Yet another one week review. 4S

[robrain]

It's a one-week review. Yay!

The car: a Gentian 4S with many options (HUD, RWS, PTV+, Bordeaux interior, air quality thingy, etc.) and a few "omissions" (only 20" wheels, no sound unit, manual charge hatch).

The car it replaces: a 2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance.

The location: glorious Whistler in beautiful BC.

The dealer: Vancouver Porsche (Stuart, if you know the dealership).

Buying experience: straightforward, zero pressure to choose particular options. Very disappointing valuation for my existing cars. Bit of faff with the business manager, as always. But I think we all walked away reasonably happy.

Dealer gifts: don't know if everyone gets both sets of mats (carpet and all-weather). Two flasks. Two keyrings. Trunk tidy thingy. Screen wipes. Probably everyone gets all of this, no biggy.

Handover experience: Game of two halves. Admin dealt with quickly, but IT messed things up. I have a Porsche account from back in the UK which I wanted to carry on using. But nothing we did would persuade it to login to the new car. Took about an hour to realize that was the problem. Created a new account and most things then started working. But... still no certificate for charging. My account is alive in the app but it tells me there's no cert available. Attempts to create it fail. Currently waiting for Porsche Canada to resolve this, though I suspect they'll escalate it to Porsche DE. A similar thing happened with my UK 911 (PCM login failed) and the only answer was to kick a central computer strategically.

First week of ownership: other than the certificate thing, everything is peachy. The car is silent, smooth, rapid. No rattles. Charge hatch flush. PPF well installed. Utterly delighted. Handling is good enough for my purposes - it's not a 911, more similar to my old Golf R in feel.

Any negativity:

• The "passenger airbag" light in the roof console is too bright at night.
• I should have ordered the sound unit to ensure I don't lose my licence - it really is a silent car, even compared to the Tesla.
• The automatic brightness of the HUD is too keen (driving towards late sun, ended up switching it off for that circumstance).
• The sun visors are dismal for lateral sun, fine for head-on. Opposite of our other car, a Bronco Sport. It has huge planks that obscure vision forwards but work perfectly for the side-windows.
• Regen - not opening the debate here, I'd just like more options as a 6-year veteran of one foot driving
• Rear view camera doesn't appear to be aligned correctly, I'm reversing into bays with a distinct diagonal bias if I rely on the camera.

So, mostly trivial stuff. The Tesla, genius car though it was, is forgotten. Will update if any issues arise in the coming months or if the certificate issue isn't resolved next week.

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[chaz]

• The "passenger airbag" light in the roof console is too bright at night.
• Regen - not opening the debate here, I'd just like more options as a 6-year veteran of one foot driving

I’m about to put some electrical tape over that “passenger airbag” light!

Regen level should absolutely be a simple setting like it is on the BMW iX. That said, I thought I’d want one pedal driving but I love to coast (use to stick) and when I’m not coasting I’m InnoDriving. So basically, I’m no pedal driving!

 

[JohnnyRoaster]

"No sound unit" Are you saying there is not even a base sound system? I didn't know that was an option.

 

[robrain]

"No sound unit" Are you saying there is not even a base sound system? I didn't know that was an option.

The fake sound machine, the thing that makes an EV go vroom vroom, particularly inside . I’ve got the Bose installation for music.

 

[JohnnyRoaster]

lol. Sport sound makes a lot more sense. The Macan 4 I have a deposit on doesn't have it and not sure I'll miss it.

 

[robrain]

A few updates:

Certificate activated itself yesterday morning. Miles away from any EC chargers right now - in sunny (ha!) Ucluelet - will test on Monday.

Water ingress into boot/trunk on opening is a thing for sure, at least here in the very damp West Coast of Vancouver Island.

Enjoyed the handling and especially the headlights during our drive over along the roller-coaster highway 4 beyond Port Alberni. By far the best lights on any North American car I’ve owned or driven and the automatic matrix business worked perfectly.

Couple of intermittent rattles in the dash, probably temperature-related.

Brakes a little tricky to modulate coming to a halt.

Overall, super-happy.

 

[CandianPorsche83]

A few updates:

Certificate activated itself yesterday morning. Miles away from any EC chargers right now - in sunny (ha!) Ucluelet - will test on Monday.

Water ingress into boot/trunk on opening is a thing for sure, at least here in the very damp West Coast of Vancouver Island.

Enjoyed the handling and especially the headlights during our drive over along the roller-coaster highway 4 beyond Port Alberni. By far the best lights on any North American car I’ve owned or driven and the automatic matrix business worked perfectly.

Couple of intermittent rattles in the dash, probably temperature-related.

Brakes a little tricky to modulate coming to a halt.

Overall, super-happy.

There's definitely a light rattle somewhere in mine too ... sounds like its the dash but its always hard to sense for sure ... and it does come and go ... so agreed that it may be temperate related.

I've brought the car in twice now to address slight rattles on the driver side door that i was able to replicate for the service technician. Everytime we resolve one though I notice another one haha ... It could just be that the car is so quiet that I'm prone to hearing every little thing.

ALso still super happy with the car

 

[nadkoolio]

Brakes a little tricky to modulate coming to a halt.

I've also found them a little tricky. For me it's more manageable with off pedal regen turned on.

 

[robrain]

Updates after our Tofino trip:

Such a smooth machine. Effortless in all situations. Absolutely perfect kilometre-muncher. Fun on the twisty stuff as well.

But a few more trivial issues. The main one being the seat-belt pre-tensioning theatre a few seconds after setting off. Catches us out every time.

Probably the chargers fault, and the deeply inclement weather wouldn't have helped, but on three occasions we had to remove and re-seat the charge connector. Once at EC, once on a Tesla Supercharger and once on a dreadful hotel no-name destination charger (that one refused to connect reliably, made some dreadful arcing noises so I abandoned). The Wickanninish Inn in Tofino is a world-class hotel and restaurant, but their EV charging facilities need work.

The assistance sensors seem more sensitive to surface water than the cameras in the Tesla, giving up the ghost for a few hours in the heaviest rain. Once dried they were fine again, but a little annoying.

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