What's the best alternative to the Taycan?

[prj]

Matt grey and Bristol for me I almost fell out the chair going through the first roundabout a bit too enthusiastically. Regardless of how much hassle it gives me, you just can't beat the Taycan for driving experience (ignoring the 911)

Agreed, the Taycan drive wise is much closer to the 911 than all the other four door P cars (Panamera included).

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[pm4s]

Macan has less room in the back than Taycan. I got Macan EV as loaner and with the same 2 car seats, our kids had less legroom on the back and didn't stop complaining. It must be perhaps that Taycan has smaller front seats.

As a Macan owner and Taycan admirer I found the comparison interesting so posting the dimensions:

 

[Dabz]

Had to give the Cayenne back, now in a J1.2 base, poverty spec. But even that is awesome to drive, perhaps because I jumped out of a tank immediately before.

 

[CrazyINP]

As a Macan owner and Taycan admirer I found the comparison interesting so posting the dimensions:

First hand experience and my kids! they think different. I see the numbers and perhaps the seat design is causing that issue with child seats. Clicking the rear seatback with child booster seats it is almost impossible to do on Macan. Same seats in the Taycan, kids are doing it themselves. Which again, try it before buy it! I know that won't works for us now that we had loaner car.

 

[RAHRCR]

As a Macan owner and Taycan admirer I found the comparison interesting so posting the dimensions:

Really appreciate facts

 

[Dabz]

Sit rep - I think the best alternative to the J1.1 is actually the J1.2 so kudos to those who said exactly that earlier in this thread.

I’m currently in a base spec J1.2 loaner and the range - 340 showing at 100%, 300 still left after pottering around all day - is a game changer vs the 1.1. Sure, I still need to stop for a pee after 2hrs regardless but the mindset of having a 340 mile “tank” is one I didn’t think I’d have.
The base feels more responsive than my 4S weirdly, though loan cars and hire cars are always the fastest car you’ll ever drive.
PCM is faster, more responsive and the nav actually works.

Fatter 20” tyres make the ride nicer but I miss the look of my 21s.

So unless Porsche can suddenly release a true plug in hybrid 911 so I can use electric for short journeys, the answer to my original question appears to be…

The best alternative to the Taycan is the Taycan (J1.1 to J1.2).

Sadly despite mine still giving me headaches and OPC claiming they can’t find any evidence of faults, I’m more minded to extend the warranty and stick with mine than to suck up the depreciation and move to a 1.2. I’ll likely hold off for the 1.3/2.0 and complain about my 1.1 for the next 4 years whole waiting

 

[bluesky]

ah, my understanding was the "i" M being revealed in ~1 month has a DHP which is active & equivalent to PAR ?
But right now, it seems the best they have is Air Suspension on the i7, and nothing on the new iX3 (very disappointing), or sometimes they have something only on the rear axis, not rear+front, not sure where they are going with that, but it doesn't put stars in my eyes for sure.

I'll still try the new GLC electric with the "technical pack", it was really doing a great job on the previous MY24/25 hybrid GLC, and the new Cayenne of course, which alas doesn't seem to have the PAR in configurator :-(

As far as Sports sedans go, I'll test-drive anything that seems at least "not too far" of a Taycan, just in case

I think you’re referring to the ZA0 i3M. The NA0 i3 EV was announced and there’s no active suspension option. And really I have never heard of any active suspension announcement on an upcoming model, so I’m not really hopefully that the i3M will have the option.

A good place to quickly check on details about BMW models is the “future models” thread on bimmerpost: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=901686. They don’t have anything about active suspension on ZA0.

 

[SoccerMan94043]

This guy seems to think this is a Porsche alternative.

 

[69Mach390]

This guy seems to think this is a Porsche alternative.

It’s not.

It is fast though.

It makes me sad when they make a car that performs that well but is ugly.

I can accept “plain” in a performance car, makes a nice sleeper. Just not “ugly.”

And the amount of fast but ugly EVs significantly outnumber the good looking few.

 

[SoccerMan94043]

It’s not.

It is fast though.

It makes me sad when they make a car that performs that well but is ugly.

I can accept “plain” in a performance car, makes a nice sleeper. Just not “ugly.”

And the amount of fast but ugly EVs significantly outnumber the good looking few.

Pretty much the only EV I like the look of is the Taycan and it’s why I’m here

 

[Gkwan]

…. drive a plaid and get back with us. Tesla software blows away Porsche

That’s without question. I still love my taycan turbo but a realist​

my GF had 2 different Model 3 so I know Tesla's SW, no doubt it's much better than the Taycan's.
But Tesla's is also slightly below Xpeng : drove my G9P during 1 year, everything was either equivalent or "slightly better", and overall a little more user oriented, very easy to use, while keeping a few key buttons - rear/forward/left/right (shitty choice from Tesla to remove those).

The Y perf and 3 perf I drove (only 1 hour) were better than the MY23 S, so I'm guessing the Plaid will have a level +1 sports experience compared to these, but Anyhow even if Tesla was the aboslute best I won't give a single $ to this f* Musk psycho, he concentrates a lot of the worst qualities in human beings.

 

[Gkwan]

I am seriously considering two of those in a couple of years - his and hers. I've done it in the past with other cars - makes it easier for me to learn about, modify, and do basic service on the cars (which I do as a hobby). The main issue is Porsche needs to get their reliability up. My wife would divorce me if she had to deal with the issues I've been dealing with the Taycan.

