doesn't do much in Miami.

There's tons of that check your must haves and a number of the nice to haves. Just depends how much you want to spend. At 75k you have more compromises to make, at 140k you can have exactly what you want in Frozen Blue.

 

[SergeyIndy]

1. Without Sport chrono package: You do not get the mode dial on the steering wheel, no Sport+ mode, no Individual mode, and no dash clock. You only get the Sport button on the center console accessible with no clicks.
2. Heated steering wheel - Standalone option as others said. It is an add on to Standard or GT wheel in Leather.
3. On Porsche website, some cars are listed as Pre-owned but not CPO. Would the dealer CPO them for additional cost? Dealers should be able to CPO at additional cost.
4. When I start making offers to Porsche dealers: I cannot comment on the pricing
5. Some cars have an option like "high powered charger 150 KW/400 V - $400". What difference does it make, and what's standard? Standard is 50kW with this option bumping it to 150kW. This should be just a very nice to have option but with almost no use, with only benefit of charging at Tesla 400V stations, which never realized at scale.

 

[Caraholic]

You need to get the 150KW/400V option. The performance options are highly recommend too with rear axle being at the top. As far as the heated wheels goes I wouldn’t put too much into that. 90% of the time I can’t even tell it’s on and turn it off by accident as I was trying to turn it on.

 

[Grim]

I’m almost 100pct sure that Sport+ mode exists (my previous MY24 CT4S) without Sport chrono - just have to go via car settings, but there is no individual mode.

Sport mode was an accessible via armrest display or whatever the right term was. If you then wanted to go to range mode you would have to go via car settings iirc.

 

[ash707]

Getting back to the thread.

Rear axle steering
I drove a 2024 4S recently with that option. Didn't feel much of a difference. The service advisor was also neutral about it.

I have been searching extensively for cars. Given my list of criteria above, the Carmine Red exterior is becoming the hardest to find, thus limiting the choices. Literally these 2

Preferred option - 2022 4S
This has many options I want. Plus some missing options like Sport chrono package, heated steering wheel, high speed charger, power charger door


Much more expensive 2023 GTS
This is absolutely loaded, light on miles. One option I don't want is Alcantara interior, it looks great as new but doesn't age well.

if I relax the Carmine Red criteria, there's tons of other choices including Turbo S like this or this, for the price of GTS. And even some lower priced GTS like this.

I am glad that there's so many great choices. But I need to figure out whether I want the Red so bad.. IMO the car should bring excitement, while driving or being in the garage. That's why I am leaning towards that color, after owning bunch of Black/White/Silver in the past.

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