Yes I know its a 914 forum and you guys have talked me off many a ledge. My Explorer is acting as though she will be checking out soon (250k on odom) thinking about a Cayenne. Any of you guys been down that road and what are your thoughts. Do it or avoid like the plague?

Here's my thread about the same...

We have one, so here is my validated opinion:

Really nicely built nice riding and handling car with nice features, more luxurious than an ML and looks better

Buy the latest year you can afford, they got better as they got newer

If you are going to drive it the most, DO NOT buy a six cylinder as it is a gutless wonder. PERFECT for the wife riding around, but I do not know WHY PORSCHE of all car companies installed such an underpowered engine is such a vehicle, the six cylinder ML leaves it in the dust as far as acceleration

Better gas mileage than an ML

WAY overpriced as compared to an ML or a BMW but then again it is a Porsche!

Holds its resale better than the Mercedes or the BMW

Hard on brake rotors (are'nt they all these days?)

Parts are much more expensive than the ML or the BMW

Porsche service is much more expensive than the Mercedes or the BMW

I probably would not have purchased one but for the fact that we do Porsche for a living!!, but would have purchased the ML instead.

Buy the VW. Higher customer satisfaction ratings, considered by many experts to be a FAR better value for the money. Keep in mind nearly every job on both versions (VW and Porsche) requires special tools. FWIW, I'd get the diesel version if there was a choice. BTW, some people HATE the seats for trips of longer than an hour.

The Cap'n

its kind of ugly and over sized, and wieghted for my taste, plus i dont want a car with a lot of depreciation potential (ie anything newer than about 20 years old!) but i suppose it is swift.

a friend of mine had a GT3, fast, buit he repalced it with a faster subaru WRX, (four door no less) much faster, but the brakes were not as good as the expensive ceramic ones, on teh GT3 but after he chiped one rotor, he switched to metal, the ceramic brakes were outragous priced. he lost a lot in depreciation on both cars. and insurance was expensive, very expensive.

I've been kinda looking at them as well, my Jeep just hit the 240K mark. One of my friends was playing with me on a high speed single lane road with one. I knew he has a 996, but I guess he has a turbo c as well. I couldn't believe how fast he pulled around me in that thing. It was a friggen rocket. coarse I was in the 914...

thanks guys. my excitement about owning one is diminishing.

I want the engine.

As an aside - VW Taureg & Porsche Cayenne are shared platform & parts bin vehicles, the latter of which (along with the Pano) are booking the bulk of PAG's sales - far outpacing the Boxster/Cayman & 911s/et al series!

Sound familiar!?
It should, since our 914s did the same for Porsche in the 70's!

Consumer Reports rate the later ones very well, as with the VW - but I agree with Krusty, if it's a DD & you don't need the high-end Porsche for your ego or to impress customers - then go with the VW!

.... just IMHO, but not an owner, just know a few others who are.

If you like the platform, get the VW...its better bang for the buck and if you get the large V8 from VW, its the same as the small V8 from Porsche...but 10k cheaper.

BMW would be my first choice.
Never been a Merceded fan, the seating position is wierd.

Its a family truckster.
Gas mileage sucks for what you have for cargo room etc...really poor on all of them, bmw, volvo, porsche, and VW...they all suck.

I think one of the best values for the money is a GMC suburban.
You will get better mileage than any of the boutique ones above, for half the money.
They can really tow also...not just barely tow.
You can get a leather loaded suburban for a great deal right now.
Or, look at Ford again.
You will get ten years out of each car.
How much do you want to spend for the next ten year car?

I think the Cayenne is overpriced on the used market and 15k is about the right price for a 2004-5
IC them all the time for 22-25k for a 2004-5...I just cant justify that.

Now, if you want the diesel VW, or the turbo porsche, those are worth looking at...
The rest of them are just family trucks that are overpriced, and they deliver less value than a simple and cheap american truck.
Rich

Rich and I are reading from the same playbook here.

My 2 cents....Get a Touareg, same suspension and same body shell essentially, proper off road capability. I have owned three of them. One petrol (3.2) that was a bit of a slug and two deisel (V6) which pull like a 14 year old. I will never buy another petrol powered DD. The deisel power and economy are amazing, I get 1000 kms out of the tank on trips. 3.5 tonne towing capacity. The only Euro 4x4 that has low range and will cross a creek with up to 500mm water depth. Good approach and departure angles and good breakover as well. Excellent handling on and off road.

All in all, I've been very happy with the VW's

Phil

Yeah but it does not have that Porsche badge on the front nose panel (hint!)

Think deisel's are pretty rare here. Never sold new in CA, that much I know.

Remember that this engine, rebuilt per Rolex Grand-Am rules, won the Daytona 24 Hrs this year. Porsche, while acknowledging the win, didn't want anything to do with the effort.

Ya....that's

I sold my 06 cayenne Turbo this past April. It was an awesome car but I had so many problems.

The biggest problems that I had were with the Porsche dealers. They seemed to not have a good understanding of the extremely common problems with the car- Coil packs, coolant pipes... I am not much of a complainer however I had to call PCNA twice due to getting screwed by the dealers (PCNA wasn't a big help either).

I got so fed up with the problems and the dealer that I sold the CTT and my 996 one day after coming home from the dealer.

Bottom line- lots of fun when it works.

I haven't heard that one before. I guess that's good?

That's a term used here when truckies describe how good the torque characteristics of their deisels engines are. It references the usual behaviour of teenaged boys when they discover certain bodily functions.. I don't really want to spell that out but note hand action on smiley and I think you'll get the idea.

Click to view attachment
Nice and compact too !

had 2 x5s, a volvo xc90 and one ml. the x5 was by far the best of the bunch. trailering snowmobiles through deep snow was no problem and had zero maintance issues. the volvo was nice but gutless and the benz was a pos. broke all the time. also the 05 x5 had a six speed manual. the only one i truly miss. fwiw.

That one has metal lines.

I agree with George on the ML. I sold my ML and got the Cayenne. I like the ride of the standard hydraulic shocks better than the Cayenner air shocks.

Here's some things to look out for (these were mentioned in a previous post):

1. Coolant pipes. They're plastic and have been know to break.

2. Carden Shafts are known bad. (drive shaft)

3. Coils are known bad (crack). Porsche has updated the warranty period now.

4. Lower Control Arm Bushings are known bad. 50k on bushings? My ML with 100k showed no sign of this bizzarre behavior.

5. Audio Control Modules are often bad. All light pipe stuff so... not much you can do.

6. Transmission valve bodies have been known to stick.

I have new lines, transmission, carden shaft and control arm bushings. The car seems very reliable and a general joy to drive "now". It pulls like a dream!

If I didn't need to tow I would highly recommend the ML. All I did was change the oil and put gas in that one.



The Cayenne has MUCH better offroad capabilities than the BMW but about on par with the ML.