Macan Turbo EV, 22 months of software faults. Now fixed, but it has cost Porsche a customer.

[KR45]

Most people here know about the software campaigns by now, so this is less a heads up and more an owner's account of what it took to get them applied, and where it has left me.

Macan Turbo EV, collected October 2024, high spec. Faults from day one and pretty much continuously since:

- Alarm sounding and bonnet would not close before the car left the showroom
- Adaptive cruise dropped out three minutes into the drive home with alerts saying driver assistance was unavailable
- "Assistance systems restricted" firing constantly, up to 40 or 50 times in an hour on clear motorway runs in a clean car
- Boot jammed repeatedly, once stuck neither open nor closed in snow, needed two people and the manual release
- Scheduled charging unreliable. Car treats preferred charging windows as a suggestion rather than a rule, and intermittently fails to charge at all
- Standby battery drain, roughly 1 percent a day, which made airport parking a lottery
- ParkAssist essentially useless in real world conditions, fine in an empty car park, gives up when there is one space on a busy street
- Phone connectivity dropping or failing to connect, then working fine for weeks
- Speed limit data wrong in places, car slowing itself on dual carriageways
- Range display out by 20 percent
- Driver's window found fully down overnight
- Passenger seat adjustment from the driver's controls not working
- TPMS fault that had to go to engineers in Germany

Five workshop visits, including stays of three weeks, two weeks and ten days.

The part that still rankles is not the faults. New technology has problems and I accepted that. It is that for a long time I was told, in writing, that the assistance alerts were "not a fault we can repair" and were "purely information messages" outside anyone's control.

Three software campaigns later, VR28.13 under WSJ0, then VR28.13 SQ4, then VR28.13 SQ5 under recall campaign WTA6, and the release notes list fixes for reduced warning messages, ParkAssist stability, range calculation, charging reliability, tailgate function and side window control. Exactly the things I was told were not faults. Worth noting SQ4 was optional and only applied on complaint, while SQ5 was significant enough to become a global recall.

Getting there took 22 months of pushing, a formal complaint, escalation to Porsche GB and a compiled evidence document.

Where I am now. With all the campaigns applied the car is finally working properly, genuinely error free on recent drives, which is a first. And it is still a superb thing to drive, which is why I stuck with it.

But after three Porsches I will not be buying another for a long time. The faults were forgivable. Being told for the better part of two years that there was nothing wrong was not.

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[SergeyIndy]

So sad to hear your story. That is why I took my time as I usually do to wait it out until the early adopter curve is over and get it when things have matured. I will be making a post about my first 500 miles on a 2026 and it has been flawless and exceeded expectations because what I drove before on test drives 2024s and 2025s were full of issues but certainly not to the extent that you got, but concerning enough to hold me off on making the order.

 

[USMA81]

Not an excuse for the technicians who said it is normal, but in reality they probably didn’t know the source of the problems. It is not confidence inspiring to hear them say, “We don’t know what’s wrong.”

I have two 2024 Macans 4’s and, while not perfect on day 1, they both have been nearly error-free for the past year. Sorry to hear of your issues.

 

[TomekGnomek]

I feel for you, my story is similar.

For me what was most annoying was front suspension rattles, it was driving me crazy as I have 4-6 speed bumps on the way to my home and every f... time going out or coming back I was reminded of how shitty this car is. Local dealer did everything they could and finally after I got a lawyer I got a letter from Porsche HQ telling me this was by design and does not warrant a buyback as nothing is wrong.

Until SQ5 which fixed it 100%.

If I had been told something along the lines - we know it's bad, working on fixing it, be patient - I would let it go but man the customer service was next level arrogant, dismissive and you could feel not honest.

This is not the way to treat early adopters, this is not the way to treat customers of premium brands, this is not the way to treat any customer period.

 

[byebye]

But after three Porsches I will not be buying another for a long time. The faults were forgivable. Being told for the better part of two years that there was nothing wrong was not.

100% agree. Total truth. Two different countries, owners, cars and dealerships: my experience of Porsche is the same.

That's the way that Porsche (Dealership, Porsche France and Porsche AG) behaves when they can't solve a problem. Dodge, always blame the customer, and try to charge him a huge amount of money by the way.

Fortunately, your problems were not so dangerous, so you, your wife/family accept to travel in your car! I'm not that lucky

 

[byebye]

If I had been told something along the lines - we know it's bad, working on fixing it, be patient - I would let it go but man the customer service was next level arrogant, dismissive and you could feel not honest.

Yes arrogant, and incompetent, to say the least.
Imagine that the behavior is the same, even in front of a dangerous problem: total loss of power in any circumstances.
Car could have killed my family and me several times, but they keep saying "we think the problem is solved". It was not, never.
Car is at the dealership for 3 consecutive months, after another cumulated 3 months, with no solution in sight.
But no problem for them, even in front of my lawyers, so I need to prosecute... ( no "automatic" lemon law in france)

This is not the way to treat early adopters, this is not the way to treat customers of premium brands, this is not the way to treat any customer period.

Yes, Yes, and Yes. Period.

 

[Trevasann]

Most people here know about the software campaigns by now, so this is less a heads up and more an owner's account of what it took to get them applied, and where it has left me.

