Regular Cayenne is as fast as the Macan base. However, the Cayenne Turbo S is an entirely different beast.

Frankly, they shouldn't even be called the same model IMO.

 

Wow!

How about that! I had no idea the homely Cayenne was so fast! I got what I paid for, my 2015 Macan, which is what I wanted, and I am sure your Cayenne is what you wanted and paid whatever for. If I had a big family, I suspect the Cayenne might indeed have served me better. I noticed our local Porsche club mostly stood around their cars playing pocket pool and telling one another what they paid for their car. So, I didn't fit in there either.

 

@ken35806 -- Wow! I have never heard about any Porsche Club "playing pocket pool and telling one another what they paid for their car..."

I've been in PCA since 1986 and visited very, very many of the Regions across the United States and Canada and have NEVER encountered such.

Maybe it's a local thing or just a group of folks you encountered - or just YOUR reaction (?)!

And by the way, that Cayenne Turbo S is anything but "homely" and is indeed incredibly fast in a straight line -- but the handling characteristics between a Macan and a Cayenne are entirely different things....

 

Anyway, some good points in these exchanges. I resented the inference that I was some kind of a rube, had not done my homework and such, as that is off the mark. None of this has changed my opinion of my Macan, which I love, nor of my local Porsche shop, which I dislike. Thanks to all who made friendly comments and suggestions.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the Macan Turbo PP gets mighty close to the Cayenne Turbo S on the Ring. Of course, the feat is that it's working with 130 less HP. Cayenne TS may turn better times, but the basest suspension Macan handles better/more fun, especially on public roads. I wish Porsche gave a Macan 500++ HP to really showcase the deep potential and perforance squeezing efficiency within this chassis. Right now, Porsche's only hyper powered 4 doors are gagantuan and not as fun or nimble or playful as the Macan basis.

 

It is easy to bump up the power on the macan S, GTS and turbo but then again Ring time and 0-60 times are not all about power. Just tires themselves can cause a big difference. Sorry for the tread hijack.

 

Or, it could be you are a selective listener? Or any of the other three excuses you listed might be true as well. And thanks for the comparison info. I am thrilled with my 2015 Macan S, now with about 18K miles on it, and not one minute in my local Porsche shop.

 

Hi all, (I posted this on the 20k Service Cost thread but wondered if this thread also is appropriate). Thank you in advance. Newbie on the forums here!

I have a 2017 Porsche Macan GTS I purchased in March of 2017. A number of questions, any input appreciated:

(1) Is it a lot of miles that I have 24,000 miles in 18 months? I love driving the darn puppy.

(2) I had my 20,000-mile service done at 15,000 miles, which of course included oil-change. Now I am at 24,000 and soon will be time for oil change since I'll be at the 25,000 mark and 10,000 miles since the last one. The dealer suggested we just go ahead and do the 30,000-mile service which includes oil change. Dealer fee $1,800.

(3) After I picked myself up from the floor, the dealer said they would take care of me (last time they said that they took off about $600 from the bill, so probably looking at $1,200?). Question: what is a reasonable fee for the 30,000-mile service out there? $1,800 or even $1,200 just seemed high, holy cow. It may hurt more because I just paid $3,200 Virginia Car Tax (Fairfax County, VA) so just the cost of owning the darn thing is hitting $5k this year which is a nice cruise somewhere. When I bought the GTS I had no idea I'd be spending $1,000 a year or $2,000 a year, servicing it!

(4) Thoughts on dealer servicing for life, vs finding a shop. Anyone heard of Autobahn Service in Fairfax, VA?

(5) Oil Change every 10k miles or 5k miles? The dealer tells me I am crazy to change the oil every 5k. They say they are happy to do it but they say it'll be a waste of my money. Forum folks' thoughts on this? ($600 for an oil change here in Northern VA at the dealers. What the heck!)

(6) Can a GTS make it 300,000 miles? I am determined to hold onto this puppy until it croaks and has no more life in it, if anything, just to stick it to the Car Tax Gods of VA. I want to be driving a Porsche GTS that is depreciated so much, the annual car tax on it will be nominal after the 5-6 year depreciation. I tend to drive my cars until they die. This VA car tax definitely was an ouch moment. Plus, my GTS was loaded, I honestly don't see how safer cars can get (I'll never sign up for the auto drive cars. So unless some new metal is invented that makes cars crash proof, I like to hold onto my cars).

(7) Off-topic but... What's with the turbo-lag? I feel the darn thing has slower pick up for that one second it bucks down for the turbo to hit and then bam, it takes off like a rocket. But in that 1 second, it just feels like I get hung up.

