I Take Delivery of a CPO Porsche Taycan 4S. Here's What it's Like…

Ever wonder if the dealership experience

when buying a Porsche is any different than, say,

buying a Chevy, a Honda, or even a Lexus?

Well, I never thought that I'd be able to tell you first hand,

but good fortune has come my way.

I'm now the proud owner of a certified pre-owned 2021 Porsche

Taycan 4S, and I documented the entire process,

start to finish, so you can live through me.

I'm kind of a geek that way.

I've already done a video about my search for the car,

but in a nutshell, CPO Taycans off lease

are a screaming deal, and the only way

I could ever get into one of these,

even then it's a stretch financially for me,

but hey, my advice has always been buy the car you love,

and this is the vehicle I've adored for years.

About the car from Porsche, Ontario,

no, not in Canada, in California,

just outside of Los Angeles,

it would have been less expensive for me

to have it shipped to Seattle,

but I wanted to do this story about the delivery experience,

and I was curious if the process was anything special.

Personally, I don't care about fancy dealerships,

I'm all about the car and hope to never return.

Years of packing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,

plus general frugality has led to this splurge.

My brother works for Alaska Airlines,

and he gave me a standby ticket,

so my flight to Ontario International

early in the morning is on the cheap if I can get on.

Last night there were no seats available,

but I came to the airport this morning anyways,

just in case.

I've packed light, all my clothes and video gear

for documenting the drive back to Seattle

is in this bag.

Flying standby is not for the faint of heart,

but my persistence pays off.

A larger plane was switched in, I get the green light,

I'm on my way to California.

Being cheap like this is why I can afford

an expensive car park.

Here's a plug for Alaska Airlines,

and not just because my brother works there,

this is an excellent airline with great service.

Try their fruit and cheese tray,

it's a bargain at 12 bucks, no PBJ this morning.

And after all that worry, I have the whole road myself.

Ontario is about an hour east of Los Angeles,

if traffic is good, and it never is.

What a great day for picking up a Porsche.

I ride about cars, but I don't buy them often.

I'm as excited and nervous as anyone would be.

This is a little bit surreal,

and not to be overly dramatic, a little intimidating.

I mean, I just bought a very expensive car

over the internet, 1200 miles away.

Not something I do every day.

This is a good test of the Porsche's CPO program,

that's for sure.

I was going to cab or Uber to the showroom

some three miles away.

My salesman, Jose Hernandez,

insisted on picking me up.

Jose, yeah, good to finally meet you in person.

Points there for service.

When I was arranging this purchase over email and the phone,

I got the impression that he really knew EVs,

something not all salespeople demonstrate.

Turns out Jose walks the talk,

he owns a couple electric vehicles,

just bought one for his daughter,

so we chatted about that on the way to the showroom.

As a pragmatic Minnesota raised boy,

I always look at temples like this

as adding cost to the vehicle,

but I'm also a big fan of architecture

and Porsche dealerships, they certainly have a sleek vibe.

Now, I'll admit, walking in through the door,

my overwhelming thought is,

oh, I'm one of those people now,

like suddenly I'm a rich entitled guy,

if I'm stereotyping.

The reality is there's plenty of ordinary people like me

that just love good design and engineering,

never judge a person over the car they drive.

And then after four months of searching,

my car in person for the first time in a glass jewel box.

Damn.

That's mine, huh?

That's yours.

Nice drama, it has presence.

You know, it was worth taking the time

to pick this up at the showroom

rather than watch it being offloaded

from a transport in a mall parking lot.

There's theater happening here.

Yeah, it's a very expensive ticket,

but this is a car I have always admired

to think this is mine, is pretty damn cool.

Here's what attracted me to this particular 4S.

Carrera White Metallic Paint and Mission E-Wheels

is delivery I watched Porsche launch Tycon in back in 2019.

The original owner specced this incredibly well.

Upgraded Olia Leather, Bermister Audio

that pairs well to the acoustically laminated glass.

The upgraded headlights and rear lightband are in ice blue.

It has the Sport Design package

with larger air intakes, side sills,

and rear fascia treatment, I love that little winglet.

The performance package adds Sport Chrono,

rear axle steering, dynamic chassis control,

and torque vectoring to name a few

of the functional technologies,

and powered charge ports so vandals can't rip the tours off.

Sadly, people do that kind of crap.

The only thing that I would have liked

is a heated steering wheel

and maybe black window trim instead of aluminum,

but hey, I'm 99% there.

This was originally ordered debadged

and then turbo S badging added?

Both the dealership and I insisted those be removed.

And if you ever do go out on the road

and you need to take your cable with you,

that's what these are for.

Jose walked me around the car to inspect it.

He had originally pointed out a small chip on the front.

I knew that going in.

I'll fix it then when I can afford protective film.

That'll go on the nose and side view mirrors.

I have expel on my ELR.

It's good stuff.

Nearly all of the paperwork was done beforehand.

That was all smooth and professional,

no upselling what you would expect from Porsche.

And while I was there, Jose showed me what it would be like

if I wanted to spec out my next Porsche

exactly to my liking, you know, a new one.

There are paint samples that you can walk out

into the sun to make sure they're exactly

what you want, shift knobs, sill plates,

all sorts of materials for the interior.

So that's my interior, huh?

This is it.

Makes a guy want to make a whole lot more money.

Also, I had to get a souvenir,

not that the car isn't enough.

Porsche has great swag.

Being a hoodie guy, I picked this out.

As for the rest of the afternoon,

the car was pulled out in dramatic fashion

to top off the battery for my trip home.

I plan on doing a lot of distance in this car,

and so I made sure I got the Performance Plus battery pack,

the larger one.

And yes, I am aware that repairs will be expensive, duh.

CPO adds two years of warranty

to the three months left on the car that I bought.

I'm very familiar with Taycan.

I've driven just about every flavor,

but Jose went through the basics with the interface

and set up my Porsche account that's tied to an app.

There are different levels of service.

The basic connectivity for emergencies

and such is free for the next seven years.

I don't plan on moving up to the next level,

but if you folks want to chip in

and pay the $350 for service,

I'm happy to test it out.

Frankly, right now I'm car rich, finance poor.

Happy though.

A family friend, Dylan,

who's also a car enthusiast and EV owner,

knew I was picking the car up.

He lives in the LA area and came to check it out.

Kind of fun to share the excitement with someone.

Wrapping up, I don't buy cars on a regular basis,

but I have to believe the whole Porsche delivery process

is extremely elevated.

I'm glad I came down.

It's a great memory.

I will stress, don't buy a vehicle for special treatment.

It's most important to get the right car

because you'll seldom return to where you bought it from,

at least hopefully.

But yeah, I got the VIP treatment that one might expect.

I feel very fortunate to get a magnificent car like this.

I'm the kid that got everything he wanted for Christmas

and is a little bit overstimulated.

Hope you can live vicariously through my video.

All right, time to head back to Seattle.

That's gonna be a separate video.

Now, I have done long distance travel in EVs before,

but 1200 miles, that's new to even me.

Super fast charge speed should help.

It'll be a great adventure.

If you wanna see that, remember,

subscribe to the channel, click notifications,

follow me on social media, and if you have a question,

leave it in the comments, okay?

All right, but that's Driven, I'm Tom Volk.

Porsche Taycan

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