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Thanks all, she is volcano grey. Will be taking her for a proper drive tomorrow but just back from a trip into town under e power only. Even up a very steep long hill the electric mode feels more than adequate. Wafting around town is great fun, in a very different way to normal Porsche driving, could not be more different from the lovely 991, both exceptional in their own way.
Massage seats were a dream after today's triathlon!
Thanks all, she is volcano grey. Will be taking her for a proper drive tomorrow but just back from a trip into town under e power only. Even up a very steep long hill the electric mode feels more than adequate. Wafting around town is great fun, in a very different way to normal Porsche driving, could not be more different from the lovely 991, both exceptional in their own way.
Massage seats were a dream after today's triathlon!
Looks amazing! It's a very shiny volcano grey. Did you get any sort of paint protection?
Everything you and Thorfun have said thus far is extremely positive and encouraging!! Hanging on every post!! Spent an hour today reviewing all the Porsche "Good To Know" stuff and watching all the videos. Seems like a lot of learning curve to get through!
Proper day with the car today... And it really does continue to amaze. Driving into London is just under 30 miles with a mixture of motorway and 50/40 mile an hour roads. Arrived with just under half charge and showing 63mpg. It would have been higher I'm sure had I not been testing the 50 to 70 in Sport a few times...
The car gets a lot more looks than the 991 and generally has more presence on the road. I haven't sorted charging in London yet so last few miles on the return battery was low, although even showing zero miles it defaulted to electric often. Mpg dropped to 50 something. So if you can charge then it really makes sense and is very satisfying around town. If not, may not make sense.
Acceleration with 4 passengers had them all laughing, it really does fly!! Brakes? Nothing to report yet.
Tomorrow I'll take her sans wife on some back roads and let you know but for now, continue to be in awe of this thing. Will try some hard turns, acceleration and turns and see what happens. All for your benefit of course
aj,
Thanks again for all your attention to detail! Really enjoying your reviews. I agree with Thorfun; your Volcano Grey is really looking spectacular!! Was it specially detailed or is that the "as picked up" finish? Can't wait to hear how she does in the twisties!!
I don't want to have to disassemble the home charging station to then use the cable away from home. The solution being offered is a £300 cable which they will gladly supply. I know we have just spent £100k +/- on a car but I do think it is poor show to not just give you an away from home cable, which costs £150 anywhere else.
I also went for the standard cable length, when the longer cable is a no cost option. GET THE LONGER CABLE as otherwise you will need to be relatively snug to the box and even then you'll be clothes-lining anyone that walks past.
Final gripe. Great that the e-Hybrid is London congestion charge exempt - no problem, I'll order you the letter you need to submit to Transport for London. Few days later...that letter will cost you £100.
I suspect these are all early adopter issues but I do feel that Porsche could pick-up their game in terms of educating their dealers and whilst we all know they are not generous, chucking in a cable + a piece of paper does not seem unreasonable!
gladly, my dealer did recommend me the 7,5m cable when discussing my order, so this I got done.
but I´m afraid I´ll have the same issue regarding disassembling when I need a cable to charge away from home.
I´d also prefer to have the cable/charging station/docking station assembled alltogether at home and for charging abroad, I don´t want to fix/re-fix this connection every time.
any other ideas/experiences, how to overcome this problem best?
I don't want to have to disassemble the home charging station to then use the cable away from home. The solution being offered is a £300 cable which they will gladly supply. I know we have just spent £100k +/- on a car but I do think it is poor show to not just give you an away from home cable, which costs £150 anywhere else.
I also went for the standard cable length, when the longer cable is a no cost option. GET THE LONGER CABLE as otherwise you will need to be relatively snug to the box and even then you'll be clothes-lining anyone that walks past.
Final gripe. Great that the e-Hybrid is London congestion charge exempt - no problem, I'll order you the letter you need to submit to Transport for London. Few days later...that letter will cost you £100.
I suspect these are all early adopter issues but I do feel that Porsche could pick-up their game in terms of educating their dealers and whilst we all know they are not generous, chucking in a cable + a piece of paper does not seem unreasonable!
I ordered the longer cable with the car and glad I did.
I also got stung with the requirement for a separate cable for charging out and about. my local station has charging stations but no cables attached. so I turned up today and couldn't charge my car! like you AJ I did a quick google and found that they're not cheap and it's a bit of a bummer that we have to supply our own cable. in my trip away to France the Eurotunnel terminal had charging cables already attached to the charging unit as did one of the golf clubs in France. so I just figured that all public charging stations had cables built in! how wrong was I?
really reluctant to fork out another £150 but not sure what else I can do. I'm definitely not paying £300 for an "official" one.
doubt I'll ever take my car into London so the congestion charge issue just isn't one for me, but it sucks that Porsche charged you (or wanted to) £100 for a letter that they should submit so the customer doesn't have to!
so, I am back from my golf weekend in France. 4 days of wonderful golfing and weather on some lovely courses in and around Le Touquet. I won't bore you with the golf details but suffice it to say that I didn't get any photos of the car as it was wake up, go play golf, back to the hotel and out for dinner and drinks and then repeat.
on to my thoughts of the car....I could easily sum it up in one word.....amazing! but I'm sure you won't be happy with that so I'll try and give a bit more detail although most of it has already been said by the other owners.
Driving in electric mode is lovely. quiet, smooth and easy to keep up with the normal flow and speed of traffic. despite it only being 120hp (or there about) it really is sufficient for travelling around town in amongst other cars.