(8) Off-topic 2 but... The PDK in "Comfort Mode" seems to run it at 2-3 gears higher than what it ought to be for when I want to accelerate on the highway pressing the pedal to the metal. I have been a stick shift driver my entire life so it may just be that I am searching for that stick to downshift which mentally I do before I kick in the pedal. In the auto transmission, it seems the pedal is what instigates the downshift whereas with a manual, I do downshift a split second first before pedal to the medal. I guess I should practice around with the paddles a bit and just get used to the paddles. But does anyone miss a stick shift vs paddles?

That's it! I love my dealer, love the guys that help me there, and generally want to stick with the dealer. But man, at $1,200 to $1,500 a pop, it's starting to kill me on top of the car tax.

Thanks for any input!

 

Can a GTS make it 300,000 miles? I am determined to hold onto this puppy until it croaks and has no more life in it, if anything, just to stick it to the Car Tax Gods of VA. I want to be driving a Porsche GTS that is depreciated so much, the annual car tax on it will be nominal after the 5-6 year depreciation. I tend to drive my cars until they die. This VA car tax definitely was an ouch moment.

Sure, why not, so long as you maintain your car by the book and don't abuse it.

But you have to assume you are going to run into some expensive repairs over the course of 300k miles. For example, Porsche parts tend to be very expensive. If you are at 200k miles are you going to be willing to invest $10,000 on a major repair if it's needed? If my Macan was in otherwise pristine condition, I might. But not sure everyone here would answer that question the same way.

 

So after reaching almost 50K miles I've decided to do more at a 3rd party Porsche only garage. They are highly recommended by our local Porsche club and after the first service with brakes ($1K) pads all around (Dealer wanted $3K and wanted to change the rotors) I'm very pleased with their work. My friend who runs the Subaru service shop says Turbos still get very hot regardless of mfg. She suggests oil changes every 5K. Although Porsche is very reliable your high mileage driving is killing your wallet because of the frequency of routine maintenance. Can you drive something else for those long haul drives? I drive about 8K/yr and with the combo of dealer and 3rd party garage maintenance the costs has not been out of control.

 

Regarding #7 , this problem is well documented with respect to the smaller V6 (3.0) engine.

You might want to try something like a Pedal Commander or something similar. Several GTS owners have reported that it helps.

With #5 I’m confident is saying that if the oil needed to be changed every 5k miles the factory would be telling you that.

My opinion on dealer servicing (with some exceptions) is that it’s a complete waste of money. Any decent indy will be able to easily handle oil and spark plug changes. Nothing unusual at all about these procedures on a Macan.

Same for brake work so long as you make it clear with them that you want high quality parts and are not looking for the cheapest way out.

You don’t even need a dealer for PDK fluid changes as we now know that many Audis use the same procedure. Just make sure beforehand that your Indy is familiar.

 

#4 call these guys and ask them. They will know

 

I Follow the manual recommendations. Oil change every 10K or 1 year whichever happens 1st. You can read about people (with any car) who do VERY frequent oil changes. Usually they are DIY so, it just wastes their time & a relatively small amount of $.
I still would not do this.

Look for a respected Indy shop that services Porsches.

Stop thinking in terms of 10k, 20k, 30k service. Look up, in your maintenance manual, exactly what is required.

So rather than ask what is the cost for the xxK service, you can ask cost for; oil change + brake fluid flush, etc.

Just make sure the Indy shop can reset the nag screen.

I have to LOL at the dealer saying: "Why not just do the $$$$$ 30K service 5K miles early.?"
I wonder who that benefits.

 

Makes absolutely no sense that the cost of routine service would be double for a Macan versus a Cayman. Something is amiss, or there is more to this. Did they do the exact same work on both cars during those three service visits? The brakes and pads were also replaced on the Cayman?

 

If the pads and rotors needed replacement on the Macan during the three service visits but not on the Cayman, that would definitely explain a substantial difference in the total cost of the three visits. Not an apples to apples comparison if that's the case.

 

@rearden1@gmail.com,

Maintenance Costs that were done by the book at the dealer as I have been documenting them even though this topic is well documented across the forum:

10K (Oil/Filter) = $414; 20K Service (Oil/Filter and Particle Filter Replace) = $648; 30K Service (Oil Filter, Break Fluid) = $494 + Spark Plugs Turbo = $369. Also, had to replace rear Summer 21 inch tires because of nails but the data is $300 a tire plus $100 mount balance.


