Goodbye Taycan, hello 2025 Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo

[d00d]

Looks like the .2 Remote ParkAssist option adds 3D, but the Surround View with Active Parking Support option is 360?

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[Perry]

Ok here we go. I think this is more representative of how Turbonite typically looks like:

 

[Boss Hogg]

thanks, good to hear the turbonite is more of a dark silver

 

[silverstar335]

Congrats, you have the ultimate station wagon money can buy!

 

[BenJL]

Like with the previous generation, if you spec the 3D surround view, you don't get the side camera view. Honestly, if I could I would choose the side cameras over the almost useless 3D view, but sadly it's included with the Park Assist package.

That’s a possibility.
but the manual says nothing about it.

Here is the French manual :

 

[d00d]

Maybe US options are different?

 

[bluesky]

Looks like the .2 Remote ParkAssist option adds 3D, but the Surround View with Active Parking Support option is 360?

That’s a possibility.
but the manual says nothing about it.

tbat’s correct, currently the Surround View with Active Parking Support is the top-down 2D surround view with in-car parking. The Remote Park Assist adds out-of-car remote parking and 3D view but drops the side views and maybe the 2D surround view.

My understanding is that RPA cannot handle my use case with garage pillars, so I’m going to get the Surround View with APS with the 2D surround view and hopefully the side views instead.

 

[bluesky]

Can CarPlay be used to show Netflix or Prime Video instead of fooling with the odd Porsche solution.

I’d like to hear how Active Ride deals with cobblestone or heavily tree root laden roads, as well as PASSENGER comfort experience of windy roads at speed with the leaning enabled.

 

[xxGenericSNxx]

Are the leather grab handles just a selectable option? Did you have them on your .1? For some reason I don't see this being offered on the US builder. All of the additional leather details on your car look terrific.

 

[f1eng]

And even in the old Taycan you could play MP4 files from USB stick – and I'm sure very few did.

I use a USB stick and the radio for music rather than a streaming service. The files on my USB stick are ALAC though not MP4 since I have so many files ripped over the last 20+ years.

 

[Poshfpg]

Neptune Blue. You finally made the right choice. Glad you didn't mix it with Blackberry interior – as I consider that "my own" custom configuration!

Ahem

 

[mcr21]

Today, I said farewell to my trusty Rocinante and picked up what currently has the working title Rocinante II, a new 2025 Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo.

I've only had her for half a day, so I haven't had time to fully assess all the differences, but spontaneously I can say that it's still very much a Taycan, but with a lot of little changes. Many of which are probably only noticeable by other Taycan owners, like that the handles mechanically sound different.

I'm going to try to take some more extensive photos tomorrow, so you can probably see this as a bit of a sneak peak at the moment.

I did change a few things in my spec compared to my previous Taycan. New colour, obviously, since my wife put in a veto on red cars. I also embraced the Cross Turismo styling a bit more and went with the extra plastics and roof railings. I also went with the black door handles, because I see myself as a bit of a bad boy and wanted to prove to myself that I'm not entirely allergic to changes. Otherwise the spec is essentially the same as before, except for some custom floor mats and such that I kept and brought over from the old car.

Some spontaneous changes that I've seen so far that I don't think have been covered previously:

1. InnoDrive has, like you might know, some fancy new graphics. It however also behaves quite differently than before. It's much more decisive and will fight you a bit more for control. It's absolutely not like Tesla Autopilot, but you will feel it tug in the steering wheel when you do something it doesn't agree with, whereas the previous version was barely even noticeable. It also appears to follow the road much better than before, even in relatively complex situations.

2. I'm not sure if it's because of hardware changes or new software, but the PCM is much faster than before. It's still not exactly snappy, but quite a few areas like scrolling and switching apps is much smoother. Apps now also animate when they launch and close.

3. The navigation, while still quite sluggish, is at least a fair bit less buggy than before. In the earlier gen, it would typically calculate a long route, and then recalculate several times to find the best charging plan. Now it essentially shows a route, spends a few seconds thinking, and then updates the route with the chargers.

