SergeyIndy
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Sergey
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2021
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 71
- Reaction score
- 62
- Location
- Indianapolis
- Vehicles
- 16 Macan Turbo, 20 Cayenne Turbo, 23 Taycan Turbo
- Thread starter
- #1
Context: Previous owners of 2016 Macan Turbo, hoping to upgrade to Macan EV a couple of years ago, but ran out of time due to its release delays, so ended up with a 2024 Macan GTS a year ago. I was able to take 2024 Macan 4 with the following spec for a day to see what we might be missing to compare it to our 2024 Macan GTS. I was also interested to compare how the upgraded tech in the Macan 4 is better than my 2023 Taycan Turbo.
New 2024 Porsche Macan Electric 4: Full Spec
285 miles with 22-inch wheels and tires not broken in yet for full grip
Exterior: Feels almost too big from the front, lower lip in particular, and side view with oversized wheel arches and wheels, but very sleek from the back. Rear light bar has a lot of plastic mixed in vs. all glass from the ICE. Looking at the actual numbers Macan 4 is 2.3 inches longer and 2.1 inches wider with mirrors than the ICE.
Interior: Immediate impression was that I am in a van with lots of space around, large doors, deep center tunnel, and cannot see the hood. Then I started noticing that the Auto light indicator is way low on the left with Rear Fog control (van like) and the climate control panel is hard to read at a glance since Auto climate mode has white line below vs. red line in the ICE Macan and Cayenne models I am used to. The interior is Black/Chalk and not full leather, but it is immediately apparent to me that it is a level below leather quality, amount of plastic, look, and tightness vs. the ICE Macan leather materials. GT steering wheel is not as sporty, 18-way seats felt large and loose, and overall feel that it is too much space around you to be sporty. I suspect focus groups complained that the ICE Macan 18-way seats are too sporty with high bolsters and overall interior space is too small, so Porsche complied and made it feel like a Lexus RX. I also thought they could do better than having a passenger seat belt buckle kicking the plastic panel, which was reported here before.
Driving: This one has air suspension but no rear wheel steering and even in Low level and Sport chassis it felt like a large SUV driving around town on round abouts, swaying all over the place, and adding not broken in tires on 22-inch wheels, it made it even worse. There is absolutely no comparison in handling and fun factor experience to the Macan GTS with 21-inch wheels, Michelin tires, and PTV+ sitting in tight 18-way seats with perfectly sized GT steering wheel. However, in terms of power, even this is just a 4, I felt no hesitation in off the line, in corners, or highway passing. I did not do a launch control to compare what it can do at the max, but that is not important to us in the SUV. I tried the Sport Sound and while it is personal preference it felt dull and not exciting to me vs. Taycan Sport Sound that has a distinctive rumble and interior vibration resulting in more feedback with some reporting that it helps with motion sickness for rear passengers.
Technology: I was looking forward to that the most and could not get comfortable going round and round for a few hours over everything. The Android Automotive platform is much more advanced what is in the Taycan, but it is immediately apparent that you are navigating a complex bloated android phone interface, other than a clean car interface with even legal notices now part of the pop-up menu choices that you will never use. The whole thing felt bloated with features not organized in one place. For example, if you select ACC in the left tube, you now have to go to the center screen to configure additional features such as LKA, LCA, etc. where in the Taycan it is easily selectable in the left tube as check boxes. Also, I was not able to find an easy way to engage surround view cameras manually, except mapping this to the only diamond button on the wheel. Also, the screen space looks large, but the actual usable screens cut ins are small vs. edge to edge in the Taycan, what that does is that the main left side icons (Nav, Car, Phone, etc) are so small for a finger press that you have to hunt for them vs. nice large icons in the Taycan. Also, everyone was reporting how snappy the interface is and I found that this not to be the case, it felt sluggish loading all the default backgrounds. The search felt totally useless as I tried to look for Parking and Surround view. The biggest frustration was inconsistency in the instrument cluster interface when going from tube to tube as sometimes when you scroll a right or left tube would scroll and sometimes the middle tube. I attempted to make the middle tube active and scroll but it did not have a clear indicator that this is where I am. Compare that to Taycan with clear yellow highlight around each tube or head-up, so you know where you are, and you interact with it. Then do not get me started on the Audi ergonomics poison that entered the Porsche world with the revised Cruise control stock everyone now has to relearn how to use it. The revised key buttons also got me, opened the frunk twice, what was wrong with the usual setup that works for Taycan.
