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It all started when I moved from India to South Korea about 20 months back. I had somehow figured out how to convert BH to MH and managed to sell off my M340i because life took an unexpected turn and I ended up in South Korea.

The disappointment of the ridiculous pain of converting BH to MH and the financial losses incurred in doing that as well as selling my beloved M340i meant that I had no intention of putting money in a car in a new country.

So for quite a bit, I was happy and contended with my Kia K8. It was a loaded car - one of the top end Kia's you can get in South Korea and got the job done well. But then given how cheap cars are and how well kept they are (seriously - a taxi with 300k kms is very common in Korea and it is kept way better than a taxi with 30000 kms in India!). Korean discipline and cheaper cost meant the desire to get a car remained. But it had to wait until life and everything else settled smoothly in Seoul.

Decision Process

The itch was ongoing. Option 1 was to get a 911 or a 718 Cayman. As a second car. I rented and drove the 911 in the summer over a long weekend. Then over winter in mid January, a Macan GTS was rented and driven for close to a week. Beautiful car. The family was convinced and aligned. Getting a Macan GTS became a real option after the experience.

But a practical problem presented itself. With Porsche electrifying their fleet, Macan GTS was discontinued since 2024 in Korea. Getting a used GTS was difficult since I was clear it has to be Porsche approved if it is preworshipped. A second challenge was getting the right color. You see - Korean love their cars in white, black and all shades of grey in between. Drive on a highway in Seoul and you will see fifty shades of grey (quite literally)! The only Macan GTS available was a Crayon exterior and all black interior. That was ruled out even before we saw it. Plus there was the doubt about "Do you really get a Porsche SUV if you get a Porsche?"

Do we consider the Cayenne? The Cayenne was never an option - too big. Too bulky, not nimble enough and just not a proper Porsche in my humble opinion.

Thats what led to more research and it really came down to Panamera or an electric Porsche.

How I arrived at the Taycan


Research led to doubts about the Taycan. Reviews of the car in terms of how "Porsche" it was were amazing. But so was the depreciation - Taycans had really shed more value than my dog sheds hair when he grows a new coat every year! But getting a used one which had less than 20k kms and was less than 2 years old was about 30%-35% cheaper than getting a brand new one. And more research suggested that while the depreciation existed, it was predominantly in Years 1-3.

So off we went. To a Porsche Center in the famous "Gangnam" district of Seoul to check the Taycan out. The dealership had the sedan on display. And while an amazing car, it felt small and insufficient in the rear, especially the headroom. More research and the Gran Turismo presented itself. That felt ample!

So off we went again. This time to test drive a Gran Turismo. Test drove the GTS version and it did not disappoint. Electric car aside, it handled and felt just like a 911. And way better than the Macan GTS. My decision was made.

Next Step - start looking for Porsche Approved cars that fit the bill. A Carmine Red 4S Gran Turismo with 18K kms first registered in July 2023 was available with a dealership. It looked perfect and it had all the configurations (plus some more) that I was looking for. The car was inspected, necessary paperwork done and 3 days later we were bringing it home! The icing on the cake was that because the tires had some wear, the dealership installed 4 brand new summer tires.

For reference, the cost was under 100K USD. Yes - the same car in India would probably be more than 3X if bought new.

Exterior

I will let the pictures do the talking! But the car had the 21 inch gloss black alloys as against the stock alloys. There was a black sports trim package. And the PDSL headlight package as well as several other little black accent additions. I dont have much to say about the looks or a baseline to compare against. It stands in a league of its own!

Front



Rear



Side Profile




Another side profile



The Carmine Red really brings out the sportiness in the car. Everything from the headlights to the rear logo in black feels sporty and just oozes class. Not much to really comment or say honestly!