#7 Tip in lag in Comfort was the biggest puzzle of them all as we thought we got a lemon as this should not be the case especially on the Turbo. My wife who drives it immediately reported this to me saying everyone else (Audi, Jeep, etc.) on the stop light is beating her to the punch off the line and catching up to them later does not matter as you want to be first off the line in a Turbo. We have the 2016 and I drove brand new one 2018 Turbo and it is the same lag. Reasons may be too much thinking, fuel economy tuning or whatever but it is just slow to get going as you expect immediate and linear power delivery. We ended up with COBB 91 map that gets it going quickly but allows for more linear delivery as you accelerate with smooth shifts plus added Alpha Perf Filters with Flat 5 air ducts for more air and we are happy now thinking why it could not be like this from the factory by making this Default setup and making Comfort that other brands call Eco mode. That certainly does not fit into Porsche language but the default setup is a slow poke Eco mode.

 

. . . Maintenance Costs that were done by the book at the dealer as I have been documenting them even though this topic is well documented across the forum:

10K (Oil/Filter) = $414; 20K Service (Oil/Filter and Particle Filter Replace) = $648; 30K Service (Oil Filter, Break Fluid) = $494 + Spark Plugs Turbo = $369. Also, had to replace rear Summer 21 inch tires because of nails but the data is $300 a tire plus $100 mount balance. . .

Those costs are more than reasonable, imho, especially the tires + mount/balance
Did the dealer recommend an alignment, or was it within spec?

 

My opinion is that $414 for an oil change is completely crazy given that changing the oil on the Macan takes no more skill than on a Honda Accord (despite what your dealer might try to lead you to believe). In my area well qualified independents charge in the $150 range, and never ever more than $200.

The fact that you can buy the oil and filter yourself for under $75 shows the extent to which you are getting ripped off.

OK, so you do not get the Porsche loaner vehicle. In my experience it is usually just a base Cayenne anyway. Now if it were a GT4, I would pay that $414 with a smile.

Can’t comment on the price of the tires as I don’t know exactly what you bought, but once again $100 to mount and balance the tire is complete craziness. My tire guy will mount and balance all 4 for that price.

 

@DanNYC, I would like to clarify that the maintenance costs that I provided are not just for Oil/Filter since that is just a label for a service type. The costs include what I mentioned "by the book" which is a long checklist that they go through and verify all components and provide a report that takes probably 2 hours to complete and at $150 per hour that is a reasonable price for a qualified tech time and would think matters as a record on resale. I feel that is reasonable. Yes, they do provide a loaner which is typically a Base Macan which is a joy to drive for a day so all in all I cannot say this is unreasonable for basically once a year service. However, other things come up as you reach 2 year break fluid milestone and spark plug milestone.


Also, on the tire situation the $300 is a match to tire rack and $100 is half hour of labor using touchless mounting machine for $75 plus what they list shop supplies and such for $25. That seems reasonable as well.

@FLDavid, we had a nail in the tire so the tire could not be saved and since rears where pretty close to replacement, we replaced both (no alignment recommended), and a month later we had 3 nails (with glue on the ends as they were dropped on the road from a nail gun) in one of the rears and had to replace just that one with the same $300 for a tire and $100 install. The tire is a 21 inch Pirelli Summer tire OEM for Porsche which is exactly what came with Turbo Design 21 inch wheel from factory.

 

@DanNYC, I would like to clarify that the maintenance costs that I provided are not just for Oil/Filter since that is just a label for a service type. The costs include what I mentioned "by the book" which is a long checklist that they go through and verify all components and provide a report that takes probably 2 hours to complete and at $150 per hour that is a reasonable price for a qualified tech time and would think matters as a record on resale. I feel that is reasonable.

If you think that the dealer technician who is changing the oil on your car is really going through that checklist, you might be very surprised.

When I had my $500 service done at the dealer, all they did was change the oil and nothing else. At the dealer that I was at, there is a large glass wall between the customer waiting area and the service department, and my car happened to be in the service bay just on the other side of the window. So I had a front row seat into what really happens.

The technician did not do any inspections whatsoever. I watched him from beginning to end, and there was no reason to believe that he knew that I was the owner of the car he was working on it, in fact I’m pretty certain he didn’t even notice that I was paying attention.

Dealer technicians get paid by the job, not by the hour. The more oil changes they can squeeze into a day, the more income they make. Not saying that all technicians and all dealers trying to take shortcuts, but do you really know?

At a good independent shop, the individual technicians interests are going to tend to be more closely aligned with ownership’s. At many dealers, the individual employee may be very far removed from ownership, especially where you have large corporations owning dozens if not hundreds of dealerships. Their corporate marketing people may paint a rosy picture, but is that the real situation?

Not sure why some people believe that a dealer serviced car commands higher resale. Perfectly understandable why a dealers service department might tell you that, but think about the last time you traded in a car. Did the dealer ask you where you had it serviced? I have yet to see even a shred of evidence that a dealer serviced car commands a higher resale value.

