After reading @Struja post regarding his Taycan, I had to test drive the Taycan and this is my review. For context, I currently own a 2016 Model S75D and I have done my best to not compare the Taycan to it as my car is almost 8 years old now and is not really a comparable car to a new Porsche.
Summary:
Hands down one of the best cars I've ever driven - the Taycan 4S essentially feels like a bigger 911. It wraps itself around you and feels like an extension of your brain, arms and right foot.
The long version (Good)
I got this 2023 Taycan 4S (tons of pics below) for a 3 day weekend and I felt like a kid again. I just wanted to go out and drive it constantly. It's so much fun and entertaining!
My review is clearly slanted in the driving and performance department as that's what I prefer first and foremost (the mode of power generation is not relevant in this context as far as I'm concerned as Porsche has miraculously concealed the almost 5000 lb curb weight). I won't get into the debate of ICE vs. EV as that has been beaten to death ad-nauseam on practically every single EV thread.
The Not so good (some of this is clearly subjective)
Summary:
Hands down one of the best cars I've ever driven - the Taycan 4S essentially feels like a bigger 911. It wraps itself around you and feels like an extension of your brain, arms and right foot.
- Sharp and responsive steering (no surprise, its a Porsche after all),
- Tight and taut suspension (I drove it primarily in Sport Plus mode, however all the modes felt great - Normal, Sport & Sport Plus)
- high quality of fit and finish (no surprise there)
- quiet like a tomb at any speed (except when you turn on the futuristic and uber cool sounding electronic sport sound). Its an EV after all so that also makes a difference in the lack of noise. However I'm referring to the non existent wind and road noise.
The long version (Good)
I got this 2023 Taycan 4S (tons of pics below) for a 3 day weekend and I felt like a kid again. I just wanted to go out and drive it constantly. It's so much fun and entertaining!
My review is clearly slanted in the driving and performance department as that's what I prefer first and foremost (the mode of power generation is not relevant in this context as far as I'm concerned as Porsche has miraculously concealed the almost 5000 lb curb weight). I won't get into the debate of ICE vs. EV as that has been beaten to death ad-nauseam on practically every single EV thread.
- Performance: This specific car had the Performance Plus battery option which means it has 562 HP. 0 to 60 is 3.8 seconds (official numbers). The car didn't feel that fast to me as I compared it to my 2016 Tesla Model S 75D that does 0 to 60 in 4 seconds. Perhaps the Taycan 4S has a launch mode. I didn't have enough time to figure out how to use that (assuming it does have that option) as I was just having too much fun driving the car. It cornered as if on rails and in the Sport Plus mode, all the performance touch points were very aggressive/immediate - the acceleration was even more immediate (not sure how that is possible when its already an EV (instantaneous/telepathic throttle response comes with the territory), suspension was more taut, the steering was even sharper and that sonorous electric performance sound track was the icing on the cake! I never imagined I would ever love a futuristic sound track to accompany an EV's forward momentum (notice I didn't say fake engine noise as this was not not trying to mimic an ICE engine noise).
- Transmission: I'm no engineer and will not comment on how useful or not the 2 speed transmission is. Suffice it to say that when you're driving in Sport Plus mode, the gear shifting up when accelerating hard or shifting down when slowing down is just music to the ears! I love it!
- Track Performance: Nothing to say here. Not my car and I don't really have any interest in tracking a car. I love canyon carving and that's about it. The car aced any corner with flying colors.
- Comfort and Practicality: The car is very comfortable in any drive mode other than Sport Plus if you're driving a lot on bad roads or frost heaved pavement that we have in Ontario.
- Passengers (so long as you're not over 6 foot tall) will be comfortable in the rear.
- In the front, the seats go pretty low, so even a 6 footer will be comfortable.
- The front seats are heavily bolstered which contributes a lot to the overall driver centric nature of the cockpit.
- The drivers seat (not sure about the front passenger seat as I didn't have enough time to check) has an amazing adjustability for the thigh support. I posted pics below.
- Trunk and Frunk size is decent for this size of 4 door sedan. Interior quality is very high as expected and the car is very driver focussed/centric. All the controls are very easy to reach and the car just seems to wrap itself around you and become an extension of you. It's that good.
- Very effective (but pricey) panoramic roof option that allowed you to make the glass opaque (partially or the whole roof) electronically.
The Not so good (some of this is clearly subjective)
- Not a lot of storage space in the center console and you cannot really use the center console as an arm rest for your right arm (its just too hard or I'm just too old ). No surprise there as this is a drivers car first, so your hands need to be at 9 and 3 o'clock position on the steering wheel at all times, so you won't be resting your right arm anyway.
- Android Auto when displayed cannot be setup to show in the instrument cluster and is not integrated with the Heads up Display.
- The UI is a tad complex (not the primary controls), however if you own the car, I don't see how you won't get comfortable with it eventually.
- I didn't really like the backup camera view as all objects just seemed overly distorted - the lens had too wide of an angle perhaps. Having said that, I'm sure an owner would get used to it and could live with it.
- The central display could be a little bigger - this might be a personal bias as I'm used to the massive screen in my car.