Interiors


While the traditional Porsche choice would be the Bordeaux Red, I liked the Chalk/Black combo on the car. Red interiors on a Carmine Red exterior would be a little too much red and not enough contrast. The other thing that is growing on me is the Neodymium package which gives Neodymium door handles and trims including the steering wheel. The other superstar is the all glass panoramic roof. The center console and the tactile feedback of it. The Bordeaux Red seatbelts. The Porsche Crest on the headrest. The finesse and the finishing. The quality of materials. The 18 way adaptive sports seats

When I had the BMW, I used to wonder if something can have more finesse than it but step into the Porsche interior and one realizes what further finesse is. Everything is just so well thought of and executed. I can go on and on, but again some pictures to do the talking.

Lastly, while I do not have pictures, the trunk is ample. About 450L in the rear. And another 70-80L in the front. The front is large enough to easily accommodate a carry on.


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Features and Options


One of the drawbacks I have found with Porsche is that the standard equipment is often fairly basic for a car with the Porsche price tag. While they allow you to configure pretty much everything, doing so easily adds 20-40% to an already high price tag. When I went shopping, I was clear that the minimum config I want is -

1. Sports Seat
2. Sports Chrono Package
3. Adaptive Air Suspension (luckily this is standard on a Tourismo)
4. PDLS (The default Bi Xenon headlights are just outdated on a car with the advent of LED)
5. Bose Sound System at the least. Default sound would not cut it for me
6. Performance Plus Battery (again standard on a Tourismo)

The car had this and more on it. A detailed spec sheet for the more curious reader is below



The little bonuses that I got and like are again the Neodymium finish, the black alloys and the passenger screen.

Enough about the features. Lets get to the main course. The drive.

Driving and Handling


One drawback I am still dealing with is that the car came with brand new summer tires. And Korean winters are harsh. It has still been around freezing temperature since I got the car. Summer tires do not deal well with that weather. And hence have not been able to push the car as much. For obvious safety reasons. The tires are hard as rock and will not provide the necessary traction!

But here are is a quick summary.

1) The torque on this thing is just INSANE. For context, the comfort mode pulls as well as the sports plus in the M340i. Instant. Effortless.
2) In sports plus, the car hits 100 in just over 3 seconds. And you can actually feel and experience it. Given the 4S is a 4WD, the wheel spin is relatively lower and it just bolts. INSANE.
3) The car masks its weight (This is a car more than 2 tons) very very well. You do not really feel it
4) The handling. If there is one thing that has grown on me, it is the handling. Even more than the torque. The way that steering weighs up. And how precise it is. The way the car hugs the road even with the misfit summer tires on a freezing tarmac! As I said earlier, I have leased and driven a 911 and I will safely say that in my experience there is hardly any difference, if at all, in how the Taycan handles versus how the 911 handles. To make an electric car do that is just incredible engineering from Porsche.
5) Ride Quality - the beauty here is that you get exactly what you choose. The suspension has 3 modes. It also has 3 heights. So you can mix and match to an extent. And the comfort mode will actually give you a really plush compliant ride masking all undulations on the road. Switch to the sports plus tune, put the chassis height as "low" and you are in Go-Kart territory!

Again - I am no expert and honestly have yet to take the car out for a long winding drive. That will have to wait until late March or April when it is 18-20C and the summer tires can start doing what they are supposed to do!

Range and Charging

The car comes with a 93 KWH (I think I got that right) battery pack which has given me about 390 kms in the winter. I expect that output to be around 20% better in the summer - so about 450km+ should be fairly doable.

The public charging network is amazing - there's 45 chargers in my apartment complex parking lot. All pay as you go. Another 10 in my office parking lot. A 100+ super chargers between Hyundai and Tesla in Seoul. And for the road trips, there's fast chargers every 40-50kms on the highways. The car can go from 15% to 80% in under 20 minutes which is sufficient. Korea is not a huge country - the longest drive is Seoul to Busan which is 480kms and can be done with one charge on a Tesla supercharger during a coffee or even a bio break. So I am not too concerned about range or charging.

Conclusion


I consider myself extremely fortunate to have the privilege of owning and driving a Porsche. It would never have been possible and frankly, even if financially possible, I just wouldn't do it in India. The roads and everything else as well as the insanely high cost makes it a really poor decision to own one.

I know this is a relatively short ownership review lacking more details. But those details will follow as winter transitions into spring. And spring into summer !!!