dak911

I agree about the "buttons" I HATE the changed panel... (2022 S) 2019 before that was great, no "looking" down Just feel
Lighting in the instrument cluster could be better for at night

peterp

With the Bose system, I felt the exact same way about the sound -- in fact I thought it was so bad when I was buying the car hat I had the dealer dig up a Macan with a base audio system (they didn't have Burmester system in stock) to see if it sounded any better than Bose. The base audio was about the same audio quality as the "HiFi" Bose. I ended up buying the car with Bose, and figured out later that the key is to turn off the "virtual sound" option in the Bose audio settings. I can't remember the exact name of the setting, but it is something like that and it makes a "night and day" difference in audio quality. I thought it absolutely sucked with the default setting, but sounds very good now with that virtual setting off.

peterp

Agree, and I hate when designs get worse over time. All of the buttons on the console were already "bad enough" because you have to look down to see where the controls are. Even though they were physical buttons that could be felt on my 2018, you still kind of had to look to find the right buttons (even climate control temp changes). Changing those console buttons to touch buttons without any feel is about the stupidest change I could imagine. The 2018 also physical forward/back track buttons, but I guess they are gone now.

Also positively hate that when they switched to USB-C, they didn't leave a single old style USB in the car anywhere. To this day, I have very, very few items that came with a USB-C cable (even the iPhone for a long time still came with the old USB cable). They could have thrown us a bone and left one old USB. Nothing wrong with adding USB-C, of course, but getting rid of all old USB ports was very inconvenient for us.

Russian Mafia

Yeah, no matter the settings, the Bose system sucks. If you don't think so the question I'd ask is can you listen to it at mid to high volume for any meaningful period of time without ear fatigue? With a good system that shouldn't happen in fact it's sometimes not easy to discern when it's at a high dB level if it's a good system. Some of it has to do with speaker location. Recently someone posted in the photo thread an aftermarket approach where the tweeters and mids come out of posts adjacent to the windscreen. I'd love to hear what that sounds like. I have a high end system at home which leads me to mostly listen to talk radio in the car.

peterp

I thought that also until I turned off the virtual sound mode on Bose. It's not an obvious setting, so it's easy to miss, and the default is on. With it on, I agree there is no way to adjust the controls to make it sound good -- I sat there in the dealer lot for an hour trying. When you turn it off though, it's a good sounding system (at least in my 2018 Bose). I'm an audio guy also, have very high end systems at home, and the Bose audio is quite good (not amazing of course) with virtual sound off. Yes, I can listen at volume without ear fatigue.

Everybody is different, but if you aren't absolutely certain you have Bose virtual sound turned off, it's worth checking. I think it needs to be turned off for each source (FM, media, satellite, etc). I set it back in 2018 and haven't touched it since, so I don't remember the details of the setting name, but it's a night and day difference.

Larson E. Rapp

The Bose in the 95B.2 generation most assuredly does not suck. If it does, check to make sure the surround/"virtual sound" whatever mode(s) are all turned off, and that someone didn't blow one or more speakers.

Can you do better? Of course, but not at the OEM level, unless you spend a lot more money on Burmester.

Russian Mafia

Well...don't want to rain on anyone's parade any further. I'll just say I agree toggling off the DSP settings for all sources did optimize it, it's how I left it, but my opinion is based on that. I get enough music on the buds working out and at home on my hi fi. So a little talk in the car doesn't trouble me.

Edit: I'll just add I LOVE the car, none of the nits I've found changes that even slightly. There are many times I've grabbed the Macan keys instead of the 992's when either would work which speaks volumes. (See what I did there?)

clutchplate

The weak spot in the Bose is the mid-range which can sound harsh, especially with vocals.I don't mind the highs for a stock audio system, they make my own recordings sound sweeter than they are.

Things I don't like (2023 base)

1. The tiny button that engages the manual paddle shifters. The old flick of the gear shift was far more intuitive.
2. Buffeting when one of the windows is down
3. $900 oil changes

peterp

^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^

My experience has been dealers often charging double MSRP for parts during service. Sunset Porsche sells the same factory part for 15-20% off Porsche MSRP -- dealer service charge for parts is 200% of MSRP. Labor hours are bloated too, but there is no "MSRP" to compare labor costs against (other than what other people share on RL). Much as I love my Macan, it will be my last new or CPO Porsche because of service costs. I have no tolerance for being gouged.

dak911

There are lots of competent shops that work for a lot less than dealer charges

peterp

I know, I just prefer to use dealer service for my daily driver. Have done that for decades -- not just during warranty -- even sticking with dealer service out to 100k miles on the car.

I just did that with the Q5 that preceded the Macan -- dealer service to 100k miles was fine with the same dealer on the Audi. Now the Macan service costs are multiples.

It was worth it to me when dealer service had a premium of maybe 30% over independents, now they charge 3 times or more what independents charge.

The quote forced me to use an independent for the 40k -- it was 1/3rd the cost. I also did that for a brakes replacement -- it was 1/5th the cost.

I don't want to dread dealer service or be treated like that by anyone ever -- no more new or CPO Porsches for me.

wheelman38

No android auto. 23 gts

clutchplate

We take my wife's Q3 to the same Porsche/Audi dealer. Her maintenance was $795 for a 4 year contract, mine $900 per visit for the same techs and probably the same oil. It's a rip.

JDailey

Agreed, the dealership markup is excessive. I found an independent VW/Porsche/Audi shop here in Denver and I take it there exclusively. Oh, and they're tune friendly. If something huge comes along that would be covered under warranty, I'll take it back to the dealership, but otherwise I'm staying with the independent shop. I have a 2020 Macan, so technically some of the prepaid maintenance is still covered, but I find the independent so much more convenient and easy to work with. I do the same with my Jeep at a different indy shop that's walkable from my home.

-James
Denver, CO

2020 Porsche Macan (base)
2019 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon (manual)

peterp

That's a very good data point. I traded in my Q5 for the Macan. Dealer service was fine on Q5, outrageous on Macan. I was trying to figure out the difference was that it was a Porsche, or dealer(s) had just changed. I guess this suggest it's that it's Porsche, And also that times have changed because it wasn't that bad many years ago when I had another Porsche dealer serviced.