Macan Turbo EV, collected October 2024, high spec. Faults from day one and pretty much continuously since:

- Alarm sounding and bonnet would not close before the car left the showroom
- Adaptive cruise dropped out three minutes into the drive home with alerts saying driver assistance was unavailable
- "Assistance systems restricted" firing constantly, up to 40 or 50 times in an hour on clear motorway runs in a clean car
- Boot jammed repeatedly, once stuck neither open nor closed in snow, needed two people and the manual release
- Scheduled charging unreliable. Car treats preferred charging windows as a suggestion rather than a rule, and intermittently fails to charge at all
- Standby battery drain, roughly 1 percent a day, which made airport parking a lottery
- ParkAssist essentially useless in real world conditions, fine in an empty car park, gives up when there is one space on a busy street
- Phone connectivity dropping or failing to connect, then working fine for weeks
- Speed limit data wrong in places, car slowing itself on dual carriageways
- Range display out by 20 percent
- Driver's window found fully down overnight
- Passenger seat adjustment from the driver's controls not working
- TPMS fault that had to go to engineers in Germany

Five workshop visits, including stays of three weeks, two weeks and ten days.

The part that still rankles is not the faults. New technology has problems and I accepted that. It is that for a long time I was told, in writing, that the assistance alerts were "not a fault we can repair" and were "purely information messages" outside anyone's control.

Three software campaigns later, VR28.13 under WSJ0, then VR28.13 SQ4, then VR28.13 SQ5 under recall campaign WTA6, and the release notes list fixes for reduced warning messages, ParkAssist stability, range calculation, charging reliability, tailgate function and side window control. Exactly the things I was told were not faults. Worth noting SQ4 was optional and only applied on complaint, while SQ5 was significant enough to become a global recall.

Getting there took 22 months of pushing, a formal complaint, escalation to Porsche GB and a compiled evidence document.

Where I am now. With all the campaigns applied the car is finally working properly, genuinely error free on recent drives, which is a first. And it is still a superb thing to drive, which is why I stuck with it.

But after three Porsches I will not be buying another for a long time. The faults were forgivable. Being told for the better part of two years that there was nothing wrong was not.

Sorry to read this, sounds dangerous. I too have had tons of issues, like a totally dead Macan 4EV, 2024, like needing a new Central Box CJ26, good thing still underwarranty could have been 8-9K to fix. Surprised there is no class action suit or maybe there is.

 

[mjoy]

Sorry to hear you had all these issues. I have had similar issues (although not as bad as yours) and am also disappointed by the way these are handled.
You mentioned release notes - where did you find those? (I have asked Porsche for release notes but they did not seem to know where they are). Thanks...

 

[byebye]

Sorry to hear you had all these issues. I have had similar issues (although not as bad as yours) and am also disappointed by the way these are handled.
You mentioned release notes - where did you find those? (I have asked Porsche for release notes but they did not seem to know where they are). Thanks...

The publication of such release notes, service bulletins ans so on is mandatory in the US. So the NHTSA website is your friend (at least), and you will see how bad Porsche dealerships behavior is: they have a very precise source of information (those notes are for them!), but they almost never disclose it to customers.

But, there can be a lag of several weeks between the availability through NHTSA and the publication to the dealerships. So you have to be patient to know what your dealership already knows for weeks.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2024/PORSCHE/MACAN%2520ELECTRIC#manufacturerCommunications

and for instance, the last one related to "AC Charging Process in the Customer’s Home Network Not Working" (which was constantly stated by the dealerships as a customer's Home installation problem).

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2026/MC-11035917-0001.pdf

 

[EVowner]

Let me start by saying that when it works Macan EV is a great car.

That said mine 2025 had spent around 3 months total in service in 3 different service centers across 3 different countries, before it finally started behaving as one would expect from 130K euro order to spec car. Things that I saw and heard over that period made me question setup and future of this whole brand.

Before owning their car, I considered Porsche as a brand that is expensive, but their prices can be somehow justified, because I thought it is still one of the few German brands that pays attention to detail and will stand behind their cars if any issues show up. I called it a safe bet as at the time of buying I was also looking at Lotus Eletre.

Sadly, as I learned reality is that Porsche is charging premium, but don't really care about whether their customers are happy or if they cars functions properly. For those who say it is just some dealers I can assure it is not as I had "pleasure" to experience also their direct customer support which is abysmal. After a month of promising solution, they will just tell you that they are sorry and you just need to talk to local importer. Who will reply to your complaint stating that your car is not a lemon, because it can still fulfil its main function of driving while causally attaching 2 separate lawyers in CC. As somebody stated worst part are not the faults, but the way of them pretending that you are making them up rather than acknowledging them and assuring you that they will be fixed.

Mine discussions with them got to the point where they were unwilling to give me any assurance that even if I would decide to follow up on their offer to replace my Macan for a new one (mind you with me paying additional money to them) it will not have any issues. You know that small thing why people tend to buy brand new cars and willing to pay premium for them in the first place...

Long story short while I eventually got my car sorted out this whole ordeal made me swear to never buy anything from Porsche/VW group ever again. Next car will be most likely Chinese EV. Not because I can’t afford German brands anymore, but because they are getting more and more out of touch with reality both on tech and also customer experience side, so I don't really see any reason to pay premium for a emblem on the hood that means absolutely nothing anymore.

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