 

For routine service like is being discussed here I hope nobody thinks they are getting a Porsche Master Tech . You are getting a apprentice who has graduated from community college a year ago or a tech that came over from a slow GM store after being convinced they could make six figures with Porsche. That just how service departments work .
I'm not even saying there is anything wrong with that unless you are told otherwise . Of course good marketing makes you think one thing while delivering another .
Knowledge is freedom ,sometimes we consent to being abused.
On Rennlist this week Porsche has only 135 techs with more than 20 years experience in the USA.

 

@DanNYC, @cafeswartz, and @Shark: Your inputs are valid and I have seen my fair share of techs not doing the checking and forgetting to even complete the checklist when I show up to pick up the car. I happen to have a good relationship with the dealer and ask for a master tech to work on my car when it is in and I often see them work through the glass or come over and check the car out underneath and ask them questions if I see anything. I am sure many do not do it and that would be considered stealing from the customer as I am paying for hours or job that has extensive checklist with a dealer stamp in the journal. I would think CPO should be checked for real but if not then at least you still get CPO warranty if something goes wrong.

 

Just another price reference - In Seattle metro (2017 GTS)

20k/2yr service -
-Windshield Washer Fluid
-Brake Fluid Exchange + Fluid
-Oil Change + Oil and Filter
-Particle Filter
-Sealing Ring x2
-Cabin Air filter replaced
-Go through Checklist (tires, brakes etc.)

Total = $982.74 (of which labor was ~$644)

 

20k/2yr service -
-Windshield Washer Fluid
-Brake Fluid Exchange + Fluid
-Oil Change + Oil and Filter
-Particle Filter
-Sealing Ring x2
-Cabin Air filter replaced
-Go through Checklist (tires, brakes etc.)

Total = $982.74 (of which labor was ~$644)

I prepaid this 20k service during signing of the lease for less than $15 a month, times 36mos equal to about $540, the best value than paying when it needs serviced.

 

Note: most people can replace the cabin filter themselves. (access in the passenger footwell)
Easy, except a bit hard to push it in but, there are threads here with DIY instructions & info on exactly which filter to buy & where.

Not only does this save $$ but, it gives the dealer one less item to use as an excuse to pad the bill for a simple oil change & Brake fluid flush. (What they call the 20K or 2 year service)

 

I personally do my service alacart, I specifiy the services I want (oil change, brake flush, etc.) avoiding so called 10K 20K services.
Never had a warranty claim denied or a question at trade in.

 

OK so am I getting completely screwed for service? $1800 P & L for 30K service on Turbo plus an additional $600 for spark plug replacement. That is at $225/Hr so supposedly 6.5 Hrs labor to replace trans oil&filter, spark plugs,oil, brake fluid, and air filters. This is at Porsche South Bay in Torrance CA. $2,500 total!

 

Location Location Location

How much you think the rent is there vs other parts if the country?

 

They're certainly not in the best part of town but spendy real estate and people who can afford it are not too far away. I'm not really in that tax bracket.

 

The point is I'm sure the property values in SOCAL are a lot higher than say in Iowa. You need to compare rates in your own location, not nationally.

 

Are you asking what the cost is & exactly what they propose to do BEFORE you come to pick up the car & get the bill?

Or do you just drop it off & say do the XX mile "Service" & do not want to ask $ bc you think it makes you appears as if you cannot afford a Porsche?

I think it is naive to not ask & know the cost of things before agreeing to pay. Doesn't matter how much $$$$$ you have or earn.

Some (not all) Porsche dealers must think many Porsche owners are suckers.

 

1 month ago, I took my 2017 Macan Base with 19" Turbo Wheels to the dealer after I noticed my front tires were wearing funny at 16,000 miles (excessive camber wear on outer edge). I had them check the alignment. They told me the camber was slightly out but still within spec and did not recommend an alignment. If I opted for the alignment would've been $449.

Fast forward to now and I'm having my yearly service done. The service report informs me that my front tires are at 5/32 (I usually change them around 4/32 or 3/32 but I am moving soon and wanted to take care of this now). I figured now might be a good time revist the alignment as well. I called my SA to inquire about the alignment and he told me the price had increased since my last quote and that he would call me back with the new price.

Apparently the cost for a 4-wheel alignment at my dealer is now $837 and will take 6 hours to complete because I have LKA and the cameras need to be calibrated with the alignment. My SA said the price increased to be in line with what other dealers are charging. I again opted out of the alignment because I technically don't need it, but am I being taken for a ride here? $837 for an alignment?

 

I had a message on my answering machine today that if I did not return this call my credit card was going to be billed for $895 because of a predetermined agreement for a magazine subscription charge. I would put what you heard in the same round disposal bin.