The Porsche Cayenne is a whopper. It’s a big, heavy SUV with tons of room for the family and a badge to keep the neighbours talking. It’s also got a planet-bending V8 diesel engine and an air-suspended chassis that has to be felt to be believed.
VALUE
The Cayenne Diesel S kicks off at a startlingly reasonable (hey, it’s all relative) $144,800. Perhaps against type, there’s a lot of stuff packed into the Cayenne and you could cheerfully go without ticking a single box on the breathtakingly long options list.
The standard car carries a 14-speaker stereo, 20-inch alloys, power everything including steering column, dual-zone climate control, front and rear parking sensors and rear camera, keyless entry, electronic dampers, hill descent control, cruise control, cooled glovebox, sat-nav, bi-xenon active headlights, auto lights and wipers, partial leather seats, sunroof, air suspension and tyre pressure monitoring.
On top of the standard features, ours had a full leather interior ($7690), Yachting Mahogany Interior ($6590 and is what it sounds like), Yacht Mahogany heated wood steering wheel ($1450, ditto), 21-inch wheels ($5610), soft close doors ($1790), black roof rails ($1390), panoramic glass roof ($1190), saddle brown seat belts ($1090), compass ($760), Porsche logos on the headrests ($450) and monochrome black exterior package ($450).
This made a grand total of $173,300. A purely subjective opinion: the mahogany you can probably do without, along with the brown seat belts. That’s not a comment on the quality, either – in isolation, it’s very pretty wood.
DESIGN
There’s no getting away from it, the Cayenne looks like a big car because it is. With big wheels and a big gaping grille, the Cayenne has street presence few cars can match. It still not the looker one would expect of the Porsche, but this second-generation version is much better resolved than the earlier cars and is less bloated looking.
Inside is very Porsche and that includes Stuttgart’s very unfortunate obsession with a button for everything. If you think the Macan has lots of buttons, the Cayenne matches the price differential by supplying even more buttons for your buck.
This sort of thing makes car journalists squeal because when you’ve only got a week to learn what they all do, it’s a race against time that’s difficult to win. Standing back and thinking about it, most owners will be perfectly happy after a week or two.
As for the rest of the interior, it’s a lovely place to be. Our brown interior with extra brown overlaid with mahogany (brown) may not be to everyone’s taste, but it was certainly luxurious. Everyone gets a comfortable seat and plenty of room in which to enjoy it. With the added light from the panoramic glass, it’s an extremely agreeable cabin, with a great view out.
The high console in the front makes you feel like you’re sitting low in the chassis (you’re not) and the whopping big Porsche steering wheel leaves you in no doubt you’re in Porsche.
SAFETY
The Cayenne’s safety features include six airbags, ABS, electronic brake differential, stability and traction controls, trailer sway control.
There is no EuroNCAP or ANCAP star score for the Cayenne.
INFOTAINMENT
Porsche calls its entertainment system “Porsche Communication Management.” Nestled between the air-con outlets, Porsche claims that it’s a high resolution system, but it is starting to look its age (the second-gen Cayenne launched in 2010). The screen is good enough, though, and responds quickly to the touch.
The 14-speaker stereo is a belter, with tons of power and good bass filling the big cabin and the Bluetooth performance is above average.
ENGINE / TRANSMISSION
The Diesel S packs a 4.1-litre V8 twin-turbo diesel producing an impressive 283 kW and a mind-boggling 850 Nm of torque. This will whisk all 2.2 tonnes plus passengers to 100 km/h in 5.4 seconds and a claimed fuel usage of 8.3 L/100km on the combined cycle.
You won’t be astonished to learn we were using fuel at a higher rate than that, but with mostly city plus a good highway blast, we saw 11.3 litres.
Driving all four wheels is an eight-speed automatic transmission which has the added fuel-saving of stop-start.
DRIVING
Obviously, badge, output and heritage promise a great deal, which the Cayenne does its level-best to deliver. It’s clearly not meant to be a high-riding 911 and those who are disappointed to read that should probably pop off and study physics for a bit.
For all its heresy, the diesel engine is a cracker, sending the Cayenne off the line with a hearty shove and very little racket. The 850 Nm figure means the SUV will mince just about anything in the gears. Not even V12 Ferraris have this kind of torque.
With all-wheel drive and air suspension, the Cayenne corners mostly flat but also rides beautifully. It’s an impressively comfortable car in all conditions and with the lazy diesel V8, you can drive it anyway you like. For the most part, it just needs a toe waved towards the throttle.
Get serious, though, and the huge rubber will keep you ripping along all but the tightest of bends. Couple that with a dynamic driving mode that speeds up the shifts, adds sensible weight to the steering and gives you a bit of rear-wheel drive playfulness, the Cayenne is impressively agile.
SUMMING UP 4.0/5
Porsche’s push into the mainstream with Cayenne to take on compatriots Mercedes, BMW and Audi has been hugely successful and the Cayenne was the car that started it all. It’s priced well (a BMW X5 M50d is $4000 more), has plenty of equipment and a stack of space but is also mighty handy in the bendy stuff.
It may not be a jacked-up 911 but it’s certainly a Porsche. Seven out of ten Porsche customers think so too.
LIKES: Mighty engine, relative fuel economy, roomy.
DISLIKES: Buttons everywhere, heavy, perhaps too quiet?
