2nd GTS now ordered!

[Tracky]

Ours gets washed every weekend and the wheels are ceramic coated so it wasn’t enough of a reason for me to consider

Also I’m not sure how much they cost to replace and if they Can get damaged as easily fully carbon but that is expensive - we have a gravel drive and often get a stone stuck in the brake somewhere

[Tracky]

Nice post, and some good point to consider.
I know a lot of this will be personal choices, how come the Sports Chrono is in 'must have' on an SUV?

Re ACC, I have this on my 'must have', it's brilliant and makes the use of cruise control practical with the busy motorways (rather than having to keep disengaging/enabling standard cruise control, it just adjusts). The only thing to note is it can take some time to 'see' a car that pulls in front, which can test your 'trust' in the system when doing motorway speeds.
I'd say the emergency brake assist is one of those things that you will be glad of, should you ever need it.
It does annoy me that things like emergency brake and speed indicator are costed extras - perhaps they do this to keep the initial RRP down or something, know full when most people will add (and pay) them.

I used to find on a busy motorway it was worse because people would pull in to the gap you left and the car would brake when if it hadn’t been on ACC then you would have just backed off and made a gap

[RGS]

How do you find the PSCB after washing the car? Do they still go rusty after washing as I hate how that then coats the wheels after the first drive.

The Discs stay permanently shiny, the white callipers stay white and there is no appreciable sign of brake dust even after a long run. Braking is superb but modulating the brakes can be tricky as they are extremely sensitive to brake pedal pressure.

[dvearn]

Nice post, and some good point to consider.
I know a lot of this will be personal choices, how come the Sports Chrono is in 'must have' on an SUV?

Re ACC, I have this on my 'must have', it's brilliant and makes the use of cruise control practical with the busy motorways (rather than having to keep disengaging/enabling standard cruise control, it just adjusts). The only thing to note is it can take some time to 'see' a car that pulls in front, which can test your 'trust' in the system when doing motorway speeds.
I'd say the emergency brake assist is one of those things that you will be glad of, should you ever need it.
It does annoy me that things like emergency brake and speed indicator are costed extras - perhaps they do this to keep the initial RRP down or something, know full when most people will add (and pay) them.

I used to find on a busy motorway it was worse because people would pull in to the gap you left and the car would brake when if it hadn’t been on ACC then you would have just backed off and made a gap

Yeah, good point.
Maybe I have the ACC set too close to the car in front (2 bars)?
To be fair, I don't do that much motorway mileage so maybe use this feature once a month, but when I do they are longer journeys (+2hrs) so I find ACC helps make these more comfortable.
I do think the control logic could be improved to better simulate human behaviour e.g. lifting off throttle rather than always applying the brake.

[Tracky]

The AMG one was much better than RS4 but there was 5 years between them so would make sense.

The AMG also set the speed to the limit of the signs it would read, including variable ones o the m25 so that was pretty good although would get confused occasionally and you’d be happily be cruising along in an average Camera speed limit zone and it would pick something else up and start accelerating

[Shivan]

Thanks everyone for the various replies. I spent some time at my local Porsche Centre (Tewkesbury) on Friday and ended up not changing my spec at this stage. I'm looking at a freeze point in August, though, so still have at least a month to fiddle with options! I was lucky on my way to the centre that I saw a number of Macans on the road in the various colours, and (whilst the GTS extra black-ness does change how well a colour suits a GTS vs a non GTS), I'm sticking with Volcano Grey, pending seeing a Dolomite Silver one out on the road one day soon, hopefully!

Appreciate there is a difference of opinion on the heated windscreen from those who have experienced it out there, but I think for now at least (and without the ability to actually try it out), I'm going to keep that option, as well as the ACC and GT steering wheel, both of which again split opinion. Dvearn - I'm also loving the 'why Sports Chrono is a must have' - it's a really fair question! For me, it's essential this time as I didn't get it the first time around and regretted it immediatley. I'm not going to be using Launch Control all the time, or timing my laps on the way to work / whatever (!), but having driven the demonstrator, it is the speed of gear change that (for me) makes it worthwhile, as well as now having a button on the steering wheel that is definitely an improvement over having to reach down and feel around for the Sport Button that I currently have to do.

