New owner with Car Connect questions - 2019 Macan S -

[DearHello]

We picked up a 2019 S yesterday. Does not have Connect, so we don't see what you see remotely. BUT, we do see it all when in the car.

Having never had the pleasure of doing things remotely we couldn't see the benefit and won't be subscribing to Connect.

You may however miss this if you get used to using it to May 2024. Your choice as to whether to continue it of course.

Just had a read of your thread - nice car and great service re your issue with the rear demister. I agree that the benefits of remote access are negligible, I guess I'm fortunate to have a free trial to see if it's worth it.

I’m crap at the tech stuff, but lovely looking car, enjoy

Thanks, I'm enjoying it very much, very comfortable and very red which I really like!

There are two different Connect systems.

The first is the vehicle tracker system which requires a subscription with Vodafone via Porsche, there are three cost options depending upon the lack of service level you get from Vodafoney. I have a very low set of expectations from anything Vodafone related and usually they fail to meet those expectations. The fobs for my Macan reside in a desk drawer and have done so for six years, the tracking system on my car is useless.

The other Connect is for online services, map updates, live traffic, fuel etc this requires another subscription whose cost depends upon generation of the car. A Data SIM or fee if there is an embedded SIM is also required so yet again most cost involved but a preloaded SIM is easy to buy each time the data is used up.

Apple Car Play became available in late 2016 as part of a Connect+ option

Do find out what connected service option is fitted as a retrofit is expensive for what is involved if you require the top end.

Porsche and IT do not go together well

Thanks for this - it seems there is a lot of confusion about which service does what. I must say that my previous experiences of Vodafone have not been good so when I realised it was in conjunction with them, I thought it wouldn't be straightforward (which seems to be the case!)

https://connect-store.porsche.com/gb/en ... macan_2019

I dont think the Porsche Connect services on the Macan offer remote lock / unlock. More so to do with vehicle tracking and navigation information I think.. I could be wrong.

The MyPorsche App shows if the vehicle is locked or unlocked. BUT you cannot remotely close / open. The only active thing you can do from your smartphone to the car is send a navigatio route / destination to the PCM.

Good to know, thanks. I'm sure I read somewhere that remote locking was available. My car doesn't have keyless locking which I'm used to and sometimes I park well away from where I'm staying. The fact that I can check that the car is locked via the app is good. If it's unlocked I'm just going to have to go to the car and lock it (first world problems, eh?!)

On Gen2 & 3, Sat Nav updates download over the airwaves just with the built in SIM, no need for an external one or any add on (exorbitant) Porsche contract. Whether that is true in the abscence of the Navigation+ (£159 after the initial 24 months free) I can't swear to as I've always coughed up!

This is also what I'm trying to work out as I want to update the maps before my free trial of Porsche Car Connect runs out. The slightly odd thing is that the navigation version suggests it's the latest, but as the previous owner of my car was based in Northern Ireland, it seems that the NI roads are 2023 but the rest of the UK roads are still the original 2019.

[Col Lamb]

...unsure .. with the newer Macan’s about getting the Sat Nav Map Updates.

On my Gen 1 it happens via the Info and Nav package but for the map updates I need a Data SIM fitted which I have and use a preloaded SIM so no subscription just a one off cost of the SIM.

Not sure how it functions with Gen 2 or Gen 3 but I do see that there is a separate Data Subscription which I am presuming will be needed on top of the subscription for the Info & Nav pack.

Can somebody clarify?

On Gen2 & 3, Sat Nav updates download over the airwaves just with the built in SIM, no need for an external one or any add on (exorbitant) Porsche contract. Whether that is true in the abscence of the Navigation+ (£159 after the initial 24 months free) I can't swear to as I've always coughed up!

Cheers Neil

The Data fee is there for a reason, I suspect that Porsche dropped the SIM slot in favour of the embedded SIM to bypass owners using their own so that when the free period ends you will need both to enable over the air map updates.

[Neil1911]

The Data fee is there for a reason, I suspect that Porsche dropped the SIM slot in favour of the embedded SIM to bypass owners using their own so that when the free period ends you will need both to enable over the air map updates.

You are undoubtedly right but as to what the reason is, heaven only knows! I had my first Macan well beyond the "free period" and never succumbed to the data "offer" my assumption is that its for folk doing lots of streaming, Spotify or Amazon music for example, which l don't. SD card or DAB for me, my phone contract gives me 4GB of data monthly with renewal on the 26th, currently 3.6GB unused and I'm guessing that unusually high data use is something to do with having been in Greece for the last week!
P.S. my Gen2 had a SIM slot available, not sure about the current one, it's definitely got the SD slot though they went AWOL from production for a while.

[pmg]

The Data fee is there for a reason, I suspect that Porsche dropped the SIM slot in favour of the embedded SIM to bypass owners using their own so that when the free period ends you will need both to enable over the air map updates.

You are undoubtedly right but as to what the reason is, heaven only knows! I had my first Macan well beyond the "free period" and never succumbed to the data "offer" my assumption is that its for folk doing lots of streaming, Spotify or Amazon music for example, which l don't. SD card or DAB for me, my phone contract gives me 4GB of data monthly with renewal on the 26th, currently 3.6GB unused and I'm guessing that unusually high data use is something to do with having been in Greece for the last week!
P.S. my Gen2 had a SIM slot available, not sure about the current one, it's definitely got the SD slot though they went AWOL from production for a while.

My understanding is that the fee for Nav services covers the cost of data on the embedded sim for those services and it is only necessary to buy data if you wish to use the embedded sim for streaming or in car wifi etc.

[Neil1911]

The Data fee is there for a reason, I suspect that Porsche dropped the SIM slot in favour of the embedded SIM to bypass owners using their own so that when the free period ends you will need both to enable over the air map updates.

You are undoubtedly right but as to what the reason is, heaven only knows! I had my first Macan well beyond the "free period" and never succumbed to the data "offer" my assumption is that its for folk doing lots of streaming, Spotify or Amazon music for example, which l don't. SD card or DAB for me, my phone contract gives me 4GB of data monthly with renewal on the 26th, currently 3.6GB unused and I'm guessing that unusually high data use is something to do with having been in Greece for the last week!
P.S. my Gen2 had a SIM slot available, not sure about the current one, it's definitely got the SD slot though they went AWOL from production for a while.

My understanding is that the fee for Nav services covers the cost of data on the embedded sim for those services and it is only necessary to buy data if you wish to use the embedded sim for streaming or in car wifi etc.

That's two of us agreed then

[Col Lamb]

The cynic in me still thinks that the Data Services Fee will be required to be paid at some in the future.

In the meantime a limited amount of Data is included, which probably is why we with the SIM card slots pay a lesser fee of £119

Mind you we pay £35 for a 2y Data SIM pre-loaded with 24Gb

[Neil1911]

The cynic in me still thinks that the Data Services Fee will be required to be paid at some in the future.

In the meantime a limited amount of Data is included, which probably is why we with the SIM card slots pay a lesser fee of £119

Mind you we pay £35 for a 2y Data SIM pre-loaded with 24Gb

Just checked my Gen3 has the SIM card slot too so just the same as in the 2020MY car despite that and the SD card facility disappearing for a while post Covid.