What issues you ask? Let's start with something like the random electrical error which forced me to leave my car at the store parking lot recently (since the car refused to switch into gear), only to come back a couple of hours later and find out the error is gone, then dealer service diagnostics found nothing actionably to repair - that makes the car unreliable at best, dangerous at worst (imagine getting stuck somewhere cold, and the car won't engage the HV battery so no heat, unable to drive). If the solution is turn off the car for an hour for it to reset itself, why isn't there a fucking reset switch under the hood to do this when needed to get the car functional again? I buy my cars to drive them, not to put them on display for neighbors to drool over. Oh, I know, Porsche hasn't thought of this, and it would cost money to implement and test. I talked with service techs, even with a PIWIS (Porsche's diagnostics software which I happen to have), there is no way to reset the car without leaving it off for an hour, which is why all their Porsche procedures end with such time off. WTF Porsche, is there anyone left there who actually considers customer experience with the cars?!?

Porsche can't even get something simple like remote pre-heat/pre-cool via a phone app working reliably. Lately most of the time I try to preheat my car, the car fails telling me that the status of the car is just from 2 or 3 minutes prior to me starting the app (I am pretty sure it's not true, uncertain whether Porsche is consciously lying to customers to show them what Porsche things they want to see to mask their incompetent design architecture, i.e. always tell the customer the status is only few minutes old), then when I attempt pre-heat, it fails telling me my car has no connectivity. I call bullshit since the car is parked in my garage where it has its own cellular tower (a femtocell I installed just for the Taycan) barely 3 feet away with no obstructions, so full signal strength when in the garage (the femtocell is connected to two different internet providers with an automatic failover in case one of the providers craps out, which in itself is super rare - I had 15 minutes of internet failover active in the last 12 months, 3 events, one of them was me manually rebooting a fiber optic modem/ONT as I was changing out power backup, and it's backed up by batteries and a generator, so it literally NEVER goes out completely).

I guess we'll see if Porsche gets their shit together in the next couple of years. I'm willing to maybe wait a bit longer, as long as the Taycan holds up, or until some other car excites me and I give up waiting on Porsche.

Same spirit as you, if something comes up along the way that is a true alternative, I won't wait for Porsche to keep up on the software/entertainment/user experience level of the Chinese (which, according to me, are the reference today).

Regarding

What issues you ask? Let's start with something like the random electrical error which forced me to leave my car at the store parking lot recently (since the car refused to switch into gear), only to come back a couple of hours later and find out the error is gone, then dealer service diagnostics found nothing actionably to repair - that makes the car unreliable at best, dangerous at worst (imagine getting stuck somewhere cold, and the car won't engage the HV battery so no heat, unable to drive).

I think I've had the same issue, I've been meaning to create a post with picture & follow-up (it's now solved), I'll do it soon sorry !

 

[Gkwan]

I think you’re referring to the ZA0 i3M. The NA0 i3 EV was announced and there’s no active suspension option. And really I have never heard of any active suspension announcement on an upcoming model, so I’m not really hopefully that the i3M will have the option.

A good place to quickly check on details about BMW models is the “future models” thread on bimmerpost: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=901686. They don’t have anything about active suspension on ZA0.

Thanks for the link, interesting !
Just to be sure we agree on the definitions :
Type#1 "Active suspension" is like PAR, a system that "does something actively, like pushing back on the road".
Type#2 "Pneumatic/Air suspension" is like PASM, could be sufficiently comfortable & still sporty (IMHO) if well implemented & coupled to chassis optimizations (such as PTV+).

I saw in a review the new i3 offers an optional Type#2 suspension system ?
(while the iX3 doesn't offer anything)

Same for the promising Chinese ones like Xiaomi SU7, Nio ET7, Zeekr 7GT, or even Mercedes GLC EV, it's a Type#2.
I won't try anything that doesn't have at least Type#2, seems like a waste of time.
But I wish someone would announce a Type#1

Btw do you know why the Cayenne EV doesn't offer PAR as an option ? really a bummer
I'll still try it as an exception to my rule

 

[EXOTIC3]

my GF had 2 different Model 3 so I know Tesla's SW, no doubt it's much better than the Taycan's.
But Tesla's is also slightly below Xpeng : drove my G9P during 1 year, everything was either equivalent or "slightly better", and overall a little more user oriented, very easy to use, while keeping a few key buttons - rear/forward/left/right (shitty choice from Tesla to remove those).

The Y perf and 3 perf I drove (only 1 hour) were better than the MY23 S, so I'm guessing the Plaid will have a level +1 sports experience compared to these, but Anyhow even if Tesla was the aboslute best I won't give a single $ to this f* Musk psycho, he concentrates a lot of the worst qualities in human beings.

To each their own;
My nephew works at Tesla headquarters in upper management . He absolutely. Loves working with Elon. He’s done some amazing things for humanity with his various companies. I don’t watch any of the Bs News networks. I prefer to get my information straight from the source.

 

[Gkwan]

To each their own;
My nephew works at Tesla headquarters in upper management . He absolutely. Loves working with Elon. He’s done some amazing things for humanity with his various companies. I don’t watch any of the Bs News networks. I prefer to get my information straight from the source.

Good for your nephew, it's important to be passionate about one's job.
1 person / 1 context isn't a base for reasoning though (regardless of right/wrong/accuracy).
From the same barrel : I'm not trying to convince you/anyone of why Musk's impact on humanity is utterly negative.
We'll just agree to disagree then

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