That does remind me of something I forgot in my original post - one of the reasons I was dithering in ordering a new one at the start was the Sports Exhaust. I love mine at the moment - the engine / exhaust makes a great sound, bassy albeit possibly a bit dron-y if kept on during motorway driving. But ultimately, a feature I love on my car. When I drove the new demonstrator GTS, it just didn't sound the same. Some of this I think is that the exhaust beds in / whatever the right phrase is - I don't remember liking my current GTS exhaust as much at the beginning - it seemed to get better with age. But I know that the petrol particulate filter does reduce the noise / take the bass out. If anyone has experience comparing the two, that would be great to be reassured by!

RGS - you got me looking at the different brake options, but I've managed to wean myself off that before getting hooked - ultimately, my GTS brakes today have been very good indeed and I'm not planning on regularly driving it with sufficient vigour that I would notice the upgraded brakes. It's the same logic as why Porsche Torque Vectoring didn't make it onto the list - I just don't think I would ever notice it in the way I drive.

cc3 - yes, I did know about the tax - a fairly hard pill to swallow when it went up by over £800 on 1 April. My strong hope on this, though, is that once it is purchased, the second to fifth years don't get a retrospective hike in tax i.e. I'd sincerely hope that when you buy a car, you can understand what the tax is going to be rather than it be changed significantly during ownership. But yes, the first year is a huge amount to pay out and then forget about!

Thanks!

[SAC1]

Sport Chrono - well worth it just for the button / dial on the steering wheel. I had the compass on the SD, but with the new wide screen you can select one from the menu and it it to the left quarter of the screen. This makes the Sat Nav less of a letter box! So the best of both worlds now. The Googles maps imaging is also much better than the plain 2D / 3D option too.

Sport Exhaust - it does 'mature' with the miles and sounds great with the pano roof open and accelerating through the gears.

[kmacuk]

Re PSE on the new GTS with GPF

It does indeed improve with miles. I did not come from a Gen 1 so cant compare, but for me the sound of the Gen 2 is well judged and not too obnoxious; when activated at idle it makes a noticeable impact, in a good way, it’s also a lot more vocal when I compare to brand new.
You get the pops mostly on a down shift hitting around 4k revs and that encourages the use of the paddles.
For me accelerating up through the gears is nice - louder outside than in, but much more I think would be too "shouty" I am a big fan and one of the best features on the car. Turned off cruising is fine, but you still know you have PSE as it hovers in the background.

We have a 718 Cayman and its PSE with GPF. Not much impact at idle when enabled. I also struggle to get it to pop no matter what I do – sport mode with PSE is good, but the GTS is so much better, well worth the addition for anyone considering it as an add on and a great GTS built in feature.

[PaulR]

The exhaust in the facelifted GTS still (surprisingly) sounds quite good. Due to the particulate filter and latest regulations, I expected a dramatic difference versus the original model. Yes, it's quieter but not massively.

Overall I do prefer my previous GTS to drive. It was simply much more fun. The facelifted model is far too clinical. It's no doubt technically better, but it's less engaging than the last one - and I always seem to find myself going faster than I should be. Perhaps (arguably) the refreshed model is better on German autobahns, but it's definitely not better on the twisty Scottish roads.

An annoying feature is that the engine braking is next to non-existent on the refreshed model (and that's with coasting switched off). The car seems to "run away" and therefore require a lot more use of the brake pedal. In the older model, I could use engine braking to help slow it down.

In summary, I prefer my last car to drive, but prefer my new car to look at!

[MCDK]

In what way is the new one clinical, sounds or more?