Taycan searching after first test drive

[ExM]

Hi everyone, my first post here but I’ve been lurking for a while as I’ve been watching the market for a long while now, preparing for my next car.

I’ve been a BMW guy until now, my last car being an M4 CS which I loved but these days I need usable rear seats and some actual grip when it’s cold and wet. I live in Scotland after all….

The CT 4S has seemed like the ideal blend, a good boot for day to day practicality, extra ride height and gravel mode for the snowy winter days (we live up in the hills)
so I’m waiting impatiently for the right spec/price car to come along but have wondered about going for a non CT, with the option of going a year or two older and looking at the Turbo.
I booked a visit with my local Porsche dealership yesterday to get a taste of driving an electric car for the first time and whilst they’d sold the regular 4S and Turbo I was looking to comparethe salesman let me and the wife out in a 2023 Turbo S they’ve yet to sell….

Wow, I loved the power delivery with so much grip and how such a big car felt like a precise sports car.
I’m a sucker for CCB’s, having had them on the M4, and the carbon trim on the Turbo S was a lovely lift but maybe the non S is a better balance of price/performance.
From what I’ve read here, I’d be wary of the PSCB on the Turbo but are problems rare?
I would have to stretch the budget to get into a reasonable mileage 2020ish Turbo S and it’s obviously far faster than our roads can handle, but I’m still tempted to go for the all out sports car feel over practicality.

I think the 4S CT is still a lot more practical and will try book a test drive with another local dealership this week.
I’m wondering how noticeable the power difference is? how much does being a CT reduce the planted sports car feel?

Only recently did I notice a lot of 2022 CTs come without power adjustable steering, thanks to the chip shortage. A minor thing but having felt the quality and luxury of the car it seems weird to not have the convenience. Are there other features that might not be obvious in their absence but I should be on the look out for?

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[f1eng]

I have a CT4S with all the chassis options (torque vectoring, rear wheel steer and active anti roll bars) and it handles surprisingly better than the CT4S without I had as a loan car when they did the heater matrix recall.
On the dire roads around here I only get to use full throttle for the odd second or two at a time and personally think a 4S with the chassis options is a better value car than either a Turbo or Turbo S without.

I haven't driven a saloon or ST but there are plenty of chassis adjustments you can personalise on the CT if you have one with sports chrono option (which I do) though the "normal" setting is a well chosen compromise between body control, ride and handling IMO, I am impressed but I would expect the Porsche engineers to know what they are doing...

I also prefer cast iron brakes to either plated or composite ones for consistency between hot and cold and dry and wet.
I (as an engineer) tested composite against cast iron a lot in the early days in Formula 1 (first ran at Brands Hatch in 1982 with Keke Rosberg) and whilst the weight saving is essential for racing the braking characteristic and consistency for every day use is definitely better with cast iron. They don't look as nice though.

 

[Cherryjock]

Hi everyone, my first post here but I’ve been lurking for a while as I’ve been watching the market for a long while now, preparing for my next car.

I’ve been a BMW guy until now, my last car being an M4 CS which I loved but these days I need usable rear seats and some actual grip when it’s cold and wet. I live in Scotland after all….

The CT 4S has seemed like the ideal blend, a good boot for day to day practicality, extra ride height and gravel mode for the snowy winter days (we live up in the hills)
so I’m waiting impatiently for the right spec/price car to come along but have wondered about going for a non CT, with the option of going a year or two older and looking at the Turbo.
I booked a visit with my local Porsche dealership yesterday to get a taste of driving an electric car for the first time and whilst they’d sold the regular 4S and Turbo I was looking to comparethe salesman let me and the wife out in a 2023 Turbo S they’ve yet to sell….

Wow, I loved the power delivery with so much grip and how such a big car felt like a precise sports car.
I’m a sucker for CCB’s, having had them on the M4, and the carbon trim on the Turbo S was a lovely lift but maybe the non S is a better balance of price/performance.
From what I’ve read here, I’d be wary of the PSCB on the Turbo but are problems rare?
I would have to stretch the budget to get into a reasonable mileage 2020ish Turbo S and it’s obviously far faster than our roads can handle, but I’m still tempted to go for the all out sports car feel over practicality.

I think the 4S CT is still a lot more practical and will try book a test drive with another local dealership this week.
I’m wondering how noticeable the power difference is? how much does being a CT reduce the planted sports car feel?

Only recently did I notice a lot of 2022 CTs come without power adjustable steering, thanks to the chip shortage. A minor thing but having felt the quality and luxury of the car it seems weird to not have the convenience. Are there other features that might not be obvious in their absence but I should be on the look out for?

As you say, it's a big car. CT is wider and longer than a Volvo XC90, so make sure it will fit in your garage.
On Scottish B roads the width makes electric folding mirrors an essential for me.
Trying to park in smallish bays without the (sadly not that great) surround camera is also horrible.
When I had a GTS or saloon loaner I was palpitating over every sleeping policeman. The non CT cars never grounded - there is the 'lift" button to fumble for (it won’t work above 20mph) but it's still a worry and I was much happier back in my CT.
One option to look out for is auto dimming rear view mirrors. They were not standard on all trims but they are on all current, facelifted, cars.

 

[ExM]

Thanks guys, I'm getting the feeling that the chassis options are a big part of what I'm looking for. I'm used to limited slip diffs in previous cars, they're a big part of what makes an M car vs an M lite.
I feel CCBs are largely for weight and then little/no brake dust when considered for everyday use, it's hard to ever see road driving getting to the point of over heating brakes. But less weight and dust is nice to have.
I'll give the regular 4S brakes a go, once I can get a drive in one. I tried a VW dealership with a CT 4S today, after phoning ahead yesterday, but the attitude of "customer service" and offering a 5 minute drive up a dual carriageway and back was a complete waste of a lunch break.

Electric folding mirrors as an option on Porsche's still makes me chuckle, at what point is it really worth the cost of having different tooling for these basic things?

My garage is a generous double, thankfully, so no problems there.

One comment from the wife during the test drive was against the road noise, despite it being far quieter than the Mini JCW we arrived in. I imagine the huge tyres on the Turbo S make it as bad as it can get in a Taycan. Are there preferred tyres for reduced road noise?

I feel like prices have firmed up and there's less choice around but that's bound to happen when I finally start looking to buy. Are main dealers going to shift much on price?

 

[ExM]

Well I went back to the dealership that let me test drive the Turbo S and took out a facelift 4S for comparison.
I was a little underwhelmed by the second test drive. The brake feel was very different, even accounting for steel vs CCB, they had such a lack of initial response vs the CCB being incredibly responsive but still able to modulate them.

The handling wasn’t as alive either, I was missing the rear axle steering or the torque vectoring or both. So these are now on my shopping list of options.

Power was ok in the 4S but it does need a heavier foot, even in Sports Plus mode.

This time I felt the lane assist and the brake assistance in traffic, the latter was interesting and I liked, not sure on the lane assist, particularly on single lane country roads. I’d assumed incorrectly that these came with the inno drive camera in the front bumper, but this 4S didn’t have that. I guess I need to understand those options better.

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