4. ActiveRide is straight up silly. In Sports mode, the car stays so flat on the road it's surreal. In Normal mode where it does its whole "overcompensation" schtick it feels... weird. Not bad per se, but the car doesn't behave like you expect it to, which is an odd sensation.

5. The suspension is also significantly softer than before, in again a bit weird way. When going over a speed bump or a rough road the car will soften the impact, but it's not boaty like traditional soft suspension can be. It's not exactly trivial to explain, but essentially I think it can be summarised as the suspension is soft, but it doesn't bounce.

6. The ActiveRide system is however not used for lift mode, which I think is a bit of a missed opportunity because of how quick it is. I assume there's a technical reason for it.

7. The car can now connect to WiFi hotspots. So far, it's primarily used for the video app which requires it, but I assume it's also used for other online services.

8. The easy entry part of ActiveRide works just as advertised. It does take some time to get used to getting thrown into the air when you open the door to get out. One quirky thing however is that it doesn't seem to activate when the boot is open. It makes sense, but in practice if you push the button to close the boot, it often hasn't had time to fully close by the time you get to the door, which means that the easy entry function won't activate.

9. There is now, among other things, an audible warning when you exceed the speed limit, mandated by law. It can be turned off, but it will turn on every time you start the car. There are options for how much you need exceed the limit for it to sound, but strangely that seems to also be reset at start, which makes it utterly pointless. I'm still trying to understand exactly how this works, but at least it's possible to bind the diamond button to turn it off.

10. The carbon ceramic rims look significantly better in real life than I expected from the photos. The blades almost appear to be hovering rather than being attached. Again, hard to capture in a photo, but I like it.

11. Recuperation is no longer tied to the drive mode at all. It's a seperate setting, so If you turn it on, it's on for all modes.

12. I'm not sure if I'm just being dumb, but the dash map view seems to no longer be separately configurable, and instead just follows whatever zoom or display settings you have on the PCM.

13. Regen hasn't turned on yet, so my efficiency isn't great, but the guessometer is currently giving me 447 km at 86% or equivalent 520 km at 100% (~323 miles).

14. I know people have some mixed feelings over the new design, but personally I think the Turbo S looks great, again much better in real life than in the photos. It looks much more aggressive than before, which I think is fitting for the trim.

15. While I didn't actually care that much for the increased performance (the old Taycan Turbo S wasn't exactly sluggish), but I can say that there is definitely some pull in this one, especially at higher speeds. Again, together with ActiveRide, the car couldn't care less about my apparent attempt to break the sound barrier, like it wasn't in fact a two ton glorified station wagon.

16. The new video player based on ScreenHits is like all Porsche software about 70% good and then falls flat right at the end. It's almost literally just a web browser showing the ScreenHits service. ScreenHits itself is probably the most useless service I've ever seen, where it essentially just shows a bunch of random content from different services and literally opens a new browser window to netflix.com or whatever when you try to play anything. Why Porsche didn't just give us an actual web browser where you could play whatever you want, is completely beyond me. Maybe someone will eventually find a way to make the video app navigate to other websites (maybe through some creative proxy settings on the WiFi), because it is literally already a full fledged browser without a search bar.

Below is my spec and some quick photos I took. Like I said, I'll try to make sure to post some more photos later. The specs are translated from Swedish with the magic of ChatGPT so please excuse any AI hallucinations.

Packages
OffroadDesign Package

Foils
Model designation in black (glossy)

Exterior

• Roof rails in black aluminum (high gloss)
• Preparation for bike carrier
• Exterior mirrors with upper part in carbon fiber
• Window trim in black (high gloss)
• Door handles in black (high gloss)
• 'PORSCHE' logo LED lighting in doors
• Panel for rear window wiper in black (high gloss)

Transmission / Chassis

• Active Ride Control
• Sport Chrono clock in Porsche Design

Wheels

• Tire repair kit with electronic compressor
• Aeroblades Carbon
• 21" Exclusive Design wheels painted in black (high gloss) with high gloss polished surfaces and Aeroblades

