ksolnit

I have a Boxster on order, with Navigation, and am trying to decide whether there's any reason to add Connect Plus. I do not want to pay $189/yr after 12 months. Will it give me anything useful for free?

bwiele

I believe the answer is no.

ChicagoWhale

The centerpiece of Connect Plus is Apple CarPlay. Porsche claims that 75%-80% of their owners have iPhones, which is why they offer Apple options rather than Android options. Apple CarPlay has come a long way in the past several years, and most users now prefer it to a hard-drive navigation system. Those hard-drive navigation systems are going by the wayside and will probably seem very dated in a few years.

Apple CarPlay also comes with Siri, which is a drastically better voice recognition system than the free Voice Control option offered by Porsche.

There are a myriad of other features that come with Connect Plus, but all of them have a monthly (or annual) subscription.

If you do not have an iPhone or if you are not particularly tech-savvy, then Apple CarPlay would be meaningless to you.

BradB

SFG57

As a new owner who purchased a Macan Turbo off the lot with Connect Plus in the option package, I can say that it's unlikely I will renew next year. The app has few useful features, downloading maps from Google Maps to the car is a nice to have if you really need that feature, there is a status page on the app that tells you how fast you are going and how many miles you have driven and whether your car ignition is on (total useless information), next page is a map with a big grey circle which is supposed to tell me where my car is which it doesn't, service interval, and TPMS. All of this available on you PCM. The remote function allows you to lock the car and fold the mirrors, that's it. The only usefull thing I can find on the app is Find My Car and not because of the map function which tells me my car is somewhere in the city I live in, it can't focus down to the exact location, it allows you to flash your lights and if you hit the horn button on the app it activates the ALARM. I LOVE my car, don't get me wrong, but as far as their technology outside of the car, it's awful! Three years ago I leased a Lincoln MKC SUV for my wife just because of the deal they were offering on this new model was too good to pass up. The app that came with that car was AWESOME compared to the Porsche. I believe Apple car play comes with the car even if you don't renew car connect plus.

Mark in Baltimore

Just to clarify, you don't need a separate subscription to to run CarPlay, but you obviously need an iPhone that has a cell contract to use CarPlay. I never use the in-car nav and rely 100% on Apple Maps. Hardly ever use the tuner and listen to most of my music through Pandora.

bwiele

I believe you are confusing 2 different systems here. The Google Maps and live traffic info comes through the Connect+ system with a required subscription. The other features like locking, folding mirrors, Find My Car are all part of the Car Connect system, which I believe does not require a paid subscription.

There was a very detailed thread here recently that attempts to clarify what these two (very similarly named) systems do.

rasetsu

Porsche Connect gives you all the useful features already and that includes Car Play and Connect app which has some mobile phone remote functions all at no costs after upfront option cost.

Plus also gives you Wifi hotspotting off the PCM and ability to load offline maps and points of interest onto the PCM which all requires annual subscription.

SFG57

Thanks for the clarification. I'll check into it.

Adk46

rasetsu

You don't need plus for that. There is an embedded Vodafone SIM with even just Connect.