Will offer a bit of feedback based on my experiences. I had a 2021 GT PP, which was totaled by a red light runner only a few months after I got it, and I just recently got a 2023 GT PP.
I loved both cars. They are flawed in some ways that bother me greatly, and my eventual plan is to get the Cayman EV, but the lease deals right now are so good I felt I had to get the GT again for now after having lost the 2021. For reference, my other car is a 2023 Bolt EV 2LT and I had a 2019 Bolt EV.
Also for reference, my coworker has a Taycan 4S Cross Turismo with basically every option you’d want.
In my 2021 model the Audi app just wouldn’t work. Some sort of account issue, I never had time to try to get Audi to fix it (dealership was useless) before it was destroyed. I purposely deleted my Audi account before I got the 2023 to avoid similar issues, and the app works for me pretty reliably actually. I also haven’t had issues using the EA stations from the app…when the station itself isn’t busted. Driving the car from LA to San Jose was nerve-racking due to poor EA reliability.
My 2021 started developing rattle in the front passenger door about a month after I got it, but I never got a chance to have it looked at. This 2023 one had rattle and speaker buzz in both front doors from the moment I got it. Couldn’t have it looked at then since I needed to drive the car back home. I had it serviced last week, they said it’s a known issue, and now passenger door seems to be fixed but there’s still rattle in the driver side door so it’s going back yet again this week, very troublesome.
No rattle in my 30k Chevy Bolt, just saying. Also, technicians damaged the door trim while removing it to add felt tape under the speaker grille so it’s going to have to go back for service yet again in two months when the parts show up. Very troublesome x 2. I’m sure eventually this will all be sorted, but Audi really needs to redesign the interior door. Coworker with Taycan has had zero issues with car build, it’s a masterpiece.
My 2021 had the stock audio which back then was real bad, worse than 2019 Bolt. 2023 has the B&O audio standard. It’s OK. Main flaw is that it’s impossible to get the frequency response near the harman curve because there’s no independent adjustment of mids. It’s clear from listening that the actual hardware is good but the software implementation is lacking. Not a fair comparison but coworker’s Taycan with the Burmester system sounds a lot better.
The MMI hardware and software implementation is bad. The wireless CarPlay implementation is extremely susceptible to interference and the link degrades and disconnects consistently in regions where there is interference or frequency jamming. You cannot drive these cars near SFO or SJC without interruptions to wireless CarPlay. There’s also specific areas I’ve found, like a certain spot in a parking garage, and a certain drive-thru, where it will drop out consistently in that area. I talked with my coworker who has an RS6 Avant and they confirmed they have these same issues. Either the head unit or Audi’s standard impl of the unit is just garbage. Coworker with the Taycan has not experienced this.
No such issues in the Bolt in all the places where the Audi has issues. Me and my coworker just use wired CarPlay to mitigate but it’s kind of lame to have to resort to this. YMMV based on the environment you live and drive in. Audi is not the only company to have problems in its wireless CarPlay impl but it’s not very befitting of a $100k+ car.
Other issue, which is very minor but I work in audio playback engineering so it’s very noticeable to me, is that even with wired audio or native playback there can be audio blips once in a while. I would put the frequency at less than one glitch per day but it’s frustrating as I’ve had 0 audio glitches over 4 years of Bolt driving. From what I’ve heard the Bolt runs QNX even for the head unit software so I’m not surprised that it isn’t susceptible to audio overloads, that’s why the iPod ran a real-time operating system too. I’m sure Audi is not the only maker whose implementation has this issue but it makes me sad.
This may all sound very negative but I’m specifically outlining the negatives for you.
The actual driving experience is just fantastic, the car looks great without looking exotic or overstated. I was miserable during my daily commute on Bay Area roads having lost the air suspension. It makes such a difference to comfort. If Porsche doesn’t add it on the Cayman when it goes EV it might be a dealbreaker for me.
The lease deals are a steal IMO. I recommend.