Interior

• Porsche crests embossed on headrests (front and outer rear seats)
• Interior package with contrast stitching
• Seat consoles in leather (front)
• Comfort sport seats in the front (14-way) including memory package
• Seat configuration 4+1
• Individualized car key in exterior color with key case
• Heated leather steering wheel with matte carbon fiber inlays (in combination with Sport Chrono package and leather interior)
• Leather storage compartment for rear drive tunnel
• Massage function (front) including seat ventilation (front)
• Extended leather package, instrument panel
• Safety belts in contrast color - Atacama Beige
• Extended leather package for door panels
• Extended leather package for center console
• Grab handles in leather
• Aluminum pedals
• Illuminated carbon fiber (matte) door sill guards (in combination with inner door sill guards)
• Sun visors in leather
• Roof panel in Race-Tex
• Inner door sill guards and lower B-pillar in leather
• Cup holder panel in leather

Audio / Communication

• Passenger display
• Burmester® 3D High-End Surround Sound System

Color Choice for Leather/Decorative Stitchings

• Color choice for stitching

Lighting and Vision

• Rear light strip with illuminated "PORSCHE" logo in black
• Panoramic glass roof (fixed) with variable Light Control
• Sound and heat insulating glass including tinted windows

Comfort and Assistance Systems

• Head-Up Display
• Night Vision Assist
• Comfort entry
• Soft close function for doors
• Advanced Climate Control (4-zone)
• Air quality system
• Garage opener HomeLink®
• Remote Park Assist
• Trunk net
• Preparation for Porsche Dashcam (front and rear)
• Side airbags (rear)
• Porsche InnoDrive including Active Lane Keeping
• Lane Change Assist

Today, I said farewell to my trusty Rocinante and picked up what currently has the working title Rocinante II, a new 2025 Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo.

I've only had her for half a day, so I haven't had time to fully assess all the differences, but spontaneously I can say that it's still very much a Taycan, but with a lot of little changes. Many of which are probably only noticeable by other Taycan owners, like that the handles mechanically sound different.

I'm going to try to take some more extensive photos tomorrow, so you can probably see this as a bit of a sneak peak at the moment.

I did change a few things in my spec compared to my previous Taycan. New colour, obviously, since my wife put in a veto on red cars. I also embraced the Cross Turismo styling a bit more and went with the extra plastics and roof railings. I also went with the black door handles, because I see myself as a bit of a bad boy and wanted to prove to myself that I'm not entirely allergic to changes. Otherwise the spec is essentially the same as before, except for some custom floor mats and such that I kept and brought over from the old car.

Some spontaneous changes that I've seen so far that I don't think have been covered previously:

1. InnoDrive has, like you might know, some fancy new graphics. It however also behaves quite differently than before. It's much more decisive and will fight you a bit more for control. It's absolutely not like Tesla Autopilot, but you will feel it tug in the steering wheel when you do something it doesn't agree with, whereas the previous version was barely even noticeable. It also appears to follow the road much better than before, even in relatively complex situations.

2. I'm not sure if it's because of hardware changes or new software, but the PCM is much faster than before. It's still not exactly snappy, but quite a few areas like scrolling and switching apps is much smoother. Apps now also animate when they launch and close.

3. The navigation, while still quite sluggish, is at least a fair bit less buggy than before. In the earlier gen, it would typically calculate a long route, and then recalculate several times to find the best charging plan. Now it essentially shows a route, spends a few seconds thinking, and then updates the route with the chargers.

4. ActiveRide is straight up silly. In Sports mode, the car stays so flat on the road it's surreal. In Normal mode where it does its whole "overcompensation" schtick it feels... weird. Not bad per se, but the car doesn't behave like you expect it to, which is an odd sensation.

5. The suspension is also significantly softer than before, in again a bit weird way. When going over a speed bump or a rough road the car will soften the impact, but it's not boaty like traditional soft suspension can be. It's not exactly trivial to explain, but essentially I think it can be summarised as the suspension is soft, but it doesn't bounce.

6. The ActiveRide system is however not used for lift mode, which I think is a bit of a missed opportunity because of how quick it is. I assume there's a technical reason for it.

7. The car can now connect to WiFi hotspots. So far, it's primarily used for the video app which requires it, but I assume it's also used for other online services.

