Porsche Cayenne Review

The Review

Mid-Term Review (1-3 years) SUVs Porsche Cayenne Cayenne II (facelift 2014) S 4.1 diesel V8 (385 Hp) 4x4 Tiptronic

Approaching the end of the first year of ownership with the Cayenne 4.1 S Diesel

Summary

First up, I can't actually believe I have had the Cayenne for almost 1 year already. Feels like only yesterday we were sitting in Cardiff Porsche in Wales trying to strike a deal for the 4.1 V8 beast. So one year on, I wanted to give an update on the highs and lows and feedback on whether I still think that this was a good purchase. If I had to sum up in a few words, they would be "great car, but still wish things had worked out with the SQ7(s) we tried so hard to buy. Don't get me wrong, the Cayenne is great, but I think the SQ7 just tipped it in terms of the comfort, technology, size (7 seats) and sound (piped through the "base box" in the exhaust). But not for the performance and driving experience... That still belongs to the mighty Cayenne!

SQ7s aside though, its been a pretty stable year for the Cayenne. We have not been able to cover many miles due to our friend COVID-19, however, we have managed to keep the short trips going, plus a few longer journeys, including a couple of 100 mile road trips. I must say, that I still love driving this car. Its still solid on the road, still very comfortable, still pulls at any speed and handles like a car this size should not :)

I haven't seen any major bills in the last year and the previous semi-service was relatively painless (see reliability and running costs below).

There are a few gripes that I still have about this car and I have also covered these in the section below...

Reliability and Running Costs

So the last review I did, I found a couple of issues with the car, which I had taken back to the garage with no resolve. Firstly, the car still uses a pump for steering rather than electronics. When I test drove the car, I was convinced that the steering was light at parking speeds and nice and heavy at speed. This seemed to change after I bought the car and I found the steering incredibly heavy in all settings. The garage said everything looks fine, but I don't think this is right for a 2016 Cayenne, especially given speed sensitive steering has been around for many MANY years. I will keep monitoring over time and report back at some point.

Next up was the stereo. On purchase I found that the radio was often cutting out even when listening to well known radio stations. It would literally just stop picking up the signal. Again, I took this back to Porsche to take a look at, and the car was returned with the same issue still there. Quite annoying but not the very end of the world to be fair.

Apart from that, we had a few squeaks from the sunroof when incredibly dry, but nothing else to report at this point from the around the car itself. mpg is holding around the 350 - 400 miles from 3/4 of a tank of diesel. I have topped up the AdBlue twice in the year I have had the car, and that seems to be fine.

There is one other bugbear that grinds my gears just a little. Its an issue with Audi too so not just about the mighty Porsche. This is the 2 yearly service intervals! They say that serving needs to happen around every 20k miles or 2 years, which in my head sounds great. That is, until I get a call saying that the car is due an oil change. £595 later, the oil is changed @ £207.05 for labour and £127.04 for the relevant amount of Mobile 1 oil (before VAT). Whilst I was there, they also fixed a couple of small bits including filter element, sealing right, screw plug and spray nozzles for the wind screen jets.

Oh and I also paid £60 to replace the tyre sealant, which for some reason expires, but what can you do right!

So despite some spending through the last year, at 4 years old, I am definitely not seeing any major issues to report back on.

Would I recommend it? YES

1 year on, I would still be happy to recommend this car, especially the 4.1 diesel to anyone looking for a good size family 4 door SUV, that has a good amount of power, handles very impressively and plenty of space in the front and back.