In hybrid mode the car seems to choose wisely the best use of electric/petrol and it's fantastic how it'll switch to electric and then back to petrol as required and in e-charge mode it seems to charge up the battery quite quickly without too much extra fuel consumption.
Put the car into sport/sport+ and the car turns into another beast altogether. the sound of the exhaust, the acceleration and the handling are all something I'm amazed at in a car so big! Seriously awesome.
in other matters, this car is big!!
parking on the street in France outside the hotel and it would just about fit into the parking bay! driving onto the EuroTunnel train and the wheels were just a matter of inches away from the raised channel that they have to make sure cars stay in line. to say I was worried is an understatement! but the 360 degree camera system I got helped loads and I could easily see at front bumper height that I was staying in the channels and no scuffs were made on the alloys.
Despite the size though I was able to parallel park with ease. I'm sure some of this is due to the rear wheel steering and I'm not sure it would've been so easy without it so this is definitely a recommendation for that option.
Now on to Porsche Innodrive (PID).....I am a great fan of adaptive cruise control for those times where you just want to get from A to B with as little hassle and stress as possible. I used it in my last car often on the motorways (especially the M25 with all the speed cameras on it!) and I then don't need to worry about checking my speed or distance to the car in front. It's is far better than standard cruise control and I wouldn't have a car without it anymore if I could help it.
PID, on the other hand, takes this to a whole new level! I am seriously impressed with the system. While driving in France they have many speed changes on a single road even when it seems like it should be the same speed limit. with PID engaged it would automatically slow me down or speed me up to the speed limit of the road without me having to worry about it.
not only that but as the car approached a roundabout it would slow down to a speed that was safe to navigate it and then speed back up to the speed limit after exiting it. I drove for miles without actually ever having to touch the pedals. talk about stress free driving.
obviously, on those occasions where I came up to a slow car a quick press of the boost button and I was past those obstructions before I (or they) knew it as this car is fast!
Other cool features I got were cooling seats. I was a bit on the fence about these and thought I'd probably only use them on a couple of weeks a year when it's really hot here in the UK. but I've actually found that it's really nice to have them on pretty much all the time. it just stops my back getting sweaty on the leather and I really like them a lot. obviously, when it gets cold I'll be using the heated seats!
The PCM system is amazing! I work in IT so I might pick up technology quicker than some but I've had no issues with working stuff out. for our trip I simply used the PCM app on my phone to search for the POIs and then added them and they appeared on my dash to be selected as required. I am already finding it very easy to switch between the information on the PCM without taking my eyes off the road for more than a split second. it's a very intuitive system and now I've configured the home screen to how I want it all the information I need is generally there for me.
the screen is a beauty too. big enough that you can have the navigation going and still have the side screen open to control the music and other things you configure it for.
The only downside at the moment is I'm using my phone as a hotspot. this is a bit of a hassle as it doesn't seem to join it automatically and so I will be investing in a sim for data so I don't have to worry about using the personal hotspot.
I love the minimalist look of the centre console and much prefer it to the plethora of buttons on the older model. oh, and I was given a microfibre cloth with the car so I can easily wipe away the fingerprints.
I've not actually driven it at night yet so I haven't tried the matrix lights or the night vision but I'm out tonight so will give them a good go then and report back.
All in all I absolutely love this car! it's great to drive fast and smooth and quiet for cruising, even on the 21" wheels.
I have a couple of complaints though. apart from the previously mentioned (in another post) lack of charging cable to take out and about I have an issue with the boot size of the hybrid.
As you're aware I like playing golf! when I test drove the 4S I could easily fit my clubs in sideways as the space in the boot below the side arches are scooped out. when talking to the dealer about the difference in boot size for the hybrid I was told by Porsche GB that because the hybrid batteries are under the boot the car battery would be in one of those arches so the boot space would be reduced to the size of the diesel version. so I went to the dealership and checked out the diesel and I could still get my clubs in sideways.
but, when I picked up the hybrid I was shocked to find that it wasn't so and that both arches are filled in and I have lost a lot of sideways space at the rear of the car and I can no longer fit my clubs in sideways and it's a struggle to get the clubs and trolley in at all.
this is really frustrating for me as I was told it wouldn't be so. it's too late for me to do anything about it now and I'm definitely not giving the car back over it so I'll just have to live with it. but to be lied to by Porsche GB leaves a sour taste in my mouth and I've asked my dealer to log a complaint with them about this issue.
Apart from that, I still love the car and if I have to put one of the seats down when I go to golf then so be it as this car is definitely a keeper.
I hope this helps anyone sitting on the fence for a hybrid and if you have any questions then please don't hesitate to ask and I'll do my best to answer them.
I also noticed the filled wheel arches which is not something that had previously been outlined (was told that it would be about an inch shallower only). We are planning a marathon to Italy in August and this space would have been perfect for baby related nonsense. I assume diagonal not even an option?
Hey-ho, I think a few teething issues as these cars are so new that the dealers are just not properly trained. It sounds like there is no extra that you don't have...
We are planning a marathon to Italy in August and this space would have been perfect for baby related nonsense. I assume diagonal not even an option?
my carry bag fits diagonally but I've not had the chance to test my trolley bag. even if it does fit diagonally then getting the trolley in as well will be tight!
Originally Posted by ajriches01
It sounds like there is no extra that you don't have...
ha ha.....there are many that I don't have but I would happily have taken if money was no object. I figured that I will have this car for many years and I don't want to be always going "I wish I'd taken that option".