8. The easy entry part of ActiveRide works just as advertised. It does take some time to get used to getting thrown into the air when you open the door to get out. One quirky thing however is that it doesn't seem to activate when the boot is open. It makes sense, but in practice if you push the button to close the boot, it often hasn't had time to fully close by the time you get to the door, which means that the easy entry function won't activate.

9. There is now, among other things, an audible warning when you exceed the speed limit, mandated by law. It can be turned off, but it will turn on every time you start the car. There are options for how much you need exceed the limit for it to sound, but strangely that seems to also be reset at start, which makes it utterly pointless. I'm still trying to understand exactly how this works, but at least it's possible to bind the diamond button to turn it off.

10. The carbon ceramic rims look significantly better in real life than I expected from the photos. The blades almost appear to be hovering rather than being attached. Again, hard to capture in a photo, but I like it.

11. Recuperation is no longer tied to the drive mode at all. It's a seperate setting, so If you turn it on, it's on for all modes.

12. I'm not sure if I'm just being dumb, but the dash map view seems to no longer be separately configurable, and instead just follows whatever zoom or display settings you have on the PCM.

13. Regen hasn't turned on yet, so my efficiency isn't great, but the guessometer is currently giving me 447 km at 86% or equivalent 520 km at 100% (~323 miles).

14. I know people have some mixed feelings over the new design, but personally I think the Turbo S looks great, again much better in real life than in the photos. It looks much more aggressive than before, which I think is fitting for the trim.

15. While I didn't actually care that much for the increased performance (the old Taycan Turbo S wasn't exactly sluggish), but I can say that there is definitely some pull in this one, especially at higher speeds. Again, together with ActiveRide, the car couldn't care less about my apparent attempt to break the sound barrier, like it wasn't in fact a two ton glorified station wagon.

16. The new video player based on ScreenHits is like all Porsche software about 70% good and then falls flat right at the end. It's almost literally just a web browser showing the ScreenHits service. ScreenHits itself is probably the most useless service I've ever seen, where it essentially just shows a bunch of random content from different services and literally opens a new browser window to netflix.com or whatever when you try to play anything. Why Porsche didn't just give us an actual web browser where you could play whatever you want, is completely beyond me. Maybe someone will eventually find a way to make the video app navigate to other websites (maybe through some creative proxy settings on the WiFi), because it is literally already a full fledged browser without a search bar.

Below is my spec and some quick photos I took. Like I said, I'll try to make sure to post some more photos later. The specs are translated from Swedish with the magic of ChatGPT so please excuse any AI hallucinations.

Packages
OffroadDesign Package

Foils
Model designation in black (glossy)

Exterior

• Roof rails in black aluminum (high gloss)
• Preparation for bike carrier
• Exterior mirrors with upper part in carbon fiber
• Window trim in black (high gloss)
• Door handles in black (high gloss)
• 'PORSCHE' logo LED lighting in doors
• Panel for rear window wiper in black (high gloss)

Transmission / Chassis

• Active Ride Control
• Sport Chrono clock in Porsche Design

Wheels

• Tire repair kit with electronic compressor
• Aeroblades Carbon
• 21" Exclusive Design wheels painted in black (high gloss) with high gloss polished surfaces and Aeroblades

Interior

• Porsche crests embossed on headrests (front and outer rear seats)
• Interior package with contrast stitching
• Seat consoles in leather (front)
• Comfort sport seats in the front (14-way) including memory package
• Seat configuration 4+1
• Individualized car key in exterior color with key case
• Heated leather steering wheel with matte carbon fiber inlays (in combination with Sport Chrono package and leather interior)
• Leather storage compartment for rear drive tunnel
• Massage function (front) including seat ventilation (front)
• Extended leather package, instrument panel
• Safety belts in contrast color - Atacama Beige
• Extended leather package for door panels
• Extended leather package for center console
• Grab handles in leather
• Aluminum pedals
• Illuminated carbon fiber (matte) door sill guards (in combination with inner door sill guards)
• Sun visors in leather
• Roof panel in Race-Tex
• Inner door sill guards and lower B-pillar in leather
• Cup holder panel in leather