The dealer called me and said, that I can keep it longer if I want, but I had plenty of the experience, mostly frustration, so I returned it. My takeaway is that you can watch the videos, and read what other people say, but the best thing is to test drive and decide it for yourself with more examples available. This is a totally different experience compared to our Macan GTS that you want to get back to and drive it like a sports car and Taycan in particular, sells itself with its flawless driving experience. My wife would not drive our Taycan that has everything, but when she had to drive a loaner 2024 RWD Base Taycan on steel springs and base interior recently, the immediate feedback was, I want to get back into it and drive it anywhere.
New 2024 Porsche Macan Electric 4: Full Spec
285 miles with 22-inch wheels and tires not broken in yet for full grip
Exterior: Feels almost too big from the front, lower lip in particular, and side view with oversized wheel arches and wheels, but very sleek from the back. Rear light bar has a lot of plastic mixed in vs. all glass from the ICE. Looking at the actual numbers Macan 4 is 2.3 inches longer and 2.1 inches wider with mirrors than the ICE.
Interior: Immediate impression was that I am in a van with lots of space around, large doors, deep center tunnel, and cannot see the hood. Then I started noticing that the Auto light indicator is way low on the left with Rear Fog control (van like) and the climate control panel is hard to read at a glance since Auto climate mode has white line below vs. red line in the ICE Macan and Cayenne models I am used to. The interior is Black/Chalk and not full leather, but it is immediately apparent to me that it is a level below leather quality, amount of plastic, look, and tightness vs. the ICE Macan leather materials. GT steering wheel is not as sporty, 18-way seats felt large and loose, and overall feel that it is too much space around you to be sporty. I suspect focus groups complained that the ICE Macan 18-way seats are too sporty with high bolsters and overall interior space is too small, so Porsche complied and made it feel like a Lexus RX. I also thought they could do better than having a passenger seat belt buckle kicking the plastic panel, which was reported here before.
Driving: This one has air suspension but no rear wheel steering and even in Low level and Sport chassis it felt like a large SUV driving around town on round abouts, swaying all over the place, and adding not broken in tires on 22-inch wheels, it made it even worse. There is absolutely no comparison in handling and fun factor experience to the Macan GTS with 21-inch wheels, Michelin tires, and PTV+ sitting in tight 18-way seats with perfectly sized GT steering wheel. However, in terms of power, even this is just a 4, I felt no hesitation in off the line, in corners, or highway passing. I did not do a launch control to compare what it can do at the max, but that is not important to us in the SUV. I tried the Sport Sound and while it is personal preference it felt dull and not exciting to me vs. Taycan Sport Sound that has a distinctive rumble and interior vibration resulting in more feedback with some reporting that it helps with motion sickness for rear passengers.
Technology: I was looking forward to that the most and could not get comfortable going round and round for a few hours over everything. The Android Automotive platform is much more advanced what is in the Taycan, but it is immediately apparent that you are navigating a complex bloated android phone interface, other than a clean car interface with even legal notices now part of the pop-up menu choices that you will never use. The whole thing felt bloated with features not organized in one place. For example, if you select ACC in the left tube, you now have to go to the center screen to configure additional features such as LKA, LCA, etc. where in the Taycan it is easily selectable in the left tube as check boxes. Also, I was not able to find an easy way to engage surround view cameras manually, except mapping this to the only diamond button on the wheel. Also, the screen space looks large, but the actual usable screens cut ins are small vs. edge to edge in the Taycan, what that does is that the main left side icons (Nav, Car, Phone, etc) are so small for a finger press that you have to hunt for them vs. nice large icons in the Taycan. Also, everyone was reporting how snappy the interface is and I found that this not to be the case, it felt sluggish loading all the default backgrounds. The search felt totally useless as I tried to look for Parking and Surround view. The biggest frustration was inconsistency in the instrument cluster interface when going from tube to tube as sometimes when you scroll a right or left tube would scroll and sometimes the middle tube. I attempted to make the middle tube active and scroll but it did not have a clear indicator that this is where I am. Compare that to Taycan with clear yellow highlight around each tube or head-up, so you know where you are, and you interact with it. Then do not get me started on the Audi ergonomics poison that entered the Porsche world with the revised Cruise control stock everyone now has to relearn how to use it. The revised key buttons also got me, opened the frunk twice, what was wrong with the usual setup that works for Taycan.
The dealer called me and said, that I can keep it longer if I want, but I had plenty of the experience, mostly frustration, so I returned it. My takeaway is that you can watch the videos, and read what other people say, but the best thing is to test drive and decide it for yourself with more examples available. This is a totally different experience compared to our Macan GTS that you want to get back to and drive it like a sports car and Taycan in particular, sells itself with its flawless driving experience. My wife would not drive our Taycan that has everything, but when she had to drive a loaner 2024 RWD Base Taycan on steel springs and base interior recently, the immediate feedback was, I want to get back into it and drive it anywhere.
