I went to test drive the Taycan yesterday and here are my rather long winded thoughts on it and how it compares to my 2017 Tesla S P100D. The car I drove as a Taycan Turbo, it had the base 14 way seats and was missing the carbon ceramic brakes, the rear wheel steering and the dynamic chassis control. I was quite surprised that the demo car was missing those options, particularity the last two, which I've head make quite a difference. Even without those, it had a sticker price of $166k.
Out on the road the Taycan drove beautifully. The handling was awesome, it drove just exactly the way I want a car to drive. The Taycan weighs about 5000lbs but it didn't feel like it at all. The Tesla hides its weight extremely well, but this is a whole other level. I think alot of it is the seating position, its significantly lower in the Taycan. It was a bit cold and damp and the computers let it get sideways a nice bit.
The steering was a little disappointing. It wasn't bad, just nothing special. Brakes felt fine, nothing exciting, but it wasn't like I was on a track or anywhere I could really evaluate them. The car felt quite quick, however to my precisely calibrated butt dyno it felt a bit slower than my P100D. The thing I was happiest about though, was that I never felt the transmission shifting. Supposedly it shifts around 50mph, but I never felt it. This was something that I was worried about, as I hate automatic transmissions.
The interior of the car was disappointing. Based on what I'd read beforehand I was expecting something significantly better than the Tesla's interior. The design just felt way to busy to me, there were buttons and lights everywhere. Like whats the point of the analog clock on the dash? Does it really need to have a seconds hand that is rather distracting? The center console was huge and made the interior feel rather cramped. The interior materials were fine, but not any better than the on the Tesla. The headliners are both alcantara, and I prefer the nice real open pore Ash wood on my Tesla's dash to the sea of black on the Porsche. The styling on the Tesla is starting to feel a bit dated (it is 8 years old after all) but I didn't think this was an improvement.
The infotainment sucked too. There are two screens, but they are both pretty small. There is also this huge touchpad mouse kinda thing that seems pretty worthless. I'm no fan of touchscreens, but this thing seemed like all the downsides of a touch screen, without the positives of the dial system BMW uses. I understand that some people don't like the giant screen in the Tesla, but man it would be hard to go back to a small screen like that after being used to the Tesla.
The biggest issue I had with the car was the interior space though. I was expecting this to be on par with the size of say a 5-Series, but instead its really more like a 3-series. (note that this might be why it handles so well) I'm tall so I had the seat all the way back which did give me enough room, but there wasn't enough room in the backseat for kids let alone adults. The frunk (which I use all the time in my S) is laughable, and the trunk isn't particularly big either.
The range on the car is pretty terrible, it'll only do 200 miles (maybe 240 if some reports are to be believed). That combined with its lack of space and poor charging network means its not going to be a road trip car (particularly not with a family).
The real killer for the Taycan though is the price. To me its $50k more than it should be. If it was the same price as the Model S P100D, I might be able to forgive its lack of range, and its cramped interior. Surprisingly, this is actually where Porsche had originally priced it. When they first talked pricing, back in 2018 it was supposed to start at $75k. Now instead it starts at $105k for the slow 4S one. I was surprised to hear that at least on the east coast there are alot of allocations available, the dealer said I could get a delivery in June. I had heard they had 40k deposits and were only making 20k this year.
TLDR: The Taycan drives great, but its small and that Porsche badge comes at a very steep price.
Out on the road the Taycan drove beautifully. The handling was awesome, it drove just exactly the way I want a car to drive. The Taycan weighs about 5000lbs but it didn't feel like it at all. The Tesla hides its weight extremely well, but this is a whole other level. I think alot of it is the seating position, its significantly lower in the Taycan. It was a bit cold and damp and the computers let it get sideways a nice bit.
The steering was a little disappointing. It wasn't bad, just nothing special. Brakes felt fine, nothing exciting, but it wasn't like I was on a track or anywhere I could really evaluate them. The car felt quite quick, however to my precisely calibrated butt dyno it felt a bit slower than my P100D. The thing I was happiest about though, was that I never felt the transmission shifting. Supposedly it shifts around 50mph, but I never felt it. This was something that I was worried about, as I hate automatic transmissions.
The interior of the car was disappointing. Based on what I'd read beforehand I was expecting something significantly better than the Tesla's interior. The design just felt way to busy to me, there were buttons and lights everywhere. Like whats the point of the analog clock on the dash? Does it really need to have a seconds hand that is rather distracting? The center console was huge and made the interior feel rather cramped. The interior materials were fine, but not any better than the on the Tesla. The headliners are both alcantara, and I prefer the nice real open pore Ash wood on my Tesla's dash to the sea of black on the Porsche. The styling on the Tesla is starting to feel a bit dated (it is 8 years old after all) but I didn't think this was an improvement.
The infotainment sucked too. There are two screens, but they are both pretty small. There is also this huge touchpad mouse kinda thing that seems pretty worthless. I'm no fan of touchscreens, but this thing seemed like all the downsides of a touch screen, without the positives of the dial system BMW uses. I understand that some people don't like the giant screen in the Tesla, but man it would be hard to go back to a small screen like that after being used to the Tesla.
The biggest issue I had with the car was the interior space though. I was expecting this to be on par with the size of say a 5-Series, but instead its really more like a 3-series. (note that this might be why it handles so well) I'm tall so I had the seat all the way back which did give me enough room, but there wasn't enough room in the backseat for kids let alone adults. The frunk (which I use all the time in my S) is laughable, and the trunk isn't particularly big either.
The range on the car is pretty terrible, it'll only do 200 miles (maybe 240 if some reports are to be believed). That combined with its lack of space and poor charging network means its not going to be a road trip car (particularly not with a family).
The real killer for the Taycan though is the price. To me its $50k more than it should be. If it was the same price as the Model S P100D, I might be able to forgive its lack of range, and its cramped interior. Surprisingly, this is actually where Porsche had originally priced it. When they first talked pricing, back in 2018 it was supposed to start at $75k. Now instead it starts at $105k for the slow 4S one. I was surprised to hear that at least on the east coast there are alot of allocations available, the dealer said I could get a delivery in June. I had heard they had 40k deposits and were only making 20k this year.
TLDR: The Taycan drives great, but its small and that Porsche badge comes at a very steep price.