Audio / Communication

• Passenger display
• Burmester® 3D High-End Surround Sound System

Color Choice for Leather/Decorative Stitchings

• Color choice for stitching

Lighting and Vision

• Rear light strip with illuminated "PORSCHE" logo in black
• Panoramic glass roof (fixed) with variable Light Control
• Sound and heat insulating glass including tinted windows

Comfort and Assistance Systems

• Head-Up Display
• Night Vision Assist
• Comfort entry
• Soft close function for doors
• Advanced Climate Control (4-zone)
• Air quality system
• Garage opener HomeLink®
• Remote Park Assist
• Trunk net
• Preparation for Porsche Dashcam (front and rear)
• Side airbags (rear)
• Porsche InnoDrive including Active Lane Keeping
• Lane Change Assist

Thanks for the write-up. In line with my expectations on the refresh.

 

[Perry]

Are the leather grab handles just a selectable option? Did you have them on your .1? For some reason I don't see this being offered on the US builder. All of the additional leather details on your car look terrific.

Yeah, those are available as one of the different leather options. My previous car also had it. There are probably a hundred other options that would be more value for money, but they do feel very premium. They’re padded, so they have this really feeling when you hold them.

The only new leather option that I can think of is the section around the cup holder, which is just black plastic otherwise.

Can CarPlay be used to show Netflix or Prime Video instead of fooling with the odd Porsche solution.

I’d like to hear how Active Ride deals with cobblestone or heavily tree root laden roads, as well as PASSENGER comfort experience of windy roads at speed with the leaning enabled.

No, there’s no official way that I know of to play video over CarPlay. You can however buy one of those CarPlay Android boxes that let you do pretty much whatever you want.

Active Ride definitely improves comfort, but it’s still tuned very sporty. From a technical standpoint I find myself being very impressed by how it performs, but you still feel the road. It’s not like a MB S-Class that feels like it’s floating on air. It’s like, the car stays completely level, but you can feel the vibrations from the wheels rolling over the surface.

The “overcompensation” features where the car leans into curves is a bit weird. I will see what the passengers say, but as a driver it’s a bit odd. At one point I almost thought I was losing grip when I did a sharp turn, but I think it might just be something to get used to. Going from one Taycan to another, I‘m quite confident in how I expect the car to behave, so when it doesn’t it feels strange.

My main concern is really how it will affect car sickness. My son tends to get car sick pretty easily, so I wonder whether this will help or make it worse. It’s possible to disable it in settings and it’s only activated in Normal mode, so we’ll see what I’ll do.

 

[Blorpos]

14. I know people have some mixed feelings over the new design, but personally I think the Turbo S looks great, again much better in real life than in the photos. It looks much more aggressive than before, which I think is fitting for the trim.

The new Turbo S front profile looks great. The new base model Taycan, not so much. That one took a step back in my opinion.

 

[Roppe]

Yeah, those are available as one of the different leather options. My previous car also had it. There are probably a hundred other options that would be more value for money, but they do feel very premium. They’re padded, so they have this really feeling when you hold them.

The only new leather option that I can think of is the section around the cup holder, which is just black plastic otherwise.



No, there’s no official way that I know of to play video over CarPlay. You can however buy one of those CarPlay Android boxes that let you do pretty much whatever you want.

Active Ride definitely improves comfort, but it’s still tuned very sporty. From a technical standpoint I find myself being very impressed by how it performs, but you still feel the road. It’s not like a MB S-Class that feels like it’s floating on air. It’s like, the car stays completely level, but you can feel the vibrations from the wheels rolling over the surface.

The “overcompensation” features where the car leans into curves is a bit weird. I will see what the passengers say, but as a driver it’s a bit odd. At one point I almost thought I was losing grip when I did a sharp turn, but I think it might just be something to get used to. Going from one Taycan to another, I‘m quite confident in how I expect the car to behave, so when it doesn’t it feels strange.

My main concern is really how it will affect car sickness. My son tend to get car sick pretty easily, so I wonder whether this will help or make it worse. It’s possible to disable it in settings and it’s only activated in Normal mode, so we’ll see what I’ll do.

Great info. Thank you for sharing.
making me second guess selecting Active Ride and just add the PTV+
Does the behavior in Sport/sport+ mode feel more natural?

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